Last year Aardman Animations and Fictioneers announced that beloved duo Wallace & Gromit would be making their way into augmented reality (AR). Today, Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up has arrived for mobile devices so that players can help fix up the duo’s home town of Bristol, UK.
Providing a narrative-driven experience with AR gameplay, Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is their first new adventure in a decade. The iconic characters have started a new business venture, Spick & Spanners, and you’re the company’s new employee.
Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is voiced by award-winning British actors including Miriam Margolyes and Jim Carter with Ben Whitehead playing Wallace. The AR app can be used both at home or outside to aid the pair, with in-character phone calls, extended reality (XR) portals, and comic strips all part of the experience.
“We are really excited to launch The Big Fix Up, the first release from our new Fictioneers studio. We believe it’s a first-of-its-kind experience, part of our vision to harness multiple technologies, media types and formats to tell enhanced, collaborative and immersive stories in real-time,” said Scott Ewings, Venture Lead at Potato and co-founder of Fictioneers in a statement. “With The Big Fix Up, we have created a new, rich and multi-layered experience, where, for the first time ever, YOU can become part of Wallace & Gromit’s story. This will be the first of many releases using the Fictioneers platform.”
“Wallace & Gromit have innovation, gadgets, and technology at the comedic heart of their world. Working with Fictioneers to create The Big Fix Up has been a perfect fit, allowing us to bring the duo’s fantastic fictional contraptions right into our audiences homes using the latest real technology,” adds Merlin Crossingham, Creative Director of Wallace & Gromit at Aardman.
Fictioneers is a collaboration between Potato, Sugar Creative and Tiny Rebel Games. The group used 3D mapping platform Fantasmo to bring Bristol’s city centre to life as well as Unity’s AR Foundation toolkit.
Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is freely available now on iOS and Android devices in the UK, US and Canada. For further updates from Fictioneers about its latest immersive content, keep reading VRFocus.
“Dr. Seuss Enterprises is committed to offering best-in-class experiences parents and educators can trust and embracing emerging technologies that bring Dr. Seuss’s books to life like never before while also creating meaningful storytelling and learning experiences for children,” said Susan Brandt, Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ President.
