Ahoy! From Picardy is an invitation to start again in spatial storytelling.
The project from Daniel Jones is available now on Apple Vision Pro headsets priced $5.99. The story Jones tells here made me laugh and cry in its 16-minute runtime, and I recommend it to Vision Pro owners as a standout example of a story playing out in space with the lightest interaction to progress the story.
After Apple’s own immersive content, which includes captured media like the Super Bowl, and NBA games, a performance by The Weeknd, and the fully scripted immersive short film Submerged, I’m likely to put guests in my headset through Ahoy! From Picardy to give them a powerful introduction to spatial storytelling. While Job Simulator is always a great introduction to VR as well, particularly with hand tracking, I might actually make Ahoy! From Picardy the first thing I put people inside when they try Apple’s headset. That’s because I can watch along more easily on a nearby device than I can with Apple’s DRM’d content. You can watch about a minute of the story on this little island below, featuring some of its memorable music, because the app didn’t restrict capture.
I haven’t been affected this deeply by spatial storytelling since Dear Angelica, and the poetry here in Picardy will sit with me a long while. Jones’ project is a strong example of what’s possible when you combine so many different art forms tailored for the free exploration of a single viewer. I can’t remember leaning in to cry before, but I did here, and walking around the diorama-scale story is a wonder too.
I’ll not spoil too much more about this tale, which is described as a “music-driven, linear narrative short film” by its creators with “subtle interactive elements” and a movable stage that can be repositioned to view from any angle. The app’s description notes:
“This project embraces groundbreaking techniques to celebrate the arrival of spatial storytelling-a world of light layered over our physical world. It combines hand-made physical models (3D-scanned into the digital space), hand-painted backdrops, and elegantly simplified characters with hand-painted textures-all creating a uniquely warm and approachable experience.”
I would like to see some better transitions included as there seemed to be a jarring few seconds between a few of the scenes, as assets seemed to load. It is a minor complaint, though, and while the experience overtakes your headset by disallowing multitasking, Picardy makes use of that focus to utter delight. I’m unlikely to boot up AHOY! again for myself unless they add more content, but the story works as is.
AHOY! From Picardy is available now on Apple Vision Pro.
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