VLAD III of Wallachia
Before starting the programming, we researched the history of the character and tried to understand the clues that led to the deduction that his tomb might be here. The story we collected involved his daughter and some clues both about the tomb itself and a mysterious inscription inside the building.
We then decided to bring into mixed reality the bust of a talking statue of Vlad, which could be interrogated about his origins through an interface. Additionally, to highlight the ancient Greek (probably Orthodox) prayer present in the inscription, we played a bit with artificial intelligence. We tried to complete the missing parts of the prayer and then set it to music using AI in the style of 15th-century Orthodox sacred music. The result was surprisingly engaging and helps the visitor get into the spirit of the experience and the character.
Another interesting detail of Vlad’s tomb is the dragon in bas-relief (a symbol of Vlad), at whose feet is a shield with 3 stars, one of which is upside down, perhaps symbolizing a curse.
DRACULA
In the mixed reality part related to Dracula, we adopted a more gamified approach. We included an avatar of Dracula who is concerned about his "children" when we approach him. At the same time, 3 cursed bats and a crossbow with stakes appear. The player can then (thanks to the hand tracking of the Meta Quest 3) pick up the crossbow with one hand, load the stakes with the other, aim, and... shoot! Once all 3 bats are hit, Dracula surrenders, and a cursed star lights up on his tomb, which we can turn to open his sarcophagus! Inside the sarcophagus appears the commemorative POAP NFT of the experience, redeemable by the player.
This is the mixed reality experience created by us at Metagate on our Meta Quest 3, but what did we bring back from NapulETH? (besides the weight...)