The Viking Blacksmith
An immersive virtual reality museum experience
Brief
A digital twin of a recreated site at archeological Ribe Viking Center, combining entertainment, storytelling, and historical knowledge.
In virtual reality, the museum guest is able to forge a sword for a local uprising against the chief, in a fully interactive experience.
Responsible for research, interaction design, 3D modeling, texturing, testing, and presentation.
Challenge
Ribe Viking Center has faithfully recreated the physical manifestation of a Viking-age smithy based on archaeological excavations. Unfortunately, they were not able to offer museum guests a hands-on experience, due to the hazards of fire and metalwork - which otherwise strives against their principles. We were asked to create a digital and interactive exhibition experience, maintaining a faithful and historically accurate portrayal.
Approach
We visited Ribe Viking Center to gather reference material and measurements to begin the process of creating a digital recreation of the smithy. We interviewed the Blacksmith at the museum, an expert in the Viking crafts, and followed him in action in order to build an understanding of the required interaction. A vast amount of considerations were made in order to remain historically accurate and to accommodate this further, we interviewed various Museum Storytellers and collaborated with film production company Malstrøm, crafting a story of a local uprising against the chief, forging weapons in the midst of darkness.
Solution
The solution became a digital twin of Ribe Viking Center’s smithy, build in Unity for virtual reality. The experience began by introducing the player to the game mechanics and controls. The player then found themselves inside the Viking Blacksmith Shop, hammer in hand, ready to forge a sword. First, the player must pick up an iron bar, and heat it up in the fire by operating the bellows next to the furnace. When the iron turns orange-red it indicates its ability to be manipulated and once moved onto the anvil, the iron bar can slowly be reforged into a blade, under constant management. When four minutes have passed, a knock on the door will be heard, urging the player to finish their work. The blade can then be hardened by placing it in a bucket of water, ending the experience. Many small interactions outside of the main objective exist, such as smashing jars, adding more coal to the furnace, or receiving a scolding from the Master Blacksmith in the corner, fully voiced by the real-life Blacksmith of Ribe.
Responsibility
As part of a team of six at Artifact, I bore many responsibilities and served a versatile role. I was core in designing and testing the interaction experience itself as well as in gathering reference material. We were two 3D artists on the project, and my role became mainly building low poly models or high poly ones for baking detail onto the former. I was likewise a part of creating PBR-based texture sets for the experience. I too, presented the product to the public, at a press event and guided the experience at various expos later. The product was refined over several months and we later pursued the opportunity to display the experience at the National Museum of Denmark and Viking Museum Ladby with great success as well. The original experience was built in around six weeks, with several iterations over many months.
Behind The Scenes of The Viking Blacksmith development. Early build footage shown.