Ristband Supports Ten Emerging XR Creators In Digital Twin Demo Day
More Than a Music Platform
Before the “M” (metaverse) word became mainstream media, we were blending performance with virtual worlds, on a quest to understand how this new medium could take shape to create something entirely new. We saw it as our chance to fulfil the original promise of the internet to give everyone a means to express themselves and build a livelihood as individuals.
In our mission to extend live music into the metaverse with hybrid experiences, we’ve been constantly amazed by the much broader demand for this capability from the wider world of the arts and entertainment. This has shown us that not only artists, but all creators and stakeholders in the industry stand to benefit from the power and reach of digital social experiences which have recently become possible through the convergence of technologies that comprise the metaverse.
A Case Study: Supporting Emerging XR Creators
We first heard about the Creative Solutions program in summer 2022 when our CEO & cofounder Anne McKinnon was invited to lead a panel of international judges, alongside BAFTA and Emmy-winning immersive storyteller Kim-Leigh Pontin, to select 10 XR projects that would receive a grant and mentorship through an 18-week development phase.
The selection process took place as a part of Gamers8 esports and gaming festival. There were hundreds of applications and many who pitched in this final round. With this phase complete and ten projects selected, our Chief Creative Officer and cofounder Roman Rappak worked closely as a program mentor, giving us a deep understanding of the full program, and how we could best support the needs of the creators.
The goal of the program was to showcase the ten creator project prototypes to an international audience for further funding and development opportunities. We saw the program as not only as an initiative in line with our vision to support emerging talent, but also as a driving force to connect international cultures and explore digital frontiers with new voices who’s stories would otherwise go untold.
When Creative Solutions asked us to develop the digital twin of their Demo Day event, it felt like it was something Ristband could completely get behind. Helping independent creators, especially a majority of female-led teams in Saudi Arabia, is exactly why we launched Ristband.
The Demo Day would achieve the program’s goals, be a space for the creators to share their work with an international network and friends who may not have access to VR, and act as a model that could go far beyond a one-off event.
Understanding the tight timeline, we agreed to take on the project with Creative Solutions as the beginning of a much longer collaboration where they would have a space to hold events in the long term, and test, learn and iterate. It’s an approach we suggest with many of our partners to understand how their audiences are engaging with their brand in virtual worlds, and scale from there.
How We Made Demo Day in Six Weeks
With only six weeks until Demo Day, our team got to work carefully re-creating the landmark venue, and reimagining the interior of the building to design an experience that would facilitate online visitors to learn about each of the prototypes, and the program itself.
The Demo Day event in Ristband needed to reflect the physical event that would happen in the real-life landmark Ithra building on the same day. It also needed to take into consideration the experience of an international audience, some of whom may be jumping into what is essentially a gaming platform (where an avatar is controlled in a 3D interactive world) for the first time.
While the outside of the building remained very much the same in the digital twin, our game designers and artists reimagined the interior to create a stunning entry with 10 walkways leading to larger than life dome-like rooms where each of the creators featured assets and images from their prototypes. As attendees moved from one room to the next, a narrator described each of the projects and the creator’s vision for future development.
After visiting each of the rooms, a secret level is unlocked with stunning views of the surrounding landscape. By scanning posters throughout the digital twin and top floor, attendees could learn more about the program and how to support the creators in the next phase of development to bring their projects to market.
Over the 24 hour invite-only event, hundreds of guests from around the world accessed the digital twin of Demo Day in Ristband by clicking a link to jump in on their Mac or PC.
A few key features of Ristband and the Demo Day digital twin include:
AAA graphics leveraging the Unreal Engine
no download required (simply click a link- the same way you access a google hangout)
multiplayer
a quest and unlockable
narrative design
Metahuman avatars
global access
For an exclusive behind-the-scenes look, we are leaving Demo Day’s digital doors open for just a few more days for you to jump in and explore. This is one of many experiences that will be held in Ristband this year as we build on the wider map and central city. In this digital world, artists, creatives, and the curious will gather to form the first rumblings of an entirely new movement that will define the next era of our culture.
