Ingeborg is a virtual reality game made for the National Museum of Finland. It takes you to Häme Castle during the 16th-century, where the player meets the forgotten warlord Ingeborg Åkesdotter Tott.
I was the Creative Director and Art Director, in charge of the overall look of the game, all of the texturing and materials, and some 3D art, and we jointly as a team created the game design, produced the game, and had a blast!
The game concept won the Embrace Impact Hack-Art-On event, which was organized in the autumn of 2021 by Aalto Studios and Helsinki XR Center.
The partners were: Varjo, MAGICS, and the National Museum of Finland. The winning concept was created by our amazing team:
Alma Hoque, Pauliina Lahti, Isra Rab and me Lotta Veromaa
SYNOPSIS:
The players' task is to gain access to the castle and the King's Hall.
The game starts in the Guards' Room, where the guard tells the plot of the game and the player learns to move in the virtual space.
The game centers around the Ingeborg Tott statue, standing 7 meters tall, that comes alive in the Artillery room. The player's task is to bring gifts to the offering table and do the tasks she commands them to. The player's success in the missions determines whether the awakened warlord is pleased or enraged.
The game ends in the King's Hall, where a successful performance on part of the player is rewarded with nobility and riches, but the unlucky one ends up as a poor peasant.
The game can be played in Finnish, Swedish and English.
The Guard Room, where the player learns to use the controllers.
The base for the armour was 3D scanned from an original armour belonging to the Finnish National Museum.
The Artillery Room and Ingeborg Tott statue that stands 7 meters tall
The movement and voice of the statue are from the performance of the actress Alma Pöysti. The movements were captured using the Xsens Motion Capture suit. It gave the most accurate movements for the character.
The statue was 3D modelled based on research on medieval and classical statues all down to details such as hairstyle.
The dress is built using Clo3D and Blender from an original medieval pattern.
The Kings Hall
The inspiration for the paintings were from Hattula Holy Cross Church, that is located close to the castle. Ingeborg is said to have visited the church.
The sheet music upon which the game’s music was composed by Alexandra Shkodrova.
Our amazing partners.
Yaas XR Queens!
Below are some examples and close-ups. The game was developed with Varjo Aero and the Unity game engine. The tools we used mainly were Substance: designer, painter and sampler, Photoshop and Illustrator, Maya, Blender and Unity.
3D point clouds were cleaned using ReCap and Meshroom. Ingeborg Tott's movements were captured using the Xsens Motion Capture suit by actress Alma Pöysti.
The guard's character is an armour belonging to the National Museum. The team scanned the armour, using an ArtecLeo 3D scanner, to get the best reference for the 3D model of the guard.
I did lots of research on the culture, customs, and look of medieval times in the Nordic countries. These days the medieval era appears in our imaginations mainly as grey stone walls, but in reality, the walls were decorated with colourful paintings. The environment textures were inspired by the Holy Cross Church in Hattula, which Ingeborg Tott is also said to have visited. A few of the motifs are adaptations of the Turku Castle wall paintings.
The Guard Room is drawn how it could have been in the medieval time. With wooden beams and lower ceiling.
The Coat of Arms seen in the Artillery Room and in the game environment is based on a half-visible drawing in Turku Castle which is said to be of Ingeborg Tott.
The partly visible crest in Turku Castle that is said to be Ingeborg Tott
Sketch drawing based on multiple Tott family crests
Crest lines
The crest used in the game
Sketch from Turku Castle wall
Hattula Holy Cross Church
Hattula Holy Cross Church details
Hattula Holy Cross Church details
Sketching the Kings Hall
Sketching the Kings Hall
Flower motif used from Hattula Holy Cross Church
Fleur-de-lis motif used in the game, found from Hattula Holy Cross Church
Glass window based on the crest and the motifs
Window sketch
Colours, warm base tones, middle colour is green
The team behind the Ingeborg game:
Project 3D game artist who did 3D, 2D and VFX art for the game. She is currently studying XR design at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and has previously done graphic design.
Project coder, main programmer and technical expert. Pauliina has a programming background. She is currently studying XR design at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.
Project manager who also jumped in on narrative, UX design, 3D art, coding and lighting when needed. Isra's background is in a variety of fields including game design, video production, 3D art, programming and project management.
Creative director of the project who also made visuals and all the textures for the game. Previously, Lotta has worked as a creative director and project manager in the field of design and art.
The team met at the Embrace Impact Hack-Art-On in October 2021. In addition to their special tasks in developing the game, the team jointly produced the game, 3D modelled the assets and worked on the game design - and had a blast!
partners:
The National Museum of Finland
Embrace Impact
Helsinki XR Center
Aalto Studios
Varjo
Magics
With support from:
Finnish Cultural Foundation
Credits:
Alma Pöysti
Ingeborg Motion capture and Voice actor & swedish translator
Carl Alm
Guard voice actor
Helena Sorva
Script editor and Finnish & English translations
Alexandra Shkodrova
Sound Designer and Composer
Viljami Lehtonen
Voice recording
Ivan Zayats
Post-processing
Vili Saarenpää
3D Character artist
Heta Dobrowolski
3D fashion designer
Special Thanks!
Eero Tiainen, Bjarke Aalto, Toni Tolin, Kai Lappalainen,
Jason Selvarajan, Martin White, Mike B
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
Ingeborg is a fictional VR game inspired by true events