CHALLENGE

As part of the curriculum, every sixth grader in Alberta is required to visit the province’s Legislature building. Those located in the capitol have easy access, but some smaller rural towns lacked the same access as the larger centres. The province wanted to provide a way to allow all Albertan sixth graders a chance to visit the Legislature. Learn Alberta, a division of the Alberta Ministry of Education, challenged Fuel Industries to create an online experience that would bring the building and its history to life.

STRATEGY

We wanted to go beyond the usual virtual tour and create a truly immersive experience. Fuel Industries set out to recreate the current live tour by using the style and control mechanics of a video game to make it instantly accessible to kids.

CREATIVE & EXECUTION

Fuel’s production team visited to the Legislature building and toured every publicly available area of the building, taking thousands of measurements and photos to make sure our representation would be entirely accurate. Using architectural modeling and photo-referenced texturing techniques, the 3D team built the Virtual Visit to replicate the layout, scale, lighting and finishes of the Alberta Legislature Building.

Visitors can build a customizable avatar and take the tour on their own, with a group, or follow the Legislature’s tour guide. Along the way, visitors can click on plaques, paintings, statues, and other points of interest to reveal the learning materials that a live guide would offer. The Virtual Visit even includes an easter egg – a portal that takes visitors to the majestic Palm Room in the dome of the building, which is no longer accessible to the public.

PERFORMANCE

The virtual tour remains an integral part of the LearnAlberta.ca initiative, which provides access to free online learning and teaching resources and enhances the School-at-the-Legislature program. The launch of the site received national media coverage and was lauded in the Alberta House of Commons. The Virtual Visit is now a staple of the grade 6 social studies curriculum.