Smith and the Storm

A box of archival photos kicked off Smith and the Storm. On day one, we sifted through the images, picked our favourites, and built a collage. The phrase "hotel café restaurant Smit" jumped out, so Mr Smit became our lead, and the flooding our theme. We then dug into flood stories and archival visuals online, including the watersnoodramp (the North Sea flood of 1953), and shaped it into an escape room.

Smith and the Storm was originally created by Gabriël Arts, Sanne Houwers, Tristan Bozarov, Duncen Krul, third-year CMD students from the Immersive Design specialisation at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, who worked together during the fourth EPIC-WE Cultural Game Jam in the Netherlands, and later matured in collaboration with DROPSTUFF MEDIA. DROPSTUFF MEDIA is based in Hilversum, Netherlands and is a pioneer in media design and creates immersive and interactive public experiences.