Wallace & Gromit are true national treasures: multiple Oscar-winning heroes with a distinctly British accent.
I was asked to co-write a brand new – and gloriously daft – adventure for them, working with Aardman creative directors Finbar Hawkins and Merlin Crossingham, bringing W&G’s timeless humour into the modern age through augmented reality, mobile games and location-based play. The animation style is also a mix of old and new: hand-made plasticine models were scanned for digital manipulation.
The game bears all the humour and loving attention to detail of the animation – and best of all, this time, you get to play the leading role.
App Store UK, App of the Day
Alongside Wallace and Gromit themselves, we created a bunch of brand new characters including Bernard Grubb (played by Jim Carter), Lily Hackerby (played by Isy Suttie) and BERYL the AI teas-maid (brought to life by Miriam Morgolyes).
The story is delightfully written, the interaction a joy and the animation and AR are incredibly well executed…. 4.5 stars
TapSmart
The whole project was backed by the UKRI Audience of the Future program, looking at innovative ways of telling stories and reaching new audiences. Aardman collaborated with digital studios Sugar Creative and Potato as well as Tiny Rebel Games and the University of South Wales.
A few months after release, the game was shortlisted for two awards at the Cannes Lions, was nominated for a Drum Award, was named one of the BIMA 10, was called ‘Best in the World (Across All Categories)’ at the QLD XR Festival and won a Blooloop Innovation Award.
The Big Fix Up is out now on iOS and Android.
David Varela 