Kufu’s Curse

In this experience, guests are invited to assist an archaeology student who is on the cusp of solving the mystery of Kufu’s Chamber. Upon entering, Kufu is awakened and places a curse on the group. The guests must use the student’s research as a guide to solving the mystery to nullify the curse.

Using the existing Tomb set at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, I created a program in Unity to interface with fidget sensors to facilitate the experience. The experience begins when guests enter the room and step on pressure sensors embedded in the floor. When guests interact with the set, sensor input plays audio tracks and activates DMX light cues to continue the experience. Kufu’s Curse was created in about a week and was showcased at the ETC’s 2018 Festival.

Story

The inscriptions in the tomb follow the story of Pharaoh Kufu’s beloved falcon, Kephri. He was a loyal falcon and would often rest at the feet of Kufu. Under the watchful eyes of Kufu, Khepri would preen and groom his feathers. One sunrise, his namesake Ra, god of the sun, blessed the feathers plucked from Khepri's wings. Just as the scarab brings for the sun, so will Khepri’s feathers renew life itself. It is said that these feathers could connect life, our physical world, to the afterlife, or spiritual world. Perhaps there is a way for us to connect the two worlds as well.

Using these clues, and under the guidance of the archaeology student, guests interact with the walls of the tomb in order to nullify the curse.

embedded Technology

Conductive Paint

Guests touch matching hieroglyph on the left wall to create a circuit. Using analog input, it’s possible to determine where a guest is touching a given hieroglyph. Conductive paint is also used on the coffin’s eyes in order to calm Kufu.

Magnetic Sensors

Guests use a scarab with embedded magnets to touch symbols on the center wall in order to continue.

Capacitive Sensors

Guests touch hieroglyphs on the right wall in order to trip the sensor.

Operator Interface

The operator has access to the Puppet Control Window, which allows them to move to any part of the experience, add time to a background timer, or reset the set. This allows the operator to continue the experience if a guest’s action does not activate a sensor, or if there is a fault in the system.

During play testing and showcasing at the 2018 ETC Festival, this feature allowed me to start the experience if a floor pressure sensor was not pressed. I was also able to continue with guests that were correctly using hits but were not placing their hands in the right position for the required sensor.