By Derek Schlennstedt
A new kind of Christmas is sweeping through Belgrave.
The Belgrave Traders Association has launched an ambitious augmented reality app that celebrates a Belgrave Christmas.
The app has transformed Belgrave Main Street and brought to life an enchanting cast of local Australian wildlife characters.
Aptly called ‘Hidden Stories’, the augmented reality app is described as a multi-dimensional journey similar to Pokémon Go, but was aimed at getting people back to the centre of Belgrave and into local shops.
According to Belgrave Traders Association Treasurer, Steve Crombie, the app lets visitors take a walk down the Main Street while discovering the cheeky 5D Christmas critters and locally made Christmas decorations.
“Hidden stories is a beautiful Christmas digital 5d experience that were inviting all to come to Belgrave and experience.”
“This Christmas AR trail is related to the natural habitat surrounding Belgrave and it’s a Belgrave Christmas …it’s about celebrating where we live and what makes a hills Christmas,” Mr Crombie said.
The game follows the story of animals that inhabit the hills and how they celebrate and prepare for Christmas.
Bill Atta, chief product officer at Dreemer described the AR experience as “where the digital world and physical world meet.”
In a sense it’s walking through town going to different activation points scanning a trigger and having a 3d interactive experience with 3d models and animations of these animals decorating the town.
There will be a map in the app that shows where all the activation points are in the street. As yu get near you’ll be able to tap on that activation point and engage with that experience.
“It really is a retelling of the Christmas party,” Mr Atta said.
“There’s our heroic figure of Santa checking on the animals. There is tinsel being thrown over statues, dancing cockatoos and galah in the arcade, there’s a wombat that parachutes from the main street loaded with presents for her young, a koala trying to post a letter to Santa and the platypus art down by the train platform is used as the welcome party.”
The app called Hidden Stories Belgrave will be launched on December 1 and can be downloaded at Google Play or the App store.
