MHC Wayang Kulit

What Needed Solving

Capturing the history of Malay shadow puppet theatre (or Wayang Kulit) was something the Malay Heritage Center was highly interested in doing. As shadow puppetry is a very tactile and visual experience, we wanted to create an experience that was not just entertaining, but could truly showcase the performative elements, with all the science behind this display of light and shadow.

Our Role

Our animation and illustration partners, CraveFX, and us pulled together to create a strong narrative flow with all the considerations of user experience and user interfacing. As the target audience was mostly for primary school children, we had to make sure it was entertaining yet intuitive for them to embark on this journey. 

The interactive element of this piece was the ability for users to play as the puppeteer, controlling the puppets from behind the screen, moving them back and forth in order to achieve the correct shadow shapes to fit the story. On both desktop and mobile, we designed controls that were easy and responsive to use so as to allow the narrative and activity to take center stage. All in all, users had the chance to feel like they were really putting on a show!

We also provided a Google Analytics service on top of this so that the Malay Heritage Center could gather insights and data for future initiatives that involved online interactive experiences, as well as understanding the usage patterns of their target audience.

The Aftermath

Deployment of the project was smooth, and we are continually collecting data for the Malay Heritage Center, providing valuable data points to inform their future endeavours in digital engagement. From here, the Malay Heritage Center also commissioned a second interactive storytelling project with us called 'Diamond Designer'.