All Roads Bleed to Rome
Haunt Maze Design
Overview
“All Roads Bleed to Rome” is a proposal for a haunt walkthrough that would be installed in a theme park as a seasonal attraction. This project was conceptualized, designed, and pitched to a panel of industry professionals over the course of 6 weeks for Haunt Comp – A Haunted House Competition. Our proposal won Best Presentation and was awarded the Judges’ Choice Award.
As a writer, I worked primarily on concept development and story. This project gave me further experience with leading the vision for an experience and communicating creative direction to a team. We all worked together to ideate story concepts, which gave us a wide variety of ideas that could answer the year’s theme: “eras.” From those ideas, my co-writer and I narrowed down a central premise and wrote a treatment (high concept, synopsis, and 10 beats) for the experience.
As part of the writing process, I ideated scenes and provided narrative and reference material to the concept artist, 3D modeler, and engineers, who brought the ideas to life in the visual and schematic deliverables. After our design work was complete, we assembled a presentation deck and I pitched our concept to judging panel.
For this project, I also took on the role of project manager, driving meetings, creating a project timeline, and ensuring that we were on-track to complete our deliverables.
Role
Concept Designer
Writer
Tools & Skills
- Concept Design
- Writing
- Project Management
Duration
8 weeks
April – May 2022
Team Members
Andrew (AJ) Bartleet
Robby Ketchum
Sol Markarian
Tyler Felipe
High Concept
Descending into the Roman Catacombs of the sadistic Emperor Caligula, guests must navigate through the darkness of claustrophobic torture chambers to avoid becoming human sacrifices in Caligula’s quest to achieve immortality… and establish an everlasting era of his rule.
Concept art by Tyler Felipe
Synopsis
The reign of ancient Rome’s cruelest emperor, Caligula, was marred by brutality, narcissism, and destruction. Proclaiming himself as a living god, he wished to create a neverending age of his rule and became obsessed with finding a cure for his own mortality.
He found his answer… in drinking the blood of tortured souls. Though rumored to have been assassinated, he and his loyal supporters have fled into an underground city-palace nestled within the Roman catacombs. Digging deeper and deeper into the catacombs, drinking this tainted blood has granted him a twisted version of divinity, keeping him alive and sustaining his eternal empire, but feeding an even greater monster within. Disfigured and crazed, yet hungry for more power, he has resorted to increasingly cruel and animalistic forms of torture for his subjects. Now, you and your fellow clueless tourists have stumbled into the catacombs and must bear witness to the macabre as you attempt to avoid becoming their latest ritual sacrifice.
Schematic
This deliverable was led by Sol Markarian and AJ Bartleet. They created detailed floor plans and elevations that illustrated how the maze would be constructed within the allotted space.
Presentation
After submitting our deliverables, my teammate AJ and I pitched our concept to a panel of industry professionals, who provided feedback on our work. In addition to a walkthrough of the story, our presentation included 3D renderings of our props, an estimated budget, and additional pieces of concept art. Our pitch was awarded “Best Presentation” by the judging panel. The full deck can be viewed below.