sometimes i come across #multimedia #art and #design projects that blow me away so completely that i end up spending the rest of the day just playing with them.

Ceremony of Innocence (1997) tells the story of two lonely strangers who fall in love through a series of postcards... all based on the novel Griffin and Sabine by nick bantock.

each postcard is lavishly decorated and animated. but what blew me away was the tactile, playful interactivity. sometimes postcards are pried apart, caressed, or tortured into opening... all with the mouse cursor.

voice acting by Isabella Rosselini, Paul McGann and Ben Kingsley. the project won two BAFTAs in its day.

i'm offended that we have nothing today that compares with this multimedia experience. all made in #macromedia director by Real World Multimedia.

creative director Alex Mayhew has some background on the project here:
https://www.alexmayhew.com/portfolio-item/ceremony-of-innocence/

🙏 thank you @MossRC for the tip about this absolute gem

@vga256 @MossRC Oooh I loved those books. I didn’t know anything like this was ever made/inspired by them!

@Vidyala i had no idea they even existed until now. the story is so intriguing, i need to find copies.

@vga256 They had little envelopes you could take the cards and letters out of!! I would lend you my copies but ugh, geography

@Vidyala i just ordered all three 😻

@vga256 @MossRC Oh dear, I think I have owned a copy for at least 15 years and never tried it. Hope I can find it now.
(I also hope I won’t have to boot my old G4 PowerBook to run it.)

@MossRC I just ordered the books and I can’t wait to play with them. this is a really special experience. thank you again!

@vga256 @MossRC Oh heck that GUI is bringing back some memories.

@MossRC @vga256 I will definitely check it out!

@MossRC @vga256 ha, found my copy. I loved the Voyager CD-ROMs that I played, and RealWorld’s EVE, so this should be right up my alley.

@schoedland looking forward to finding more of their work!

hopefully as Director (not Flash!) emulation improves in ScummVM these titles will be easier to play in the future.

@io you bet - win95/mac hybrid cd is available at http://www.macintoshgarden.org

@matt_diamond @MossRC highly recommend it. unfortunately it is extremely difficult to get running in the Classic Environment. hopefully your G4 can boot OS9 natively.

@vga256 @MossRC Thanks for the tip. Turns out it is a G3, so I’m probably okay.

I first tried it on XP on VMWare. No go, though the installer seemed to mostly work. I’ll try a Classic Mac emulator next before booting up the G3.

I promise I won’t keep bugging you with updates! Just having fun over here, instead of working on my tax returns like I ought.

@matt_diamond no worries - it's super finicky to get working on almost anything but a real Win95/68k box. on my Win98 VM it was playable but painfully slow - some kind of framerate issue. on my PM G5 in the Classic Environment I had to manually install it (copied all files from a hidden folder on the CD) - and even then, occasionally there were mouse issues during gameplay.

let me know how it all works out! 😅