Nickelodeon has announced it is in development on a groundbreaking, original virtual and augmented reality series, working titled Meet the Voxels, inspired by the world of video games. The project comes from the mind of Chris Young, SVP of Nickelodeon’s Entertainment Lab. This will be the studio/network’s first use of cutting-edge virtual cinema technology, including real-time full body and facial performance capture, for an innovative approach to immersive storytelling. Meet the Voxels is being developed to air across Nick channels globally.
“Our vision is to take the real-time technology we’ve been exploring in the Lab and marry it with a creative concept that connects with kids and their passion for video games,” said Young. “We designed this next-gen animation workflow and filled it with characters who can exist naturally across multiple platforms from day one.”
Meet the Voxels takes kids behind the scenes of a video game world and follows a family of video-game characters, the Voxels, on their adventures on-and-off-duty. The family members (names subject to change) are: Hunter, the 13-year-old star of a laser-tag video game; Maude, a 16-year-old girl fighting to pop as many bubbles as she can; their younger brother Cody, who has not found his video game calling yet; Mom, a popular street fighter in her game; and Dad, a ‘90s-era classic console game character who quit the business years ago.
The pilot will be written by Jana Petrosini and Sean Gill, who have both worked on Henry Danger, Kid Danger and Game Shakers.
Over the past year, Young and his Lab team have developed SlimeZone, a multiplayer social VR experience that allows kids and families the opportunity to interact in a Nickelodeon-designed virtual world; The Loud House 360, an original video where viewers can explore the madness of the Loud family household from all angles; and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VR Interview Experience, which immerses users in the Turtles’ New York City world and allows them to have a conversation with Mikey or Donnie (voiced on site by the series stars) and debuted at Comic-Con. He will help guide a larger slate of animated projects utilizing new technology, to be announced soon.
“Chris is helping lead Nickelodeon animation toward a transformation into a wholly new content creation studio,” said Chris Viscardi, Nickelodeon’s Senior Vice President, Animation. “Meet the Voxels marks a significant development in turning that content dream into a production reality.”
