#ArmchairImagineering: Top Spin Ride

My entry for Rob Yeo's #ArmchairImagineering Challenge 2. The prompt for this round was to design an attraction using an off-the-shelf top spin ride system.

Check out the Instagram post for more concept drawings of the rest of the attraction.

My concept: Above the Clouds. Picture elements of Poseidon’s Fury, Alien Encounter, Tomb Raider: The Ride, and a dash of Guardians Mission: Breakout! tossed in a blender. Guests visit a city above the clouds and find themselves attacked by a giant storm beast. We rise, fall, and spin as things grow progressively stormier, leading to the final confrontation. I’m putting the full story/experience in a comment below for those interested.

Thanks for checking this out and thanks for the fun idea Rob! Looking forward to the next one.

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Above the Clouds Story/Experience:
The entrance welcomes us into an ancient garden filled with old ruins and weathered relics. We see notes and research from an organization that has been looking into the Storka, a mythical bird people who live in the clouds.

Pre-show Room 1: a research camp where a presentation shows us what very little people have learned about the Storka. But then we get the exciting news: a Storka emissary is coming to visit and wants to reveal more.

Pre-show Room 2: Out of a tornado of clouds appears Alcimus, a Storka leader. He contacts his assistant via a cloud screen and gives us a quick introduction to Storka life (including the sunstones that power everything). As great as this is, he tells us it would be better if we experienced it for ourselves.

The Storka world is close to ours and we’re about to be the first people ever to visit. To power the giant vehicle that will take us there, Alcimus has borrowed a giant sunstone from an old temple. The assistant objects, warning him that this was holding back Squall, the great storm beast. Alcimus waves that notion off as an old Storka legend, cuts off the cloud screen, apologies for his assistant, and hastily ushers us into the next room.

We now enter the main ride room. The top spin ride ride sits on a big podium with its top obscured by clouds. After getting seated, the ride starts and we’re lifted up into the clouds. We emerge in the top of half of the giant ride room and see a bright and cheerful city with Storka going about their lives. We hear a distant roar as we fall back down and see the lighting shift as things grow stormy. Alcimus’ assistant is heard shouting that the Squall has returned.

When we get back up in the clouds the scene has changed: it’s much darker, there’s a giant roar, and the Storka are firing light arrows up into the sky. We rise and fall as the scenes grow worse with rain effects, lightning flashes, and a giant shape emerging from the upper clouds. After a couple more dives and spins, we encounter the Squall and Alcimus tells us he’s going to try harnessing the sunstone to damage it. We spin up into the clouds as a giant beam of light fires at the Squall from the center of our vehicle. We hear the Squall howl as we fall back down below. Things brighten and we’re sent back up into the clouds for one final goodbye, seeing that the Storka are well and things are returning to normal.