The Last Expedition
You can play the game here in the above window or on sharemygame.com, where you can play full screen for better screen resolution.
NOTE - This game runs in the browser (Google Chrome is recommended). It is not supported on mobile devices. Play with headphones for the most authentic experience.
Mikey made The Last expedition for his final project at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Originally, The Last Expedition was intended to be a live performance work where an audience solved puzzles and followed clues to unravel the story whilst the music was performed around them. The Covid-19 Pandemic however, forced Mikey to reimagine this project as live events were not possible at the time.
The very first point of inspiration grew from the thought of being inside a tent and the effect this has on the senses. Sound becomes paramount as vision is distorted by the canvas walls. Thoughts about stories of campers listening to bears prowling around their campsite or of explorers like Shackleton and his crew, who camped on the sea ice of Antarctica and had endure the constant howling of the wind...
The post apocalyptic ice age setting was partly inspired by the 1995 SNES game, Chrono Trigger, which Mikey had played for the first time a year or so before. Mikey began writing a story set thousands of years after the start of a new ice age, where humanity has dwindled to the brink of existence; but a folk tale about a lost vault that preserved seeds of all types of plant and crop from the old world provides some hope.
Whilst writing the music and story for his final, Mikey also learned the basics of Unity and C# scripting in order to create this interactive experience. Although it was extremely challenging at the time, learning to use Unity and understanding how code works has been extremely beneficial for Mikey as a composer. In January 2021, Mikey built on these skills by using Wwise with Unity for the first time on the VR game, Lost in VR.
It was important to Mikey to work with live musicians on this project. He collaborated remotely with a string quintet (2 x violin, 2 x double bass, harp), asking the performers to improvise various icy and scratchy textures. Mikey took these recordings and manipulated them digitally, warping and affecting the original sounds to create icy soundscapes and compelling music.
Special thanks to Lauren Pink, Alice Parsons, Paul Lowrie, Dominic Murcott, Nye Parry & Ed Jessen.