The Creek | Bluey's World | Interactive Immersive Experience

The project began with a deep dive into the Bluey universe, particularly The Creek episode, to fully understand its tone, themes, and emotional resonance. I was immediately excited by the opportunity to bring my experience in immersive, real-time interactive design to a younger audience and to create a digital environment that felt intuitively playful and full of wonder.

Following my usual approach to interactive work, I began by developing user stories and a UX flowchart to map how the experience might unfold. Early on, the idea of a creature scavenger hunt stood out as a compelling game mechanic. This concept became the heart of a reverse brief and a working prototype, which I presented to stakeholders during the early development phase to help shape the creative direction.

Design and development took place over several months in Melbourne. I refined the UX and interaction system, tested motion sensors and technical integrations, and programmed the creative application using placeholder assets. Once the foundation was stable, we integrated bespoke animation and artwork supplied by Ludo Studio into the final build.

Throughout the process, I worked closely with Richard Dinnen at O2 Design and Management, whose creative oversight ensured the experience aligned with the broader narrative and spatial flow of Bluey’s World. We also collaborated at key stages with HVK World, Ludo Studio, and BBC Studios to ensure the digital elements stayed true to the Bluey brand and met the expectations of all stakeholders.

The final installation was commissioned onsite in Brisbane in October 2024. Set within a custom-built creek environment, it combined floor and wall projection mapping, ceiling-mounted motion sensors, audio, and responsive lighting. We thoroughly road-tested it with the crew, splashing around being chased by tadpoles, revealing creek creatures, making sure it worked and most importantly... was fun!

The final outcome was a fully immersive, projection-mapped experience that brought The Creek to life as a walk-through, life-sized recreation of the episode. Seamlessly integrated into the built environment, waterfalls cascaded down the creek banks and flowed into an animated creek bed, deepening the sense of immersion.

A key design priority was to favour intuitive interaction and immediate accessibility, rather than relying on complex controls or onboarding. To support this, the entire creek bed was activated using overhead motion sensors, allowing visitors to interact with the environment in real time.

As our audience moved through the space, digital water rippled beneath their feet, leaving a visible wake. Tadpoles, just like those in the episode, chased after them and playfully nipped at their toes. When visitors approached certain shadows in the creek bed, hidden creatures briefly appeared (with an audible splash!) before darting away, creating spontaneous moments of surprise. Physical models of wildlife from the episode were also positioned around the edges of the creek, waiting to be discovered.

As visitors approached, soft lighting and gentle sounds were triggered, bringing each creature to life and adding another element of wonder to the experience. The simplicity of immediate, intuitive engagement proved to be a major strength, particularly for young users, making the experience accessible without the need for instruction or guidance.

Close collaboration with Ludo Studio ensured the experience remained visually aligned with the distinctive look and feel of Bluey. The installation was also designed with durability and reliability in mind, tailored for a high-throughput environment operating seven days a week. It combined robust technical execution with meaningful interactivity to deliver a consistently high-quality visitor experience.

While The Creek was built on proven technical foundations, it also pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in interactive media for children’s environments. At the core of the experience was a custom-built creative application developed in Derivative TouchDesigner.

This system managed the interactive logic, real-time simulations, rendering and animation playback, as well as the triggering of synchronised lighting and sound effects. It was supported by a custom front-end interface for back-of-house monitoring and control. TouchDesigner’s visual programming approach allowed for a flexible and highly iterative workflow. I was able to adapt and fine-tune the system on the fly, both in the studio and during installation on site. Reliable user tracking was made possible through high-end, truss-mounted infrared depth cameras. These were carefully calibrated to detect movement and enable responsive interactivity, and were fully integrated into the creative application via a dedicated network.

One key innovation was the ability to share multiple animation textures across applications in real time. This enabled high-resolution texture stream From TouchDesigner into GarageCube’s MadMapper, allowing us to deliver high-quality projection mapping across seven projectors with minimal latency. The entire system ran on a single custom-built media server, expanded with Blackmagic Design cards. This offered a robust and cost-effective solution capable of delivering the experience at scale. The result was a system that felt effortlessly alive and intuitive, especially to children. Rather than adding complexity for its own sake, the design focused on immediacy, responsiveness, and playfulness.

While not a world-first in technical terms, this project stands out for its unique and effective combination of real-time animation, innovative projection mapping, and a genuinely child-centred design approach.

Any experience that helps bring the natural world into the imaginations of children leaves a lasting and positive impact. The Creek installation supports this by gently encouraging environmental awareness and open-ended discovery, inviting children to explore, play, and connect with the world around them. From a commercial perspective, the digital experience has also been a great success. It brings to life a key moment from Bluey’s World, a major cultural tourism attraction that has become a significant drawcard for the Brisbane region.

The installation has been praised by the client for its reliability and operational stability, running seven days a week with minimal need for intervention. The Creek also highlights the strength of Victoria’s creative industries. The experience was designed and developed in Melbourne by Simon Burgin at Sensory Pixel, in collaboration with the team at Option 2 Design and Management. These two Victorian studios are helping lead the way in experiential media, delivering a world-class immersive experiences that are both technically sophisticated and emotionally resonant.