To create a new augmented reality storytelling tour for Tamworth Castle, bringing more than 900 years of history to life through physical-digital encounters. 

The experience had to work for visitors of all ages, add genuine interpretive value without altering sensitive heritage fabric, and be accessible on everyday smartphones.

The project was awarded Cultural Recovery and National Lottery funding.

Interpretation Planning | Core Narrative Development | AR Experience Design | Volumetric Video Production | Digital Experience Design

From the outset, we realised that this project was an exciting opportunity to redefine what heritage AR could be.

Our narrative approach centred around conjuring characters from history of the castle from out of its stones.  Weaving together this journey of holographic performances, volumetric video and AR encounters was the character of the Memory Keeper - a timeless, fiery floating guide inspired by Saxon women storytellers.

The technical ambition matched the narrative one. We pioneered new production approaches including LiDAR scanning castle spaces for site-specific digital models, Unity MARS for environment-aware AR storytelling, Depthkit volumetric capture for three-dimensional filmed performances, photogrammetry and CGI for interactive collections.

The result was a UK first: large-scale interactive AR storytelling in a live heritage environment, creating an experience that is immersive, self-directed and playful. 

It’s also fully reversible, adding a rich interpretive layer to one of England's oldest buildings without touching a single stone.

Tamworth demonstrated something we find consistently across AR and immersive projects: a strong narrative and character does more engage visitors than any amount of technical effects. People want to follow a story, not a menu or an icon.

Using machine learning optimisation to ensure the experience ran smoothly on older and lower-range devices, treated accessibility a technical priority rather than an afterthought. Even the best experience is half as good if it only works for half your audience.

This project also consolidated a set of immersive production workflows, volumetric capture, site-specific AR, photogrammetry, that are now part of TGA's core making capability.  Increasingly we find these are being applied across cultural, community, brand and placemaking projects at different scales.

Client: Tamworth Castle, Tamworth Borough Council

TGA: Narrative Direction, Interpretation Planning, AR Experience Design, Volumetric Video Production, Digital Experience Design

Partners: Four Door Productions (Immersive Development), Kezi Gardom (Character Design and Production)