CLIENT
SuePort / National Geographic
INDUSTRY
Entertainment
ABOUT
SuePort builds interactive digital experiences that blend smart technology with intuitive operations systems. Their work spans education, entertainment, and visitor attractions, including a National Geographic–themed interactive park designed for children aged 6–11.
CHOOSE PROJECT
Brief
National Geographic was developing a large-scale theme park made up of multiple themed territories, from savannahs and rainforests to future societies and space.
Within the Ocean Explorer territory, focused on the Arctic and Antarctic, Suport needed a screenplay for an immersive animation experience designed to educate and entertain children aged 4–11.
The animation would run inside a motion-based simulator pod, with wraparound screens and physical movement, simulating an underwater dive beneath the Antarctic Sea.
Top challenges we overcame
Create a story that worked for four-year-olds and eleven-year-olds alike — simple enough to follow, without losing excitement or depth.
CHALLENGE ONE
Writing for young audiences
CHALLENGE TWO
Balancing education and entertainment
Deliver factual, National Geographic–approved content without it feeling like a lesson.
Write a screenplay that accounted for 180–270° visuals, overhead and floor screens, and a moving, vibrating simulator pod.
CHALLENGE THREE
Designing for immersion, not just screens
Introduce characters, build tension, deliver learning moments, and resolve the story — all within a tight time limit.
CHALLENGE FOUR
Maintaining pace in a three-minute runtime
CHALLENGE FIVE
Introducing risk without fear
Add threat and drama (including a shipwreck) to keep children engaged, without tipping into anything genuinely frightening.
Ensure tone, language, and facts met National Geographic’s standards for accuracy, curiosity, and respect for the natural world.
CHALLENGE SIX
Staying rigorously on-brand
What we did
Developed a clear narrative journey
The experience was structured as a guided submarine dive beneath the Antarctic Sea — giving children a familiar “adventure” framework to follow from start to finish.
Used discovery as the core storytelling device
Rather than explaining facts directly, learning moments were embedded in what the audience saw: penguins navigating underwater, blue whales moving through the deep, and the scale and mystery of the Antarctic ocean.
Built tension through environmental storytelling
A shipwreck sequence introduced jeopardy and movement, allowing the simulator pod to physically respond — shaking, dipping, and turning — while keeping the story age-appropriate and exciting.
Wrote for a 360° environment
The screenplay deliberately directed attention around, above, and below the audience, ensuring the animation made full use of the pod’s immersive capabilities rather than feeling like a flat film inside a moving box.
Kept language simple, vivid, and rhythmic
Dialogue and narration were written to be instantly understandable, using short sentences, clear imagery, and emotionally reassuring cues — essential for younger viewers.
Worked closely to National Geographic standards
All animal behaviour, environments, and educational moments were fact-checked and aligned with National Geographic’s values: curiosity-led, respectful, and grounded in real science.Result
A tightly paced, immersive screenplay that successfully blended education and excitement — bringing the Antarctic ocean to life for young audiences inside a fully interactive simulator experience.
The final animation formed a key part of the Ocean Explorer territory, helping National Geographic deliver on its ambition: teaching children about the natural world through wonder, movement, and storytelling — not lectures.
Top challenges we overcame
We developed ~20 approved templates that worked within the physical constraints of the park’s portals.
CHALLENGE ONE
Designing question formats for a tight screen layout
CHALLENGE TWO
Navigating strict National Geographic guidelines
We built a structured process to ensure every question met brand, scientific, and educational standards.
We created a rapid-review workflow to keep approvals moving between SuePort and National Geographic.
CHALLENGE THREE
Managing multi-stakeholder sign-off with fixed launch deadlines
Background
SuePort asked us to create the full content system for the park’s ‘Field Journal’, a digital mission hub children accessed via wristbands as they explored the themed zones.
The Field Journal needed to feel fun, intuitive, and educational, but also had to work within the constraints of the park’s technology.
Process design
We began with the process design, mapping out how questions would appear on the portal screens and how children would interact with them. This meant creating layouts that were visually clear, age-appropriate, and easy to navigate within seconds.
To keep the project moving quickly, we proposed around 20 question formats from simple yes/no and multiple-choice to visual matching and image-led prompts. These templates gave both SuePort and National Geographic a modular system they could confidently approve.
Because National Geographic approvals are meticulous, we built a workflow that supported fast sign-off: balancing creative freedom with scientific accuracy and strict brand protection.
This process helped the project stay on track and ensured each question was grounded in fact, clarity, and genuinely engaging educational value.
Tone of voice creation
We built a style that was clear, universal, and free from idioms or cultural references.
CHALLENGE ONE
Creating a tone suitable for children aged 6–11 across global audiences
CHALLENGE TWO
Simplifying scientific concepts without losing accuracy
We shaped language rules to keep sentences short, direct, and no longer than three syllables where possible.
We developed five tonal options and collaborated with NG to select the one that balanced fun with credibility.
CHALLENGE THREE
Ensuring the tone aligned with National Geographic’s educational mission
Writing for children is never as simple as “make it friendly.” This project needed a tone that spoke to young readers with different reading abilities, languages, and cultural backgrounds.
We proposed five tone of voice directions, ranging from playful and conversational to more factual and exploratory. Working with SuePort and National Geographic, we refined these options into a single, cohesive tone: curious, encouraging, clear, and universally accessible.
We wrote an internal style guide outlining rules for sentence structure, vocabulary length, banned phrases (including idioms), and guidance for simplifying scientific explanations without losing accuracy. This ensured every question felt consistent — whether it was about ocean depths, dinosaurs, weather systems, or animal habitats.
The final tone supported both learning and exploration, helping children feel like “real explorers” as they moved through the themed zones.
Delivery
Once the tone and formats were approved, we moved into full content production. Every ride and interactive zone required its own question set — from ocean exploration to dinosaur digs — each with its own educational objectives. We mapped the content needs for every attraction, then built question banks that aligned to those themes.
To keep approvals smooth, we anchored research in National Geographic’s own materials, covering roughly 80% of the content. For the remaining topics, we used independent experts and government-backed sources known to meet NG’s standards.
We then developed a spreadsheet-based system that made it simple for SuePort to add, update, and export questions directly into the Field Journal interface. This gave them long-term flexibility as new parks opened globally.
The result was a full, interactive content library ready for launch: scientifically accurate, engaging for children, and fully adaptable for future expansions.
Result
The National Geographic park launched to strong engagement and quickly became a model for immersive educational attractions.
Our content was later rolled out to three additional global locations, translated into multiple languages, and used as the foundation for each site’s learning experience.
The Field Journal became one of the park’s most effective tools for blending exploration, play, and learning — exactly as the SuePort team intended.
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