About Little Amal

The magical interactive storybook of Little Amal

This is the magical interactive storybook of Little Amal, a Syrian refugee who walks 8000km across Europe searching for her mother and the chance to start a new life.

To highlight the plight of refugees across the globe, the charity Good Chance, along with the world-famous creators of War Horse Handspring Puppet Company, created The Walk - a travelling real-world festival of art and hope.

The Walk features Little Amal, a 3.5meter tall puppet of a child refugee, who walks 8000km across Europe searching for her mother and the chance to start a new life.

Now, with the help of award winning storytellers at Atlantic, The Walk has been brought to life in a new and engaging digital experience.

Introducing Little Amal – The Interactive Journey.

This interactive storybook enables you to experience the drama and danger Little Amal faces when fleeing her war-torn home in Syria.

Her epic walk will take her across 7 countries, through treacherous seas, high mountain passes, dense forests and hostile cities.

Living alone in the forest, battling hunger and being stalked by wild animals are just a few of the challenges she faces as she goes. Along the way Little Amal will need your help to overcome these obstacles and succeed on her desperate journey to freedom.

Download Little Amal

Trailer

Behind the scenes

Documenting the experience of refugees requires sensitivity. The goal was to craft a narrative that would inspire compassion whilst accurately and sensitively representing people, places and cultures.

The art direction of the project was not to show but to imply. In the playground scene in Syria, a shot of the shadow of military aircraft, avoids a graphic scene with explosives going off, but implies the presence of air bombardment, especially as it is followed by scenes of a bombed-out classroom, and Little Amal climbing over rubble of what was once her school.

When it came to character design, our partners wanted Amal to be recognisable as both a little girl and as the 3.5m puppet on The Walk. Our team wanted her to be perceived as human, so avoided a Pinocchio-esque look, and designed a young girl whose features were as close to the puppet as possible.

The development of the app design had to maintain the interactive storybook format and it was important that the user experience was accessible and easy to navigate. The storybook format meant users would follow the narrative all the way through, following Amal on her journey across Europe.

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