Chocolate Rain at Cadbury World

Ever wondered what it’s like to be showered in chocolate? Well now, with the aid of HMC Interactive’s Chocolate Rain installation at Cadbury World’s Purple Planet exhibition, you can experience a downpour of glorious chocolate first hand without even getting wet.

Stepping into Chocolate Rain, you wander into a blizzard of Chocolate Buttons that ricochet off your head and roll down your arms — if you put up an umbrella they bounce off you onto the floor, cup your hands and they will even collect in your palms.

These interactive chocolate raindrops are so versatile they can be kicked, chased rolled and bounced around like a basketball. If you try hard enough you can even throw them. But don’t worry, it’s not really you that’s getting rained on — it’s the computer generated “you” on the giant screen in front of you that’s being showered in chocolate.

We have had very positive feedback from the interactives at Cadbury World. We took the creative lead on the project and tasked HMC to write the software interfaces. We appreciate their ability to problem solve and come up with creative software solutions to the brief and work within budget.David Bickerstaff — Newangle

The rainstorm cycles through four phases of interactive sweetness. Starting off in a light shower it reaches a tropical storm before you meet the “big bopper” — a giant Chocolate Button that can be knocked about like a football. But don't relax too long because the big bopper is followed by a few friends — a shower of interactive ping-pong ball sized Chocolate Buttons that get simply everywhere.

The beautiful simplicity of Chocolate Rain is such that it needs no buttons to operate and it is so intuitive that even a two-year-old child can work out how to play — and will love it. The hidden interface makes it accessible for anyone including people with disabilities.

The creative direction of Chocolate Rain was provided by Newangle while the HMC team created the bespoke software to bring about what is most probably the world's first interactive chocolate rainstorm.

Exhibition design: Event Communications Design & production: Newangle Software programming: HMC Interactive