The Winchester Mansion

Dark ride concept · SCAD THED 777 · Spring 2026

The Winchester Mansion

A dark ride

A team project. I led narrative design and visual development; the images come from the team’s design book, credited below.

How do you turn a real place and its legend into a ride? This project is about that translation: from a site, to a story, to the requirements a dark ride has to meet.

Type
Dark ride concept · Themed entertainment
My role
Narrative design (story research, storyline, story beats, journey map) and visual development
Team
Seven designers (full credits below)
Context
Group project, THED 777, SCAD, spring 2026

Overview

From a real house to a ride

The Valley Courier
Evening Edition · San Jose

The House That Will Not Stop

Hammers heard at all hours on the Winchester estate; neighbors count rooms and lose track

Workmen at the Winchester estate confirmed again this week that construction has not paused, by day or by night. Asked how many rooms the house now holds, one carpenter said he had stopped counting.

Visitors report stairways that end at the ceiling and doors that open onto plaster. Mrs. Winchester has not received callers. The hammering, neighbors say, is the only answer they ever get.

In-world artifact · written for the attraction
Voice 01

The reporter

Outside · what is known

Facts and dates as the town reported them. Sets the legend without confirming it.

The Winchester Mansion is a trackless dark ride concept themed on the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. I led the narrative design and the visual development: researching the house and its legend, writing the storyline and the eleven story beats, building the journey map the team designed against, and developing each scene from line work to color key.

The page follows that process. It starts from the site, pulls a legend out of it, shapes the legend into story beats, turns each beat into something the ride must physically do, and ends with how the team built it.

1
site

A real house, famous for rooms that don’t make sense.

11
story beats

Written before any room was designed.

6
ride requirements

Each beat group translated into something the ride must do.

9
show scenes

Where those requirements were built.

  1. 01Site
  2. 02Legend
  3. 03Story beats
  4. 04Ride requirements
  5. 05Built experience

The challenge

A story you can’t ride

The Winchester house already has a story. The problem is that it isn’t one you can ride.

Hollow FrequenciesEpisode 113 · “The Winchester Rule”

HOSTSo the rule, the way people tell it, is simple. As long as the building never stops, nothing can come for her.

GUESTWhich raises the question nobody on the official tour asks. The building did stop. So what happened to the rule?

HOST…and that’s why I’m booking the night tour.

In-world artifact · written for the attraction
Voice 02

The enthusiast

Rumor · what is believed

Theories, the ‘rule’, the question no tour answers. Gives guests a reason to look closer.

  1. 01

    A legend, not a plot

    The house comes with rumors, not a narrative: an heiress, a medium, a fortune, endless building. There is no protagonist, no goal and no ending.

  2. 02

    Chaos is not a story

    Its fame rests on rooms that make no sense. Pure strangeness is interesting for a minute, but a ride needs a direction to pull guests through.

  3. 03

    A real person

    Sarah Winchester was real. The ride has to use the legend as the tour tells it, without claiming it as fact or casting her as a villain.

  4. 04

    Two audiences

    A curious student who wants spooky fun and a horror fan who usually avoids theme parks. The tone has to hold both, eerie and then urgent, never gory.

  5. 05

    An ending for a house that never ended

    A ride has to finish. The house is famous for never being finished.

How might we turn a site famous for not making sense into a story guests can ride, and keep what makes it strange?

Site → storyWhat in the house and its legend can carry a story?
Story → beatsWho leads the guest, what are they running from, and where does it end?
Beats → rideWhat does each beat require the ride to physically do?

Exploration I

Reading the site

I treated the house as the brief. The research question was not “what happened here” but “what here could become story material”.

Field notesNight tour, second floor
  1. Stair No. 7 goes up nine steps and meets the ceiling. Measured twice.
  2. Hammering behind the east wall. No crew on site tonight.
  3. A black cat waiting at every turn, as if it knows the route.
  4. Clock in the study reads 2:00. Hasn’t moved.

Do not follow the guide. Follow the cat.

In-world artifact · written for the attraction
Voice 03

The explorer

Inside · what is seen

First-hand notes from someone who went in. Turns the guest from listener into the person inside.

What the site gives the story

On siteStory potential
Stairs to nowhere, doors onto wallsThe architecture itself can be the obstacle. The house can act.
38 years of non-stop buildingHammering that never stops. The house is still being built around you.
The medium’s warningA reason for something to be hunting the guests, and a rule the house obeys.
Construction halted in 1906, Sarah died in 1922A frozen clock, a desk mid-drawing. A house stopped at one moment.
It is toured todayThe guests’ own frame. They arrive as tourists, so the story can begin as a tour that goes wrong.

The house

  1. 1884

    A medium tells Sarah Winchester that the spirits of people killed by Winchester rifles want revenge, and that she must never stop building.

  2. 38 years

    Construction continues almost without pause, room by room, into around 160 rooms.

  3. 1906

    The San Francisco earthquake damages the house and construction stops.

  4. 1922

    Sarah Winchester dies. The house is left as it was.

The ride uses the legend as the guest hears it on a tour, not as a claim about what really happened.

Who it is for

Darcy Rogers
22 · Gen Z · San Jose

A photography student who found the ride on TikTok and is going with friends. Loves Halloween and Coraline; gets dizzy on spinning rides.

Todd Miller
33 · Millennial · Austin

A bartender who heard about it on a paranormal podcast and is going alone. Loves true crime and Scream; would never go to a traditional theme park.

Darcy and Todd pull the ride in two directions: curious rather than terrifying, but with a real chase. The tone of the story beats sits between them: eerie, then urgent, never gory.

Comparable rides

RideDurationCapacity
Revenge of the Mummy2 min 57 s16 riders per train
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistanceabout 18 min (full experience)16 riders per group, trackless

The biggest difference is length. Rise of the Resistance shows that a trackless system and a long pre-show can carry a full story, which is what the Winchester house needs.

Exploration II

From legend to story

The legend gave material but no structure. Three decisions turned it into a story.

Decision 1

What are guests running from?

Not a monster. The house itself is the threat, and the spirits it was built to contain are what chase you.

Decision 2

Who leads them?

The human tour guide in the pre-show is subtly wrong, so trust passes to a black cat. A guide guests can follow without dialogue, who looks back to check on them.

Decision 3

How can it end?

Guests escape into the dawn, but the cat stays in the doorway and the hammering goes on. The ride ends; the house doesn’t.

You have come to tour the Winchester Mansion in all its ruined glory. A local cat leads the way. Suddenly a door slams and a cold wind blows past. Your tour has been hijacked, and now you must follow the cat through the house to escape.

I wrote the story as eleven beats before any room was designed. Each beat states what the guest feels and what changes, so that every later decision (a scene, an effect, a turn of the vehicle) could be checked against it.

  1. 01Arrival & premise

    Guests reach the estate at night. Eerie but curious, not yet threatening. The legend: a house that never stopped growing.

  2. 02Meet the guide

    A slightly mischievous cat offers to guide riders safely through, and hints that things inside are “not quite settled.”

  3. 03The house reveals itself

    Stairs to nowhere, doors that open onto walls, hallways that loop. The cat says this is just how the house is.

  4. 04First signs

    Flickering lights, moving shadows, whispers. The cat grows uneasy but keeps going.

  5. 05The legend deepens

    Hints of Sarah's story: the building never stopped and the spirits are tied to the house. The space becomes a maze.

  6. 06The spirits awaken

    Ghosts appear fully, and they know the riders are there. The cat realizes the group is in danger.

  7. 07The chase begins

    Mystery turns into urgency. Ghosts pursue the vehicles and the cat urges everyone on.

  8. 08Escape through the maze

    Tight corridors, sudden turns, architecture closing in. The house itself seems to work against escape.

  9. 09Confrontation

    The spirits almost catch up and there seems to be no way out. The cat finds a hidden path.

  10. 10Narrow escape

    Riders break free. The house grows quieter but not calm. The cat hints that this isn't over.

  11. 11Exit & aftermath

    A shadow, a whisper, or one last line from the cat: the spirits remain. Mystery, not resolution.

Requirements

From story to ride requirements

This is the step I care most about. Each group of beats was turned into a narrative need, then into a requirement the ride must physically meet, so the team could design rooms, vehicles and effects against something testable.

BeatsNarrative needRide requirementHow it was met
01–02Guests trust a guide before anything goes wrong.The guide is met before boarding and is the one who starts the ride.The black cat waits at load and triggers the vehicle; it is carried through the ride by projection mapping.
03The house must feel impossible, not just spooky.Rooms appear to move and loop around the rider.Trackless vehicles; a forced-perspective corridor; a ballroom where walls and doors shift.
04–05Fear builds slowly; the legend is discovered, not told.Layered reveals, and space for guests to read the room.Pepper’s ghost and smoke for first sightings, black light on supernatural objects, Sarah’s study with self-drawing blueprints.
06–07The tone flips from mystery to pursuit.The vehicle changes speed and direction; the threat becomes continuous.Speed changes on the trackless system; Pepper’s ghost and smoke run as one layer through the chase.
08–10One moment where escape seems impossible, then a way out.A single, physical breakthrough at the climax.A dead end in the conservatory, a glowing mirror, and the vehicle driving through it; the only contained flames.
11Escape without resolution.An exit that releases tension but leaves a question.Back to the garden at dawn; the cat in the doorway, shadows in the windows, hammering still going.

Guest journey

Story across the guest journey

Each stage of the visit has its own narrator and its own way of carrying information. The story is never read out in one place; it is handed from voice to voice until the guest is the one inside the house.

Pre-visitDiscoverQueueGarden mazePre-showThe tour guideLoadMeet the catRideScenes 05–13ExitDawn gardenReporterEnthusiastExplorerLead voiceSupporting voice
NarratorEnthusiastReporterEnthusiast → the guideExplorer, via the catExplorer (the guest)Explorer, last line
Information carrierPodcast episode, social teasers, a poster built from a newspaper clippingNewspaper plaques along the maze; statues facing the house; hammering from somewhere insideA tour guide who is slightly off; a portrait whose eyes open; the model and blueprintsA black cat on a pedestal; mirrors; a scratched note: “follow the cat”The projected cat; rooms that move; no narrationThe cat in the doorway; shadows in the windows; hammering that hasn’t stopped
How the story is toldAs a question: the building stopped, so what happened to the rule?As reported fact, while the garden quietly contradicts itAs an exposition from an unreliable narrator, cut off by the hijackTrust moves from the human guide to the catThe guest becomes the explorer; the story is told by the spaceNo answer; the house is left unfinished
How it becomes experienceGuests arrive expecting a tour, primed to look closerReading and noticing while walking a mazeLights fail, the portrait wakes, a side door opensBoarding is the moment of following the catSpeed changes, the chase, a mirror to break throughGuests leave carrying the question back out

Narrative element schedule

Every piece that carries the story, listed the way a show team would track it: what it is, which voice it speaks in, where it sits, what it says or does, and which department builds it.

ReporterEnthusiastExplorerEnvironment
CodeElementVoiceFormat & placementContent / cueDept.
Pre-visit3
PV-01Podcast episodeEnthusiastAudio, ~12 min · podcast platforms“Hollow Frequencies, Ep. 113 · The Winchester Rule”. Ends on the question no tour answers.Marketing · Audio
PV-02Social teasersEnthusiast3 × 15 s vertical videoHammering over a black screen · a hand counting rooms and losing count · a black cat looking back.Marketing
PV-03Key posterReporterNewspaper-style poster · park entrance and onlineHeadline “The House That Will Not Stop” over the key art.Graphics
Queue · garden maze5
Q-01Estate gate plaqueReporterCast plaque on the garden gate“Winchester Estate · Historical tours daily”. Sets the tour frame.Set · Graphics
Q-02Newspaper plaques ×5ReporterWeathered clippings on posts along the maze, eye heightThe legend in order as guests walk: the medium, 38 years of building, the stairs to nowhere, 1906, 1922.Graphics
Q-03Statues and topiariesEnvironmentLandscape, throughout the mazeStatues all turned to face the house; hedges clipped into stairs that go nowhere.Set · Landscape
Q-04HammeringEnvironmentHidden speakers in the hedges, irregular loopThe motif that never stops, first heard from outside.Audio
Q-05Explorer’s first noteExplorerScratched into a bench, easy to miss“Stair No. 7: nine steps, then ceiling. Measured twice.”Graphics
Pre-show · the tour guide4
PS-01Tour guideEnthusiastLive host or animatronic · ~3 min38 years, 160 rooms, the medium’s rule. Says a little too much, smiles a little too long.Show · Entertainment
PS-02Sarah’s portraitEnvironmentMagic picture frame (animatronic or hologram)Her eyes open on the hijack cue.SFX
PS-03Model and blueprintsEnvironmentTable prop at the center of the hallThe house in miniature; its windows pulse with each hammer strike.Set · Lighting
PS-04The hijackEnvironmentLighting, audio and door cueChandelier swings, lights fail, cold wind, a side door creaks open: a black cat in silhouette.Lighting · Audio · SFX
Load · meeting the cat3
L-01Black cat on the pedestalExplorerAnimatronic figure among the mirrorsWatches guests board, then leaps down and is ‘taken over’ by the projected cat.Show · SFX
L-02Note on the mirrorExplorerGraphic scratched into a mirror at the boarding line“Don’t follow the guide. Follow the cat.”Graphics
L-03Vehicle wakesEnvironmentRide and lighting cueThe cat triggers a hidden mechanism; the vehicle’s eyes light and it moves off.Ride · Lighting
Ride · scenes 05–136
R-01The projected catExplorerProjection mapping, every sceneLeads, looks back, stops before danger. Never speaks.SFX
R-02Hammering motifEnvironmentAudio, every sceneFaint in the corridor, deafening through the chase.Audio
R-03Moving roomsEnvironmentTrackless vehicle with set movementCorridor loops, ballroom walls and doors shift around the vehicle.Ride · Set
R-04Sarah’s studyEnvironmentSet with projectionBlueprints drawing themselves; the clock stopped at 2:00.Set · SFX
R-05The spiritsEnvironmentPepper’s ghost and smoke, stops 07–12From glimpses behind windows to a full pursuit.SFX
R-06Mirror breakthroughEnvironmentGlowing mirror, vehicle drives throughGlass shatters, blinding light; the only contained flames in the ride.SFX · Ride
Exit · dawn garden3
X-01Cat in the doorwayExplorerFigure or projection at the house doorSits and watches guests leave.Show
X-02Explorer’s last noteExplorerWall graphic on the exit path“We got out. The hammering didn’t stop.”Graphics
X-03Shadows in the windowsEnvironmentProjection on the façade, with hammeringThe house is still being built.SFX · Audio

Handing the story to every department

I wrote the story as a short bible: the premise, eleven beats, the three voices, and three rules every discipline could check against. Each department took a different slice of it.

Rule 1

The house is the threat

No monster designs; danger comes from architecture and the spirits it holds.

Rule 2

The cat never speaks

It leads by moving, looking back and stopping. Never by dialogue.

Rule 3

The house is never finished

Hammering in every scene; no ending that resolves the legend.

DepartmentWhat I handed overWhat it shaped
Show & set designJourney map: environment, mood and story for each stageRoom programs, props, sightlines; what guests must notice in each room
Ride & vehicleBeat pacing and the requirements tableTrackless route, speed changes, where the vehicle stops, turns and accelerates
Special effectsRequirement rows and the rule that every effect needs a story jobThe effects map: what appears where, and why
Lighting & audioMood arcs per stage, the hammering motif, the clock at 2 AMLighting keys and sound cues that rise and fall with the beats
Graphics & identityThe three voices and their artifactsNewspaper plaques, podcast and social assets, the explorer’s notes, branding

Part II

Implementation

With the beats and requirements set, the team designed the experience stage by stage.

The journey

Ten stages, gate to dawn

Ten stages, from the garden gate to the dawn escape. Each is written as an environment, a mood and a short piece of story.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Queue

Garden maze

Hedges in odd shapes, statues facing the wrong way, dead ends, signs telling Sarah's story. A garden that doesn't make sense, for a house that doesn't make sense.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Pre-show

The creepy tour guide

A hall with a swaying chandelier and Sarah's portrait. The guide explains the 38 years and 160 rooms. The lights flicker, the portrait opens its eyes, and a black cat waits in a side door.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Entry

The ruined mansion

A heavy wooden door, creaking floors, hammering in the distance. Once everyone is inside, the door locks by itself.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Load

Meeting the black cat

A dark hall with a checkered floor, mirrors and candles. The cat jumps down, triggers a hidden mechanism and runs ahead into the dark.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Scene 1

Impossible corridor

Hallways bend the wrong way, doors behind doors, stairs on the ceiling. The hammering continues. The cat sometimes looks back.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Scene 2

The shifting ballroom

Ghost dancers and a music box. Then the room moves: doors slide, walls spin, mirrors show rooms that aren't there.

Concept renderingConcept rendering
Scene 3

The spirit chase begins

Through the windows, spirits trapped in other rooms. A door crashes down, the prison breaks, and the vehicle speeds up.

Concept illustrationConcept illustration
Scene 4

Sarah's study

Blueprints that draw themselves, floating papers, Sarah's ghost at her desk. The clock is stopped at 2:00 AM. The spirits find them.

Scene 5

The final chase & mirror exit

Kitchen, bedroom, tower, then a dead end in the conservatory. The cat stops at a glowing mirror. The only way out is through it.

Scene 6

Dawn escape

Sunlight and the garden again. But the cat sits in the doorway, shadows move in the windows, and the hammering hasn't stopped.

Show breakdown

Fourteen stops, one tension curve

The journey map groups the experience into six scenes. Laid onto the building, the eleven beats became fourteen stops: four before the ride, nine show scenes, and the exit. This chart lines up each stop with its beat, how tense it should feel, and the effects that carry it.

TOURHIJACKESCAPEAFTERACT01Arrival02Queue03Pre-show04Load05Meet the guide06The house07First signs08The legend09Spirits awaken10Chase begins11The maze12Confrontation13Narrow escape14ExitSTOPTENSIONHighMidLowClimaxEFFECTSPepper's ghostSmokeContained flamesProjection mappingBlack light (UV)Tension is read from each story beat. Effect cues follow the team’s effects map.

Three things to read from it: the ride stays quiet until the guide is trusted; Pepper's ghost and smoke carry the whole chase as one continuous layer; and the only flames are saved for the narrow escape.

Layout

Layout and ride system

The ride sits inside an existing park building, alongside retail and food and beverage. Guests walk from the plaza through the garden-maze queue and the pre-show into load, ride nine show scenes, and unload toward the exit.

LOADUNLOAD05Meet theguide06Impossiblecorridor07First signs08Shifting ballroom09Spirits awaken10Spirit chase11Themaze12Sarah's study13MirrorexitQUEUE · GARDEN MAZEARRIVAL PLAZAPRE-SHOWEXIT · DAWN GARDENBACK OF HOUSE · MAINTENANCE · VEHICLE CHARGINGSTATIONportrait · model tableENTRYEXITQ-02PS-02PS-03L-01R-06R-03R-04R-05N
Ride pathGuest walk05Show sceneBack of houseQ-02Element code (see schedule)Schematic · not to scale
Ride layout, redrawn from the team’s floor plan and bubble diagram. Guests walk from the plaza through the garden-maze queue and the pre-show to load; the vehicle runs nine show scenes and returns to unload.
Concept sketch: the ride vehicle

The vehicle is the cat

In the team’s illustrations the ride vehicle is the guide itself: a black cat that guests sit inside. It turns the guide from a character you watch into the thing that carries you.

Vehicle
Trackless, autonomous guided vehicles (AGV)
Supplier reference
ETF Ride Systems · Roush
Guidance
RFID tags and a local positioning system (LPS)
Power
Rapid battery charging, hidden in the floor
Why trackless
Rooms can seem to move around the rider: the ballroom spins, the corridor loops, the route can change inside a scene.

Effects and identity

Every effect has a story job

Every effect was given a job in the story, and placed along the journey on one map.

Pepper's ghost
Every time a ghostly apparition appears in the house.
Smoke
Accompanies the apparitions.
Contained flames
Marks the climax, when the house is at its most dangerous.
Projection mapping
Shows the ghost cat the riders are following.
Black light (UV)
Picks out objects of supernatural origin.

Identity

Attraction identity, light and dark versions

Visual development

From line work to color key

I developed each show scene as line work first, then painted it as a color key. Some scenes were taken further with an alternate lighting pass, to test how far one room can move in mood without changing its set.

Queue · Garden maze
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Pre-show · The creepy tour guide
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Entry · The ruined mansion
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Load · Meeting the black cat
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Scene 1 · Impossible corridor
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Scene 1, alternate red lighting
Alternate lighting
Scene 2 · The shifting ballroom
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Scene 2, alternate blue lighting
Alternate lighting
Scene 3 · The spirit chase begins
Line work
Line work
Color keyConcept rendering
Color key
Interior studies
Concept renderingConcept rendering
Concept renderingConcept rendering
Concept renderingConcept rendering

Studies of the house interior: the stair hall, a portrait corridor, and a hallway that narrows to a single figure.

Development log

Ten classes, five phases

The project ran over ten classes, from 23 April to 26 May 2026. This is how it moved, phase by phase, and what each phase decided.

Phase 01

Brainstorm & research

We mapped the house's history, existing tours and comparable rides on one shared board, and split the work across seven people.

Decision

The ride is about the house, not about a monster. The architecture is the threat.

Phase 02

Story beats

I wrote the premise and the eleven beats, from arrival to aftermath.

Decision

The guide is a black cat. The human guide in the pre-show is unsettling, so the cat becomes the one figure guests can trust.

Phase 03

Journey map

I turned the beats into ten stages, each with an environment, a mood and a story.

Decision

A quiet scene (the study) before the final chase, so that the climax has room to rise.

Phase 04

Space, model & ride

The team placed the beats on the floor plan, built the digital model, and chose the ride system and load/unload layout.

Decision

Trackless vehicles, so that rooms can appear to move around the rider.

Phase 05

Effects & design book

Effects were chosen for their story function and mapped onto the journey. Everything was assembled into the final design book, with branding.

Decision

End in sunlight, but leave the cat in the doorway. The house is never finished.

Reflection

What I’d keep

A site is a brief

The most useful research question was never “what happened here” but “what here can a guest feel and follow”.

Requirements are the bridge

Writing what each beat requires the ride to do gave the team something to design and argue against, instead of a mood.

Keep what’s strange

The goal was not to explain the house. It was to give its strangeness a direction, and leave it unfinished.

Team

Jingwen Li
Narrative design (story research, storyline, story beats, journey map) and visual development
Emily
House research, digital model, story beats
Jada
Graphics; mood, material and lighting boards; model
Alejandro
Ride system, load and unload
Olivia
Personas, comparable rides, queue and pre-show sketches
Dani
Sarah Winchester's story, sketches, illustrations
Kyra
Special effects, personas

Images on this page come from the team's design book. Credit for each belongs to the people listed above.