How your mobile phone will enhance your Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge experience
The new 14-acre Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will rely heavily on the burgeoning Play Disney Parks app to help enhance your experience and entertain you while waiting in anticipated long lines when you visit.
There has been a lot of information released this week on the new Star Wars lands opening at both Disneyland (possibly in June) and Hollywood Studios in Disney World (in late fall). Some of the information ranges from what the cast members will wear to a look at the restaurants and shops that will open.
Also mentioned, is how the Play Disney Parks app will help unlock a number of things around the park. Entertainment Weekly has a great primer on this.
For those not familiar with the mobile app, it provides a variety of activities that interact with select attraction queues, has Disney trivia and other games, as well as music and digital collectibles awarded for experiences in the app. In Epcot you can activate physical things when playing Disney Phineas and Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure.
Your phone and app will be able to do many things in the new Star Wars land – think of it as a tricorder from that other sci-fi “Star” series. What you do will have an impact on what will be your Star Wars profile. Here are some of the highlights:
Creat your own story
Since the announcement was made about the creation of the new land, Disney has said that what you do while in the land will have an impact on your experience. This means that you will also be able to interact with various characters and go on your own missions.
You will be able to take on a “job,” whether it is for the Resistance, First Order, or some of the local gangs at the outpost.
The outcome of your experience on the attraction Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, where you are given a mission to complete and become part of a crew flying the Millennium Falcon, will have an impact on your story.
You will be able to speak with droids around the village to find out who is looking to hire. There will be points and rewards for completing tasks. Also, whatever information you collect stays with you.
Translate
All around the outpost are signs and labels on containers written in languages you probably won’t understand (though, there is always one person out there). The app will translate the labels. If the label is encrypted you will need to solve a puzzle to activate the translation.
In addition, there will be a number of people speaking in alien languages. To help you understand them, the app will act as your audio
Hacking into surveillance boxes
When you arrive at the Black Spire Outpost, remember you are being watched by the First Order. Around the outpost are surveillance boxes. The app will let you hack into them and turn them on or off, depending on the needs of the Resistance. To gain access, you will need to solve a puzzle. It sounds as though you will be playing against others.
Monitoring communications
As in any off-world outpost under siege, there are numerous transmissions that will be taking place. “To get an idea of what those transmissions are, you open your tuning tool, and you can locate transmissions that are being passed back and forth, sometimes between factions, sometimes just between villagers,” Imagineering concept designer Casey Ging tells Entertainment Weekly.
You will be able to listen in on these. Now if some of them are in code, you will be able to decode them by solving a puzzle.
So, it will be important make sure you keep your devices charged.
