Transmedia Writing

Multi-platform storytelling. Interactive entertainment. Immersive storyworlds. Alternate reality games. Augmented reality. Experience design. Audience participation. Further learning and inspiration for students of Jim Gunshanan's Transmedia Writing class in Full Sail's Creative Writing BFA program.

[transmediawriting]

Iron Man's Real Phone Number Revealed in Marvel Comics

Thanks to Thor, the whole world can give Iron Man a call.

“Call Tony Stark  212-970-4133″

-Thor #7

Thanks to my Transmedia Writing student Brandon for sharing!

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TMW Hall of Fame: Nightmares 

In Lizbetsy Rivera Goveo’s original story Nightmares, “sleep-deprived artist Aspen Lanner sets off to find the location that's been haunting him in his dreams.”

For her transmedia project, Lizbetsy created Aspen’s in-story journal on Tumblr, chronicling his dark dreams as recommended by his therapist, Ms. Nelson. (Aspen also has a working email address posted at the top of his Tumblr, so feel free to send him some words of encouragement.)

As Aspen’s journal entries reveal, Ms. Nelson’s digging may actually be getting somewhere...until one little comment changes everything — when you get to Aspen’s most recent Tumblr post, “Sin,” be sure to click through the “notes” section below it and follow him through the looking glass....

Congrats, Lizbetsy, on joining the Transmedia Writing Hall of Fame!

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TMW Hall of Fame: Traci Dream / Singabots

In her upcoming graphic novel Midnight City Kill, Sarah Moore tells (and draws!) the tale of “an A.I. powered robot assassin bought by a wealthy investor and contracted to hunt down the leader of an infamous terrorist group.”

For her transmedia project, Sarah brought to life one particular corner of Darwin City, her story’s domed American metropolis: Traci Dream, one of five android “Singabots” who rules the pop charts in 2163... but will the cracks in her candy-colored surface reveal a darker truth underneath?

Check out the in-story Twitter, Instagram, and SoundCloud — all featuring original visual art by the author — for more clues on Traci’s digital degeneration.

Congrats, Sarah, on your Transmedia Writing Hall of Fame work!

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TMW Hall of Fame: Soul Sisters

In Elizabeth Daugherty’s comedic urban fantasy Soul Sisters, a psychic and a witch struggle against pressure from their superiors at The Council — a government organization covering supernatural and paranormal crimes — while attempting to solve a brutal murder. 

To bring the world of titular “Soul Sisters” Sabima and Crystal to life, Elizabeth created a website for their fictional business, complete with a working phone number (857-301-7154) and interactive map of some of their favorite paranormal hotspots in Boston.

Congrats on joining the Transmedia Writing Hall of Fame, Elizabeth!

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TMW Hall of Fame: Criminal Release 

“After a body is found on an aircraft headed for Florida, the Seattle detective team must figure out what happened and who the killer is before time runs out.”

That’s the premise of crime fiction short “No Fly Zone,” which author Cambria Schenck has expanded and brought to life here in the form of Criminal Release, a whistleblower website with a responsive email and video interrogations, published by an insider who suspects a cover-up...

Congrats on your Transmedia Writing Hall of Fame work, Cambria!

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TMW Hall of Fame: SoulFinder

Alaina Scott brought the near-future sci-fi world of her short film screenplay Soul Searching to life with Tumblr and Instagram accounts for SeoulMates LLC, the fictional company “dedicated to helping you find your soulmate using physics, not questions relying on others’ honesty.”

If you send an email (available in the links section of the Tumblr), you may even receive a response from a certain Head Scientist!

Congrats to Alaina on joining the Transmedia Writing Hall of Fame!

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Spotted on Twitter: Classified newspaper ad for a “LIVE-IN NANNY” with a working phone number — part of an immersive, in-story promo for The Haunting of Bly Manor, a new Netflix series based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

If your phone plan doesn’t happen to cover calls to the UK, not to worry — Twitter user @TheDiaryofJacob was kind enough to post a recording of the creepy voicemail message here:

https://twitter.com/TheDiaryofJacob/status/1298704725727158274

Thanks to my Transmedia Writing student Jorge for putting this on my radar!

[transmediawriting]

Drive Into an Immersive STRANGER THINGS Pop-Up Experience

Netflix is bringing a "Drive-Into" Stranger Things pop-up experience to fans this October, and guests won't have to leave their cars.

“The wildly popular series is coming to downtown Los Angeles this October. Stranger Things: The “Drive-Into” Experience promises to offer a “groundbreaking live experience” that will bring viewers inside the series without them having to go outside their car. It’s a creative format for the current COVID-19 world we live in.

The hour-plus tour will bring visitors through Starcourt Mall, Russian labs, and the Upside Down. Characters from the series will also surround “the convoy” during the event. Netflix also promises “mind-blowing sensory surprises” it says will “blur the line between reality and fantasy.” Oooh, maybe a Demogorgon will eat you! Well, no, probably not.”

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Sean Stewart Debuts ‘Roundabout,’ A Groundbreaking Interactive, Livestreamed Play, As The Headliner Of NIDA’s Digital Theatre Festival

The genre-busting interactive play lets audiences decide which bodies digital beings will inhabit via Twitch, Aug. 6-8 at 6pm PDT.

“I said [to NIDA], ‘What if we made a play about a love triangle, only it's also musical chairs because there are six people moving in and out of three bodies?” Stewart said. “‘And also it's not in a theatre, it's on Twitch. And, oh yeah, the audience gets to interact with everything in the show, including the props?’ And amazingly, NIDA said yes! And now all these incredibly talented actors and crew are making it real.”

Check out the latest groundbreaking project from Sean Stewart, whose pioneering work we study in my Transmedia Writing class.

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Hourglass Escapes | immersive escape rooms | blooloop

Seth Wolfson of Hourglass Escapes talks about the company, its development, and how it has pivoted to offer online experiences during COVID-19.

“It was someone in Florida who came up with the idea, creating an online inventory system, and using Zoom to play escape rooms:

‘He talked to us and helped us set up an inventory system for our Evil Dead 2 game. We converted it into a model where up to six players in different parts of the world can come in on Zoom, playing together at the same time.’”

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Gaslamp Fantasy Meets Puzzles for the ASPMC’s Cryptozoological Adventures

During the twilight years of the 19th century, a collective of Massachusetts residents organized a series of tea parties dedicated to the appreciation and conservation of the region's local wildlife. These parties eventually led to the foundation of the Audubon Society. Around the same time, a more magically inclined group of researchers and preservationists founded [...]

“When Covid19 rendered many artists, writers, and freelancers in the entertainment sectors unemployed and under-employed, Green Door Labs resurrected the ASPMC [American Society for the Protection of Magical Creatures] and brought it into the 21st century to serve as a home for “original, story-based online puzzle hunts”. Under the game’s framework, the ASPMC sends players on family-friendly, modular missions that can be played independently, but also fit within a singular shared storyworld that is accessible to all. Initially funded through a Kickstarter campaign, the society’s first mission went live in late July, with two more missions slated to follow in the coming months.”

Another excellent, in-depth write-up by ARGN’s Michael Andersen on a new puzzle-y, interactive experience. This looks fun — I am already a fan of Aunt Carol....

[transmediawriting]

Shared Universes Are Dead, Long Live The NEW Shared Universe

The future is transmedia.

“A transmedia universe has one major advantage over a cinematic one; it's immersive. With a cinematic universe, a viewer heads to the cinema every few months to watch the latest movie, and that's it. In contrast, a transmedia universe is one that can be continually experienced, with audiences developing an ever-deeper relationship with it.”

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Doctor Who's Huge New Event Nearly Got Scrapped by the Coronavirus

Move over, Daleks: you’re now officially less likely to scrap the Doctor’s plans than actual respiratory viruses.

“But thanks to a combination of efforts from the likes of Big Finish and Titan, Victorious isn’t just alive and kicking, but on track to launch as if the team hadn’t been working their way through a global pandemic. ‘Oddly, madly, Titan has just got on and done their stuff because it’s almost business as usual,’ Goss continued. ‘Big Finish were recording with the Doctor using his son’s garage band equipment in his garden shed, the immersive theatre project has been finding ways in which they can reopen safely and still have a full immersive theatre experience. The escape room is looking at how social bubbles could work, so they can reopen safely. The books are just so epic and extraordinary—the great thing about books is that you can actually write a book without actually needing to be in an office!’”

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COMING SOON: Time Lord Victorious

BBC Studios presents a brand-new multi-platform Doctor Who story, 'Time Lord Victorious'

“Follow several Doctors across space and time as they defend their home planet from a terrible race, this is a story like no other…

Time Lord Victorious is a brand-new multi-platform Doctor Who story told across audio, novels, comics, vinyl, digital, immersive theatre, escape rooms and games!

Time Lord Victorious will launch in September 2020 over twelve weeks, with products and experiences releasing from September until January 2021.”

[1000-life-hacks]

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Delos Destinations

“Leave your world behind. Live without limits.”

[image: HBO / delosdestinations.com]

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SOMA studio's ARG to tease new game is underway

“There is currently a very spooky pulsating object on Frictional Games' website - and judging by the page name, I think it's safe to say this is about a new game. But what is that thing? An eyeball, frogspawn? Who knows.

The studio, known for its utterly terrifying horror games Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA, apparently began the ARG at the end of December - and fans are in the midst of unravelling the mystery.”