Scott Walker asked me on Twitter: "Can you elaborate (or quick blog post) to clarify re: Shadow Cities and missing context?" This was in reply to me tweeting re: Shadow Cities that "been playing Shadow Cities for a couple of months now - verdict: yes, but would benefit from context." So here a quick post to elaborate, as 140 characters is a bit limiting.
To recap - Shadow Cities is a Finnish startup, in Beta mode in Finland. It's a quite nice iPhone game, that uses OpenMaps and GPS to put a magical layer on top of the "real world", a layer in which you and a lot of other mages do battle. Two teams compete, the Animators (or "Hippies", as we affectionally call ourselves) and the Architects (or "Narks") for the win in each campaign, which lasts about a week each. As a mage you can build Dominators to conquer Gateways and collect energy. With this energy you can maintain Spirit Catchers (to catch spirits, which you need to get points for your team or donate to research to get Mana Potions which replenishes your mana) or Beacons, which act as waypoints for your team mates to warp to, over great distances. You can also build Traps to thwart your enemies spells, or Heal other players or Dominators or Beacons, and you can naturally attack with the "Z" spell. You gather experience points and advance in levels and get more perks, better spells etc.
So, all in all a compelling game. These past few weeks have seen numerous rule changes - as it is in Beta mode - some for the better, some for the worse.
What I severely lack is the context, which I believe the game would benefit immensely from. The background story is flimsy to say the least; "Animators vs Architects!", yes, but why? There are no NPC:s, not even static ones... there should be a story world, as the game world has been built very nicely on top of the real world, a story world to get campaign ideas from and to let players draw more inspiration from. If Gray Area, the company behind Shadow Cities, would do that - get some good transmedia storytellers onboard - there is the possibilites for a major transmedia campaign; comics, board games, tv series, you name it. As it is now, it's a compelling game and a unique game plan, but not really there just yet.
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Friday, January 07, 2011
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Make sure it fits!
Note: this might be too basic for some, but as I noted above, I’m keeping this blog as a notebook for myself as well; most of the musings here have come as a direct consequence of pondering on the development of ideas I’m working on, and I know there is a considerable chance that I'll forget them if I don’t jot them down. This is a typical one :)
It may be a bit early to start talking about complacency with regards to transmedia. It’s a form of storytelling that didn’t have a proper name until some five years ago, and only during the past few months has managed to penetrate the minds of the industry and the audience to any greater degree.
Still, and I will willingly point the finger at myself as well in this case, any transmedia project (as with any other project) runs the risk of falling into the pit named ”We’re doing it as it should be done”.
Now, do read me right – there are a number of talks and presentations and discussions on the Net on how to create and produce transmedia, and these talks, presentations and discussions are for the most part spot on and simply required hearing/reading/watching. What I’m saying is that you always have to mirror the advice, the blueprints and the examples against what YOUR transmedia property is about.
As an example – in connection to one project I’m working on at the moment, I was quite convinced that producing something tangible in the form of a graphic novel, a photo book or a hard-covered short story would help the project along; grounding the mythology, the canon, in something tangible, while at the same time adding perceived value to pitches and discussions. Now, while this may be true for many transmedia projects, I have since come to the conclusion that such an approach will not suit this particular project. Yes, there will quite probably be printed material in the future. Yes, it will build on the same narrative supertstructure. Furthermore, it will have it’s own business model. But it will not be the first contact anyone will have with the particular project, simply because it it not in the nature of the project.
To conclude: evaluate each and every option and make sure that they themselves stay true to the core of your story. It is not merely about the content (although the content of course needs to be consistent, logical, engaging etc), it is as much about the way it is delivered, the way it is received, the feel of the communication… everything needs to fit. If you feel it does not fit, don’t do it – or at least don’t do it in the way that does not fit.
It may be a bit early to start talking about complacency with regards to transmedia. It’s a form of storytelling that didn’t have a proper name until some five years ago, and only during the past few months has managed to penetrate the minds of the industry and the audience to any greater degree.
Still, and I will willingly point the finger at myself as well in this case, any transmedia project (as with any other project) runs the risk of falling into the pit named ”We’re doing it as it should be done”.
Now, do read me right – there are a number of talks and presentations and discussions on the Net on how to create and produce transmedia, and these talks, presentations and discussions are for the most part spot on and simply required hearing/reading/watching. What I’m saying is that you always have to mirror the advice, the blueprints and the examples against what YOUR transmedia property is about.
As an example – in connection to one project I’m working on at the moment, I was quite convinced that producing something tangible in the form of a graphic novel, a photo book or a hard-covered short story would help the project along; grounding the mythology, the canon, in something tangible, while at the same time adding perceived value to pitches and discussions. Now, while this may be true for many transmedia projects, I have since come to the conclusion that such an approach will not suit this particular project. Yes, there will quite probably be printed material in the future. Yes, it will build on the same narrative supertstructure. Furthermore, it will have it’s own business model. But it will not be the first contact anyone will have with the particular project, simply because it it not in the nature of the project.
To conclude: evaluate each and every option and make sure that they themselves stay true to the core of your story. It is not merely about the content (although the content of course needs to be consistent, logical, engaging etc), it is as much about the way it is delivered, the way it is received, the feel of the communication… everything needs to fit. If you feel it does not fit, don’t do it – or at least don’t do it in the way that does not fit.
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