The Miracle Mile Paradox ARG Case study

A Project by Transmedia LA Presented byCASE STUDY April Arrglington @aprilarrg

Introduction: About Me: About Transmedia LA:• The Arrglington Jump: Transmedia Blog• Director of Content Curation for Transmedia LA: created the Transmedia Toolkit Wiki • Group of almost 700 members that was formed in 2009 by Scott Walker and Jay• Story Producer and Project Bushman consisting of Manager for Transmedia LA’s monthly meetups and ad hoc first ARG, The Miracle Mile events to bring together Paradox. people in Los Angeles interested in Transmedia• Original from Panama, and storytelling. bilingual in Spanish and English.

About the Team:All Transmedia LA members:Team Leaders: •April Arrglington: Story Producer & Project Manager •Susan Bell: Experience Producer •Amanda Price: Line ProducerMain Departments: •Additional Writers: Hadi Nicholas Deeb, Nedra Weinreich, Lisa Prah, Bret Shefter •Tech Front: Randall Fujimoto, Gary Gabisan, Chad Kukahiko, Lauren Scime, Zach Wilson •Graphic Designers: Steve Omark (Immersive Fiction), Kelly Raila, Lauren Soffer, Nancy Steinman For the full list of credits go to: www.miraclemileparadox.com

Overview: Inception Fundraising Production Game Experience Feedback & Data

Inception:•The idea originated at the 1st Meetup after Storyworld last year (Nov 2011)•Main Goals: •Experiment in crowd sourcing an ARG •Making it an educational project •Earn experience in how to built a Transmedia project from the ground up•The idea was presented to the group members at the 1st Meetup of the newyear (early Feb 2012)•Subsequently development started and pre-production meetings were setup immediately (late Feb 2012)

Fundraising using Kickstarter:• Fundraising Strategy: Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo• Learning about engagement and pitches that work• Coming up with Budget• Brainstorming Perk Values

• Launched Campaign (March 2012)• How long should a campaign be?• Promotional strategies

•Beware of Kickstarter fatigue•Avoid spamming your community•Reach out directly to your audience•Do press via ‘field influencers’

We make our goal!

Production: We used Trello as our Project Management Tool

1. Division of Labor: We Planned for a Give & Take Approach

2. Production Schedule: •Phase 1 (April 2012): •Buy/Built Props •Find/Lease Space •Approach Vendors for involvement •Purchase domains & other online assets •Built/Write Main Character’s (Rex) Blog •Design visual assets •Setting up Characters accounts (30 total)

•Platforms used: •Rex: Blog on Wordpress, Twitter, Youtube, Souncloud, Google Email, Phone number (for live experience). • AIC: Site on Drupal for hacking capabilities. All AIC employees had a Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin account. Their emails were set up through the main site. •Cassandra: Twitter, Facebook Page, Google Email, Soundcloud, Ustream (for finale). •Rex’s Friends: Twitter, Youtube, Souncloud, Google Email, and access to the main In Game Forum. •Other: Pinterest, FourSquare, Google+, Instagram, Craigslist.

•Phase 2 (May 2012): •Casting and shooting of all the preliminary video and stills •Create/Install Live Game Experience •Program it using Conducttr

•Phase 3 (June 2012): •Alpha, Beta and Soft Launch •Preliminary Problems and Feedback •Tackling promotions : •Online (Out of Game Site, Twitter, Facebook Page) •Live (Vendors, Flyers, Distributing Stickers and In Game Card)•Phase 4 (July 2012): •Official Launch on 4th of July •Doing press and reaching out to media channels •Sending out Kickstarter Rewards (this was done in intervals as to keep ongoing buzz)

•Phase 5 (August 2012): •Generating continuous content on a weekly basis. •Daily overview and maintenance of game play. •Planning and execution of in game live events.•Phase 6 (September 2012): •Prep and launch Finale that consisted of live event broadcasted through Ustream. •Wrap up the online game and dismantle the live experience. •Make sure all the Kickstarter send outs have been tackled. •Built the Case Study presented here today (October 2012). •Realize that it took an entire year to build, launch and finish a 2 month ARG.

•Lessons Learned through out the production process: •Does it make sense to crowd source an indie ARG experience logistically? •How proactive was the learning aspect? •Were the live elements worth the trouble? •The main challenge was promotions: there was a need to have someone take on that role on a constant basis from pre-production until wrap.

Game Experience: Each story element went through an arc

1. Basic Chronology:The beauty of Alternate Reality Games is that, because the story is spread acrossmultiple platforms, it doesn’t matter where you get started. You can discover thestory world at your own pace, regardless of your entry point.That being said, The Miracle Mile Paradox consist of two main components: theonline world and the live experience. All you need to do is follow what happenswith our main character: Rexford Higgs. This is Rex.

He found a patent for anold mysterious contraption. And from it he built a device call the “Time Switch”

But by doing this he got intotrouble with Agent Intellect Corp. So now he is on the run. And he needs your help. To do this you need to find his business card, and follow his instructions.

That way, if you live in LosAngeles you can retrieve Jane’smessage for him. If you are not in Los Angeles you can still help out by fighting against AIC.

2. Online World: Rexford Higgs

Agent Intellect Corp.

Cassandra

The Winthrop vs. The Kliburn’s (Visual Assets)

Out Of Game Assets

3. Live Experience:

Feedback & Data: Fan Reaction /Interaction•In Game Forum•Fans created a Wiki: (miraclemileparadox.wikispaces.com)•The Unfiction Trailhead•They created a Google Drive•Daily Engagement in the In Game Sites and Out of Game SocialMedia Outlets•Attendance for the Live Events•They altered game outcomes (Live Streaming for Finale)•On kinds of players and what kinds of fans/audiences they are: •Difference in engagement between: Backers vs. Casual players, Out of Towners vs. Locals, Interaction in Social Sites vs. with Characters •Learning the difference between Deep vs. Passive players

Data Analysis:Participation was standard for this kind of experiences, narrowing itdown to 200 reported active players for the 2 months of game play: •Live experience: • 70 unique mobile players (captured by Conducttr) • 35 signed the lockbox log (no interaction) •Vendor’s Data: • 22 players at the Cloverdale Market (interaction) • 24 players at the Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt (interaction) • 5% of these generated sales of about 35.00 dollars total.

• In Game Online experience (by platform): • 5000 total views of Rex Blog • 90 unique Forum members interacting online • 75 Subscribers to Cassandra’s FB Page (potential reach of 32,400 views) •Twitter: lists vs. followers •Rex: 180 (casual) •Cassandra: 100 (engaged) •LauraLee: 40 (interacting)• Online Out of Game outreach (by platform): • 7000 total views of OOG MMP Site • 160 Subscribers to the OOG FB Page (potential reach of 76,500 views) • 275 @mmparadox Twitter followers • Coverage of the project on about 20 reported press outlets•Data from other/alternative platforms used (engaged views): •Ustream: 90 channel views, 40 live viewers for finale, 5% social engage •Youtube: 465 channel views for (3) Rex, 160 channel views for (10) Xia •Soundcloud: 95 plays for Rex, 65 plays for Xia, 45 plays for Cassandra

Demos:

Take Away: Reach vs. EngagementIf out of 7000+ potential reach outs: 2000+ Passive 400+ Casual 200+ Engaged 10%-5% InteractingThat still leave about 4000+ audience members that we have reached whoare either not active or not reported because they are consuming theproperty in an old fashion way, fact backed by our demo analysis.

Thank You Slideshow by April Arrglington www.thearrglingtonjump.com Email: aarrglington@gmail.comSlideshare: slideshare.net/aprilarrglington T: @aprilarrg LN: linkedin.com/in/aprilarrglington FB:http://facebook.com/april.arrglington G+: http://gplus.to/aprilarrg

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The Miracle Mile Paradox ARG Case study

by April Arrglington on Oct 22, 2012

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