Lessons Learned in Cross-Media

WHAT DID THEY DO? LESSONS LEARNED IN CROSS-MEDIA Christy Dena Director, Universe Creation 101 Power to the Pixel, London Film Festival 14 th October, 2009

Flash in the…Planet?

"Multiplatform digital entertainment is here to stay and requires a different approach"

Javier Perez Dolset, Zed Worldwide #MIPCOM09

‘ Billion Dollar Research Lab: Cross-Media Insights from the Largest Single Media Event Ever’

“ We thought that customers would be appreciative of the fact that we had so much across different platforms,” he said. “But nope. They were like ‘obviously!’ They just expected it.” Alan Wurtzel, NBC Universal’s President of Research

http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/writersguide/newwritinguniverse/

Lessons learned from those before there may be…

* Do not to plan events around fixed dates, keep them flexible by setting

them at a fictional event (Adrian Hon) * Provide Recaps/Story So Far for

latecomers * The name of the first website players find will become their title

for the entire project * Respect the Hard-core, engage them first/early

(Jane McGonigal) * Give the players something to model their actions on

(Brian Clarke & Mike Monello) * Be prepared for actor improvisation to

change the plot * Design for a variety of engagement and expertise levels *

Set a day and cycle (eg weekly) that you will update the project, so players

know what to expect and you have a schedule you can keep to * In large

projects, only the smallest audience number will attend to every piece of

content in every media * Some people like narrative content, some

interacting with characters, some attending live events, some puzzles, some

play and some contribute content * Be prepared for someone

game/hijacking your project by creating fake websites and characters * Be

prepared for ‘brute force’ being applied to an automated system * Players

almost always check who registered a domain name * Not all ‘alternate

reality’ games are hoaxes * Countdowns have been used many times, and

will be used again * Create a character to guide the players with what to do

(Evan Jones) * Competition attracts newcomers, but doesn’t drive their desire

to stay (Adrian Hon)

Lessons Learned Where we’re at …what we need

Local & Global Design Documentation Address Different Audiences

Local & Global

Local and a dash of global?

Local & Global

Live events (cinema events, meeting characters, local competitions etc) consider:

Sharing the experience in real-time (streaming)

Giving non-local people something to do as well

Getting local & non-local people to work together

Make the local replicable (by yourself or others – self-replication)

Local & Global

INSERT PIC OF INDIE SCREENINGS

Local & Global The Lost Ring ( McDonald’s, AKQA, and Jane McGonigal, 2008)

Design Documentation Issues

Indicate what part of the story is in what media (or which website)

Indicate timing – when each element is released [pacing]

Indicate why and how participants traverse media [calls to action?]

Indicate what people see and do [their experience]

Think about non-linear traversal [order narrative is accessed]

Difficult to ensure continuity across different developers…

Design Documentation

Universe Guide

Flow Visualisation

Flow Script

TV > “Show Bible”

… .on the other hand…a Game Design Document ….

‘ is all about communicating a vision for a game, for mapping out as much information as possible about how that game will function, what players will experience, and how players will interact with the game-world’

(Rouse, 2005, 356)

www.videogameteam.com/wiki/index.php?title=Design_Doc David Perry’s ‘Top Secret Project’

Current Context Show Bible = Continuity across episodes within one medium Game Design Doc = Describes a single mono-medium game

Cross-Media Context Continuity across projects in different media platforms (eg: film, comic, digital game) Describes a single cross-media project (eg: pervasive game)

Universe Guide By Christy Dena

Flow Visualisation

Flow Visualisation > Cross-Media www.christydena.com/online-essays/arg-design-charts The Beast , Microsoft Game Studio, 2001

Vary Engagement & Skills

Source: 42 Entertainment

Kim, Amy Jo (2000) Community Building on the Web , Peachpit Press

www.LostEnvelope.com

Hoodlum’s Find 815, Lost

www.youngbondshadowwar.com/begin

Kim, Amy Jo (2000) Community Building on the Web , Peachpit Press

http://www.42entertainment.com/poker.html Last Call Poker Last Call Poker, 42Entertainment

www.ChainFactor.com by Area/Code

Six to Start

Image source: dkimages.com Accessible & Appealing 2 Majority Expanded World More detail, interactivity, need specific skills & time Co-creative, hardcore By Christy Dena