1. A Project by
Transmedia LA
Presented by
CASE STUDY April
Arrglington
@aprilarrg

2. 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.

3. About the Team:
All Transmedia LA members:
Team Leaders:
•April Arrglington: Story Producer & Project Manager
•Susan Bell: Experience Producer
•Amanda Price: Line Producer
Main 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

4. Overview:
Inception
Fundraising
Production
Game Experience
Feedback & Data

5. 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 new
year (early Feb 2012)
•Subsequently development started and pre-production meetings were set
up immediately (late Feb 2012)

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

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

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

9. We make our goal!

10. Production: We used Trello as our Project Management Tool

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

13. 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)

14. •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.

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

16. •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)

17. •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.

18. •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.

19. Game Experience: Each story element went through an arc

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

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

22. But by doing this he got into
trouble 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.

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

24. 2. Online World: Rexford Higgs

25. Agent Intellect Corp.

26. Cassandra

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

28. Out Of Game Assets

29. 3. Live Experience:

30. 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 Social
Media 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 Towner's vs. Locals, Interaction in Social Sites
vs. with Characters
•Learning the difference between Deep vs. Passive players

31. Data Analysis:
Participation was standard for this kind of experiences, narrowing it
down 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.

32. • 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

33. Demos:

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

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