Transmedia storytelling allows consumers to experience a story through various entry points to attract attention and expand the market. The Big Bang Theory offers products like a Monopoly board game that let fans experience the story differently. A proposed transmedia project is a trivia game where players answer science questions as Leonard to view more of the apartment where he first met Sheldon. The game aims to educate and entertain fans by exploring this point in the story through interactivity and immersion.

1. Transmedia means across media and it allows consumers to experience storytelling in a variety of
different ways, which creates different entertainment experiences. This is done by creating different
entry points of a story, in order to attract a consumers attention and to expand a market. The Big
Bang Theory offers a wide range of products on the market which allows the target audience to
experience the story in a different way. An example of this is The Big Bang Theory version of the
board game monopoly. The concept of the game is players can choose to play as one of seven
collectable tokens from the main TV show, and they must negotiate around key locations which are
used in the tv show, including the cafeteria at CalTech University and Mrs Wolowitz’s house. The
game allows between 2 to 8 players to play the game at one time. The game uses the interactive
mode as their needs to be more than one player to play the game. It also uses the immersive mode
as it draws in the target audiences attention and it gives them the opportunity to explore the story
of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ through a board game. The game also uses the participatory mode as it
allows people to make a choice as to whether they want to play or not. This shows that ‘The Big
Bang Theory’ offers people different ways of entertainment.
A lot of people think that there is a number of formula’s Transmedia storytelling, but there isn’t
actually any specific formulas for creators to follow. This causes a problem as it is delimiting what
transmedia is and what it is about. Because there is no specific formula, it allows people to make a
choice about the way they apporach telling a particular story. When creating a transmedia
storytelling experience, producers need to consider elements such as where the story is taking place,
the time that it is taking place in, the tone/mood that the story will take and the atmosphere that
they want it to create. The storyline will also need to include a conflict, which is the most important
part of a story, otherwise there will be no plot and a story won’t go anywhere. They will also need to
consider the theme which is the element that leads the narrative.
The Big Bang Theory has a very wide range for its audience demographic, but it has a male and
female audience. “It’s No. 1 with teens 12–17, adults 18–34, adults 18–49, and adults 25–54”. This
shows that The Big Bang Theory is very popular with a wide range of age groups. Knowing the target
audience for any production plays a very important part. The Big Bang Theory took a very broad
approach to understand their audience demographics, and they broke it down into nuances of each
subset. The show highlights a wide range of subjects including the highs and lows of friendships,
romantic successes and failures, the success and failures of a career and family entertainment and
tensions, all of which will co-inside with scientific brilliance and frustrations. “Chuck Lorre and Bill
Prady might not have set out to create a lifespan comedy, but The Big Bang Theory certainly became
that, as the characters “lived” their lives and tackled a decade of milestones reminding viewers that
the perspectives and intentions of others are not always what we assume”. This shows that ‘The Big
Bang Theory’ highlights everyday issues in the current world that we live in and that it tells people
not to make assumptions about people.
People watch ‘The Big Bang Theory’ because they like the characters. Chuck Lorre said “Stories
should be about these characters trying to make it through the day. The obstacles in [their] path—
that’s where the comedy comes from. You can start any story with the seven deadly sins. We all fall
prey to those.” This shows that the audience like the characters and the storyline about each of
them is what attracts them to watch the show. People also watch it because the narrative is easy to
understand and they like some of the phrases used in the show. Fred Fox Jr said, “People enjoy

2. catchphrases,” like Sheldon’s “Bazinga!”. This shows that certain words or phrases used in a comedy
show can draw a viewer’s attention in and entertain them
The Big Bang Theory is a US comedy show set in Pasadena, California, and it follows the lives of two
physicists, Leonard Hofstadter, and Sheldon Cooper. Sheldon is a theoretical physicist who struggles
to navigate certain aspects of everyday life such as social situations and understanding sarcasm. He
has a very dim view of the world away from physics and he believes himself to be an unparalleled
intellect. Leonard on the other hand, is an experimental physicist and he has a more positive view of
the world, although he too struggles to communicate with people who are not at his intellectual
level.
Throughout the twelve seasons, we see the characters grow and become more confident as Penny
moves into the apartment across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon. Penny finds it a lot easier to
make friends with people as she is more of a people person. She shows the other characters what a
life is like away from science, due to her limited understanding of the subject. She lures the other
characters towards more life which is away from science.
Season 3 Episode 22: The Staircase Implementation, is a flashback episode of ‘The Big Bang Theory’,
which sees Leonard explaining to Penny the story of how he met Sheldon. In the episode, which is
set in 2003, we see Leonard looking for a new apartment. He goes to view the apartment which he is
currently living in, and he is greeted by Sheldon. In order to see the apartment and see his bedroom,
Sheldon asks Leonard a range of science related questions, which includes sci-fi trivia and general
science knowledge. The episode shows what Sheldon’s lifestyle was like before he met the other
characters. In the episode, we see that the living room in the apartment isn’t the same as it currently
looks. Instead of the couch and the comfy chair, the living room is decorated with two lawn chairs, a
TV stand with a TV and a side table sat in between the two lawn chairs.
When Leonard enters his bedroom, he sees that the wall is painted red with drip marks coming from
it with the words ‘DIE SHELDON DIE’ written on the wall. This gives him the indication that Sheldon
isn’t an easy person to live with, but he decides to stay as he needed somewhere to live.
This episode of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ has inspired me to make a game based around the time that
Leonard and Sheldon met. The concept of the game is a trivia-based game anis the player will be
playing as Leonard, and they will answer three questions which will be science related and they will
be facts related to ‘The Big Bang Theory’, in order for Leonard to win the right to see his bedroom.
The more questions that they get correct, the more they can see of the apartment and the closer
Leonard will get to seeing his bedroom. If the player gets a question wrong, they will need to start
from the beginning.
The concept of my Transmedia artefact is a trivia based game which will test a players knowledge
about general science and facts based around ‘The Big Bang Theory’, and it will tell the story about
the time that Leonard and Sheldon met. It will be a single player game and players will only be
allowed to play as Leonard. Players will be required to answer three questions. If they get an answer
to a question correct, they will allow Leonard to see more of the apartment and they will get him

3. closer to seeing his bedroom. If they get an answer to a question wrong, and they still want Leonard
to see his bedroom, they will need to start from the beginning again, but it will allow the player to
exit the game if they wish to. The game will start in the Hallway outside of the apartment and it will
work it’s way around the apartment, moving from the Hallway to the bathroom, and from the
bathroom to Leonard’s bedroom.
The game will be a 2d animation and each set will look similar to the way it does in the main tv
show. The hallway will be painted light blue with a green carpet. The bathroom will be painted
yellow and the bathroom door will be a grey colour with lines going down the edges of it. The
bedroom will be painted a light red colour, along with a dark red colour with the words ‘DIE
SHELDON DIE’ written on the wall. The game will include dialogue so that players will be able to
understand the narrative as the game progresses. The game will also include sound effects. Sound
effects will be used to indicate a correct or an incorrect answer to a question, and to indicate a
characters movement or emotion (e.g eyes blink to mark Leonard’s confusion or amazement). The
characters of Leonard and Sheldon will look similar to the way they look in the flashback scenes of
the episode. Sheldon will be wearing his ‘BAZINGA’ patterned black t-shirt, along with brown
coloured trousers and white coloured trainers. Leonard will have his long hair and will be wearing his
round glasses. He will be wearing his blue cardigan along with beige coloured trousers and brown
coloured boots.
The game will use elements such as interactivity, as it will require players to use a computer or a
mobile device, which will make it more accessible to play for consumers. It will also use elements
such as spatial as players will be able to play when they choose. The game will also use the time
shifted element. As the game will be set in 2003, a time before ‘The Big Bang Theory’ began.
The purpose of the game is to educate the audience and give them the opportunity to test their
knowledge related to ‘The Big Bang Theory tv show and around science in general. The other
purpose of the game is to entertain the audience because the game will tell the story of how
Leonard and Sheldon met through a different medium, in this case a computer game, as well as
through the use of dialogue and sound effects.
I think the audience will enjoy playing this type of game because it enters the story of ‘The Big Bang
Theory’ at a different time to when it actually started, and it looks at a part of the story at a different
angle, and it will give the audience the opportunity to experience a part of ‘The Big Bang Theory’
story in another way instead of just watching the episode that the game is based on. Furthermore, it
will expand The Big Bang Theory’s market as it will add another product to it’s universe which gives
the show more chance to grow and become more popular.

4. Bibliography
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