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Can you briefly summarize what your comic series is about?

Halo: A Fistful of Arrows attempts to fill in some of the questions Reach decided to leave open, as well as expanding and enriching the characters featured within the game.  The primary narrative of the comic follows the Spartan super-soldier “Jun” and Dr Halsey, creator of the original Spartan program, as they attempt to make it to CASTLE base before the planet Reach is totally destroyed.  During this, we learn through flashbacks more of the back-story behind Jun and his ill-fated comrades of Noble Team.

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What would you say is your artistic inspiration for this series?

My inspiration mainly came from boredom, hah.  After completing Reach’s campaign back in September 2010, I started doodling random things while I waited to be sorted into a Matchmaking multiplayer game.  The main thing that my brain kept imagining was what happened to Jun and Halsey after they left the rest of the main characters in the game.

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How did you decide on the story you wanted to tell? Was it more of a desire to explore visually, or to tell a story, explore characters?

Initially, it was going to be just an excuse to draw some spaceships blowing up and a Spartan kick’n butt.  I had about 13 or so pages doodled of Jun and Halsey’s Pelican avoiding a massive ship-battle and Jun fighting a back-against-the-wall battle at the footsteps of CASTLE base.

Then I sat down to actually paint the real pages on my computer.  Those original 13 pages did not appear!  Instead, I found myself beginning a much larger and deeper story concerning all of Noble Team, through a complicated narrative of alternating timelines.  (I’m sure having six seasons of Lost drilled into my brain helped that inspiration.)

Ultimately, the visuals mean nothing to me if there isn’t emotion behind them.  Those action scenes I initially doodled would have meant nothing to me if there wasn’t a real, believable motivation and emotional cause behind them.  So that’s why I ultimately extracted a 77 page story from my brain.  The main plotting came rather quickly, during that first sit-down. Since then, its mostly just been about nailing the details.

I thought Jun would be a great character to explore throughout this graphic novella, because his character in Reach sometimes feels almost contradictory in nature.  At first, that may seem like a flaw in the writing or the creation of the character, but I disagree – most people I meet in real life are full of contradictions.  That’s realistic.  Its human.  I tend to remember this quote from Walt Whitman:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

And so Jun was perfect to center a longer story about.  With each scene I could slowly build onto his character, and ultimately it will make his final decisions in the last pages of my comic seem all the more believable and powerful.

I hope!

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Is your series planned out to an end, or is it open-ended, creating each chapter as it comes to you?

During that first sit-down and inspiration-explosion, I planned out a rough outline of where I wanted to go.  A lot of the visuals that Ive just now gotten out there have been stuck in my head all this time.  But I’ve messed with the details and tweaked the dialogue a ridiculous amount since its inception.  I’ve switched locations, characters, etc. but still the main points have remained the same.

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What are your thoughts on working within the Halo canon? Do you have any qualms about contradicting canon, or are you vehemently adhering to it?

I try to vehemently adhere to it, actually!  I’m quite the canon-stickler in all stories I’m interested in.  Adaptations and other things are a bit different, but if you’re trying to tell a story that fits in with an established universe, you need to do your research, just as if you were trying to write a novel about say… solar flares.  You don’t just make stuff up!

It seems “adhering to canon” does sound a bit scary and/or boring to some authors and artists.  But I don’t actually believe canon is in any way constricting to a storyteller.  It means you have a whole world, a whole system of logic supporting your story.  I think if a writer breaks canon, it might just be they’re not thinking creatively enough.  You can always think your way out of a situation when making a story!

I also love working with canon because I don’t just have other stories enriching mine, I get to enrich others.  If I make a nod to Reach, Fall of Reach, or First Strike, it makes the whole universe stronger I believe.  Hearing Halsey say, “Whatever It Takes” to her A.I., Kalmiya in my comic, and then seeing that again in the First Strike novel where you realize that’s actually a code for Kalmiya to break her ethics protocols… I just think that’s a really cool thing to do.  Its like building a spiders web to ensnare the reader into this universe.

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Are you an active Halo community member? Do you play online often?

I think so, when I feel like it, hah.  I enjoy hanging out at the Halo.Bungie.Org forums and lurking at the Waypoint forums.  I like to keep tabs on whats going on with my Twitter too.

I play XBox usually a few times a week, when I have time for it (and I’m always wanting more time!) and play a Halo title pretty consistently.  I mostly play campaign and Firefight Matchmaking, but I also like going in with friends for multiplayer playlists.

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How have your fans supported you?

Besides just discovering that I actually had fans, they’ve been awesome.  I get to constantly hear reactions back from consistent readers at the HBO forums, DeviantArt, and now at Leviathan.Bungie.Org.  Its all very humbling and encouraging, and really helps me keep going on a big project like Fistful of Arrows (its the most ambitious art project Ive done so far).

A guy who goes by Arithmomaniac also created a petition to try and get me a job at 343 Industries or Fistful of Arrows published, which was super awesome of him. It’s got over 140 signatures now and has a ton of nice things people have said.  [Ed: Here's the sign-up if you'd like to add your support]

As well, Sean Mortensen wrote and recorded an awesome soundtrack for the comic (available here), and Matt Turney (OneBitRocket) offered his web-design services and completely revamped Leviathan.Bungie.Org including interactive flip-book style viewing formats of the comic.

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Do you feel like there’s added stress or expectations to create something they’ll like, or is your art and story purely going in the direction you want it to go, uninfluenced?

Yes, the latter. The story is the story.  I cant change it.  I feel like I’m merely discovering it.  When I know that’s whats supposed to happen, or that’s what a character would truly say here – something clicks in my brain and then I cant change it.

But I do definitely feel some stress to just make sure the work is of top-quality though.  I cant cheat, I cant take corners.  Every panel has to be beautiful.  That’s my goal, at least.

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What are some of the challenges you face in creating a series like this?

I’d say some of the biggest challenges for such a long-term project is finding the time.  Then if you’ve found the time, how do you instantly switch to productive-mode?  Art is a fickle thing and you cant just jump in the chair and watch magical unicorns appear out of nothingness.  So sometimes it doesn’t feel like play, it really feels like work.  My sore back and red eyes can attest to this.

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How much of a passion is art in your life?

Its a big part of me.  Its what I do everyday.  For the most part, its what I always have done.

When I was very young I started carrying a pencil, paper, and a clipboard everywhere I went, restaurants, Wal-Mart, etc.  My first love was drawing comic book characters, then anime like Dragon Ball in elementary school, and then designing my own video games in late elementary/middle school.

High school I took a big break from art for the most part and got a girlfriend.  Once she was securely ensnared, I slowly revealed all my nerdiness and eventually went back to art in college.  Initially I thought about a journalism major as I love writing as well, but I found myself in the art department and spending hours and hours to get better.  And thus, I’m calling myself an artist once again.

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What was the first piece of Halo-inspired art you created?

This is one of the earliest I can remember doing, while staring at the EGM issue that covered the Halo 2 reveal:

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Have you created anything like this comic series in the past? Did you submit any entries for previous Halo art contests or community collections?

I created “A Sanghiellis War Is Never Over” a few years ago, as well as illustrating an adaptation of the beginning of Ghosts of Onyx by UNSC Trooper.  They were definitely stepping stones to what Fistful of Arrows became.

The last Halo art contest I remember entering was the Halo Evolutions Community Art Contest, where the winners would get their illustration in the pocket-size reissues of Halo: Evolutions.  I won for the story “Pariah”, my favorite in the novel, and it was quite an honor to see my name in the contents, just a few lines from the Famous Frankie!  I also had a completed illustration for Dirt, but ultimately didnt enter it (I could only enter one). I believe both images are on my portfolio website or DeviantArt.

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Will you continue making other comic series set in the Halo universe once this is done?

Its very likely, I’d say.  I already have a number of stories from various parts of the Halo universe in my head (I have all of the missing time between Halo 2 and 3 thumbnailed in my sketchbook for example, my version of Halo 4 is already storyboarded, too).  But after Fistful of Arrows, Ill be taking a break and working hard on some other projects of my own creation for a while.

Someday, I’d love to be able to live off this kind of thing so I could spend all my time making art!

For part 3 of this series on grassroots storytelling in the Halo universe, the creator of one of the most ambitious live-action Halo films to date, Jared Pelletier, answers a few questions about his film “Faith”.

But first, sit back and enjoy this brand new official trailer released today, for Halo: Faith!

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Can you briefly summarize what Halo: Faith is about?

‘Faith’ is about a group of Spartans sent to defend power generators on the planet Reach as the Covenant begin their first wave of attacks.

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What inspired you to take on this particular project?

In early 2010 I was approached to direct a short project based on James Cameron’s “Avatar”. The goal of the film was to showcase unprecedented visual effects for a micro-budget film exhibited exclusively on Youtube. That project never came to be, but the idea of creating something incredibly ambitious and revolutionary was inspiring. I wanted to set the standard in this category. I believe this will be greatly beneficial to the professional careers of everyone involved.

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Jake Commons was initially involved with the writing for the story, but early on it underwent a full re-write. Can you describe your process for the writing of Halo: Faith story?

Jake wrote a fantastic screenplay based on a few drafts I had been working on earlier in production. We actually had a total of 17 drafts before the final product. During our first days on set, we shot exactly to the specs of Jake’s script. Unfortunately during the dailies and early edits, the script did not translate to a coherent narrative on screen. I then went back with Erik Tallek to come up with a new script which works as a better picture, while still maintaining Jake’s touches.

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Did you have any concerns about what should or shouldn’t be included, how the story might interact with Halo canon, and how fans might react?

This is always something we keep in mind, but not our primary focus. At the end of the day, we have to make our movie. This is a completely independent vision of this universe. Some aspects will be significantly different from the games, other areas will remain exactly the same. We’ve maintained the integrity of Bungie’s work, which was most important for us. I believe that all of the changes made were necessary in adapting this material to the screen. From the very beginning my goal was not to take the games and turn them into a movie, but rather to create a realistic interpretation of what this universe may really be like.

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Was Halo: Faith always going to be a free, grassroots production for the Halo community?

Absolutely! The goal of Faith is to deliver an incredible cinematic experience, while furthering the careers of us as filmmakers.

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Has your fan community, or the Halo community in general, played a role in the development of your film?

The fan support has been instrumental in bringing key members to our team. Our visual effects are the key aspect and driving force behind this project. We’ve been able to bring major players from ILM, Digital Domain, and Weta to the film – largely in part to the following and buzz around the project.

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How did you go about forming the team that would work together to create this film?

This process has been long and involved. We began in September 2010 and to this day we’re bringing new people on board everyday. It’s all about selling ourselves as filmmakers and selling the project as being worthwhile. The response to our requests has been incredible. Some of the most talented people in the world are working on this film on volunteer hours.

I think forming any great team comes down to having a great product and vision people believe in.

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It has to be asked: If you could film Halo: Faith as a 3D movie, would you?

I would have loved to shoot ‘Faith’ in 3D. My cinematographer is familiar with the format, and has experience on 3D set ups. I think 3D is a valuable asset if it helps tell your story, and in our case, it definitely would be a great asset. We’ve explored some fantastic 3D conversion techniques, but I can’t confirm that Faith will be getting a 3D release. In any case, this is a medium I plan on exploring with future projects.

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What would you say is your favourite moment so far on set?

I think every moment on set during ‘Faith’ was fantastic. We had a great energy from the cast and crew, tons of dedicated people, all with the common goal of making something significant. I think everyone had the feeling that we were doing something very special, not even regarding the end result, but just our process. The challenge of shooting a live action film which ultimately consists of about 95% CG was an amazing experience.

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What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in this production?

Continuing my last thought, over 95% of this film is CG. This process is incredibly consuming and involved, especially when just about everything in this Halo world is being created from scratch. Once you start seeing the results, it’s instantly worth the seemingly endless hours of work and late nights.

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How are you working with your composers in creating the musical soundtrack for the film?

OST tracks on Youtube: The Destruction of Reach [Ciurlizza] FAITHception [Ciurlizza] Never Outnumbered [Ciurlizza] Bullet Holes [Ciurlizza] Anton’s Theme [Feltrin] The Landing [Feltrin] Scarab [Feltrin]

Both Daniel Ciurlizza and Giancarlo Feltrin are working on the OST. This is an interesting process, as we’re trying to maintain the familiar sounds of Halo while also bringing something very cinematic and fresh. I try to be very flexible with the music. I’ll give an idea as to what I want, and let them work it as they interpret my direction. I think this is important with all creative aspects of the filmmaking process. I don’t believe in limiting the abilities of anyone, as I don’t think that’s the best way to get the very most out of creative individuals.

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What is it like working with a team of creative minds, and Halo fans, to bring this film together?

That has been one of my favourite parts of this production. The team is incredibly dedicated, and everyone really believes in the product we’re creating. Without all of these talented people, the film doesn’t happen. A picture like this requires an incredible team, and I’m lucky enough to be working with one.

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What are some past projects which you’ve created that have brought you to this point?

I’ve worked on a number of films over the past 3 years. In March 2010 I had my first experience with visual effects on a movie called ‘The Haunted Soldier’. The film went on to win some awards, and I instantly fell in love with the freedom visual effects can give. You’re really only limited by your own imagination. Another more recent film ‘In the Hearts of Men’, a WWII epic, premiered at the AZFAME Film Festival in Arizona this past March. It went on toe win Best Director, Picture, Editing, and Cinematography. That film added a ton of credibility to my name, which has helped in the recruitment of large visual effects studios.

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Earlier this year you revealed two other videogame related film projects in the works to follow Halo: Faith. What’s one thing you’ve learned in creating Faith that you can apply to these?

As per request, I can’t discuss any projects at the moment or confirm that any are officially green lit. All I can discuss about my next film is that it’ll be presented in 3D!

To begin this series on grassroots storytelling in the Halo universe, I caught up with Peter Cooper, writer and director of the upcoming fan film Operation Chastity, who answered some questions about the production and his perspective as a fan on the Halo storyworld and franchise.

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Can you briefly summarize what Operation Chastity is, what it’s about?

Operation Chastity is a feature length film project set at the very end of the Human-Covenant War, February 2553. The Covenant have long since fled Earth and the UNSC are mopping up what’s left. Lieutenant Ashton and his group of hardened Marines fight in the final operation of the Human-Covenant War, knowing the war is almost over and longing to go home. But when the Marines cross paths with an ONI agent and a Spartan on a top-secret mission, Ashton is torn between his duty to his comrades and suicidal orders.

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The initial concept began quite small. The idea was to build the Warthog, a few costumes, then do a series of comedy shorts. As time went on and we built up a head of steam, however, more and more people suggested we build on the idea and push it a little bit further. So, it went from being comedy to action-drama, and from shorts to extended shorts, and eventually evolved into the full-scale feature project we are working on today.

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How did the story for Operation Chastity come about? How did you decide on the time and place in which to tell the story?

My academic life was spent largely studying military history, so I spent a lot of time learning about conflict and how it affects the human condition. The core story of Operation Chastity draws on that knowledge, looking at the Halo universe and exploring the experience of regular ground troops within the conflict – the trials they endure, the dangers they face, and the challenges they overcome. That helped me immensely in choosing the specific time to set this particular piece.

Some of the greatest acts of heroism in war have come on the eve of a conflict’s end. There is no greater tragedy than for someone to lose their life when a war is about to finish, and it’s even worse for those involved when they’re aware of the fact the end is so close. That sentiment set the tone I was looking for – if there was a story to be told, it had to be at the moment. A closing statement to the human experience of war against the Covenant, looking back on the pain inflicted upon them and as well as humanity’s hope for the future.

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Operation Chastity: Behind the scenes:

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Did you have any concerns about what you should or shouldn’t include, how you might interact with Halo canon, and how fans might react?

As both a fan and an aspiring film maker there was a lot of personal struggle to temper my desire for “cool” things and fitting in with continuity. All the time I was busy looking over my work ensuring that whatever I did would not incite some kind of fan rage. I approached it as though it was another piece of official literature, and gave the canon the respect it deserves.

It’s one thing to take the story in a new direction and another to fly in the face of established fact within the canon. Fans appreciate this and so did I. I avoided making up new Spartans and other issues that many fans have held as contentious, but was also eager to push the story to the limit to make it a dramatic and compelling experience for everyone.

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Did you look for any support from Bungie Studios or 343 Industries when you began the project?

Most of our interaction has been with 343 Industries, who have been very supportive of our endeavour to bring a fan-based story within the Halo universe to the big screen. Our project began after Bungie’s handover of the rights to 343 Industries post-Halo 3, so while we have had little contact with them, we are doing everything possible to do justice to their universe.

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Was Operation Chastity always going to be something created for the community, for the fun of it, to share freely?

We always intended Operation Chastity to be a gift for the fans, our way of giving something back to the community. On a personal level, the Halo community has kept me entertained and given me so much pleasure over the years, so there’s always been a drive to give something back.

Partnering with such a reputable company as Machinima to bring our film to the web has enabled us to branch out to a much broader audience, including fans not familiar with Halo. We hope that by creating a solid piece of dramatic entertainment, we won’t just be giving back to the community, but perhaps introducing new fans to the community and helping to expand it.

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What sort of technical challenges have you faced in creating this film?

The technical challenges have been great, from replicating the look and feel of Halo through costumes and props to shooting big action sequences, right through to recreating all of Halo’s iconic vehicles and ships as part of our ground breaking visual effects work. We’re aiming for a production that is of a Hollywood level, and that inherently makes our project more challenging because where something might be forgivable in an average fan film, it’s totally not for us.

Were it not for our producer, Nicola Instone, we wouldn’t be able to aim for that target. I am a first time filmmaker, and her knowledge and experience has meant we can push for that Hollywood quality. Thanks to her exhaustive skills in the fields of production and visual effects and the team she has assembled for the teaser, every single challenge has been met and overcome, and the results are stunning.

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Can you describe some of your favourite moments on set?

Every moment on set filming the teaser was an amazing experience for me as it was my first time on a production of that magnitude. Having so many experienced industry professionals give up their weekends to bring my story to life was something I will never forget.

Perhaps one of the funniest moments came in rehearsals. One of our actors, Vin Hawke, knew I was a big fan of District 9. We were going through one of our scenes, and on his cue, rather than shouting out his proper line, he shouted “YEAH! TAKE DET YOU FOKKEN’ PRAWNS!” I totally cracked up.

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What was it like working with your team of creative minds, and Halo fans, to bring this film together?

Collaborating with so many wonderful people has been an absolute dream, and a lot of our team are film industry professionals as well as being Halo fans. That love of the source material has ensured that, with the teaser as well as the coming feature, we stay true to the universe while at the same time finding new and interesting ways to push it forward.

Our propmaster, Ed Woodward (who recently finished work on Ridley Scott’s Prometheus), is a massive Halo fan and brought a great depth of industry knowledge as well as a love of Halo to help build props that looked straight out of the games, using concept art and in-game stills to help in fabricating realistic Marine armour.

Our visual effects supervisors, Richard Briscoe (Iron Man 2, V For Vendetta, The Bourne Ultimatum) and Sean Farrow (Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code, 1408) have been performing miracles in bringing the Halo universe to life through our visual effects, and the teams working for us (including major names such as Digital Idea, Lipsync, Malditomaus and Bleed VFX) helped us really push the boundaries of what is possible in low budget projects.

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What are some other past projects you yourself have created? Do you have plans for any future projects?

For a time I worked in a special effects studio and helped make props that were used in Doctor Who, and Ive also worked within the wardrobe and props departments on a variety of independent films including the sci-fi miniseries Trenches. Operation Chastity is my first feature film project as a filmmaker, and I’m hoping to build on that.

Right now all my energy is primarily being invested in getting Operation Chastity on the big screen as a feature film. We are frantically working at finishing the teaser, which will be released in the coming months, and collaborating with Hollywood screenwriter Marvin Willson in editing the script ready for production of the feature length version of Operation Chastity.

I also have several original scripts in the works, and working on a graphic novel with a phenomenal artist named Adam Burn, who I had the pleasure of working with on Operation Chastity.

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Are you planning to attend any shows to promote the film and meet fans before release?

Closer to the release of the teaser we will certainly be attending events and beginning promotion for the feature film.

We’ve been involved with the community for some time, running Reach tournaments and competitions. Our involvement with the community is something we enjoy and are very committed to.

Only days remain until a crowd of Alternate Reality Gaming and Transmedia enthusiasts converge in Bloomington Indiana for another year of ARGFest-O-Con.

This year I’m happy to announce that 4D Fiction will be officially curating the ARG Museum. This element of ARGFest is a place where creative artifacts and ‘swag’ incorporated into various campaigns and artful projects are put out for display for the fest attendees. It’s an opportunity for everyone to check out the work others have put into extending their storyworld tangibly into our reality, and perhaps for some aspiring puppetmasters and artists to gain some inspiration from others’ works.

This year I’ll be adding a section to the display specific for ARG-related books – whether game-specific, informational, or just related to the ARG genre in general.

This year’s museum will also incorporate an extended component, using – yes – QR Codes! Each display will have extended details about their project available for skimming by scanning their code on a smartphone. And as an additional bonus for the fun of perusal, there will be a trivia question for each display!

Yes, ARG Museum Trivia will be a playable component to this year’s museum.  Here are the juicy details…

Points will be rewarded for correctly answering trivia questions (and bonus points if you get it right the first time!).  The top 3 scoring (and present) attendees by Saturday lunch will win first choice of any of a selection of books to take home that were on display. At the time of this writing, the selection will include:

• “This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming”, by Dave Szulborski
• “This is Not A Game”, by Walter Jon Williams
• “House of Leaves”, by Mark Z. Danielewski
• “Codes, Ciphers, Secrets and Cryptic Communication”, by Fred B. Wrixon

So read up, stuff that ARG brain with campaign lore, and see if you can outsmart the rest!

A Call For Museum Submissions

If you’ll be in attendance at ARGFest this year, we’d love to have you help the museum by bringing any past ARG related items you may have to be included in the museum display.  Every year it’s been a collection from numerous community members and puppet masters.  The more items brought in to help populate the museum, the wider a variety of content and experience we have as a whole.

If you have something you can take to the fest, please contact me via this form, or on Twitter (@4dfiction or @thebruce0), so it can be registered in the collection.  Don’t worry if you’re not sure whether it’s appropriately ARG-related, I can be the judge of that :).  All items will be catalogued and guarded so they can be returned to their rightful owners at the end of the fest.

* As a bonus incentive for providing items for the museum’s display, those who bring any items that are put on display will be awarded bonus points towards the Trivia game!

Additionally, if you have anything you may wish to donate towards the prizes (collectible ARG artifact, books, etc), that would be awesome!  Please let me know beforehand.

Please visit this wiki page to see what people have offered to bring and whether you have something for an unlisted campaign, or an unlisted item for a campaign that may already be on the list. The more the better!

I’m very excited for this year’s ARGFest and Museum, and I hope you are too. ARGFest begins later this week in Bloomington – have you registered yet?
For more information, please visit ARGFest.com

When I was child, my best friend Greg and I went through a stage of imaginative paper-based adventures — sure, we occasionally played “cowboys and indians” and whatnot, and we played with toys and action figures, instilling life into Star Wars figurines (I even vaguely recall a Star Wars lunch pail!) — but this was different. This was actually a very simplistic, childish sort of ‘game mastering‘.

I can’t remember how it actually started, but this was what we did for fun: We each took turns designing mazes on paper, secretly, on our own time, and then we’d sit down and take turns pretending to be trapped in each others’ mazes, exploring and trying to escape by saying where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do.

If I was the one exploring, I’d only see a portion of the map – whether it was obscured by a piece of paper with a hole cut in the middle that he’d move around to follow where “I” went, or whether he actually drew the maze as I moved around. But as I explored, as I turned each corner, opened a door or entered a new area, something new would happen – I might discover some treasure, a special item, some crazy mysterious object, or have to face an enemy and decide what to do. Whatever happened after I made my choice was decided by him.

The levels we designed for each other would typically be very simple (we were kids after all), but we loved the fun of exploring, interacting with other, and making decisions on the fly knowing that the results really were made up as we went along – that’s what made it fun.

The more we played, the more adventurous our games got, the more our levels ‘matured’ as we tried new things. The environments became labyrinths, forests, or space ships with intricate maps and structures. We’d start writing little introductory stories to lay out a mission or some task that had to be accomplished. I remember designing out levels of buildings, with secret rooms and interesting items to find, pick up and discover. We even built in ‘triggers’ where, for example, we’d note that somewhere on that map a door or hole in a wall might now be open if they picked up a particular item or flipped a switch somewhere else.

As a child, this was our game-like way of storytelling, of having fun, and it was a unique sort of adventure for us. This type of gameplay was of course nothing new – it’s a basic form of what’s known as table-top role playing, where a game-master (GM) creates a world, and leads other people, friends or acquaintances, in a game of exploration with characters the players design and improve within the guidelines of the environment defined by the GM.  Every action and decision is interactive between the player and the GM, and the story itself might unfold over the course of a day, weeks, months, or more.

It’s also the basic structure of role playing games (RPGs) – where a player controls an avatar of sorts, and explores a storyworld, discovering its story and seeing their character grow and change dynamically with every decision they make and encounter they face.

As I grew older and migrated to computers for gaming, that form of play translated to computer RPGs – text-based dungeon crawlers (like Zork), early internet Telnet environments (like the Muddy Waters MUD), and classic graphical RPGs (like the Bard’s Tale trilogy).  One thing remained the same for me, however – it wasn’t the idea of role-playing that I loved as much as the act of discovery. Any game that had a complex story or an environment ripe for exploration, I set out to map. Whether it consisted of rooms I connected as nodes and lines on paper after exploring cardinal directions in text, or whether it was a map of walls and doors sketched on grid paper – I simply had to discover and explore, to visit every nook and cranny, find secrets, uncover the whole story.

Today, when I look back at those games I first played as a child on a piece of paper, I realize that the passion I had for exploration and discovery has translated into what many today call alternate reality games (ARGs).

While both ARGs and RPGs both generally consist of core narratives, ARGs do have a clear distinction from RPGs.  In a role-playing game, the player enters the realm of the story in the form of a character or avatar; you play that role and explore the storyworld within its reality, revealing the narrative and building your character. In an alternate reality game, it’s the other way around – it’s as if the characters in the story are “playing the role” of real beings in our reality.  Where in an RPG, the Game Master effectively throttles how we role-play a character in their world, in an ARG the Puppet Master (PM) defines how the characters play their roles in our world.

And yet, the PM still has the final creative word on how the story plays out. They decide what narrative is uncovered, what characters exist and how they interact, what events will, can, or might happen, and to what degree the players influence the story. But, by its very nature of playing out in our reality rather than in a relative sandbox of a defined world environment, it means the results of every action and decision made by the player are essentially decided live by the PM. As a result of this interaction, the story that the player takes away from an ARG can potentially be far more personalized – not based on the decisions of the character they role-play, but based on their decisions in the real-world, on themselves, now an actual part of the story.

For myself, I also find it interesting that my childlike love for exploration and discovery, for mapping out environments and worlds, has translated to the ARG genre.  If the world of an RPG could be mapped out on grid paper, then the ARG equivalent could be described as the ‘trailhead’ — a timeline trail of interconnected events and assets laying out the route that the player, or players, have taken through the experience, through the open-ended exploration of… well, a real-world series of ‘nodes’, as the story is revealed.

For me, that love for world-mapping has taken shape in the form of the wiki. That eventually led to the creation of Wikibruce.com – the resource I set up for ARG players, providing a platform to ‘map out the story-world’ as it were; to document discoveries and retrace stories as they’re uncovered – stories created by the puppet-master as their games progress.

I was never really one for “role” playing, personally (heck, I can count the times I’ve dressed up in a costume with three fingers). And even in ARGs I’ve recently begun taking more of a back-seat when it comes to interaction and ‘play’ (mostly due to lack of spare time).

But this, really, is one of my attractions to the ARG genre — I don’t have to play some version of me that isn’t me. I can just be myself (with a tiny bit of suspended disbelief, or rather performance of belief).  If you think about it, it’s actually the PM that ends up playing more characters roles in an ARG than the players themselves.

If I were to define an Alternate Reality Game, from my perspective it would be something like this:

An ARG provides an experience for both the discovery and creation of a dynamic story, in real-world time, that interacts with and incorporates its audience and elements of their real life within its narrative – from its beginning through to its end.

This is, to me, the most appropriate description of an alternate reality game or what I, here at 4DF, refer to when I say four-dimensional fiction.

The hallways and mazes once drawn in pencil on paper are now city streets; the items once picked up to the inventory now show up in the mailbox; the hidden items once discovered are now retrieved from GPS-located dead-drops; the puzzles once solved to unlock doors are now encoded messages in personal email or cell phone voicemail; the crazy mysterious objects are now physical, tangible artifacts from within the story itself; characters encountered while traveling down a street may now maintain blogs and have social profiles – and who knows, they may actually be encountered out on the street…

It’s my childhood pencil and paper games of discovery and adventure translated to 21st century real-life story-based entertainment — whether I am the one exploring the maze, or the one secretly drawing out the levels.

The Lost Zombies Ning community is still alive and thriving at lostzombies.com and you can reach Skot Leach through his website at skotleach.com. This case study was originally posted by Skot at the Transmedia Artists Guild forum.

One day, you sit down to watch TV, and catch a teaser trailer for a movie not scheduled for release for another year. It catches your eye, but you inevitably move on.

The next week, you receive a bulky piece of mail containing a hardcover book… you don’t initially recognize the author, or the company that sent it, but the topic interests you. As you open it, a piece of paper drops from its folds on which is written an email and phone number with a note asking you to contact the author by either method.

You’re curious, so you call the phone number and hear a recorded message from this person, who outlines their desperate situation and asks for help.

At this point you wonder where it came from. Out of curiosity, you start checking around. A quick google shows that the author doesn’t seem to exist, nor does the company. But you do find that the book and author are related to an upcoming movie, and you remember the teaser that caught your attention last week – the author’s name is familiar now, and you recognize their face.  Now you’re excited. For whatever reason, the lead character in the movie just contacted you, personally, and they need your help – a series of events are unfolding, right now, today, this week.

Enticed, you dig a little deeper… in doing so, you discover websites that reveal more about this character, this company, and the recent events that prompted them to contact you, and why. You find other people online who’ve been contacted as well, so you chat with them to find out what they know, and team up with them moving forward.

Over time, there are puzzling situations that you have to resolve, other characters you need to talk to, interact with and influence in your strive towards various accomplishments and resolutions, discovering more and more of the story as it plays out.

You’re taken places – nearby locations for secret exchanges of information, or for real-world tasks to be carried out. You watch videos, find clues in commercials, record and share videos denouncing an antagonist’s propaganda, even crowd-source a solution to a problem on your cell phone, with a bit of augmented reality thrown in… Your ongoing curiosity in this amazing story drives your enthusiasm. Your interaction and teamwork with others doing the same forms bonds and friendships, and a community of fans.

You become immersed in the story so much that when it ends and you’ve saved the day, you cheer and celebrate with your community and your friends!

Oh yeah, and there was that movie you wanted to see too… You wonder if or how your actions helping this author and the company had an influence in that story. Now you have to see the movie (and with friends, especially other people with whom you’ve shared the experience)!

You go and see the film. On screen you spot the actual location you visited to receive top secret information from the company that sent you the package. Then the person who asked you for help, the lead character in the movie, references the mystery that you just helped solve!

Your experience, the story you helped to complete over the course of a few months, connected you with a grander set of events – you became a part of the movie.

Shortly after the movie airs, Amazon shoots you an email recommending a novel that’s soon to be released – an autobiography written by the fictional author as their followup to their other book, the one you received in the mail.  You want it.

Being a comic book fan, you’re excited to hear about a series soon to be released centered on the company that sent you the package; about its rich history, chronicling many of its past …’mishaps’. You want it.

You’re at the local toy store one day, and you see a bobblehead – of the author. It makes you chuckle. You want it.

A year down the line, with this property still going strong (it’s now a thriving universe with a history, many developed characters, events, and stories you’ve come to follow and enjoy), a sequel to the film is announced… along with a video game spin-off on the gaming console you own. You want to immerse yourself in them, and discover what other exciting experiences the universe has to offer. You note their release dates.

Then, as you sit down for dinner, tuning into the latest episode of the TV series continuation that launched a few months ago, you get a phone call.

You recognize the voice.

It’s the author… the real person is talking to you. They’re called you because they remember how you helped them last time.  Your help is needed again.

They ask you, and you say yes.