4D Fiction believes creativity and inspiration should be key elements in a successful project – both on the part of the developer and the participant. This page will include information about projects 4DF has been involved in, outlining what was created and the capacity at which people were involved.

4DF has helped development behind the scenes, programming elements such as web applications and user management systems. On the front end, graphic design, artwork, and storytelling have also been significant areas of creative production.

4DF is primarily the name under which Geoff May (thebruce) is and will be creating. However, on a project by project basis, 4DF may include additionally enlisted team members.

Unnamed project #1

Involvement
Geoff began playing the ARG for this project, and soon afterwards joined the PM team tasked with the development of a secure intranet website that would be used within the game by players. The website provided user accounts with security levels, profile management, news and email delivery, all dynamically designed around pre-determined phases in the story with updates that were to be rolled out sequentially, ‘at the push of a button’ as the story progressed.

Geoff also consulted with the lead developer for story content, creation of puzzles, and real world game elements.
Intimation: A Grassroots Alternate Reality Game

Inspired by Halo, and an homage to “I Love Bees”

The Case Study


Creative/Experimental projects

You’ve Got Awesomail!

Concept: Making the simple, mundane task of opening mail a little more entertaining.

When I first entered the world of ARGs, this privilege of receiving a ‘rabbit-hole’ by mail was always something of envy (and it still is to many who play ARGs), and reading reports of new campaigns launching with mailed rabbit-holes was really intriguing. Recently, I began to think about other ways of reporting rabbitholes than simply taking pictures and describing contents and whatnot. When blogger and novelist JC Hutchins video-taped the mail he received from a video game campaign (see The Silver Case Part One), after watching the discovery I felt as if I was actually being drawn into the story, drawn into the campaign myself.

“Unboxing” videos in general are also quite popular for when people receive something they’ve purchased or are excited about getting. It’s a way to share their experience with friends and document the item in question for others who may also be interested.

So I thought to myself, how could I make the opening of mail more creative, more inspirational, more of an experience to be shared, keeping relevant to the item in question? Of course, the idea isn’t new – really, this project is just another collection of unboxing videos, but I decided to consciously take the action of opening mail and make it more of a production, have fun with it, be inspired by it.

And so I began this series. In time, I may even explore ways to make even the opening of regular, otherwise boring, daily mail more interesting. For now, as 4DF receives more significant mail, my plan is to find ways to be inspired by the subject matter, and see what the end result is! :)