EPISODE NOTES:
Released Thursday 12th July 2017
Story Etc. Episode 5: Interaction is produced and presented by Tom Crowley, Jenny Redmond and Eleanor Rushton. The supervising editor was Odinn Orn Hilmarsson, who also composed the music (except where otherwise stated).
STORY ETC. LIVE - 7:30pm, Thursday 24th August at the Wenlock & Essex in Angel, London.
INTRODUCTION:
- Grim Fandango is an adventure game originally produced by LucasArts, subsequently remastered and re-released by Double Fine.
- Punchdrunk Theatre is an immersive theatre company, most famous for Sleep No More, a response to Shakespeare's Macbeth, still running in New York.
- Secret Cinema screens films in immersive environments, using set and actors to build the world of the film up around the screening.
- Death of the King was an immersive punk murder mystery, originally performed at Colab Factory in Southwark in May-June 2017.
- Pantomime is a traditional Christmas performance, first developed in England, still popular today, mostly across the United Kingdom.
CLANCY FLYNN:
- Clancy Flynn is a writer, technical designer and model based in London, originally from New York. You can find her on Twitter at @clancyflynn.
- Blood Will Have Blood was an audio-immersive play performed at festivals across the UK in 2016.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition is an RPG, released for multiple platforms in 2014, by Bioware Edmonton.
BLOOD WILL HAVE BLOOD:
- This excerpt from Blood Will Have Blood was written by Clancy Flynn. Fleance was played by Dan Buckley and The Witch was Jamie Birkett. The sound design was by Nicola Chang. The director was Rosanna Mallinson.
- More information on ImmerCity's productions can be found at their website, here.
ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION:
- Tom doesn't want to play Resident Evil VII VR, available for the Playstation 4's VR headset.
- Tom mentions the play The Nether by Jennifer Haley, which debuted at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, California, in 2013.
MATT WIETESKA:
- Matt Wieteska is the Audio Director of Zombies, Run, an app produced by Six to Start. He is on Twitter at @gamecat.
- The Zombies, Run Board Game is releasing in December 2017. More information at the blog, here.
- Matt refers to Telltale Games's The Walking Dead, an adventure game series based on the Image comic.
ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION:
- The tech demo of Beyond Good and Evil 2 which Tom mentions, featuring a meteor changing the face of a planet, can be found here.
- Eleanor mentions Monkey Island, a series of adventure games by LucasArts. Eleanor's first was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.
- Eleanor mentions Journey, a Playstation 3/4 game by thatgamecompany.
- Open-world games are frequently mentioned in this episode. This refers to a game where the player is less limited in where they can go, and in what sequence and scale they can interact with the world.
ELLIE GIBSON:
- Ellie can be found on Twitter at @elliegibson.
- Ellie Gibson has worked extensively for Eurogamer and Dara O'Briain's Go 8-Bit.
- Ellie's first gaming memory is Jet Set Willy, and early platform game released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984.
- Mario's eternal mission is to rescue Princess Peach, the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Ellie connected with Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider games. The first Tomb Raider game was released for multiple platforms in 1996.
- Ellie praises the plot of The Last of Us, a game for the Playstation 3 by Naughty Dog, released in 2013.
- Games with lots of cutscenes include the Assassin's Creed series and the Mass Effect series.
- Ellie refers to 'women in refrigerators', a term used to refer to the trope of injured or murdered women serving as a motivational force for a male protagonist. The term originates from comics, when Green Lantern Kyle Rayner found his girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt in a fridge in Green Lantern #54.
- Ellie cites two 'quiet' games - Ico and The Last Guardian, both designed and directed by Fumito Ueda.
- Ellie's favourite games with little storyline are the Crash Bandicoot series and Candy Crush Saga.
- Ellie co-hosts the acclaimed Scummy Mummies podcast, released fornightly. You can find it on iTunes here, or by searching for it on your podcatcher of choice.
RHIANNA PRATCHETT:
- Rhianna's website can be found here, and she is on Twitter at @rhipratchett.
- Rhianna worked on the story for Mirror's Edge, a game by DICE, released for multiple platforms in 2008.
- Rhianna also worked on the Overlord series by Triumph Studios. Overlord was released in 2007 and Overlord II was released in 2009, both for multiple platforms.
- Rhianna's game narrative favourites are Psychonauts (Double Fine, 2005) and BioShock (2K Boston, 2007).
- Rhianna wrote the dialogue and story for Tomb Raider (2013) - a pivotal change for the Tomb Raider series which reinvented protagonist Lara Croft and placed her in a grittier world. Rhianna also worked on the second game in the new series, Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015). Both games were made by Crystal Dynamics and released for multiple platforms.
THE LAMB:
- Interactive radio play The Lamb was created by Oneohone Theatre and performed by Sharon Cherry Ballard (on Twitter at @sharoncballard).
DARYL ATKINS:
- Daryl Atkins is the Executive Creative Director of REWIND, a creative agency and digital production studio. They can be found on Twitter at @rewindco.
ONEOHONE THEATRE:
- Oneohone Theatre is an immersive and interactive theatre company based in London. Their website can be found here, and they are on Twitter at @oneohonetheatre.
- The two founding members interviewed here are Eleanor Rushton and Asia Osborne.
- Oneohone's show 101 is a recurring event where the audience plays a vital role and the scenarios change in every performance. More information on 101 can be found here.
UPDATE: If you enjoyed The Lamb and are interested in interactive audio, listener Ian R Buck has pointed us towards Codename Cygnus - a verbally interactive audio spy thriller, available for iPhone and Android. More information available at the website, here.