We're all experiencing interactive stories, more every day. What happens between the hearts, minds and fingers of the modern audience and the creative minds who make these stories?

And how is interactive storytelling drawing and expanding from video games, social media, advertising and leftfield artistic forms?

Join us on February 2nd 2022 to find out!

Speakers:

Bernie Su

Interactive Narrative Storytelling from YouTube, to Twitch, to Web3/NFT

Renowned interactive creator and showrunner Bernie Su reveals simple to advanced methods about his stories, projects and processes in this forward focused lecture about storytelling and interactivity. Plus Q+A.

Bio:

Bernie is an interactive storyteller and showrunner. He is a pioneer in storytelling and is a master of using platforms and their unique technologies to tell stories in unique and innovative new ways.

He has won 3 Primetime Emmys and a Peabody Award all for shows he created and show ran. Winning the first two Primetime Emmys ever awarded to a YouTube series and the first Primetime Emmy and Peabody ever awarded to a Twitch original series.

He is also a frequent keynote speaker and has spoken around the world about his work and philosophies on the "future of storytelling".

Yoko Taro

Breaking the Invisible Barriers

Yoko Taro believes that games have a lot of unexplored potential but there are many ‘invisible barriers’ that get in the way. Through his games he hopes to break through these barriers, or at the very least encourage others to do so in his place.

Bio:

Yoko Taro is a Japanese video game director and writer. His best-known work was on the action role-playing video game series Drakengard, and its spin-offs, Nier and Nier: Automata. Critics have noted Yoko's unconventional game design and writing style. One of the main aspects of his work is exploring the darker aspects of people, such as why they are driven to kill each other, although he typically does not share a common opinion on his story's dark natures. His writing technique, described as "backwards scriptwriting", involves outlining the ending of the story first and building the narrative backward from that point.

The Modern Audience Conference will also feature contributors and case studies across a wide range of modern interactive stories:

Justin Keenan

Disco Elysium: How to Build a World that People Believe In

A conversation about narrative and worldbuilding in Disco Elysium, one of the most unusual (and wildly successful) RPGs of recent years. Topics may include the influence of 19th century novels and painting on the game's aesthetics and how limitations can actually create deeper connections between players and their characters.

Bio:

Justin Keenan is a writer/designer at ZA/UM Studio, where he worked on Disco Elysium and Disco Elysium: The Final Cut. He's also published short stories, taught fiction writing to undergraduates, and spoken about branching dialogue and narrative design at GDC. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Kim Townend and the Nerd Pirates

Sherlock: A Study in Social

How we leveraged interactive storytelling to create a super engaged fan community around the official sherlock escape room, using only social media.

Bios:

Kim is a social strategy and research consultant. She uses social listening to understand and map audiences, and writes strategies based on her findings, she has worked with brands and broadcasters across the board and these days focuses on ethical and entertainment projects.

Lily & Violet are the twin-sister freelance duo, Nerd Pirates. Together, they do bold, buzzworthy PR & marketing in the world of video games, tech & entertainment. Previous projects include work with legendary licenses: Adventure Time, Bratz, Steven Universe & BBC's Sherlock.

Anna Zaluczkowska, Che Guevara John, David Negrin, John Rose-Adams and Alex Kelly

How important are performance processes for the audiences of interactive projects?

Stephanie Riggs (2019) suggests that immersive/interactive forms mean the end of storytelling as we know it. This session takes practitioners from different areas of practice (Games, Film/TV & Theatre) and asks them to discuss what it means to create for interactive formats. In particular it asks them to think about their audiences and what performance processes will ensure their active participation.

Each of the contributors, David, Che, John, Alex and Anna will address the topic from their own standpoint and then debate the different approaches using examples of their own work and the work of Yoko Taro, BBC Sherlock and Bernie Su.

Bios:

Anna Zaluczkowska is a Reader in Film and teaches screenwriting at The Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University. She is an award-winning writer and filmmaker and her research is related to all forms of storytelling with a particular interest in participation and new media narratives. She is a member of, and a regular contributor to, the Screenwriters Research Network, SIGN and is a management committee member of the European COST initiative INDCOR into Interactive Digital Narratives.

Che Guevara John is the Course Director & Senior Lecturer in Games Design & Creative Technologies within the Leeds School of Arts. His practice, research interests engage with visual culture, interaction and the uses of digitally mediated communication technologies in art & design. His career as a programmer and designer spans the early 80’s home computer game industry, time-based media and re-active art installations to the development of terrestrial/satellite digital Interactive TV, and multiplatform, storytelling & entertainment technologies for broadcasters that include Sky, BBC and Channel4.

David Negrin is a professor, screenwriter, game designer, VR director, and non-profit founder. He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Central Florida in the Games and Interactive Media program in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.F.A. in Cinema Arts. He was previously Assistant Professor of emerging media, film, and television at Ithaca College, as well as an Adjunct Professor of film and television at Hofstra University and The New School in New York, NY. He was Executive Director of the NYC Screenwriters Collective, the largest non-profit screenwriting workshop in New York City from 2007-2015.

More details and full schedule at www.modernaudience.org