Project Tatters is an interactive horror-esque mockumentary in the style of old 70′s radio plays that describes the events leading up to a catalystic event that decmiated humankind. The premise is simple – find hidden objects to trigger a brief narrative from one of the three characters. This presentation describes the process, experience and lessons learned in the making of Tatters. To view the final product, visit http://www.wiredcrow.com/tatters. To read more about it, visit the blog at http://www.wiredcrow.com/?page_id=445

1. PROJECT TATTERS
a fictional interactive documentary

2. INTENT
• To create an interactive fictional story where snippets of internal monologue reveals
events that lead up to a finale
• Where possible, order shouldn’t matter so much
• The focus is not on the “game” but on the story and using sound and imagery to create
the right ambience
In the year 2015, a rapid series of events led to the destruction of humankind. To further
cripple mankind from recovering, memories of the events were taken away.

3. THE CONCEPT
• The game mechanics came first: inspired by Myst, Dear Esther and other similiar “games”
• Brainstorming: deciding on the scenario
• Looking into the past
• The future looking into the present
• The “regressed” far future looking into our future dystopia
• The events, the characters
• Character concepts was part of early brainstorm
• Revised based on research and ability to write convincingly
• Wikipedia for psychological disorders
• Field study on the homeless
• Vancouver East Side Beat Cop blog
• Running it by religious Irish friends

4. THE PROCESS
1. Story
1. Setting, Events
2. Characters – getting into the head space
3. Writing
2. Imagery
1. Sourcing
2. Lots of Photoshopping!
3. Sound
1. Recording and script revision
2. Sourcing sound clips
3. Mixing in Soundbooth
4. Putting it together in Flex
5. Putting the site together

5. LESSONS LEARNED – THE PRACTICAL
• Recording and mixing
• What does a good “wave” look like
• Mic was too close to mouth!
• Effects, distortion is a friend of the beginner
• Flex require a lot of finagling!
• Browser problems
• Transparent png problems
• Heap cache problems

6. LESSONS LEARNED – PROJECT MANAGEMENT
• Allow for iterations
• Let go
• Scope on creative vs time
• Searching takes as much time as creating
• Organization is key
• Document as you go

7. LESSONS LEARNED – THE CREATIVE
• Talk a lot about it
• The more I talked about it, the more solid it became.
• A lot of thinking before I even started writing the first word
• Trying to write what I don’t know
• Took a lot more research!
• First characters were too campy – stereotypical
• Scaled back and rewrote

8. LESSONS LEARNED – THE CREATIVE PART 2
• What to leave out, avoid explaining or drawing everything out
• Concept and premise too complex to convey through medium
• It was wordy to start – too much explaining! (written vs spoken)
• The idea of a theme?
• Test early
• Got many to read through it first
• Stories do take a life of its own
• Horror is not my thing!
• Took on the life of a radio play – your medium does dictate the content