From transmedia pioneer Andrea Phillips, A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences Across Multiple Platforms is the first major, comprehensive resource to feature instruction on the principles of storytelling, platform selection, execution, big-picture strategy and structural considerations – plus case studies of milestone transmedia projects and interviews with more than a dozen leading transmedia creators.

Author

Game design, writing, and experience consultation for transmedia projects, alternate reality games, pervasive and immersive games, and other net-native forms of narrative and entertainment.

Transmedia Writer & Game Designer – Deus Ex Machinatio

In 2011, Andrea won a Digi Award for Best in Digital Advertising for her work on The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour Quest. Andrea was the Writer & Experience Designer for the project. The Digi Awards are Canada's premier showcase of the remarkable digital media companies, projects, products and pioneers that are putting Canada at the forefront of the international mediascape.

Recipient – Digi Award

In 2010, Andrea won a Gold Award in the Web 2.0 category and a Grand Prix Award at the International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) Awards. The recognition was for being the Lead Game Designer on Routesgame.com. The IVCA Awards are the most acclaimed celebration of effective business and public sector communications in video, interactive projects, business television and digital media across Europe.

Recipient – IVCA Gold Award and Grand Prix Award

In 2010, Andrea was recognized for being the Lead Game Designer for Routesgame.com when the game won the Prix Jeunesse International Interactivity Award, which honours excellence in digital extensions of a broadcaster’s multiplatform strategy, for a children’s TV program or series.

Recipient – Prix Jeunesse International Interactivity Award

Shiva's Mother and Other Stories is a collection of moody, sometimes dark short stories about technology, magic, choice and sacrifice. Journey from cutting-edge nanotech to faery and back again, along the line where science fiction and fantasy blur together.

Futures of Entertainment

International Game Developers Association

The First How-To Strategy Guide to Transmedia Storytelling “Phillips’s book is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to make a career for him- or herself within the world of transmedia. Through her guidance, the reader is able to understand the fundamentals of transmedia and the power it can have when used with a compelling and strong story."—David Gale, Executive Vice President, MTV Cross Media “Transmedia storytelling is a bold and exciting new arena for creativity and innovation. . . . Andrea Phillips provides a compelling, thoughtful, and clear guide to a next generation of creators in this medium. She demystifies the process and proves that you, too, can push the envelope and be part of the future of storytelling.”—Michelle Satter, Founding Director, Sundance Institute Feature Film Program “An excellent and fair-minded primer and survey of the underpinnings and fast-evolving techniques behind multiplatform narrative. Andrea Phillips is one of a small handful of writers capable of both practicing and clearly conveying the principles of transmedia storytelling. Highly recommended!” —Jeff Gomez, CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment “A no-nonsense guide for the fun-filled and strangely awesome world of transmedia storytelling.”—C. C. Chapman, coauthor of Content Rules and Amazing Things Will Happen Includes Q&A sessions with the world’s leading experts in transmedia storytelling About the Book: What is transmedia storytelling and what can it do for you? It’s the buzzword for a new generation—a revolutionary technique for telling stories across multiple media platforms and formats—and it’s rapidly becoming the go-to strategy for a wide variety of businesses. If you work in marketing, entertaining, or advertising, transmedia storytelling is a must-have tool for pulling people into your world. Why do you need A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling? If you want to attract, engage, and captivate your audience, you need this book. Written by an award-winning transmedia creator and renowned games designer, this book shows you how to utilize the same marketing tools used by heavy-hitters such as HBO, Disney, Ford, and Sony Pictures—at a fraction of the cost. You’ll learn how to: Choose the right platforms for your story Decide whether to DIY or outsource work Find and keep a strong core production team Make your audience a character in your story Get the funding you need—and even make a profit Forge your own successful transmedia career With these proven media-ready strategies, you’ll learn how to generate must-read content, must-see videos, and must-visit websites that will only grow bigger as viewers respond, contribute, and spread the word. You’ll create major buzz with structures such as alternate reality games and fictional character sites—or even “old-fashioned” platforms such as email and phone calls. The more you connect to your audience and the more you get them involved in the storytelling process, the more successful you will be. This isn’t the future. This is now. This is how you tell your story, touch your audience, and take your game to the next level—through transmedia storytelling.

A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences across Multiple Platforms

Andrea Phillips is an award-winning transmedia writer, game designer and author. Her book, A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling, will be published by McGraw-Hill in June 2012. 

Her work includes a variety of educational and commercial projects, including Floating City with Thomas Dolby, The Maester's Path for HBO's Game of Thrones with Campfire Media, The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour Quest with Stitch Media, America 2049 with human rights nonprofit Breakthrough, Routes Game for Channel 4 Education, the independent commercial ARG Perplex City, and The 2012 Experience for Sony Pictures.    

These projects have won awards including the Prix Jeunesse Interactivity Prize, a Broadband Digital award, a BIMA, an IVCA Grand Prix award, the Origins Vanguard Innovation Award, and others. 

Her indie work includes the Kickstarted collaboration Balance of Powers, the ongoing Twitter horoscopes of Madame Zee, the e-published anthology Shiva's Mother and Other Stories, and the forthcoming serial transmedia project Felicity.

Andrea is a co-moderator for the first community of ARG players, the Cloudmakers. This 6,000-member group created many of the methods and social dynamics used by the ARG community to this day. She is also a Fellow of the Futures of Entertainment.

She has spoken at SXSW, MIT Storytelling 3.0, the Power to the Pixel/IFP Cross-Media Forum, ARGfest, DIY Days, FITC Storytelling X.1, and Nordic Games Conference, among others.

Andrea cheats at solitaire (a victimless crime) and Words With Friends (which is less forgivable). Consider yourself warned.

Ismar09 AR Games: Types and Technologies

A video of the slides plus audio is now live: http://vimeo.com/11215047

ARGs are often trotted out as a shining example of woman-friendly games. They boast unusually high rates of female developers and players, and a slew of kick-ass female leads. But if you dig a little deeper, are they just the post-Buffy version of Princess Peach, always needing to be saved?

ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette

Andrea Phillips talks about a few things she&rsquo;s learned from her work in transmedia.

15 Lessons from Ten Years in Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia Storytelling

Experience Design

Interactive Design

Game Design

Digital Culture

New Media

Social Games

TEDx Transmedia: The Ethics and Responsibilities of Fiction

Why Marketers Should Care about Transmedia: 3 Questions with Andrea Phillips

Andrea Phillips: The Terribleminds Interview

Transmedia Storytelling, Fan Culture and the Future of Marketing

Web Consciousness, Unitasking, and Transmedia Trickery

Down the Rabbit Hole: Transmedia Disasters

Interview: Thomas Dolby and Andrea Phillips

Future of Storytelling Expert Series: a Conversation with Transmedia Creator Andrea Phillips

Cautionary Tales in Transmedia Storytelling

Interview with Andrea at DIY Days NYC

Taking risks and dancing with audiences: Andrea Phillips on writing for transmedia and ARGs

Blog

Why Games Need Transmedia

Techniques of Transmedia Storytelling

The Transmedia Balancing Act

A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling

Writing for Transmedia

Extending Your Story

Hoax or Transmedia? The Ethics of Pervasive Fiction

Perplex City

An ARG on Every Corner and Two on Sundays: The Popularity of Alternate Reality Games

A Conversation with Andrea Phillips

Touching the Storyworld: The New Emotional Landscape of Transmedia Storytelling

You’re Such a Character: New Roles for Audiences in Storytelling

ARGs, LARPS, and Transmedia – What’s the Difference, Anyway?

The Ethics and Responsibilities of Fiction

Transmedia is definitely a buzzword these days, and forward-thinkers from Madison Avenue to Hollywood are trying to get up to speed about what it is and how to get in on the action. Andrea Phillips will share lessons from her book, "A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling," a practical manual on the art and craft of telling a story over multiple media.

Moving from single-media to transmedia storytelling requires a new mindset and a new creative process. Andrea Phillips walks you through the possibilities and pitfalls.

The classic ARG storytelling technique involves putting content into the real world and web as if the story were really happening. But the line between truth and fiction online is blurry—and getting blurrier all the time—so not everyone who finds your content will know it's not for real. One person's hoax is another's deeply immersive experience. So how does a transmedia designer learn to strike the right balance between immersive and responsible? 

Games already feature many of the elements that make transmedia so compelling – but branching into transmedia storytelling can lead to richer games and more vibrant fandoms. Learn why and how game designers should extend their IP across multiple media.

ARGs are often trotted out as a shining example of woman-friendly games. They boast unusually high rates of female developers and players, and a slew of kick-ass female leads. But if you dig a little deeper, are they still just the post-Buffy version of Princess Peach, always needing to be saved?

Alternate Reality Games and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette

Lucas J.W. Johnson

Organizer

Transmedia Writer & Game Designer

Andrea Phillips: What is Transmedia?

Andrea Phillips: What's the most common mistake in Transmedia Storytelling?

Andrea Phillips: How do you get started with Transmedia Storytelling?

Portrait of Space - Clonlea Studios, Dublin. September 2011 curated by Teresa Gillespie and Rose Lejeune portraitofspace.wordpress.com video credit Kevin Kirwan

Andrea Phillips - objects and encounters

This is the combined audio and slides for the talk at SXSWi 2010.

ARGs are often trotted out as a shining example of woman-friendly games. They boast unusually high rates of female developers and players, and a slew of kick-ass female leads. But if you dig a little deeper, are they just the post-Buffy version of Princess Peach, always needing to be saved?

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