The problem with puppetmastering is that most of the time if I do something, or see something cool, I’m hesitant to discuss it because it might become a puzzle or a plot point someday and I would hate to ruin any surprise.
We’ve discovered Netflix, and through it rented the first season of Lost. I’ve since been obsessed with finding clues and websites and theories about the show. It’s similar to finding clues in the Harry Potter or Dark Tower books, and it’s a lot of fun. Anyway, I wrote up an article for ARGN about it.
I’ve also gotten involved in Last Call Poker, a new ARG from the makers of The Beast and I Love Bees.
In a couple of weeks I’ll be attending the Austin Game Conference as a media representative for ARGN, so keep an eye out for my byline.
For the past few nights my dreams have been riddled with… riddles. Puzzles, rabbitholes, cryptography, trails. I’m not sure if I was the player or the puppetmaster.
It’s been solved on Unfiction by Diandra. Woo!
Interesting comment I got the other day. It appears to be a sort of a trailhead for a substitution puzzle. Several keys were given to 20 different bloggers via comment. They lead to a website at http://aequalswhat.blogspot.com/ with a cipher to solve. The commentees need to get together to pool our clues. Shades of The Westing Game!
Unfortunately the guy who posted the comments has been spanked because people thought he was leaving them spam.
If you’re one of the other recipients of a key, contact me at the mail address listed on the right sidebar.
ARGN: ARGN Adds Features, Staff (and one of them is me!)
BusinessWeek: A New Kind of Car Chase – Audi’s fictitious multimedia auto-theft drama has sucked the public into the “alternative reality branding” campaign for its new A3
Gamasutra: The Rise of ARGs
Boston Globe: Through a hole, and into hidden worlds of fun
It’s taken me years to come to terms with the fact that I am not a self-starter. I have a severe lack of innovation. Throw me at an empty canvas and I shrivel and panic. The sight of all the blank space, all that potential, overwhelms me. Anything could be there. That’s what Shakespeare faced, and look what use he made of it.
However, give me the slightest push in a direction, plant the germ of an idea in my mind, and I’m fine. If you tell me, “Write a story”, I would freeze while giving you my best patented deer-in-the-headlights look. Tell me, “Write me a story about apes”, and I’m off like a shot, researching and writing and happy.
The only time I’m ever able to be spontaneously creative is when I let it happen unexpectedly. If I let an idea bubble up from the primordial ooze of my subconscious, pretend to ignore it until it ripens a little, and then love it and pet it and hug it and squeeze it, I can come up with stuff.
It was this way when I was working on Dread House. I managed to come up with a couple of puzzles because I wasn’t trying to. At a few points I sat down and attempted to force inspiration and ended up running scared. The same with the web designs for STF Magazine, Puzzlecards, and I Am Invisible.
It’s so fulfilling to create things. I hope I’m able to train myself better to do it on command.