As The Pixel Lab ends, an attempt at drawing lessons learned and tracks uncovered for what to do next.

1. What Are We Learning?
Michel Reilhac, Mélange
!
#PixelLab
@powertothepixel

2. Interactive
storytelling:
the end of
the tunnel?

3. 5 years after it appeared
as an exciting novelty
in the media vocabulary as
…

4. …interactive storytelling
has not taken off yet.

5. This is the normal phase of a cycle
before the rebound phase …

6. … and this rebound
is about to start.

7. Really ?

8. In March 2000,
the internet bubble burst.

9. It then took over 10 years
to progressively rebuild itself
as an overwhelming industry.

11. All innovations seem to follow
the same 4 A cycle pattern:

12. 1: Anticipation
!
!
!
!

13. 1: Anticipation
2: Abandon
!
!
!

14. 1: Anticipation
2: Abandon
3: Adaptation
!
!

15. 1: Anticipation
2: Abandon
3: Adaptation
4: Adoption
!

16. 1: Anticipation
2: Abandon
3: Adaptation
4: Adoption
!
…just like for love, clothes,parties, sex…

17. Each innovation starts out with tremendous promise.
Prophets arise to claim that a new world has arrived. We
listen. We dream. We hope. We become disillusioned.
Finally, each innovation becomes integrated to the methods
and innovations that came before.
None is a panacea; all contribute to the whole.
Qual Blog/ Jim Bryson

18. The Gartner Hype Cycle
reflects this pattern :

21. Emerging Technologies Cycle 2014 (QualBlog/ Jim Bryson)

24. Where is interactive storytelling
today on the Hype Cycle Curve ?

25. Probably
around here

26. Oh no! In the trough?
But why ?

27. Inflated expectations
from the media and commissioners
have not been met:

28. -expected increase in broadcasters
web traffic has not happened

29. - natural reluctance to change
in major institutions
has a strong passive impact

30. - naturally passive audiences
have not magically transformed
into a participatory community

31. - we are still struggling
with the infancy stage
of interactive narrative language…

32. … the same way we did
100 years ago with
the budding language of cinema then.

33. Where are the signs
of our soon-to-come climb back up
the slope of enlightenment?

34. Advertisers keep migrating
from tv to the web …

35. …forcing tv to progressively
embrace interactive content

36. Tv will therefore remain
a key financing source
for interactive content…

37. … even though it sees it still
as a marketing tool…

38. … to promote
its traditional program grid…

39. …and not as native content.

40. But…

41. …new media other than tv
are now appropriating
interactive storytelling:

42. Printed press
Killing Kennedy/ National
Geographic

43. Museums:
Quai d’Orsay/ Restauration of
« L’atelier du peintre » by Courbet

44. Brands:
gamification, crowd sourcing,
participation, branded content, …

45. Advertising :
British Airways

46. Games :
Assassin’s Creed

47. Real life
Safety

48. Virtual reality is a potential
breakthrough

49. Not just a technical improvement…

50. …but a paradigm change…

51. …coming as a tidal wave very soon.

52. What is it?

53. Now

54. Polar sea

55. Soon

56. The future of game: Skyrim

57. Why ?

58. - IMMERSION feels true
!

59. - IMMERSION feels true
- PRESENCE is the experience

60. - IMMERSION feels true
- PRESENCE is the experience
- EMPATHY is complete

61. How ?

62. It is a tech jungle out there…

69. giroptic

70. spatial scripting

71. Lines of 1 minute
worth dialogues go
here:
bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla
…..

72. blindspot, reverse or body

73. Making VR a collective experience
« Doghouse »

74. Many other challenges ahead, like…

75. designing death in games

76. sport events

77. sex

78. music

79. VR is going through
the fascination phase
like in the early days of cinema.

80. It may bear high risks
of serious addiction…

81. …but the beginning of VR
is about to begin anyway.
BIG time!

82. So…how do we labour
before we rebound?

83. Catch points from 6
years of Pixel Lab:

84. We are coming out of
the fascination phase.

85. What comes first ?

86. -story
!
!

87. -story
-game dynamics
!

88. -story
-game dynamics
-mobile
!

89. -story
-game dynamics
-mobile
-audience

90. -story
-game dynamics
-mobile
-audience
-pragmatism

91. -story
-game dynamics
-mobile
-audience
-pragmatism
-start small and early

92. What is key ?

93. -participatory creation
!
!
!
!

94. -participatory creation
-iterative process
!
!
!

95. -participatory creation
-iterative process
-realistic approach to interactivity
!
!

96. -participatory creation
-iterative process
-realistic approach to interactivity
-good stories transcend platforms
!

97. -participatory creation
-iterative process
-realistic approach to interactivity
-good stories transcend platforms
-fuck permission based culture!

98. -participatory creation
-iterative process
-realistic approach to interactivity
-good stories transcend platforms
-fuck permission based culture!
-fuck perfection!

99. Awareness of basic human truths:

100. Innovation is scary because our
brains are search engines
and they hate the unknown.

101. Anything familiar is
reassuring and comforting…

102. …and this is why our brain
constantly seeks familiar references.

103. But familiarity is
a self fulfilling prophecy.

104. We look for a new balance
in our lives between:
- physical and digital,
-old and new

105. Are we here to give people props
to live their own lives?

106. We are the tension between our
individual and gregarious needs.

107. We have become schizophrenic
beings whose digital presence and
real life do not necessarily superpose.

108. Target the negative guy in the room
when negotiating .

109. CONCLUSION

110. While we, interactive storytellers
and producers, finish our fall
into the trough of disillusions…

111. …we must endure.

112. Soon we will start our inevitable climb
up the slope of enlightenment…

113. …because…

114. … we are unstoppable!

115. !
@michelreilhac
www.michelreilhac.com