America 2049

You guys, in my continuing effort to Totally Win at Transmedia, I launched yet another project on Monday! I can't blame you if you're getting tired of me and my launch announcements, but just... hear me out. This is the big one. The important one. The one I've put a full year of sweat and anxiety into.

It's a Facebook game with transmedia elements, and it's called America 2049.

To my knowledge, it's the first Facebook game to be completely narrative-driven, and the first Facebook game to make such extensive use of video and out-of-Facebook components. Not to mention the only Facebook game to star the likes of Victor Garber, Harold Perrineau, Margaret Cho, Cherry Jones, and Anthony Rapp. (Who totally spoke my words, OMG! Writer heaven!) As with other projects I've done this year, this game is trying a new balance between story, community, and gameplay.

This game is wicked ambitious, and I have been frankly completely terrified about launching it lo these many weeks.

That's because the fantastic people at Breakthrough, and particularly my collaborator Heidi Boisvert, gave me a truly phenomenal amount of creative freedom in developing the narrative for this project. And I used that freedom to speak to a lot of issues I care about very deeply, in as nuanced and authentic a way as I knew how. When you pour so much of your heart into a project, you inevitably worry about how it will be received; any judgment can feel like your own soul is being judged.

I... think maybe I shouldn't have worried quite so much, though? Or at least, so far, the press have been very kind indeed.

America 2049 plays out in short episodes, one a week for the next twelve weeks; but you can join in from the beginning at any time, and the game is meant to be completely replayable. Please give it a try and let me know what you think.

Comments

[geologylady]

ooo so you are one of the PM's behind this - well, been following it a bit, chatting a bit at the Unfiction forums, messing with a wiki (wiki building helps me learn a property even better and is cathargic) and watching it unfold.... you mention the FB, but there seems to be SOOOO much more

and on that note - a conversation that has waxed and waned is some do not like using Facebook and connecting "Real Life" to game life - if someone did not use the facebook part - how much of the story are they going to miss???? Especially those that do not read spoiler places like the wiki or Unfiction

[Andrea]

geologylady: I hear you on Facebook... I only have a shell of a testing account, myself, with no friends! But the game is a Facebook app at its heart, and I don't think you'd get anything close to the intended experience without it. It would be like trying to get the story of Star Wars just from collecting the action figures.

[Kevin Makice]

In Bloomington, we just opened registrations for Taming the Butterfly (http://www.tamingthebutterfly.com/) that is going to be looking at local life in 2036. Nothing as structured as what I'm seeing in the 2049 game, and with a main task of visioning changes we can make now to affect the future.

I would be interested to know what kind of process you went to construct your future world. Were there people or resources you consulted to ground your future context, or is it more like writing a science fiction where "future" is more arbitrary?

[Andrea]

Kevin, given that Breakthrough is a human rights group, the process we went through involved finding areas where human rights are or could be in jeopardy, and imagining a future where it all gets worse rather than better. We did a fair amount of research to make sure the future was somewhat plausible, but I'd still call it more a work of science fiction than of outright futurism. It certainly isn't an outcome I expect to see!

[Klimo Marcel]

Andrea, I'm loving the game so far. Lovin the blog as well ... You'll be hearing from me soon ;)

[Andrea]

Thanks for the kind words, Klimo! ^_^