My Space Missing Person, live-action saga. In 2009, I was tasked with using the MySpace website to craft a narrative experience. This resulted in me crafting 5 new MySpace accounts, each one dedicated to a carefully crafted character. I photographed models to create profile pictures and pictures of friendly events. I back filled the accounts with character content, in the voice of each character, including having the characters comment on each other's pages, react to one another's posts, and refer to future party plans. The rest of the story happened in real time over the course of 1 week in April. After the party, it becomes apparent that one that one of the characters is missing and has not checked in. Messages, posts, photos, and concerns were posted and shared in real time as the characters tried to sort out what happened. Readers could actively participate in the mystery by commenting on character posts or sending characters private emails, which I would respond to all in character. The story culminated in the locating of the missing character, who had met a sixth character (revealed over the course of the story) and running away with her. I kept the accounts active to continue to respond to new reader posts or questions or emails for a few weeks. Hidden in each bio was the statement that each profile was fictional and part of a real-time story telling event. This message was posted more prominently on their pages as their final posts when the mystery came to a close, but I kept the accounts open and active, though stopped responding to reader comments a few months after the event. Unfortunately, a large quantity of the story content was lost when MySpace did their eventual redesign and wipe of the site.
 

Joe Reader & the House of Book, 2009. This was my first attempt at designing *and coding an interactive, branching story experience. I crafted art and story-line and designed/coded the website. The story was originally published on the University of Baltimore's student pages, but was retired after I graduated. I designed the story to address multiple layers of storytelling and to be a light metaphor for reader engagement. The story includes interactive text and a choice based, branching narrative, but also interactive images. By clicking on colored portions of the drawings, you could learn more information about the object, and thus, more information about the characters or setting. Further, if a reader arrived at the same outcome or scene, but from a different set of choices, they would receive an image with different objects colored in to be rewarded with new/different backstory. Here's an example from just the title page. Clicking the green "Joe" would change the title page.