It turns out everything changes.
I knew that, of course... babies know it. But the last three months have reinforced that fact.
Mid-August of this year, I was dedicated to the Cache, an explosive content-based environmental storytelling project with one strange key feature... the user could not interact directly with the world. It was an interactive viewing experience, a sort of pre-holodeck way of controlling the story as a cameraman, detective and narrator instead of a puppeteer. While I'd had some help along the way (Mike Rossmassler, in particular, who helped design to a prototype of the experience) the Cache was essentially shepherded by two people, myself and Sean Bouchard.
Now, in mid-November, I'm wrapping up the first playable version of a Flash game called Spectre. Unlike the Cache, it's not an isolated two-person effort: it's being created by a massively talented team of nine IMD Masters and Undergraduate students (and one honorary IMD member, my good friend Chris Baily).
Ever since the end of my first year, I expected that the Cache would be my thesis project... and I affirmed this expectation with prototypes, designs and plans to bring the project to fruition. But the experiences of my second year taught me several things: the rewards of teamwork, the necessity of maintaining proper scope, and the power of games as emotional experiences.
The Cache isn't gone... I'm sure I'll return to it. But in my remaining time as an Interactive Media student, I wanted to do more than lay a blueprint for a future endeavor... I wanted to make something expressive, something that speaks for itself. When we started developing the idea for Spectre, I knew... this was it. This was urgent, this needed to be made.
In the weeks that follow, I'll post with more information about Spectre and the team that brought it from a small sketch of an idea to a rich playable experience.
I also plan to release the demo version here on the IMD site (in Mac and PC forms, like Hush) as soon as it's ready... look for it this winter.