ARCANE FICTION LIMITED EDITION
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Q: Do you think AR comics are a good medium for storytelling? What advantages do they offer over tradi- tional formats?
A: AR comics can be a great medium to tell modern day stories. We live in two worlds, one physical and one digi- tal. Playing with this duality through the medium itself can get a lot of the obvious stuff out of the way and let you dig deeper into what might be problematic or exciting about the dueling realities that we live under.
Q: Where do you see the future of AR heading-espe- cially when it comes to comics and immersive storytell- ing?
A: The physical world is being mapped into the digital world with more and more fidelity all the time. As this advances we will continue to have more accurate and intuitive information fed to us in real time based on real- world conditions. This can help us make stories that not only entertain but also inform readers on how to build a better future and avoid the pitfalls of the past.
Q: How do you balance interactivity with narrative flow? Can tech ever get in the way of the story, or vice-versa?
A: Yes tech can get in the way of story if it is too heavy handed. The goal is to make a meaningful experience not to add unnecessary bells and whistles. I wrote a bit more about this topic in the included article called the Art of Interactive Story Telling.
Q: What platforms or tools do you use to build AR experi- ences, and what drew you to them?
A: I use game engines like Unreal and Unity to built out my narrative AR R experience. These programs leverage a host of features from physical engines to behavior trees that open a lot of possibilities on the interactive side. I also experiment with WebXR interfaces to build lighter and faster experiences that give readers a bite sized taste of what the full apps can offer.
Q: What's one creative or technical breakthrough you've had on a project that made you think, "Yes-this works!"?
A: There are a lot of small technical breakthroughs that happen all the time. Some are worthwhile and some are not. The most exciting part of this medium for me is knowing that I can set expectations and then subvert those same expectations almost immediately as the reader travels across the story's multiple mediums. It gives a real sense of mystery to what is happening in the story and I love that.