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Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
I kid you not, Netflix is working on interactive video media on its platform, as are others. Interesting news.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Very interesting news.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

We need to take action and declare war on Netflix before this gets out of hand.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

It destroys the point of writing them. ;-;

War is inevitable.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

They're gonna do to us what they did to Blockbuster! And BOOKS! 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Somewhere in Netflix Corporate: *thud*

"What was that, Johnson? Get in here!"

A small, meek, fourty year old accountant appears "Sir, it appears the small nation of CYStia has declared war on us"

"That was that noise?"

"No sir, that was a pigeon flying into your window, the fourth one this week"

"Oh, well do what we always do Johnson, hire their leader and give them free lunch Tuesdays. And do something about those pigeons!"

"Already on it, Sir"

One month later, Announcer: "Coming soon to Netflix near you: MinnieKing the wise. Watch as he faces peril to his school life such as PROM NIGHT! WILL HE GET THE GIRL OR NOT! YOU DECIDE!"

And that's how the war was lost

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Fuck no he won't get the girl. He'll get the machete and the war tank.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

We'll sabotage the filming until they give up. Their lead actors keep ""disappearing""? Oops. Their cameras are continuously broken by metal bats? Totally wasn't us. 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

They were all killed in a freakish accident? Innocent!

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
source? the way you phrased it, it just sounds like corporate MJ for VR or some other product to interact with their media.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Hyperlink on the word Netflix

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/0/netflixs-choose-adventure-experiment-multiple-endings-future/

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
ah, sorry. I don't see a lot of stuff since I've been toying with soon-to-be-public code :L

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

I think their first attempt was the King Kong cartoon they did last year. It has some choices to make to open more battles. It's for kids though.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Yep, that was the first, but it was more of 'watch the build up video to unlock the fight scene.'

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Are there more out? Or just on the way?

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

From what I can tell, it's on the way, which probably is anything from three months to a year. Still, it'll be interesting to see how they pull this off.

Historically, one of the first live CYoAs was a fascinating mansion play in Britain sometime in the 90s IIRC. Characters (Actors) were physically moving around the mansion (and playing their parts), and the audience physically followed them (and their interactions with the environment and other characters) from room to room, and you'd have to come back multiple nights to see the entire plot. Very avant garde.

The 80s also saw experiments with cinema halls where the audience had buttons on their chairs for option 1 or 2, and based on majority vote, the next scene was chosen. That one never picked up though, perhaps the videos themselves weren't too appealing.

Netflix stands out from either of these in that its platform is a really interesting fit with this kind of storytelling, and I'm really curious to see what they come up with. That and Ken Levine's Twilight Zone work.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Mind sharing which fonts those are?

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Exo 2 for everything atm. Will probably combine some others later as Exo 2 gets really bland looking after a day or two without being combined with a serif. However unlike my usual combination of Exo 2 and Cinzel D I'd probably combine it with something less gaudy than Cinzel. Might use Rosarivo, one of BD's favorite fonts, but then I'd have to not use Exo as the sans-serif because they don't feel quite right together.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Cinzel looks just like Trajan IMO, Rosarivo is a free Google font, right? Its non-caps are elegant

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
they're all free google fonts. god forbid we pay actual money to have letters look a certain way only to change the way they look later xD

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Since we're on the topic, here are some of my other favorites:

Cormorant. Serif typeface that comes in six flavors; I especially like the infant and unicase variants.

Merriweather Sans. A pretty good replacement for Verdana with the benefit of true italics.

Tinos and Arimo. Modern Times New Roman and Arial.

Vollkorn. Serif that, like Georgia, has a really bold bold.

Ubuntu. A more modern Cabin.

Cabin. A less modern Ubuntu.

Eadui. Latin-esque handwriting font with a lot of ligatures and contextual alternates.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
I always prefer a serif for headings and titles and a sans for regular text. I like Merriweather Sans; not sure what a good complimentary serif would be. The suggestions on gfonts are sans + sans; which is a no-no to me. Cormorant (Garamond and regular versions) looks great - I'll have to find a good sans for it if I use it. Also the differences between cormorant garamond and cormorant are so minute I can't tell the difference when switching between the examples. Very nice serifs though. The rest of those fonts are meh :P alright-enough.

Eadui looks real pretty :)

Edit:: Roboto + Cormorant is getting close, but still not quite in sync with each other. Cormorant has an odd serif-ness to it that doesn't quite go with the typical sans like Lato or Open Sans. Further inspection shows Lato is about equal to Roboto in terms of how well it goes with cormorant. Still not solid though.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Nice choices, what are your thoughts on Questa? Also, Arimo looks insanely popular at 746mn calls in the last week. Have added all of these to my fontlist.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

I don't dislike Questa, but there's something about it that doesn't completely have me sold. Maybe it's the weird coat-hanger "y".

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

PFF silly Minnie. Netflix cannot compete with CYS!

The industry invented interactive stories with infinite choices, and that did not stop us.

The industry created interactive stories with actual gameplay, and still we did not cease!

We were confronted by many innovations, multiplayer, actual challenges with infallible punishments, and even essentially the same thing we were already doing, but with graphics and voice acting. All fell before the ancient traditions, for they simply cannot compete.

For the fact remains to this very day, and will remain for all of time: There are always people who lack the skills and the budget to do much besides write or draw shit, and there will always be ways to create interactive stories without really doing much other than writing. Basic CYOAs will always outnumber all other more complicated art forms, by virtue of being easy to make and accessible to every aspiring artist.

Can we create video games? Well, most of us can't. Can we make movies? Most of us don't even have friends or own property, let alone have connections or money. But by god, we can re-arrange letters, and not a single rich douchebag with a fancy suit and greenhorn actors and actresses lining up to get their Netflix debut can ever take that away from us!

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Well said (and researched), brother Penguinite. Here's the fun thing, no matter how many new forms of entertainment OR technologies come along, the old ones will still have their niches. Always.

There's an excellent TED talk on how old technologies from 100 years ago are still being used to produce the same exact products in catalogs from 100 years ago - as is.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

WE ARE SAVED!!!

 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

DND had a cyoa dvd a few years back. And in the early 2000's there were several animated dvds. I've got them all that I could find. Also, the abominable snow man from RA Montgomery was a cyoa dvd from just a few years back. Very childish, but I own it. Lol 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Interesting, didn't know the powers that be had tiptoed into the water. RA Montgomery is one of the original CYoA book authors, the DVD you have apparently was a conversion of his 1980s book to video. Got me searching for some media and found this link to interactive movies. Anyone tried HBO Imagine or Bank Run? From Zombies there's this by the makers of Bank Run The Outbreak . This is coming to PS4 and XOne . Hmm, seems like a lot of movement in this space.

Aaaaand some more

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

FYI, there's a RA Montgomery interview here on the site that I personally did through email not long before his death. But yes, there have been several, all though mediocre, attempts at CYOA movies. I'd love to see a better effort put in. 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Cool, where? I only see the Joe Dever one in Help & Info/Articles.
Yep, hoping Levine and Netflix deliver this year

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

Dang, you're right. I know I have it in gmail. It's possible I didn't upload it. It's been years. I'll try to get it up soon. This must be remedied. May just post on this thread. Stay tuned. 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

This is just some questions I was able to get out of him. He was a busy, and apparently dying, man. Enjoy!

1. Who are you? (You know who you are, I know who you are. But humor us :) )

 

    I'm still a kid at 73, I hope.  The great thing about kids is that they don't have all the baggage that we as adults lug around with us. I've been trying to shed baggage for years, but it isn't easy.



2. What have you written over the years? (You dont need a whole list, but maybe just a few big ones that might bring back memories for us old folks, or even some that might have slipped by us.)

 

  MYSTERY of the MAYA is still a big one for me. Recently I have written two books for the IOC ( Intl. Olympic committee) through WADA ( the World Anti-doping agency)  to help kids make decisions not to use drugs for enhancing performance in sports. One is called TRACK STAR and the other for younger kids is titled ALWAYS PICKED LAST    --- both in the CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE line up..  They will be published in the fall. I also wrote   a draft of a full, non-interactive novel for adults concerning modern day China called THE ELEVENTH DRAGON.  It needs a major rewrite which I have not done to date.



3. You were one of the original CYOA'ers, did you have any inspiration for getting involved in that type of writing? 

 

   I had worked in game theory and role playing simulation design for many years before CHOOSE, and that is the essence of the CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE paradigm.  A you-centric decision-making modality is a very powerful tool for education and entertainment.



4. Did you go to school for literature? Or was this a departure from your early career choice?

     I studied English in college but then went into  macro economics in graduate school specializing in development country economics.  



5. From looking at bios and blogs from you, it's obvious that traveling is a major part of your life. Did you do a lot of traveling prior to writing the stories about these distant places? (ie Himalayas)

     

I have travelled all over the world and started my love of travel well before the CHOOSE period of my life.



6. Upon rereading The Abominable Snowman, I see big differences in the book and the DVD that was released. What are your thoughts on that? 

     can't say



7. I have always been a fan of the CYOA DVD concept (even making an amatuer one of my own), Do you think there is a future for that type of media? Why/why not?

 

     price points have fallen in the DVD market. It's a tough market right now.



8. What are your current projects? (If you can talk about them). Are there new books coming out?

See answer to #2

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago
Whoa, this is cool. A thread lead to the rediscovery of a long lost interview of a now dead man who was one of the founders of the commercial CYoA movement. Might as well upload the first five answers as a 'Quick Interview' on the Articles, it'd be a loss to lose this to time once again. I'm happy to have read this, thanks!

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

I sure hope it's good.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

7 years ago

:)

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
The Brits came up with this WW 1 survival CYoA, worth a play. Professionally done, and good music to boot.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

:O Interesting. How long is it, do you know?

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
~20 minutes and 6 decisions. It's more a promo/tie-in than an intentional product, but the production values are fairly strong.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

It looks amazing and interesting so far. xD The choices are looking like they actually matter, as I've been caught fervently trying to decide which choice to pick.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
I always got the first choice wrong in the three acts (though I contend that my choice in Act 2 made sense in context), and I think the choices had some impact of the story, but not too much. Still, high quality CYoAs look promising if this is the kind of quality Netflix builds.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

I just bought a movie called Late Shift on PlayStation network. It's a choose your own adventure movie with *mostly* Hollywood level video. It's very fun. It keeps track of the decisions you've made and endings you've unlocked. 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
I've heard of that, and I'm amused you described it as an interactive movie instead of a 'game' proper. I hear the reviews were fairly middling, and from the trailers the options looked fairly binary. Still, more attention to the genre is always a good thing in my books. A more high profile release that came out last year was Quantum Break, where a couple of decisions subtly influenced the outcome videos, that one was more of a game/story hybrid (though I hear neither were particularly noteworthy). It seems producing high quality CYoA content is fairly difficult for Hollywood/larger game companies.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

Yeah, late shift wasn't Avengers level lol but I still liked it. Some choices did seem to push to the same path, but honestly I liked it. I've played it several times. Sometime I just let it play on its own and it picks different things on its own. For $9 I'm not complaining. 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
And this is what they came up with. Puss in Boots. Ages 3-7. It's a start, I guess?

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

I played through it last night. Definitely kiddie oriented. But that's what I'd expect. Would love more adult oriented. But kids are the bigger audience I guess. 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
I'd say kids are the slightly less judgmental audience. The entire thing was just asset tourism, there wasn't really much path dependency I could see, and it only has two endings. Apparently there's one coming out next month that has four endings, but they really have a long way to go.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
Random update on how CYoAs are going. Mosaic is apparently turning heads. There was also an article about CYoAs on Amazon's Echo, but both the article and the CYoAs seemed unimpressive. Also somewhat related, Telltale has laid off 25% of its employees, they really got into a creative rut with their work, I personally felt it was retreading the same ground since Tales from the Borderlands.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
How's progress coming on your own projects? I don't see you around much anymore.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago
After a lot of things that didn't work out (a few after months of time invested), learned coding in GameMaker and now making a narrative led adventure game with a buddy. The systems and overall story intentions are designed, now I'm working on converting the plans into coding logic. The target is to have a working standalone build by the middle of the month, roughly on target. I drop by and check the forums once in a while, but honestly there hasn't been anything too engaging, neither in terms of commendations or really commendable posts.

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

I'm actually looking forward to seeing the interactive video. :p 

Netflix is getting into CYoAs

6 years ago

There's been a couple youtubers who have done stuff like that