An animated documentary in interactive VR, A Thin Black Line is directed by Douglas Watkin with artwork by Vernon Ah Kee and is produced by the VR production studio VRTOV.

A Thin Black Line invites you to step into a pivotal event in the history of one family, and a nation, as seen by a young child. The bombing of Darwin in 1942 was the first and largest aerial attack on mainland Australia during the Second World War. When the bombs reach Patima’s hometown, she is forced to flee, leaving her father behind.

A Thin Black Line has been commissioned by SBS with support from Screen Queensland as part of their Untold Australia series which offers uniquely personal stories from some of Australia’s diverse communities.

• VRTOV Project Page
• Oculus Store
• SBS Press Release
• ACMI exhibition
• IDFA DocLab

• Main website
• My entry on the website

Crafting Intangibles is an online international and local event exploring interactive narrative design, being held on June 10th-11th, 2017. The event is sponsored by Screen Queensland, and features some of the most accomplished and inspiring creatives who will help clarify and stretch our understanding of narrative design.

Speakers include Brie Code (Child of Light, Assassin’s Creed, Company of Heroes), Peter Dunne (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Melrose Place, JAG), Brian Upton (Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon), Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Fallout (2 and New Vegas), and many others. The videos will feature new perspectives and an activity prompt. Everyone can join in online for the event, and a special local event will be held in Brisbane, Australia. Tickets at http://www.CraftingIntangibles.co

Magister Ludi is now available in the iTunes App store, and currently touring around Australia for the Experimenta tour:

• It opened at the RMIT Gallery in Melbourne
• and I did an artist talk
  • Part of White Night Melbourne
• Arts Mildura 5 MARCH – 12 APRIL 2015
• THE LOCK UP, NEWCASTLE, NSW 10 JULY – 9 AUGUST 2015
• QUT CREATIVE INDUSTRIES PRECINCT, BRISBANE 25 AUGUST – 26 SEPTEMBER 2015
  • I did an artist talk at The Glasshouse on Thursday 27 August for a panel discussion with Jonathan Parsons, Artistic Director of Experimenta, and artists featured in Experimenta Recharge; Svenja Kratz, Christy Dena and Cake Industries.
  • It was part of The Brisbane Festival – 5-26th September
•  Cairns regional gallery, qld 10 october – 22 november 2015
• Featured in Cara Ellison’s ‘Embed with Games’ book launch at Babycastles in New York on 23rd Nov. The book includes interviews with myself and the artist Marigold Bartlett about the game.
•  warnambool art gallery, vic 5 december 2015 – 7 february 2016
•  albury regional gallery and librarymuseum, vic 27 February – 17 april 2016
•  latrobe regional gallery, vic  7 May – 10 july 2016
•  anne & gordon stamstag museum of art, adelaide  19 august – 23 september 2016
• Contours Exhibition, curated by Chad Toprak, Gallery, Level 1, Library at the Dock, Melbourne, 10 October – 10 November, 2016

Experimenta Trailer:

Freeplay Parallels Trailer:

Experimenta interview:

Project Catalogue

Credits

Christy Dena – writer, designer, director
Marigold Bartlett – visual artist
Trevor Dikes – sound designer & composer
Cameron Owen – programmer
Iain McManus – app port programmer

Design

Drawing on the escape-the-room phenomenon, I created a space that is about escape. However, since I wanted the emphasis to be on our role in needing to escape I changed the mechanics. Instead of solving puzzles through opening objects and moving them around to unlock puzzles, the player places objects in the room. The movement of objects is further complicated by what they mean. So the player needs to see whether adding to the room (or taking away) actually helps them or not. Indeed they’re not really escaping a room, instead they’re constructing their world in a manner that either denies their needs or places them on the path to self-sufficiency.

The full writing and interactions spreadsheets are available here (spoilers):

Room 1: MagisterLudiGame_WritingandInteractions_SchoolRoomData
Room 2: MagisterLudiGame_WritingandInteractions_BedroomData
Room 3: MagisterLudiGame_WritingandInteractions_EmptyRoomData

Press

• White Night Melbourne, ‘Experimenta Recharge‘ – Feb, 2015
• Embed With…, ‘Embed With…Marigold Bartlett and Christy Dena‘ – Cara Ellison, 31 Jan, 2015
• Aphra Magazine, ‘Experimenta: International Heartbreak‘ – India Rose, 19 Jan, 2015
• RealTime Arts Magazine, ‘Experimentation with Added Spark‘ – Darren Tofts, Dec-Jan 2014-15
• SimonStaffans.com, ‘One Year In: Now Media Vol IV‘ – Simon Staffans, 1 January, 2015
• Blouin Art Info, ‘INTERVIEW: Jonathan Parsons on Experimenta “Recharge” and Media Art‘ – Nicholas Forrest, 5 December 2014
• Spook Magazine, ‘Future Now: Experimental Media takes over RMIT‘ – Spook, 12 November 2014
• Crikey, ‘Freeplay Celebrates with 12 New Home-Grown Games‘ – Peter Green, 22 October 2014
• Time Out Magazine, ‘Experimenta Recharge‘ – Finn Houlihan, 1 October 2014
• Fluoro, ‘Recharge: Experimenta’s 6th International Biennial of Media Art‘ – 30 Sept, 2014
• Game Cloud, ‘Designing Deep Games with Christy Dena‘ – Kirk William, 28 Sept, 2014

Prototype set-up image:

An animated short film and digital local co-op game in development, in partnership with a sydney animation house.

Who is this book for?

• Creative Directors, Showrunners
• Narrative Designers
• Interactive Writers, Screenwriters
• Game Designers, Level Designers
• UX, Interaction, & Service Designers
• Creative Producers who want to understand the aesthetic ramifications of development, production, distribution, and marketing decisions
• Educators teaching any of the above

Background

I am drawing on my previous published work on cross-media interaction design, as well as the insights I have gained over the years as a designer, researcher & educator. It is illustrated by Marigold Bartlett, who has worked with me on the Magister Ludi Game and forthcoming board game DIY SPY.

• I tested the first prototype at a workshop on Transmedia Writing & Design at Unitech, New Zealand in November, 2015.
• I gave two 3 hour lectures with short exercises for first year multidisciplinary classes at Griffith University in 2016.
• I gave a speech at the Navitas Women’s Networking event in Sydney in 2016 about concepts from the book introduction.
• I gave two workshops at SAE Creative Media Institute film and media students, taking them through interest design techniques and audience design techniques respectively, in November, 2016.

Prototype 2:

Prototype 1:

I was commissioned by the Creative Recovery Network to create an App with the Kandanga community. I archived stories & play through the generations. The Creative Recovery Network builds experiences with artists and communities:

“A growing network of artists and cultural and community workers are taking the lead in helping their communities recover from the impact of natural disasters through creativity. The aim is to share knowledge and build a network of artists ready to support communities in meeting future challenges.”

I am worked with the Friends of Kandanga and the local school to build a playful App for locals and tourists to the area. It was soft-launched at the centenary of the local school in September, 2015.

• The main site by Friends of Kandanga
• I have written a blog post about the development

Colleague Ralf Muhlberger and I teamed up to participate in the 2015 IRON GAME DESIGNER Challenge run by Steve Dee, where participants have two hours to make a board game.  Problems in our competition strategy include going with the idea we were excited by rather than the idea we could produce, test, and then play in the short judging time. So we didn’t win, but we have a game that has legs!

Description of the game on the competition site:

Taking the theme as their title this was another very literal reading. Kids left at home were battling growing threats (in the case of the first and so far only deck, creepy crawlies like snakes and spiders), with the enemies being generated with constant turning decks of cards that get progressively worse. In a lovely twist, however, the kids can’t fight the threat, but only contain it or direct it. Only able to move slowly and open and close doors they need to work together to drive monsters towards each other – and figure out which will cancel out and which will get worse. This is determined by a five-way scissor-paper-rock system which judges feared might be too complicated to solve especially for the family audience the theme suggested. Like Home Intrusion, the designers felt they may have lost too much time to the tyranny of cutting and pasting, but also like Home Intrustion, the literal, immediate and relatable interpretation won points and captured imaginations.

Articles:

• “Iron Game Designer 2015: The Rundown” by Steve Dee, D-Constructions, 30th March, 2015
• “Iron Game Designer: The Games” by Steve Dee, 30th March, 2015