OTT & Transmedia

No worries Dwayne Williams 2, and thank you as well. I was thinking we could also be stories or at least canvases and tattoos themselves tell stories. I wonder if any of my characters are worthy of merch or tattoos hehe that would be awesome~

You’re welcome Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! I love that perspective. It is amazing to see audiences interact so deeply with the characters and stories they love. The idea that we’re canvases and living stories ourselves is poetic!

That is honestly the dream for me one day, to see kids and adults dressed up as one of my creations, whether for Halloween, conventions, or just because they connect with the character. That kind of impact would mean everything. :)

hello.....should we become friends?

This is a brilliant take—tattoos as the most personal form of transmedia. A coverup as a retcon, cremation ink as a character spinoff that lives on another "platform." I love it. My own tattoos tell stories of places and people I've carried with me. For you, is there a tattoo that acts as a "seed" for a larger narrative—something that could expand into a character or a whole world?

Another great question Sam Rivera, of the tattoos I currently have, my clover probably has the most amount of specific meaning and actually is a symbol of my series Petal. It’s the name of one of the most important female characters (Clover), also gotten at a tattoo shop sharing the name of the chakra the novel she appears in represents (third eye), and of course it has 4 leaves (Leaf). My second most meaningful tattoo is my Capricorn mergoat, because not only am I a Capricorn but so are all of my protagonists.

As for future tattoos… my favourite tattoo artist has two flash pieces I’m strongly considering getting, one is a nun and the other a maid. I was actually even thinking of writing a story about such a woman, maybe as a nun she longs for the days she was a young maid, maybe it’s a commentary on how little life actually changes. I’m not sure, but I saw a bit of myself in both of them.

@Banafsheh I dig your term, life is a fantastic co writer. I do i phone dictation or notes, even on holiday to capture random events. I’ve also a scene in a hispanic pulp from a true experience. Was in rural Spain & last person to be dropped off in taxi, when it purposefully took a wrong turn in opposite direction. I pretended not to notice, & said I’m about to be sick, (gut heaving) & put my phone in my jeans. I left my bag on the seat, saying look after my dinero. They pulled up, opened door, & their greed to search my bag bought me valuable time to run. I ended up in fields, with miles of stumpy trees, all planted in a crazy pattern. Before finding safety, I concentrated on nature, to counteract any fear. Later I used the trees as a plausible ancient code, to solve the riddle of where to find the treasure, in the last scene of the trilogy script.

That’s quite the experience Debbie Croysdale! I’m glad you made it out safely and got inspired at the same time. Life really has a way of plotting sometimes!

Love that—"life as a fantastic co-writer." The best plot twists are often the ones we'd never invent because they'd feel too coincidental or cruel. Reality has a better sense of dramatic irony than we do. What's one unexpected "life wrote the plot" moment that changed the direction of a story you were working on, or maybe even your own path as a writer?

That’s a great question Sam Rivera, I think for me it would have to be when I was in high school and working on a stream-of-consciousness novel and crushing on this one guy, and found myself on the short end of no less than three love triangles with him until we graduated lol. I’m sure we were both quite aware of the dramatic irony at the time. As such, I’m quite good at writing drama and love triangles; very easy when you’ve basically lived a soap opera against your will lol

If the facts are the same, audiences are smart enough to understand that the same event seen through different eyes will have a different take/POV. You lose audiences when you cheat and change facts or alter the reality they know. It's not incoherence to show different perspectives, even from contradictory POVs as long as you don't re-write the rules as you go. I think that's when you lose your readers/viewers.

The tension between a locked-down canon and an open-ended world is the heartbeat of a living mythology. When every corner of a map is charted and every historical detail footnoted, a story world stops being a place of discovery and becomes a museum. To build for transmedia is to balance the rigid architecture of rules with the fluid nature of human perspective. Intellectual worldbuilding requires us to identify where the load-bearing walls of a universe sit and where the flexible partitions can be moved to let the light in. Building for multiple mediums requires a handshake between creators and their audience. By defining the "what" and the "where" while leaving the "why" and the "who" open for reinterpretation, you are cultivating an ecosystem. You are giving the audience the room to inhabit the world, to argue about its nuances, and to keep it alive long after the final credits roll.

Jean Pierre Magro, "Negative Space Narrative Architecture" names something I've been practicing instinctively, something I didn't fully recognize until later: the world of PRAYPREY was designed so that its most powerful elements are the ones for which no explanation is given.

The Void Audit — I ran it against my world and found that not only can I not answer all four questions, the voids are structural. My civilization's central taboo — the prohibition of mercy — is enforced by an entire culture that has forgotten why it became forbidden. The original act was pure love: a starving male offering himself to his queen with the words "Take me, and remember me." Generations later, that gift calcified into mandatory ritual consumption, and mercy became heresy. No character in the story knows the origin. They only know the fear. The taboo isn't a secret waiting to be revealed — it's a permanent void in the culture's self-knowledge, and the protagonist's entire arc is the act of filling it not with answers, but with practice.

My map features Cartographic Ghosts — like a sealed lake hiding something an ancient voice told to "sleep until truth is threatened". It isn't explained; it warns. My world also features Kavri — objects that attract memory through stillness and intention — whose mechanics are never codified. But most critically, my creation myth exists in two irreconcilable versions: a sacred, liturgical account and a buried scientific one involving a human consciousness that fractured from the grief of being the last surviving human and the weight of administrating the creation of a world. Neither version is authoritative. The audience must live in the friction between them.

What your piece helped me crystallize is that these voids aren't gaps in craft — they are spaces for an audience to inhabit. And because PRAYPREY was never designed to be simply observed; it was meant to be witnessed, I instinctively I left space for the viewer to bring their own grief, their own questions, their own need for mercy into the architecture. 


Just as the genesis of my world began with an "Eternal Flame and Shimmering Void", this narrative void is the space left specifically for the audience—the witness. When they enter, the void shimmers. And when they reach out in curiosity to touch the world, the veil ignites, removing the separation between story and self.

Ashley Renée Smith — forgive my inability to achieve brevity in this reply.

I am glad you found it useful.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, I’m curious, what do you think a game narrative designer actually does within the development process?

Dwayne Williams 2 They have to address a huge complex of story, dialog and gameplay permutations, based on defined player choice latitude for action, dialog, and interaction with programmed environment. It all has to be balanced and even a minor expansion in an open world concept can break story or gameplay. Unanticipated player choices or preferences can impact perceived playability and the gaming community's response is immediate and often unforgiving. Of course for the last 5-8 years, AI has been a part of NPC responses in the larger budget games, and that's another thing entirely. This is one of the reasons that games like can have ~80gb, or much more, of data, compressed. It's not something that anyone who hasn't been in the space for a decade or so should be doing.

Thanks again for your insights on narrative design Shadow Dragu-Mihai. I really appreciate the depth you bring to the discussion. Since I also create outlines for my films, complete with script and bible, I’ve been applying a similar process to my IPs when thinking about original game adaptations. My approach is to define the style, core loop, missions, narrative arc, lore, and comparables, without actually developing the game software, just presenting a structured vision document. (still learning UE)

I came across this Stage 32 blog on making IPs impossible to ignore ( https://www.stage32.com/blog/coffee-content-making-your-ip-impossible-to... ), and it reinforced my belief that having a clear, compelling outline adds value. Do you feel this kind of approach is valid when pitching to studios with both film and game backgrounds, or do they prefer to see only prototypes? I’d love your take on whether this kind of outline genuinely helps them evaluate transmedia potential.

That's a smart, organic approach—letting your story's core action (combat) naturally point toward a fighting game genre, rather than forcing a trend. It keeps the characters' identities intact. When you analyzed the fighting styles, did any character unexpectedly reveal a gameplay mechanic you hadn't seen in the original story?

Thanks Sam Rivera! Great question. 11 DOORS is built around different fighting styles from cultures across the world and across history, with each character representing a darker martial discipline tied to real weapons, combat philosophies, and techniques from their nation or era. Because of that, the characters almost naturally translate into unique move sets and mechanics, which is what made the fighting-game direction feel like the most organic gameplay adaptation.

They're a marketing firm- so they say- they've been around since 2025. They don't list anyone or show anything of what they've done. It's hard to consider a company that doesn't at least showcase their talents.

This is such a perfect case study in organic video game growth. It earned its television adaptation through decades of genuine audience love, evolving from tabletop to PC to cultural phenomenon. The key takeaway for writers is that the world expanded because fans demanded more, not because a corporation mapped out a ten-year plan. What do you think is the single most important storytelling lesson from watching the Baldur's Gate universe evolve across formats, and how might that inform the way you approach building your own IP?

Sam Rivera Yes, it will be very informative, for more reasons than one!

As promised... A full and very exhaustive case study posted in this lounge.

That is huge news for fans. Seeing Baldur’s Gate III being adapted into TV by a creator from The Last of Us is the sort of crossover a lot of us didn’t expect but have wanted for years (me, at least). While I’m mostly focused on gaming and TV adaptations, I sometimes browse online entertainment in general, and I found the site where I read about casino offers and promotions at https://ausscasinosanalyzer.com/au/casino-bonuses/rickycasino.com because it's one of the most reliable sites to check info about casinos. I have some experience, and I've read a lot of info so I know the difference for sure.

Anhtony Hobbs Look at the paper I put on the D&D IP in this lounge here. Larian gets nothing out of the deal at all, it all goes to Hasbro. Hopefully they won't drop the ball on it...

https://independentproducersguild.org/paper-D%26D-history-of-a-%20transm...

Hollywood began as a quiet, upscale agricultural community in the late 1880s before evolving into the film capital in the early 1900s. Independent filmmakers moved west from New York to escape Thomas Edison’s patent lawsuits, seeking year-round, diverse sunny weather and cheap land...So, isn't stifling independent creatives hypocritical?

I'm very interested in this transmedia subject. I believe if more creatives understand it from the concept of a project, align it with protecting the IP we can be self sufficient with out expecting to be good enough so Hollywood will notice somehow. We are more powerful when we see ourselves as a brand.

Tyjon

Asktheproducer21

That'd be a really interesting poem, movie, etc., Banafsheh Esmailzadeh!

Thanks Maurice Vaughan~ I definitely wanna try it hehe~

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. Thanks for the idea.

You're right, Dwayne Williams 2. The things you said (independent stakes, distinct worldview, and untold history that can support a story beyond the protagonist) keep side characters interesting and original enough that audiences would want to explore their story further. Also their personalities, goals, and flaws.

Those are great ways to explore side characters, Maurice Vaughan! Have you ever had a side character that was an object(e.g., a car, a talking hat) or an animal instead of a person?

Thanks, Dwayne Williams 2. I haven't, but that's a great idea! I'll try it. Thanks for the idea!

Aside whats said above already, I give side characters a special skill, needed by protagonist or can drive plots. Historical backstory, unique flaw & maybe a secret too.

That’s fair Rutger Oosterhoff 2. I honestly struggle sometimes with linear endings.

You’re welcome, Maurice Vaughan. Have fun!

Good stuff Mike Boas. I still have to watch Lost Highway and Twin Peaks. Never heard of The Triangle.

Yes, and it makes the story flexible—the kind where you finish the movie and then wonder, “Did it truly end, or did it just begin?” It’s absolutely fun and a insane. Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

That’s fascinating.

Grounding Petal’s canon in Samsara makes the loop feel philosophical rather than just structural. I really like the chaos vs order framing especially life as chaos and death as order. That inversion is powerful.

It also makes the idea of a linear ending feel almost unnatural within that world, which is actually a strong sign your mythology is cohesive. When the rules of the universe dictate the form of the ending, that’s worldbuilding done right.

The memory element is especially compelling characters remembering past lives adds emotional weight to the cycle. It turns repetition into consequence.

Now I’m curious is breaking the cycle in Petal meant to be liberation… or disruption?.