Based in Zurich, the studio Inlusio Interactive is dedicated to producing high-impact works that question our relationship with the world. And to facilitate their desire to tell powerful stories in new creative environments, the Inlusio team also develops innovative tools to produce these experiences. Interview with Robin Burgauer, co-founder and producer of the studio.
Interactive storytelling for a better world
Robin Burgauer – It all began in 2019 when I set up the studio with Robbert van Rooden. He’s been producing video games and I have a background in the film industry – particularly documentaries. I’d been thinking for a long time about offering new forms of storytelling on subjects that were close to my heart. I started producing interactive content. Together with Robbert, we decided to combine interactive storytelling and playful interaction. In terms of content, we felt it was important to focus on impact projects based on the 17 UN recommendations on sustainable development.
R. B. – For me, documentary is above all about conveying a message, a piece of information. Doing so interactively, by engaging the audience, is particularly interesting. Based on the subjects mentioned, and our know-how, it also seemed logical to reach out to the scientific community to make projects that make sense with the right information. There’s an element of responsibility in what we want to present, combining innovation with a message that can impact social change.
R. B. – So, for everything we do, we keep storytelling, interactivity and meaningful entertainment at the heart of our projects, alongside the strong themes we want to tackle. Our next project is a VR-Film – our first project in virtual reality – and called PEACE UNTOLD. It is about to go into production, after a year of development in 2023.
R. B. – During pre-development on PEACE UNTOLD, we reflected on the specifics of the VR format, “spatial” creation and the production elements that make spatial storytelling so original. We took a look at the state of the art in the immersive world, to better understand the tools we had in our hands. We soon decided to turn all this research into a field guide for online distribution. Our approach was not to teach others, but to offer what we had discovered with the help of international experts. The field guide «The Sensations of Spatial Storytelling» can be accessed for free.
Impactful Storytelling in VR: Field Guide released by Inlusio Interactive (Switzerland)
Develop your own narrative visualisation tool
R. B. – Whatever storytelling format you use, the questions surrounding the creation of your works will essentially be the same! You have to conceive your story, conceptualise it, know where you’re coming from and how far to go. Whether it’s linear or interactive, a game, graphic novel or a VR-film, and so on. In the same vein, we set out to develop our own prototyping tool for creating interactive formats, including spatial storytelling in virtual reality. Soon, the tool will be available on Taledeck. It’s a tool for creatives and interactive storytellers – and those who want to become one – who want to create and prototype a project together.
R. B. – To create and test our interactive works in an early phase, we realised that we were using a wide range of different tools like Miro, Figma, Google Slides and so on. Taledeck comes from the idea of bringing all the conceptual ideas and work to create interactive stories in one place. It’s not a tool for developers, but something easily accessible for all kinds of creatives like authors, directors, producers or entire production teams. And with a strong visual intention, if you want to understand your story, whether it’s highly narrative, or by branch, and so on. And textualize everything, to encourage discussion around each element. Our vision is to make Taledeck THE interactive storytelling tool and to set a standard on how interactive stories are created, similar to film scripts.
R. B. – Today, Taledeck is still in development, and we’re adding to it by using it on our own projects. In the summer of 2024, we hope to open it up to testing by other interactive storytellers and the creative community – XR but not only. We hope to simplify our approach to these new forms of creation, and focus on what’s still the most important thing: the story.
Develop interactive projects on non-fiction subjects
R. B. – What’s the advantage of producing work in virtual reality? With PEACE UNTOLD, you follow a nurse who travels from Switzerland to the Eastern Front in the middle of the Second World War. Placing the viewer with her, on a train heading towards war, is a unique proposition. There’s an unprecedented physicality that can’t be reproduced on a 2D screen. It’s a powerful feeling when you explain afterwards that it really happened! Even if the story is a work of writing that brings together several testimonies, and is not in itself totally realistic.
R. B. – PEACE UNTOLD is now almost fully financed and we’re entering production. We’re currently working on all the visual aspects, after having tested the story through a prototype we created in Taledeck. 2024 is going to be a very busy year, at the end of which we hope to be able to propose a working version of the project. In particular, to understand the possible interactions with regard to the humanitarian subject: what we can and can’t propose to the viewer. And a release in 2025.
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