ICEBREAKER — a web media/game project
my little experiment @
http://revzero.org/icebreaker/
blurb:
“A hacking mission deep into corporate networks by the infamous Captain Chiba and her ROMdogs goes horribly wrong. Icebreaker is an experimental hybrid comic, short story, videogame, and audio project. Oh, and don’t for get the lulz bomb.”
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I was trying to make something new, and instead only identified the blocks I can use to make that new thing.
Icebreaker is something I put together over a few months this summer. I’m not going to lie — you’ll probably recognize the screen size of the main images. This was supposed to be an iphone app (plural actually but that’s another story). It was the only way I could think of to try to monetize this experiment.
I fell short of my personal goals with it. Its kind of neat. It bugs the crap out of me every time I finish a videogame segment and the sound just abruptly cuts out. Some parts are too long. The pacing is a bit jagged. I feel like the text bits are WoT (wall of text… COME ON PEOPLE). pacing-wise. Still, before throwing this uh stuff against the wall I didn’t know what it would look like, how it would flow or not, or even how the bits would interact. I think I’ll do better with the next go-round. Like I said, I know what the blocks look like now. There were some blocks that I knew of but left out too.
One unused block relates to something that author Warren Ellis linked and commented: the idea of socially reading a text. I agree 100% with the assessment that the text itself is still one way, solo. Still, in our now interconnected world, we could connect the readers over to a place where other readers are. (A link. An iframe. This could just be embedding a mobile skinned forum into your book app.) Your readers swarm to YOUR forum where they can, in true internet fashion, interact politely and civilly with other readers of your text. Just don’t ever go in there yourself. Ever.
Along with this, your app could provide a catalog containing direct links to purchase your other books and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. Previews? Appearances? News? Since it is wired, this would be a call out to something hosted on your website so you can make all the changes you want. More blocks. Less creative blocks, but still potentially valuable to the thing… (wtb cool name for text thing).
Comments/hatred/suggestions — let me know!
