BENGALURU : Immersive technologies like Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality have been subjects of interest to entrepreneurs for long. But today, we are discussing not about immersive technologies but rather interactive content. A new era of startups are sprouting up which are not using these technologies but rather building content in a way that the user feels a part of the storytelling.
Ever since Netflix’s Black Mirror Bandersnatch became a sensation, content experts have been wondering whether this is the future of content! This has been a first ever immersive series where people made choices of what the protagonist should do.
Interactive content is typically where the audience also feels part of the stories being told. Some US apps like Episodes and Choices are today among Top Grossing Apps on Google Playstore. In these apps, a user starts by choosing his character, deciding his/her name, gender, hairstyle, outfits etc and then playing the story as the character. The character is often presented with different situations and based on his response the story moves forward.
In Bandersnatch also, the audience gets to make different choices and the story of the protagonist proceeds accordingly. Whether you want him to choose the job or not, what music you want to listen and so on and so forth. On that note, in fact a Bear Grylls Survival Series is also expected to be a similar interactive web-series.
What does this mean for startups?
This has paved way for many budding startups that are building on interactive content. Content investors and evangelists have been on lookout for such ventures that are building content in which a viewer is not just audience but also participant in the content.
This is a unique way of gamification of content. One can now imagine a future where many web series and even movies will have interactive content, wherein the user will make choices and decide the story flow. There may be multiple adventures and endings awaiting. As of now mostly romance as a genre has been explored on apps in the interactive content.
Most other genres like horror, mythologies, superheroes etc are yet to be fully explored. This technique finds a great application in not just video content but also for comic books and novels and other storytelling formats. Previously there have been books which had multiple endings but it was cumbersome to include lot of endings in just one small book. But when it comes to content on internet, that problem is resolved. Here’s looking forward to exciting times for content startups ahead.
For any queries, write to Rajeev@TBSPlanet.comRajeev Tamhankar is founder, TBS Planet Comics, ex-IITR, Flipkart, Xiaomi