Inanimate Alice

Inanimate Alice is an ongoing digital novel,[1][2] an interactive multimodal fiction, relating the experiences of aspiring game designer Alice Field and her imaginary digital friend, Brad, in episodes, journals, social media, and virtual reality. Episodes 1–4 of the series were written by novelist Kate Pullinger and developed by digital artist Chris Joseph as a prequel to an original screenplay by series producer Ian Harper.[3] Episode 1 was released in 2005.[4]

Episode 5, released in 2015, was developed by digital artist Andy Campbell from a script by Kate Pullinger. For episode 6, released in 2016 with funding from Arts Council England, the team expanded to include game and narrative designer Lorri Hopping with contributions from digital artist Mez Breeze.[5] The planned story arc embraces 10 episodes spanning Alice's life from age 8 through to her mid-twenties as she realizes her dream of becoming a game designer. The episodes become increasingly complex as Alice's age and skills improve. The viewer experiences a combination of text, sound and imagery and interacts with the story at key points in mini-games and game-like experiences.[6]

In 2018 an interstitial virtual reality experience, Inanimate Alice: Perpetual Nomads, was released, a coproduction between Australia and Canada.[7] It was developed by Andy Campbell and Mez Breeze.

Inanimate Alice has been used as an example of a digital literacy resource[8] and incorporated into literacy and digital curricula, particularly in the United States and Australia.[9][10] It has also been widely recognised as an early example of transmedia[11] storytelling.

  1. ^ Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) Archived 2012-02-05 at the Wayback Machine (28 August 2008)
  2. ^ Mills, Alan (24 February 2009). Inanimate Alice puts life into online learning", Learning Teaching Technology Archived 2011-03-12 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Browne, Rachel (3 January 2015). "Welcome to the Future of Reading,"". Archived from the original on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Inanimate Alice: Episode 1 – China". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  5. ^ "Inanimate Alice Episode 6 : The Last Gas Station | ELMCIP". Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2017-12-29.
  6. ^ Stewart, Gavin (February 2010). "The Paratexts of Inanimate Alice Thresholds, Genre Expectations and Status", Convergence February 2010 vol. 16 no. 1 57–74 Archived 2011-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Australian-Canadian Funding Goes to Digital Storytelling Projects". 2016-03-28. Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  8. ^ Waner, Mark (1 December 2010). "Inanimate Alice", Teaching News Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Fleming, Laura (7 December 2010). "Considering Transmedia: Literature "Born Digital"", Get Ideas Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium, British Columbia, Canada (March 2012) [1] Archived 2012-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Fleming, Laura (June 2013) "Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices Archived 2013-09-30 at the Wayback Machine",