Pictures of Gwen

Rogue Beacon presents Pictures of Gwen, a unique immersive fantasy co-imagined by our audience. Pictures of Gwen is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) a crossmedia hybrid of fiction and gameplay, it’s a story-hunt filled with secrets, hidden objectives, and exploration in a new ever-expanding world to be discovered. An (ARG) is an interactive community that uses the real world as a platform to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. In our game audiences members interact with and contribute to the not-so-everyday life of Gwen, a talented but naive young artist as she accepts her dream job in the fictional West Country city of Torstow. Gwen’s journey will be reflected in a host of media across websites and social accounts that represent the city and the game world. Players will explore narratives, uncovering insights and untangle mysteries whilst interacting with this world, Pictures of Gwen is an urban fantasy, a magical realist story that gives the audience the opportunity to explore the curious and enchanted world of Torstow. Pictures of Gwen has been designed as a wholesome and intriguing “slice of life” fiction, it is warm, comforting and pleasant; the story is presented to us through our heroine’s paintings, sketches and collages, featuring acclaimed artist Luke Oram (The 77, Planet Loss) providing the game’s beautiful illustrations. The artwork guides us through our discovery of Torstow, supported by mechanics from our writers and game designers encouraging play, as we delve deeper into the lovingly crafted narratives. Each artwork posted to instagram.com/picturesofgwen will act as a breadcrumb forming trails to challenging puzzles and intriguing mysteries. The game unfolds in real-time, so you can make Torstow part of your daily social media or just check in periodically and binge through the new content. Pictures of Gwen is a tone and aesthetics driven story that occupies a unique space within Unfiction, ARG, RPG, tabletop, and a familiar novel, but most of all it is an interactive story that allows escapism into a believable, but magical world. Pictures of Gwen has been created by Rogue Beacon, an immersive entertainment company that develops alternate reality narratives, focusing on audience interactivity and transmedia delivery. Rogue Beacon cut its teeth developing Boomtown Fair’s immersive theatrical city designing interactive storylines, puzzles, and quests at the festival for several years. This culminated in Escape! 404, an ARG which ran as a highly innovative promotional campaign. Rogue Beacon has curated a talented team of creatives to Pictures of Gwen (Abi Vasquez, Pasha Phillips, Alex Allen, Sarah Tamsin, Megan Clifton, Liam Fleming, Anya Tye, Sarah Morris) This world has been developed by the minds behind some of the UK’s most regarded immersive and Unfiction experiences Including The Legitimate Peaky Blinders Festival, Jury Duty, Wizards against Lizards, BantzQuest, The Neath, Jungle Escape, and more. Rogue Beacon’s Creative Producer Martin Coat is a co-founder of Immersive Theatre Company Dank Parish, Martin is also director of theatre and concept development for Boomtown Fair, where he worked alongside Rogue Beacon’s Executive Producer Ramsay Wood, a designer and developer with over a decade of experience. Rogue Beacon wants Pictures of Gwen to be accessible and open, it is a free to play, non ticketed experience. For those that wish to own part of Gwen’s world a regular package of tangible rewards is available, including high quality art prints, collectable tarot cards and an in-world zine along with a host of surprises. The contents of these packages are designed to enrich the story and game world, it’s role is supplementary and additive, our main goal is to build authentic communities that absorb and follow the storyline, changing narratives and anticipating each chapter's release, growing Gwen’s world through how they interact and play.