Rogue Beacon, the team behind Boomtown’s incredible immersive online adventure “Escape 404!“, are back in action with a new experience, alternate reality game: Pictures of Gwen.
Gwen is a young art student, moving to the fictional West Country city of Torstow for the sake of her dream job, and she’ll need help from you and the rest of her online community to navigate the strange goings-on in her new home.
Through ‘escape game’ style puzzle solving and classic investigation, played out in a bubble of ‘real-world’ social media accounts and websites, Gwen’s followers will guide her as she discovers Torstow’s beauty, secrets and magic – and all you need to do to start playing along is follow her Instagram @PicturesOfGwen.
It’s entirely free-to-play, with the game unfolding 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. As the story progresses and the players integrate into Torstow’s reality, audience-created art and music will begin to feature in the game. There are even plans for Torstow to spotlight real-life artists and musicians further down the line, as reported by My Little Voyage in their interview with Martin Coat, the Creative Director at Rogue Beacon.
Martin has been the Director of Theatre and Concept Development at Boomtown Fair for the last eight years. He describes Rogue Beacon as: “a coalition of the people responsible for The Maze, the core of Boomtown’s immersive theatrics, and Escape! 404, the ARG that defined Boomtown’s immersive world in 2019.”
With acclaimed artist Luke Oram providing the game’s beautiful illustrations, the nine-strong team are putting their established methods and collective experience from developing the biggest immersive theatrical show in the world into a new, independent project.
Episode One is completely ready to go, but the team can’t sustain zero-budget production indefinitely. Fortunately, the Pictures of Gwen Kickstarter campaign is already off to a fantastic start, having secured over £8,200 of its £20,000 target in the first weeks of crowdfunding.
Like all Kickstarter campaigns, it runs on an all-or-nothing basis, so it’s vital the team reach their £20k goal to enable Pictures of Gwen to launch as planned. Keeping the entirely game free to play, Kickstarter backers will receive packs including incredible, sustainably-produced art prints, foil-backed tarot cards, Gwen’s monthly zine and other limited-edition mementoes.
Backers will also be given access to an exclusive Discord channel and music/artwork downloads, while those pledging higher amounts will also get t-shirts, original framed and signed artwork by Luke Oram and even custom sketches and watercolours.
The ‘standard pack’ for Episode One requires a pledge of just £22 and includes three evocative art prints of Gwen’s world, three tarot cards, issue one of Gwen’s “Letter to my Younger Self” featuring poetry, recipes, reviews and thoughts, “a mysterious letter” and all of the rewards from lower tiers.
The first 222 pledges of £33 or over will get the ‘Enchanted Edition’ pack, with additional content, all piece signed and numbered by its creators, art prints with exclusive foiling and an additional, limited edition copy of ‘Letter To My Younger Self‘ with alternate cover.
To check out the other reward packages or to support the project, head to the Pictures of Gwen: Episode 1 Kickstarter page before the deadline on Friday 18th December.
To delve into Torstow yourself, all you need to do is follow the @PicturesOfGwen Instagram. But you’ll likely have an even better experience (and maybe the odd headstart…) if you immerse yourself into the game’s already-thriving online community.
The Pictures of Gwen Facebook Group is the best place to start, where members are already trying to piece together what’s going on with Torstow’s magpies.
Popular fan-made podcast Lost in The Maze will be covering the entire story, having established a strong following digging into Boomtown’s immersive storyline. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or listen directly on Podbean.
There’s also an official email newsletter you can sign-up for here, along with an official Pictures of Gwen website and Facebook page.
Still want to read more about the game? Check out this interview from My Little Voyage if you didn’t catch it above.
Image credits: All images and illustrations featured in this article are the work and property of Rogue Beacon / Pictures of Gwen.
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