Whether or not it’s a success TV present like HBO’s “The Final of Us” or an interactive theme park land like Common Studios’ Tremendous Nintendo World, video video games are ripe for adaptation and reinterpretation.
However what if the sport isn’t established IP? What if the sport hasn’t even been launched but?
With “Ashfall,” Liithos CEO and founder Michael Mumbauer and VP of inventive John Garvin (who wrote and created the sport) are banking on their characters and immersive world being sturdy sufficient to attract followers earlier than any game-play. First, by way of a five-episode TikTok present that ends this Sunday, then with a comic book e book that may launch in March. All this comes years earlier than the sport might be accomplished.
“Ashfall” explores a post-apocalyptic world set within the Pacific Northwest, the place Seattle has been submerged within the ocean for tons of of years. Local weather disaster has modified the world and civilization has devolved into factions and enclaves. On the foot of erupting Mount Rainier, Ash Naranjo is taken by the Order of Life Science, who give him prosthetic arms and different implants.
After every “Ashfall” TikTok episode, Liithos launched a singular free digital collectible accessible solely by way of CoinZoom.
(Courtesy of Liithos Leisure)
“For my final recreation, I actually wrote about 12,000 pages of script,” says Garvin. “That’s just like the equal of 10 two-hour films, and that’s actually what it’s essential refill a recreation. You want a lot of the identical factor you want in any medium — plot, character growth, theme. You’ve acquired to have one thing necessary to say.”
With themes of local weather change, ideological and political preventing, the mistreatment of individuals with disabilities and the overall erosion of society, “Ashfall” touches on modern themes that will not be obvious on the floor.
“What I actually need to do with ‘Ashfall’ is discover issues which can be necessary which can be occurring now. It’s set a thousand years sooner or later in order that we are able to get a ways on the issues that I see are tearing us aside on the planet immediately. They’re preventing throughout each attainable factor that folks can disagree on. Ideological grounds, non secular grounds. I see that that could possibly be in our future — which terrifies me.”
Mumbauer says he’s invested in exploring new storytelling platforms. A online game and movie trade veteran, he and his group dropped at life well-liked characters like Nathan Drake from “Uncharted” and Joel and Ellie from “The Final of Us.” After working for PlayStation for 13 years, he is aware of the sport world and get gamers to attach. Now, the problem is make that occur with out having an precise recreation to play.
The primary episode of the TikTok collection “Ashfall,” starring Michael Le.
“I have a look at challenges and say, ‘TikTok is such an enormous platform and it feels prefer it’s such a possibility platform for telling tales,’” says Mumbauer. “What if there was a technique to do what Quibi tried to do, which is short-form storytelling, on a platform which already has an viewers that’s prepared for it? And what if we did it with an influencer who already understands do it?”
Mumbauer enlisted Michael Le (who makes use of the deal with @justmaiko), a social media influencer, dancer and storyteller with greater than 52 million TikTok followers, to assist create, with Garvin, a five-episode narrative collection debuting weekly on Le’s channel. The Liithos exec was already a fan of the TikToker whose posts have generated thousands and thousands of views, whether or not it’s by way of his dance movies using high-quality particular results or his anime-inspired content material.
“I believe it was experimental and we had been already writing the comedian e book,” Mumbauer says. “It felt just like the pure technique to place the comedian adjoining to this as a result of the sport is gonna take years. So it felt like, ‘What if we attempt to construct this IP barely in reverse. Regardless that we’ve got a gaming background, what if we didn’t begin with gaming, however we landed on it?’”
The experimental gambit appears to have labored. The collection has drawn greater than 10 million views to this point, earlier than the final chapter drops on Sunday. In creating it for TikTok, Mumbauer toned down his conventional movie and online game results and Garvin whittled down his ideas to bang out one-and-a-half-page scripts for the episodes.
“My thought course of was give all of them the meat and lower out each a part of the fats. It’s 15 seconds. It’s fast and snappy. It’s very ‘get straight to the purpose,’” says Le. “It was actually simply how can I adapt myself into the story. It form of blends what I sometimes do on TikTok with the world of ‘Ashfall.’ I flip into him … I’m studying to make use of these powers that Ash has, after which looking for my brother.”
TikTok collection “Ashfall” has drawn greater than 10 million views to this point, earlier than the final chapter drops on Sunday.
(Liithos Leisure)
Now that Le has established a search for Ash and his world, the comedian e book will should observe. Proper? With mental property, the traditional considering is to cross-promote all the pieces to ascertain a visible presence. However even that a part of the world-building for “Ashfall” is being performed in an unconventional method due to their reverse philosophy.
“I needed to pitch to John: What in case you have a look at this character prefer it’s already been on the planet for 75 years? In ‘Batman,’ over 75 years, Batman has had numerous totally different appears. What’s the similar is the ears, the sigil and the cowl. What you see within the TikTok collection isn’t essentially what you’ll see within the comedian e book collection, which isn’t essentially what you’ll see within the recreation. There might be refined nuances, however the core items are there, and that’s what I believe makes an iconic character,” says Mumbauer.
“For inventive interpretation and being transmedia, I believe there’s an enormous alternative to achieve totally different audiences. Someone may not have my style in artwork. So possibly the TikTok video will actually get them enthusiastic about this in a method that the comedian gained’t and even the sport footage.”
