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[sakai23]

Best Way to...

[Lysithea]

One of the best things about ARGs is that there is no "best way" of doing things.

I would advise that you look through the archives and see some of the innovative and popular game launches.

There is, however, a "wrong way" of doing things. Breaking the forum rules and posting multiple times in your own trailhead is a major no-no around here. Check out the rules link in the top left hand corner of every page.

Age does not matter, but maturity does. I recall a young PM who ran a small, successful game. Unfortunately I also remember lots of "BLARGS" that imploded after a week.

All of my favourite ARGs had an entire team behind them. There are lots of talented individuals in the PM recruitment area who would love to be behind the scenes of a new ARG. You could even post there yourself and gain experience behind the scenes of an ARG before branching out and creating your own.

[Euchre]

Although it's not absolute, I'd say a wrong way to do things would be to basically do just what someone else did. Find a new way to drop your trailhead and clues out there, be different.

Or just email splatter a Vigenere cypher to a bunch of known ARGers. It'll be like the sound of one hand clapping.

[FLmutant]

My remarkably generic advice would be:

First, focus on a story that's burning to come out of you: most storytellers don't do it because they want to or because they can, but because they have no choice but tell those stories.

Second, take that and simplify, simplify, simplify. Cut mercilessly. Try cutting the parts you're most in love with to see what that does to it.

Third, think about how someone would actually encounter that in real life and, in the process, feel like the protagonist of the story, rather than just the sidekick. The heart of immersion is feeling special.

Fourth, think honestly and fearlessly about how you'd pull that off if you didn't execute any of it and find the people to help. Then, start assigning yourself tasks of producing it that you can't find other people to do or that would take you longer to get someone else to do that to do yourself.

Fifth, activate your analytical mind and chart, plan, outline, sketch obsessively. Imagine all the twists and turns that the people you're telling the story might try to take it, and what you'll do in those situations.

Sixth, start building, writing, creating while avoiding the temptation of bringing the audience into it.

Seventh, let go of your ego and your desire to have the story and experience go in a particular way.

Eighth, launch your trailhead.

[sakai23]

Wow thanks guys.
I'd really like to try this but who knows.