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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Legend of the Sacred Urns
[META] Charlie Tan's Story
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bruttium
Greenhorn


Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 4

 		Re: Finally get to peek out
FLmutant wrote:

And Mike left out one my favorite of the other little side projects, a selection of fine consumer products
Brian


Hi Brian-

We've seen you poking around here at least once or twice before. Welcome back.

BTW, I tried ordering the catmantis to keep my cat entertained, but I was having a bit of trouble opening a new Reemco Smart Shopper ID™ account....

Mr. Green

Cheers!

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 4:47 pm
Last edited by bruttium on Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:00 pm; edited 1 time in total
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FLmutant
Decorated


Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 244
Location: Orlando, FL
Quote:
We've seen you poking around here at least once or twice before. Welcome back.


Yeah, I've been enjoying the forums especially. I'm ready to participate in an ARG for a change!

Quote:
BTW, I tried ordering the catmantis to keep my cat entertained, but I was having a bit of trouble opening a new Reemco Smart Shopper ID™ account....


I'm not sure their IT pros always act all that professional. I was lucky and got my Reemco Smart Shopper ID early! Surprised



Brian

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:00 pm
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Varin
I Have No Life


Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 2456
Location: South of where I used to be

 		Re: Finally get to peek out
FLmutant wrote:

And Mike left out one my favorite of the other little side projects, a selection of fine consumer products.


Oooo oooo, I want an ebola virus outbreak action set from Santa this year!

Nice to see you guys come out from behind the curtain for a bit!
_________________
"I still miss him to this day and probably always will." - Todd Keeler, Chasing the Wish

"meta meta meta, I made you out of play..." ~ j5

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:31 pm
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pking10185
Boot

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 10

 		Mike and Brian,

Thanks so much for the behind the scenes info. Your posts have been the most interesting thing I've read in a long time (the Steinitz forum site has been painfully slow reading lately Mad )

I was surprised to learn that Brian Clark played Marlene, I was sure that it was Dr. Johnson pictured on the Steinitz Skulls site.

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:46 pm
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enaxor
I Have No Life

Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 2395
FLmutant wrote:


Yeah, I've been enjoying the forums especially. I'm ready to participate in an ARG for a change!
Brian


Looks like Perplex City will be starting soon......look forward to seeing you there.

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=73
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:06 pm
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patl
Kilroy

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 1
Location: Cambridge, MA

 		Hello, Mike/Charlie! I am a little confused about the order of events. First you said:

CharlieTan wrote:
The initial story and characters of Peter, Mike, and Natalie were created by a talented writer named Andy Carrigan from Weiden+Kennedy NY. He also wrote the three "perspectives" commercials you see on television, and had brought in Dr. Crypton to create a puzzle for the story.

...which sounds like the story was created before the puzzle. Then you said:
Quote:
If anything, the narrative was the thing that was too restricted, as it was the last thing to be done when in reality it should have been first.

...which sounds like the story (narrative) came last. I suspect I misunderstand what you mean by "narrative".

Could you clarify? In particular, I am curious in what order 1) the PNM story, 2) the puzzle proper, and 3) the Steinitz background were written. I figured Hoffman wrote the Steinitz background and puzzle proper, and then the PNM story and Web adventure were created later. Apparently, I got it exactly backwards!

Many thanks,
Pat (aka. LeedsMan)

PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:32 pm
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CharlieTan
Boot

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 10
Location: Borelando, FL
patl wrote:
Hello, Mike/Charlie! I am a little confused about the order of events.


patl wrote:
Could you clarify? In particular, I am curious in what order 1) the PNM story, 2) the puzzle proper, and 3) the Steinitz background were written. I figured Hoffman wrote the Steinitz background and puzzle proper, and then the PNM story and Web adventure were created later. Apparently, I got it exactly backwards!


Yeah, it's a little confusing. First there were character outlines and the "story" of the three tv spots. In other words, the events in the commercial were written out (P,M,N around the chateau, Mike drives car into pool), and very slight character back story elements. The Steinitz background was not a part of it. Paul was talking to them about making a puzzle, but the work on that had not started yet. The early teaser spot with the woman looking at the painting and opening her eyes had already been shot without being integrated.

We had to create a story that took all those disparate elements and figure out how to execute it. Paul wrote the puzzle for the first urn and the second urn for us to use in the story, then worked on the third urn puzzle that had to be integrated. The third urn puzzle was given to us as we were writing the second draft of the story. We had no idea what the puzzle would be or even what form it would take. Paul gave us some enigmatic hints about things to incorporate in the story (chess, unnatural death, etc.), but other than that we had no idea. We created the Steinitz stuff based on the first urn puzzle and built it out from there.

Paul wrote the urn puzzles, but we created the "meta-puzzles" such as the STRATEGY puzzle and the DDS puzzle revealing the prizes before the official announcement.

Does that make sense? Perhaps this will be better covered in the post-game chat in January.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:09 pm
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FLmutant
Decorated


Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 244
Location: Orlando, FL
CharlieTan wrote:

Yeah, it's a little confusing ... The Steinitz background was not a part of it.


In fact, as some of you discovered, they were originally going to be about Bardeleben but a last minute directive had us switch to the opposite player. Would you believe it had something to do with where they are buried?

So even we got a little confused from time to time, as we sandwiched moving targets together inside the "narrative" (which is the word we've been using for all the websites after Moretosee.com where the ARG and stories and community unfolded.)


Brian

PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:07 pm
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msbriannamk78
Greenhorn

Joined: 17 Dec 2004
Posts: 8

 		Can I ask a quick question about merchandise?lol I know that there have a few of us wondering if we'd see a t-shirt or baseball cap(which I'd love..lol) after all this is done? Lord knows even if we didn't have the right answer in the end....at least we could have something to show for the weeks and weeks of effort....lol Rob and I would be happy....lol


Thanks! And I second Varin....these posts have been just as rewarding as the actually game.



xoxo
Brianna

PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:58 pm
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CharlieTan
Boot

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 10
Location: Borelando, FL

 		msbriannamk78,

There won't be any T-shirts or other merch -- decision is not ours to make, unfortunately.

But if you're into Reemco and their fine products then you can always pick up some fine merchandise from the Reemco Company Store.

Wink

PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:10 pm
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bruttium
Greenhorn


Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 4
CharlieTan wrote:
Paul wrote the urn puzzles, but we created the "meta-puzzles" such as the STRATEGY puzzle and the DDS puzzle revealing the prizes before the official announcement.


Ah....That explains why those "meta-puzzles" were so straightforward. LOL.

Razz

Hey....Here's another question: What was the whole deal with the skulls? I mean, actually, the real skulls. The ones you gave to some of us in the Cranium Club. And what about the ones on EBay? Was that really ugly one on EBay some sort of prototype gone horribly wrong? Smile

Cheers!

PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:23 am
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CharlieTan
Boot

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 10
Location: Borelando, FL
bruttium wrote:
Ah....That explains why those "meta-puzzles" were so straightforward. LOL.


Yes -- those puzzles were created at the spur of the moment, and were never planned or scheduled to happen.

As for the CC skulls, those were something we wanted to do to reward the hard core puzzlers who were contributing to the community. We were going to do about 35 of them and send them out to the best contributors. Typically, we are given free reign to make decisions like that on our own, but as this campaign progressed it became clear for a variety of reasons that the CC skulls would have to go all the way through the nightmarish approval process set up for us. Since they were not scheduled or budgeted, we decided not to do it rather than deal with the hassle, but a few of them escaped due to a communications error on our side. So if you got one, it's a super limited edition collectible! Wink

The loss of the Cranium Club was the second biggest heartbreak for me. The first was a Charlie Tan Chat Bot we wanted to set up -- a bot that you would have to chat with -- say the right things to him and he would give you hints or confirm things for you. Again it was a situation where the time frame and the budget simply didn't allow for it to happen, but rest assured the chat bot will return in (hopefully) the next one... which is being cooked up as I type. Twisted Evil

The eBay skulls were both made for the project and the ugly one was indeed an experiment gone wrong!

PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 11:11 pm
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Varin
I Have No Life


Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 2456
Location: South of where I used to be
CharlieTan wrote:
the next one... which is being cooked up as I type. Twisted Evil


Yay! Very Happy
_________________
"I still miss him to this day and probably always will." - Todd Keeler, Chasing the Wish

"meta meta meta, I made you out of play..." ~ j5

PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:01 am
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domhc
Kilroy

Joined: 19 Dec 2004
Posts: 1

 		chmod here...

I just wanted to apologize for going off on the PMs a few weeks back on the steinitz forum. You guys really did a great job. Reading this post makes me realize the most intriguing portions of the game were from you guys. NDN, Charlie and Marlene made the game. Having a cast of characters that inhabit the forums really created something special. I had assumed that content was being created from different sources, so I hope my comments didn't offend Smile I still think the contest and the puzzle could have been handled better. But that wasn't you guys Razz. The content that I wanted more of was the stuff that you guys wrote!

I can certainly sympathize with wanting to do things with the game, and being shot down. I 'm working on a game with a license, and sometime it feels like the licensors tie our hands, and then stomp on us... repeatedly.. and then do it again... several times Razz

Hopefully the next ARG you do you will have more control over all the different aspects of the game, as i think you guys really know what you are doing, and could really make it come to life. Thanks for the experience!

chmod

PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:54 am
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FLmutant
Decorated


Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 244
Location: Orlando, FL
domhc wrote:
chmod here...
I just wanted to apologize for going off on the PMs a few weeks back on the steinitz forum. You guys really did a great job. Reading this post makes me realize the most intriguing portions of the game were from you guys. NDN, Charlie and Marlene made the game. Having a cast of characters that inhabit the forums really created something special. I had assumed that content was being created from different sources, so I hope my comments didn't offend Smile I still think the contest and the puzzle could have been handled better. But that wasn't you guys Razz. The content that I wanted more of was the stuff that you guys wrote!


No apologies necessary, chmod, we understood where your frustrations were coming from! The whole thing was meant to be entertaining experienced first and foremost ... and people like you probably have a better understanding of what "it" was than client ever will, because you actually experienced it. Glad to hear it was entertaining too Wink


Brian

PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:48 am
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