The Realm is an interactive storybook for iPad and Android tablets that we are developing in partnership with Atomhawk Design.

The Realm is set in a far distant future where nature has reclaimed the earth and magic and mysticism is on the rise once more. The concept was initiated by Atomhawk an award winning concept art and animation studio based in Gateshead.

Atomhawk are normally busy creating concept art for clients like Microsoft, Sony and Marvel Pictures. However The Realm’s twenty six illustrations were developed in Atomhawk’s down time as an internal exercise. There was not a clear plan of how they would be used. We worked with Atomhawk to develop a number of concepts around the IP.

Both Atomhawk and Mbryonic’s background are in the video games industry. Therefore we decided initially to develop a video game concept. We put together an experienced team and created a design for a point and click style adventure game. We launched a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for development and attracted almost £100K in pledges.

We also decided to re-use the existing illustrations to create an animated interactive storybook for tablet. However the game story outline we created was not suitable for this format.

So we went back to the public but not for money this time. Instead we asked them to create a story for our book. We developed a web-platform called Crowd Story that enabled our users to write stories to our illustrations. We ran a competition and received entries from all round the world.

We have taken the winning entry by Sharita Russell, from Australia, and are in the process of developing an interactive storybook application around her story. We are creating the storybook using Unity a popular game development platform.

We’ve used the gyroscopic sensors in the iPad to create an entrancing 3D parallax effect. Each scene is brought to life with subtle animations created using advanced graphic techniques normally found in video games. We are building in simple fun interactions to increase the readers engagement with the story. And to top it off, the experience will have an emotive score by Novello nominated music composer Richard Jacques.

We plan to release The Realm in the spring of 2015.