Marvinter: A case study of an inclusive transmedia storytelling production

Abstract

This article examines how the unique characteristics of Marvinter, an inclusive transmedia Advent calendar, affected its production and the individual media workers involved in this. In the native transmedia Marvinter project, a radio series and a mobile game were created and released simultaneously. Using ‘partly shared’ resources, the project was developed by two collaborating, non-profit organisations. Each chapter of the digital game had to match the corresponding radio episode. The whole had to be designed to provide a shared cultural experience that included people with hearing or visual impairments. The authors of the present article were part of the game development team and thus directly experienced the complexity of developing a digital game as part of a transmedia project. This article presents the results of a case study with an insider perspective. It is supplemented by semi-structured interviews with key people in the project. The transmedia nature of Marvinter was justified by the need to include people with complementary disabilities. Although sometimes associated with negative connotations of ‘naked commercialisation’ in transmedia contexts, the marketing strategy was here an important element in promoting inclusivity. However, owing to the concurrent work processes, game production became overly complex.

A Survey Analysis of Art Teachers’ Use of Transmedia Technology

“…It can integrate the industry of entertainment and museum context. Brusk & Engstrom (2020) present a unique inclusive transmedia project, called Marvinter, that focuses on making radio series and mobile games with similar episodes. The project is designed for people who have hearing or vision impairment that is why transmedia technology is needed due to its multi environmental nature.…”

Accessibility of games and game-based applications: A systematic literature review and mapping of future directions

“…1 Study (Prandi et al, 2017) 2 2 Studies (Brusk and Engström, 2021;Chebka and Essalmi, 2015) 10 Studies (Andrade et al, 2019;Brusk and Engström, 2021;Dobosz and Adamczyk, 2020;Glattke et al, 2019;Gusev et al, 2016;Herskovitz et al, 2020;Lozano et al, 2018;Mahardhika et al, 2019;Regal et al, 2020;Torres-Carazo et al, 2016) 3 Studies (Joddrell and Astell, 2019;Martins et al, 2020 (Rector et al, 2017;Torres-Carazo et al, 2016) 3 Studies (Gelsomini et al, 2019;Gerling et al, 2016a;Kang et al, 2021) 3 Studies (Gerling et al, 2016a;Mason et al, 2019Mason et al, , 2020 2 Studies…”

“…I thought that given the foundational importance of said models in the disability literature, they would be the most likely theory used by accessibility researchers. Twelve studies (Beckett et al, 2016;Beeston et al, 2018;Bujari et al, 2015;Cairns et al, 2019b;Cinquin et al, 2019;Dombrowski et al, 2019;Garcia and de Almeida Neris, 2020;Gonçalves et al, 2020;Leite et al, 2019;Merritt, 2017;Salen Tekinbaş, 2017;Wasserman et al, 2019) made explicit or strong implicit Children with disabilities (Beckett et al, 2016;Brusk and Engström, 2021;Buzzi et al, 2019;Cabrera et al, 2017;Correa et al, 2018;El Hammoumi et al, 2018;Gelsomini et al, 2019;Grabski et al, 2016;Kamaruzaman et al, 2016;Kang et al, 2021;Mahardhika et al, 2019;Mikulowski, 2018;Othman et al, 2019;Ringland, 2019;Rocha et al, 2019;…”

An “Animated Spatial Time Machine” in Co-Creation: Reconstructing History Using Gamification Integrated into 3D City Modelling, 4D Web and Transmedia Storytelling

“…Telling interactive stories in a visualisation and animation concept creates a higher level of user interaction in a virtual environment [120]. When substantial changes occur in the story, the disadvantage is that the production costs increase inconsistently, because more than one medium has to be adapted, so it can be difficult to finance without more funds [119,121]. Nevertheless, the possibilities of TS are growing thanks to the new digital developments [122].…”

“…Transmedia supports new pedagogics, and interdisciplinary collaboration might solve complex educational problems [142]. TS should include people with visual or hearing impairments, so if transmedia production spans multiple media platforms, it is particularly suitable for these people in a shared storytelling world [121]. Figure 8 shows different 3D tools during the 3D co-creative project.…”