The Daisy Engine is a custom narrative engine that allowed us to create interactive, non-linear narratives. The engine is used in projects for Dutch broadcasting association BNNVARA, the World Wildlife Fund (WNF) and the new Beeld en Geluid Museum. The backbone of the engine are CSV's. Each chapter of a narrative in the Engine has it's own. Writers (and users) can jump between sections both inside and outside of a chapter, allowing for endless branching; The only limits were in our imagination.
Together with the BNNVARA we used the engine to create the first (unreleased :() "Whatsapp Soap", a transmedia experience. Over the course of a season players would receive text messages via the primary storytelling medium: the web app with a WhatsApp-like interface. Here, they could interact with various characters using a multiple-choice answering system. The story world further unfolded via the secondary, more passive, layer; through websites, articles, Youtube videos, etc.
I've created a prototype and written a story allowing 2 weeks of gameplay, accessible via https://www.wetteloos.nl/daisy/.
Most recently, we've used the engine as the core of the companion app of the new Beeld en Geluid Museum, allowing for a fully personalized and seamless museum trip. At the time, this really felt like the project of a lifetime, but as museum exhibitions take a lot of time to build, I left Elastique before the opening in 2023.
Links
- More about Beeld en Geluid
- More about Plastic Afvallen for WNF (Dutch article)
