ENTERTAINING FANS By Creating Spheres of Immersion

COMPANY UPDATE

• Hotel Erebus Hardcovers are arriving from the printer in a few days(Fedex says Friday the 6th) and shipping to Kickstarter supporters.

• Chapters of my dark fantasy novella CLEAVE are going to Royal Road by the end of the week and then launching on Kickstarter shortly after.

• My next book, a cyberpunk novel called Mad Malitia, is 25 pages in—out of a proposed 245 pages. First draft should be done by the end of February.

You, as an individual creative, CAN create “spheres of immersion”. And what are spheres of immersion? Simply, I describe them as this:

A sphere of immersion(SOI) is a collection of transmedia expressions of an intellectual property that satisfies on various levels and provides a sense of verisimilitude. (Ex. Enjoying Transformers because of the breadth of media available as movies, toys, video games, books, comic books, etc.)

This is why lore is so important to stories if you’re trying to build a property that is an SOI. It implies that the world within the story exists beyond the specific series of events you personally experience within it. If you read The Hobbit and then the Lord of the Rings books, you can also read about historical lore within Tolkien’s imagination that predated all of the events of the actual books. SOIs create fans, fanatics whose interest is heightened by the ancillary content and context.

“Fandom” derives from an unusual level of excitement for an entertainment property. Disney, Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and DC Comics, Barbie, Warhammer, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, Pokemon, Harry Potter, Dungeons & Dragons, Cyberpunk(personal favorite), etc. These franchises would be considered SOIs.

For instance, the 1980s were an engine of SOIs. Every major property was a transmedia titan: GI Joe, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Voltron and too many others to rattle off. Each property was expressed through various transmedia: a TV show, toy line, comic book and miscellaneous merchandise.

Eternia was a good time…

People love Warhammer 40K because of the vast, VAST levels of immersive potential. There are tabletop games, video games, toys, paintable figurines, statues, a library’s worth of books, animated episodes, YouTube videos and a growing collection of new content. There are thousands of characters across millennia worth of story to delve into.

I’ll be clear, though: a property doesn’t need to be an SOI in order to successfully entertain. One-offs are more than enough to be successful. One of my favorite games ever, Sleeping Dogs, never got a sequel or anything else for that matter. No movies. No books. No merch. Nothing. I still remember the game, the experience, the story. My point is that SOIs give you more of what you want and can improve the overall experience.

YOU CAN DO IT

We live in a unique inflection point in history, detailed by my previous article which can be found here…

…but the change is that now, with new and rapidly-advancing technologies, we independent creatives can do more with a whole lot less; less money, less resources, less professional connections.

Decades ago, if you wanted to write a book, you could do it on your own, but that’s about it. Want to take your idea and turn it into an animated show? Good luck with that. Movie? Good luck with that. Video game? Good luck with that. You’d need entire teams of people and millions of dollars of capital investment to move that much intelligence to create your product.

This XL 3D Printer currently costs $750 on Amazon.

With access to powerful AI platforms, 3D printing and relatively inexpensive online print and eCommerce storefronts, an individual or a small group could conceivably create a transmedia property and express it in a variety of means. Books, comic books, 3D printed figurines, soundtracks(via platforms like Suno), image galleries and short films could all be done with existing technology. Oh, and Elon Musk just filed with the FCC to put one-million AI satellites in space that would enable us to generate full-length movies and even video games via prompts in just a few years.

Notice that I didn’t say anything about getting rich by doing any of this. This is entirely about potential creative output and the quality of life benefits derived from this for both creators and consumers.

MORE FOR LESS

For the upcoming CLEAVE dark fantasy novel, I’m going to be selling pre-orders for the book I wrote 100% with my own human agency, BUT, IN ADDITION TO THAT, I’m also offering a 60>90-minute digital soundtrack I generated via Suno and a digital art book I developed with the help of SuperGrok, that I’ll be offering to go along with the CLEAVE soft/hardcovers for no additional charges to the pre-order customers.

CLEAVE Kickstarter preview link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stratum/cleave-a-blood-thirsty-dark-fantasy-novella-by-sarj

I’m no musician, nor am I an illustrator, but I can now give you additional enjoyment for little to no additional cost to me in regards to time, energy, capital or resources. A soundtrack that would’ve been impossible to produce by me is now relatively easy. I don’t need to be a music producer with six or seven figures of capital to invest into an album. I don’t need to spend 10,000 hours to learn how to paint and then spend a year to create an art book. It’s relatively simple to create a beautiful set of images that will offer you enhanced immersion into the world of CLEAVE at no cost to you and little cost to me. The human-written book is the actual sellable product(the cake); everything else is additional icing.

Concept art of physical versions of CLEAVE novel, an art book and CD soundtrack. The book, images and music tracks all exist right now, just not in physical formats.

Concept art. With 3D printing, this could be a reality.

So, what are you waiting for? Be great and create!

SARJ OUT