Redefining Reading – Story Mechanics Signs Publishing Deal For The 39 Steps

Story Mechanics is a division of Tern Television.  For the last several months, the company has been working on a new project, with a very lofty goal – to create an entirely new form of digital entertainment, which bridges the gap between literature, gaming and film.

Story Mechanics‘ first project is the classic The 39 Steps, John Buchan’s tale of high adventure  and espionage in the early 20th century.

The company has now signed a deal which brings three companies together to bring The 39 Steps to market.

Publishing giant Faber & Faber will handle the iOS and OSX releases (iPhones, iPads and Mac computers).  Avanquest will distribute the PC version of the game to retailers and Kiss Ltd will handle digital distribution for the PC.

The… book (?) is due out on the 15th of March 2013.

We were privileged to see an early work-in-progress version of The 39 Steps and it is something genuinely new.

Simon Meek, the creative lead for Story Mechanics told us:

The thirty-nine steps is the first of a new breed of interactive entertainment that brings powerful and emotive storytelling to audiences via digital platforms. we believe the product has the potential to reach out to audiences everywhere – whether they’re core gamers, casual gamers, digital readers or anyone else with a passion for a great story. we have taken great care to hand-pick the best publishing partners need to take this new product to widest possible market.

While the games industry has incorporated story-telling and narrative into many forms of games in the past – with greater or lesser degrees of success – with genres such as text adventures, point and click adventure games and interactive movies, Story Mechanics has created something different…

It’s definitely not a game.  There are no points to score, no way to affect the story, or change the outcome.  It is however an engaging and very different way to experience a classic novel.

Story Mechanics has built an interactive world for each scene in the book.  The story and narrative are presented to the player and the scene itself uses actual descriptions from the text to create each environment and location in some detail.

As readers, we loved it.  It creates an engaging and very unique way to experience the story.  The same method could be applied to contemporary fiction, children’s books and even non fiction.

We’re already fans of where Story Mechanics is taking literature, we can’t wait to see how the rest of the world responds to the company’s first title, The 39 Steps, when it’s released in March.

You can find out more about Story Mechanics and The 39 Steps on the company’s website, on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.