IDEAS Fest

The IDEAS Festival was a yearly New Media festival sponsored by the Telecommunications department of Indiana University in Bloomington. Studio Cypher used a mixed media story to promote the 2006 IDEAS Festival. We created a series of four humorous websites and short radio-plays which were released once a week for the four weeks before the IDEAS Fest.

The websites told the story of time-traveller Silas McGuffin as he tried to steal the show at the IDEAS Fests of 1906, 1936, 1965, and 1984. The accompanying radio plays and player creativity got people involved before the IDEAS Fest even began.

The story ended at the actual IDEAS Festival with a player quest and a climactic video, but our involvement with the IDEAS Festival did not end there. Studio Cypher promoted visitor participation and interaction with a live game that encouraged the audience to talk with the exhibitors and learn about their projects and displays.