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One year ago this autumn,
I reached the culmination of an overwhelming three months of creative work and
collaboration when I designed, wrote and directed The Timekeeper’s Return, a story-based
immersive treasure hunt set in Canterbury’s Cathedral Quarter.
My last blog post on The Timekeeper’s Return was back in
September last year, when I discussed how the project came about, the creative
ideas and themes that shaped the event, and what people who were taking part could expect.
In this longer series
of blog posts, I want to delve into the detail of how The Timekeeper’s Return
was made, including an overview of how the event turned out on the day and the project’s
legacy – for the participants, the Cathedral Quarter, and my own future as I
continue to work in the area of location-based treasure-hunting games for my
practice-based PhD.
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Collaboration
First of all, it’s important to
recognise that The Timekeeper’s Return was not just a personal creative
endeavour. The whole project was conceived in aid of Canterbury Cathedral
Quarter, a newly-established re-branding of Burgate and the streets that branch
off it – Sun St., Mercery Lane, Butchery Lane and Canterbury Lane – led by the
independent businesses operating in the area.
As well as commissioning me to
devise and produce the project, they played an important part in the creative
process. The idea of running a treasure hunt in the area had already been
discussed before I was officially on board; and throughout the three months of
developing the event, I shared numerous meetings with members of the Cathedral
Quarter to discuss my ideas and to delegate different tasks to those who had
volunteered to help.
As you might expect, working with
this group of businesses brought both opportunities as well as challenges. Looking back, though, I’ve come to realise that effectively all the factors I
thought were limitations actually turned out to be very productive for the
project.
Indeed, one of the most cogent lessons I’ve learnt from my time spent
with game designers, particularly indie developers, is that constraints often
provide the springboard you need to be creative. And when you can fulfil your
aims in spite of these constraints, it makes the project even more rewarding.
The most relevant example that
comes to mind is the request by the Cathedral Quarter businesses to see
participants actually enter their businesses as part of the event, rather than
just engaging with the area on a surface level.
My original conception of the treasure
hunt was that the gameplay would progress simply by players finding QR codes
hidden outside on the interesting and historic material surfaces of the area,
with the text of each scanned QR code containing the clues they needed to find
the next one.
But when I met with the business
owners to discuss my ideas, it was apparent that they were particularly keen to
actually get people through their doors to discover why what they offer is
different and special, and therefore worth knowing about.
Clearly this was an
understandable request, as part of the remit for hosting this event included
there being some tangible and material benefit for the Cathedral Quarter
businesses. But for a fair bit of time I struggled to imagine how I could accommodate
this in my design.
In the end, I managed to turn
this situation to my advantage by using the action of entering local businesses
to make the overarching story more immersive.
As well as studying the Cathedral
Quarter in her historical research, I decided that my main character, Dr. Mia Augustina, would now become a
Canterbury local who regularly visited the businesses involved in the event,
and only shared the knowledge of places she was travelling to with her
trustworthy friends in the Cathedral Quarter.
In practice, this revolved around
the clues that led participants to the next QR code. In her research diary
entries - the texts brought up when scanning the QR codes - Mia directed readers cryptically towards the
relevant businesses. But only by entering the businesses and speaking to their
staff could participants get the information they needed to progress,
and help Mia return to the present.
As well as forging positive
relationships between the staff and the participants, this fictional premise
drew very effectively on the notion of participants being co-conspirators in a
web of secrets that regular passersby weren’t aware of. In any kind of treasure
hunting game, creating the impression that participants are part of a ‘secret
society’ is always an effective method of turning the activity from a
box-ticking, objective-completion exercise into one that is empowering and
exciting. In this case, the society they were becoming part of, perhaps without
realising at the time, was the Cathedral Quarter community.
By engaging both with the
historic fabric of stories intertwined within the present landscape, and the
living inhabitants of the Cathedral Quarter today, what resulted was a story
that weaved together past and present in a much more powerful way than if the
event were just a history lesson told through the medium of a treasure hunt.
It’s a particular point of pride
for me that I managed to overcome this challenge in a way that benefitted the
final outcome. I was worried that people expecting a standard treasure hunt
format might be put off by having to actually talk to people!
Yet the feedback
from both the testers and final players clearly indicated that talking to
independent businesspeople, who were so passionate about what they do, was one of
their favourite parts of the experience.
"Was
great and the shops
that took part were amazing!! Even though they were busy, they took the time
out to take part!!"
"It
was so
immersive and such a joy to take part in, from the hosts to the fantastic staff
in the shops we visited; we were thrilled!! Thank you again!"
"So
many lovely
shops we'd never been in before despite living in Canterbury. I'm
planning a Christmas shopping day to revisit without the kids very soon!!"
"A big thank you to all the businesses
that were involved for being so gracious with us treasure hunters even though
they were so busy."
Though the success of this aspect
of the event surpassed my expectations, perhaps I should’ve known this would be
the case. After all, talking to people and making them feel welcome is an
essential part of being a successful small retailer.
So there's a lesson here about the importance of being aware and making the most of the strengths of those you collaborate with. But even so, all the staff
did a fantastic job in being so accommodating, despite often being extremely
busy during peak trading hours on a Saturday.
I’m also very grateful for the
extra labour and effort taken on by particularly hard-working members of the Cathedral Quarter
team, without which the event
would not have been so successful. This work included the hosting of the QR code
texts on the Cathedral Quarter website (and their patience as I slaved over making
the writing as compelling as I could), their huge efforts in marketing the
event (including covering the costs of things like adverts and printing), and
their continued dialogue with me during the production of the event and
afterwards.
Overall, it was a wonderful
partnership that brought out the best in both parties, and stood us in good
stead for our respective future ambitions – the Cathedral Quarter as a thriving
local community of independent businesses, and mine as a location-based game
designer.
The next post in the Making the Timekeeper's Return series focuses on the processes of research and writing.
