Category: News (Page 3 of 183)

I Think There Might Be an Official Phantom of the Opera ARG

April 24, 2025 / Michael Andersen

The unassuming building that will soon serve as home for Masquerade NYC

If you took a trip out to the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan today, you’d probably walk past without looking twice. The former home of Lee’s Art Shop still bears its prior signage despite closing down in 2016, and the windows are papered over with old newspapers. But on the off chance you did stop to peer at the articles obscuring the view through the building’s large glass windows, you might notice that a couple of those newspapers aren’t just old, they’re practically ancient – dating back to Paris in the 1880s.

This starts to make sense once you realize that Lee’s Art Shop is in the process of transforming into the Paris Opera House, to play host to the upcoming immersive production of Phantom of the Opera, Masquerade NYC. And enough curious events are happening, that I’m beginning to suspect they’re running an alternate reality game to welcome the show into the world.

Act I: Letters from the Opera Ghost
Rumors have been circulating across Broadway for the past few months that Phantom of the Opera would be returning to New York City in the form of an immersive show of some sort. But last year, those rumors started solidifying into something real when Broadway World flagged the casting notice for “UNTITLED IMMERSIVE MUSICAL ATTRACTION”, posted by POTO LLC.

Those rumors further solidified when ardent fans tracked down documents filed with New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Committee outlining the team’s plans to respect the building’s 130 year history as they transform it into a 140 year old Parisian theater. And starting in late 2024 a minimalist version of the MasqueradeNYC.com website went live, asking devoted fans to register for updates – what their Instagram account would later take to referring to as “submitting to the Ledger”.

An early version of the now-red signup page at MasqueradeNYC.com

In March, people who signed up for the list received an email from the Opera Ghost containing a red letter, and a link to the MasqueradeNYC Instagram account reading:

Fondest Greetings.

You submitted your name to my ledger, and for that you shall be among the first to glimpse the strange new world beyond the mirror.

Though the veil is drawn,
the stage is being set
and the Masquerade will soon begin.
Your Host

A month later, fan and Phantom-inspired romance author Jessica Mason received a physical letter from the Opera Ghost in the mail. She had previously made a TikTok video about the virtual letter, but its physical counterpart was significantly more personal. It wasn’t written to a generic Phantom fan. It was written with her in mind.

Dearest Jessica,

Your keen attention to my Masquerade has not gone unnoticed. The devotion you pour into your tales of the Opera Ghost makes you no stranger to the shadows – and soon, you will be able to step into them yourself.

A Masquerade awaits – when the moment comes, be prepared to cross the veil from fiction into reality. Until then, let your pen wander freely.

Your obedient servant,
O.G.

Over the next few days, a host of these deeply personalized letters from the Phantom started going out to other Phantom, Broadway, and immersive theater fans.

The SFX makeup artist @Ash.Paints.Faces received a note saying, “I have seen your artistry – how you wield paint like a mask, transforming faces into visions both haunting and divine. Such talent does not go unnoticed, least of all by one who knows the power of a well-crafted illusion.” Museum of Broadway brand ambassador Malcolm Hollis’ letter reads, “a theater aficionado like you knows the magic isn’t just in the spotlight – it’s in the shadows too. How eager you seem to be to unveil the details of my Masquerade. Where would be the fun in that?” Letter after letter from the Opera Ghost, wooing individual patrons with flattery and kind words. Like he knows them. Like he sees them. Like he hears them.

The Devil is in the Paperwork: The SCP Foundation Has a New ARG

February 18, 2025 / Michael Andersen

SCP: Afterworld gameplay, through an echonet computer terminal at the end of the world

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I’m sitting in front of an antiquated computer trying to pull up shipping records from a logistics company hoping it might explain how things turned pear-shaped. How did a single missing delivery turn into the apocalypse…and are there any clues to give the survivors a sliver of hope for surviving another day?

SCP: Afterworld is a browser-based alternate reality game created by Those Beyond that starts its tale after a Total Containment Failure at the SCP Foundation. Episodic chapters allow players to piece together what went wrong with the world. For the first chapter, gameplay which focuses around exploring the intranet of echonet, a logistics company that specializes in the “ultra secure transport for high risk samples + specimens”, told through a point and click interface.

The difficulty level is scaled to make this accessible for players approaching the game as a single-player experience in a way that feels reminiscent of Alice & Smith’s The Black Watchmen ARG, although built-in chat features do allow for more collaborative playthroughs.

The Flipbook Creator With a Hidden ARG

December 30, 2024 / Michael Andersen

Future Andy, sending a cryptic message from the year 2059

Andy Bailey is a stop-motion animator who worked on films like ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Wendell & Wild, and the most recent Chicken Run movie. When he’s not working on feature films, however, he runs the YouTube channel Andymation, which celebrates animated flipbooks as a creative medium. Over the years he’s created a series of flipbooks using invisible ink, created microscopic flipbooks, dove into the history of some of the oldest flipbooks, and even holds an annual flipbook festival. He’s also spent the last few years slowly injecting a narrative about his future self into his videos…and whatever has been going on, seems to be escalating.

Future Andy Emerges, With Really Cool Sunglasses
It all seems to have started in 2019, when Andy made a flipbook of a flux capacitor which caused him to time travel to the 90s, allowing him to reflect on how he fell in love with stop motion animation as a kid. After returning to the present, he brought back a pair of sunglasses and portable FM radio headphones. Later that year, Future Andy came back in that same iconic outfit to celebrate Andymation crossing the 1 million subscriber milestone.

Beard hair powered time travel, with Present and Future Andys. Robin is part of it too, somehow.

Every now and then, Future Andy would return to visit the Andymation channel. In 2021, Future Andy traveled back in time using a beard hair-powered flux capacitor to warn present Andy to enforce strict guidelines for Flipbook Fest 2022, or risk injuring his thumb. He’d also make a return for the Flipbook Fest 2024 announcement, although this time he was explicitly there to observe (and open a pack or two of Garbage Pail Kids cards).

The Ministry of Lost Things Takes PostCurious in an Episodic Direction

October 16, 2024 / Michael Andersen

I have a confession to make: I misplace things all the time. That copy of Ship of Theseus I bought that I was saving for a rainy day? Gone. The transparent lock I used for lockpicking practice? Haven’t seen it in years. My Flynn Lives pin, from the Tron Legacy ARG? Fell off my lanyard at last year’s New York Comic Con, never to be seen again. Many of those lost items are easily replaceable: I still don’t know what happened to my original copy of Ship of Theseus, but I currently have a new copy on my shelf. But some items have enough sentimental value that they can’t be replaced…and that’s where the Ministry of Lost Things comes in.

PostCurious’ newest narrative puzzle game, The Ministry of Lost Things, introduces its players to a world where many of the world’s forgotten or misplaced items make their way to the Elusiverse. Most of these items that disappear from our world are easily forgotten, leading to regions of the Elusiverse overflowing with everything from unwanted receipts to abandoned umbrellas. But sometimes, an item charged with sentimental value goes missing. And it’s up to the Ministry’s Department of Returns to bring those items home.

The Ministry of Lost Things: Lint Condition is positioned as the first in a series of games exploring the Elusiverse, and tasks players with locating one particular item with deep sentimental value attached to it, and returning it to our world. The adventure unfolds across a series of four puzzle packets. Solving a series of puzzles will help narrow down where in the Elusiverse the object can be found, why it meant so much to its previous owner, and where to return it.

A Murder Mystery, Hidden Within the Silent Hill Historical Society?

September 24, 2024 / Michael Andersen

The Silent Hill Historical Society is a small organization dedicated to preserving the small town’s rich history. Which makes their decision to set up shop on the grounds of a prison whose inmates were wiped out by disease a little questionable. Still…lakefront property doesn’t come cheap, so the lapse in judgment can be forgiven. Covering up the murder of a former colleague? Slightly less forgivable.

The Silent Hill Historical Society is an alternate reality game connected to the Silent Hill franchise, created by Konami the team at Daiyonkyokai (“The Fourth Boundary”), the Japanese collective of ARG creators previously behind Project:;COLD. And while Project:;COLD is only available in Japanese, The Silent Hill Historical Society is structured to allow gameplay in English or Japanese, by selecting the preferred language in the upper right corner of the website.

A Deceptively Simple Structure, Obscuring Surprising Depth
On the surface, interactivity with the website is limited: the site’s “Contact” page is down, and the only thing visitors can do is take the Ultimate Silent Hill Quiz: a series of 10 questions that can be answered by closely reading the website, paired with a little research into the Silent Hill games themselves. Fans capable of acing that test are encouraged to tackle the advanced level, an additional 20 questions that go even deeper into the Historical Society’s archives.

Curiously, while the staff pages feature six employees at the Silent Hill Historical Society, staff posts reference a seventh employee, erased from the site. That former employee’s story is told through a series of 36 hidden pages, scattered throughout the website. Some of those links are clickable links that can be found by closely investigating each page of the website, while others require a bit more creativity, finding the right keywords and entering them into the website’s URL, after the domain name.

Unpacking MatPat’s New LoreFi ARG

July 15, 2024 / Michael Andersen

A teaser clip for Lore-Fi, featuring Taylor resting in front of her computer

“Hello. My name is Gregory Daniels. I’m twelve years old. I live at 3251 Spring Lake Drive, and I’ve been kidnapped!”

Not exactly what you’d expect to hear when loading up a lofi beats YouTube channel. Then again, MatPat’s newest alternate reality game LoreFi isn’t only focused on creating a playlist of over eight hours of chill beats that can provide a low-stress soundtrack for your life. It also plans on using that lofi beats channel to deliver a slow burn mystery set to play out over the span of months.

Taylor’s room, as featured in the LoreFi livestream

Meet Taylor: Lore Through Environmental Storytelling
Gregory Daniels may be missing, but we don’t find out much about him through the initial launch of LoreFi. Instead, we’re introduced to Taylor, a teenaged girl chilling out to music in her apartment.

Her interests are laid bare in the objects she’s collected over the years: VHS tapes and a trophy from her time in ballet…a gaming console and toys to show she’s a gamer…a “sweet drawing” her friends found at school…and a binder full of CD mix-tapes she burned after downloading the files off the GrapeVyne, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the peer-to-peer downloading client LimeWire, which was a major source of pirated music back in the mid-2000s.

This particular element of gameplay is reminiscent of the indie game Unpacking, which tasks players with unpacking boxes as the main character moves in to a series of new places. It’s a story that packs a surprisingly powerful emotional punch as you experience the highs and lows of a character, as told through the objects they take with them in life.

And while those stories unfold best over time, LoreFi is already showing some hints of that emotional roller-coaster. Because while Taylor’s dad sends her a message “Hey kiddo, how are you” on the computer, she’s crudely erased him from a family photo with red pen, and added a drawing of an ominous figure opening the door in the same color. “Call Dad” has also been removed from her to do list.

Taylor nods at a shadowy figure in the doorway, just off camera

The stream also has a number of custom animations that add further depth to the story: every now and then, Taylor’s computer enters screensaver mode, scrolling through a series of art pieces likely drawn by her, before she clicks the mouse to return to GrapeVyne. Later on in the night, her door creaks open and the shadow of a figure enters the frame, causing Taylor to take off her headphones and give a silent nod of assent, a slightly less ominous version of the encounter pinned to her corkboard.

The stream is filled with subtler moments, as well. Every now and then, Taylor receives messages from friends and classmates. And at one pivotal point near the beginning of the stream, her computer gets infected with a virus.