Post-hypertext fiction ? Or more hype?

Authors collaborate with game designers to retell six classic stories in a project led by Penguin UK called We Tell Stories.

Screenshot of Penguin's digital story project We Tell Stories

The words Penguin uses to describe the project are interesting:

  • its “most ambitious digital writing project to date.”
  • “Penguin has challenged some of its top authors to create new forms of story – designed specially for the internet.”
  • “creating tales that take full advantage of the immediacy, connectivity and interactivity that is now possible.”
  • “These stories could not have been written 200, 20 or even 2 years ago.”

What do you think?

And if you’re wondering about Penguin’s choice of using game designers for the project, listen to episode 108 of CBC’s tech show Spark. It interviews game design gurus Jesse Schell and Kevin Kell, with Jesse Schell predicting the “gameification” of much more of our lives, including education (!?).