Make Together Play Together
Together brings the power of game engine technology and puts it in the hands of live performance makers. Together makes fun things happen.
What is TOGETHER?
Play Together: Using a custom wireless network that can be set up in minutes, each audience member uses a mobile device that connects them directly to the action via a show-specific UI. The showrunner interface allows the Actors and Operators to make real-time decisions on when and how to send collaborative games, fun interactive tasks, and media rich dashboards to each audience member. The System then allows the audience to respond to the Operators and Actors, creating a uniquely live collaborative experience.
Powered by the Unreal Engine, Together is a live content creation and delivery platform that is being developed to help performance makers use game engine technology in the production of their live events.
TOGETHER componentizes collaborative game mechanics in a way that can be repackaged to reduce development costs for projects with limited budgets.
Together could revolutionise live performance in the same way that virtual production has transformed Film & TV creation.
Make Together: Together streamlines collaboration between Live Performance Makers (Writers, Directors, Designers, etc) and Game Developers. Using editable datatables, a catalogue of prebuilt interactive components and an interface that links to common theatre technologies, all parties can work together to create complex and fun interactions. Standardising components significantly reduces production costs for creatives and enables faster delivery of the final product.
System Prototype:
Destination Mars
In 2021, with the support of an Epic MegaGrant, we created the interactive space adventure Destination Mars. The show used Unreal to give each of the 120 audience members the ability to interact and affect the story. Unreal also allowed the actors to know the names and location of every audience member and gave them the ability to select individuals for specific tasks and games. Most immersive and interactive experiences require large cast sizes and huge sets; using Unreal, Destination Mars was able to play every 75 minutes with only two actors, in a confined 20m x 20m floor plan.
Unreal did not replace live performance - it enhanced it. It gave the actors the ability to know their audience and engage in ways not possible until now. And it placed the audience right in the heart of the story.
The next step…
TOGETHER 2.0
Together 2.0 builds on 3 years of development and testing, adding additional functionality while making it more intuitive and user-friendly.
New co-operative games mechanics and interactions will be added for the audience while an updated UI will give live performance makers even more control over general show variables, leaving the game developers more time to do what they are good at.
The updated system will allow us to create new shows, quickly and efficiently, with an aim to allow other makers to develop their own content. In theatre and live performance the barriers to creating interactive work without significant financial support are real - effectively blocking smaller, independent artists from even attempting this style of work.
We see Together as an analog to Virtual Production, changing live production in the way that it changed TV and Film makin. We believe, with the technology now at our fingertips, it is time to disrupt the way live performance is created through a technical revolution of its own, and actually start to change the way people think about how live performance is made and experienced.