The Objectives:

The True West Founder’s Club was conceived as a way to integrate storytelling practices from the world of game design, immersive theatre, and themed entertainment to create an experience that would engage the already existing community around True West Coffee as well as bring in new members to the community by appealing to individuals of all ages as well as strong local interest in practices like geocaching and similar experiential and interactive events. The experience would also incentivize repeat visits to the shop to receive new coasters and work through the various real world puzzles incorporated in the narrative.

The Processes for this project are still ongoing, you can check out the conceptual work through the links provided above.

The True West Founder’s Club is a currently in development concept for a narrative driven mug club-esque experience. Inspired by the likes of Gideon’s Bakehouse and the Disney Parks’ ongoing S.E.A. plot, the project would have participating patrons at True West Coffee in Hamilton, Ohio receive a custom coaster each month based on one of a set of twelve fictional characters, with links and passwords to enter sites developed in Twine to learn more about the stories of these character’s. Through a combination of readings, audio, and puzzles on the Twine site as well as puzzles and live events in the real world restaurant participants would be able to piece together the mystery of The True West Society, a once proud group of scholars, artists, explorers, and free thinkers who one day disappeared without a trace. The experience would culminate in a live event influenced by immersive theatre where participants would be able to meet the characters, and at last have all the answers revealed to them.

Read selections of the ongoing story document here

View the pitch slides here