Do you think you have what it takes to write a story that captures the essence of the picture above? Because that’s exactly what Atomhawk Design wants you to do.
The creators of The Realm—a unique IP conceptualized by Atomhawk Design Art Director Cumron Ashtiani—want to inspire writers to bring forth their ideas into this visually striking universe.
“We wanted to weave in elements of a history, a culture and legend which would make the universe timeless and inspire the viewer to invent their own stories around it,” said Ashtiani.
Last year, Atomhawk set out to crowd source The Realm IP into a stunning point-and-click adventure videogame, but the Kickstarter campaign failed to be funded. Ashtiani said there were many technical issues during last year’s attempt.
“We created our Kickstarter on the UK site and not the US one,” said Ashtiani. “The impact of this is that the UK Kickstarter site doesn’t accept Paypal and Amazon Prime payments—only credit card.”
Ashtiani said that individuals from the US and in Germany were not able to help fund the project, which is why he thinks The Realm game didn’t make the goal.
But this is different. This time Atomhawk and its partner, Mbryonic, want the community to donate stories and ideas inspired by The Realm art to create a crowd story instead. But that doesn’t mean that the game is off the table.
“For us the Realm is an IP that can be applied in many different contexts, gaming is one option, books, toys, artwork can all be part of that package,” he said
The art from the world of The Realm is impressive and Ashtiani said that’s because the setting for The Realm has old English and Scandinavian legend influences as well as some influences from major videogames.
“The key art style influences for The Realm are the epic scale and colorful rendering looks seen in Miyazaki’s films and Eastern video games like Zelda and Ico,” he said. “We coupled the very pure beauty seen in Eastern artwork with a more detailed western look, drawing influence from the works of Pixar and Dreamworks.”
Participants will have the opportunity to look at 26 of The Realm’s best images to create a story that best illustrates the world. Ashtiani said the project has already received a positive response from writing groups and forums.
“It’s an experimental process,” said Ashtiani. “So far the response from our supporters has been great and we’ve already received a number of stories that range vastly in style.”
Participants will have their submissions reviewed by a panel of judges and the winner will have their work published and turned into an interactive animated storybook for tablets. The winner will also receive any profits from the sale of the app.
If you’re interested in submitting a story for The Realm, be sure to head on over to their site to sign up. The competition is going on now through May 10.