Writers are now able to use different forms of media to tell a story. Most think of that strictly in terms of books, video game, or movies. But why couldn’t books become an interactive, immersive experience?

Novelist Kate Pullinger has created Inanimate Alice with idea of a new way of reading in mind. The reader is taken through a story that contains puzzles and games that grow more complex as the story unfolds.

“Inanimate Alice has been created as a world story,” said series producer Ian Harper. “It is about peoples and places and the world young people experience today. It reaches beyond borders and the constraints of language and religion.”

Inanimate Alice may feel more like a casual game, but the game aspects are there to enhance the story.

Harper commented, “It is gratifying to see the series being deployed across wide age ranges, encouraging the hard-to-engage while inspiring creative writing amongst the gifted. While we are immersed in the discussion about what shape the books of the future will take, we’d like to see the series be a kick-start for more traditional forms of reading.”

Currently there are four episodes up with 6 more coming soon. The first episode is five minutes and the second is ten. The second episode is where you start to see the game mechanics interact with the story. The story does move slower than I would like, but it’s definitely worth checking out. The music is very interesting as is the imagery.