Words: Nick Lockey
Photography: Elizabeth Gordon
World-beaters in the brave new world of Alternate Reality Gaming, the Hon brothers’, aged 26 and 29, produce work that has re-defined cross-platform media.
“Movies are great,” begins Dan Hon ardently. “They suck you into a story and can affect you in profound ways, but it’s only ever a selfish experience. You never learn anything about the guy sitting next to you.”
His dig at the cinematic arts seems almost sacrilegious given that he’s currently tucking into scrambled eggs in the members’ bar at Bafta, but his infectious enthusiasm for his craft makes it easy to forgive. After all it’s not every day you get to share breakfast with a creator of worlds.
Together with his brother Adrian, Dan helms Six to Start, one of the leading ARG (Alternate Reality Game) design companies. Since the firm’s 2007 conception they’ve spun their complex narrative webs for an enviable client list including Penguin, Channel 4, Disney and the BBC.
But it’s their players who are the real heroes – a supporting cast of thousands that would make Cecil B DeMille weep with envy. Sucked into these experiences through fiendishly conceived ‘rabbit holes’ left in seemingly innocuous places, ARG players quickly find themselves following breadcrumb trails of mysterious clues through complex, multi-layered worlds.
But these aren’t virtual environments or video games; they are experiences that play out over extremely familiar spaces: on popular online platforms, in real-world locations, through ringing payphones, blogs and classified ads. It’s as if you’re experiencing everyday reality but through a warped fantasy filter where anything is possible. “If you want to get to know a particular character,” explains Dan, “just pick up a phone and talk to them.”
Six to Start’s own story is pure ARG narrative in itself. We join our two heroes at key moment in their story: Dan is studying law at Cambridge, Adrian working on his PhD, both happily trudging the path of high-powered inevitability when suddenly they stumble upon a tear in the fabric of reality.
Whilst watching an online trailer for the Spielberg film AI: Artificial Intelligence Dan spots a curiosity in the credits – a young woman named Jeanine Salla, billed as the film’s ‘Sentient Machine Therapist’. Googling this bizarre job title, Dan falls down a rabbit hole and finds himself in the belly of The Beast – the most celebrated ARG of all time.
“It was such an adrenalin rush,” enthuses Dan: “It was like being there at the birth of cinema, a Wild West with no rules.”
Dan and Adrian’s role in co-moderating The Cloudmakers – a community of players collaborating to unlock the secrets of The Beast – brought them to the attention of the secretive team who crafted the game. Their subsequent invite to the States to talk about their experience planted a seed in their minds that left the two brothers teetering on the brink of a real-life rabbit hole – could their futures lie in creating these things, as well as playing them?
They took the red pill and plunged headlong into a new adventure which would see them turn their backs on years of university education to become ARG puppet masters themselves, first at British games company Mind Candy and then under their own steam as Six to Start.
It’s clear, however, that Dan isn’t precious about the genre that prompted their life-changing decision. “We’ve been called an ARG design company, but it’s more of a label than a definition. We want to move beyond the novelty and just get on with telling great stories.”
So what’s the secret of their success? “We’re platform agnostic,” explains Dan between mouthfuls of buttery toast. “Great narrative and great gameplay are the key elements in everything we do, and we just choose the most appropriate media available to convey them.”
Given the fact that they’ve crafted adventures utilising everything from Twitter and Google Maps to poetry hunts in St Pancras Station and urban chases featuring sinister black helicopters, I’m not about to accuse them of narrative narrow-mindedness.
Of course, not everyone gets to follow a breadcrumb trail as fortuitous as the Hons, so is there any hope for the aspiring bedroom puppet master? “It’s really easy to make an ARG these days,” beams Dan.
“If you know how to craft a story and have a basic understanding of online platforms, you’re halfway there. Just find a bunch of like-minded people, get out there and make something.”
