Probing, poignant – and free.
An online interactive experience that blurs the lines between gaming and documentary filmmaking.
Myself and the rest of the team behind Choose Your Own Documentary were lucky enough to receive funding from The Space to allow us to partner with Sheffield based digital agency Joi Polloi. Together we reworked the live show and book into a true-life game.
The interactive experience combines documentary film, sound, and evocative illustration by Jonathan Wilkinson, allowing you to completely immerse yourself in the narrative as you choose how it unfolds.
For those of you who saw the live show, or have read the book, this new version will unlock access to those other parts of the story you wish you’d experienced. And for those of you who will be coming to this completely new – The Boy in the Book is an emotional journey with many, many possible pathways to explore.
The show had 1566 versions, we gave up counting the versions possible with the digital experience when it hit the hundreds of thousands. Keep in mind as you explore that it contains 100 films, thirty characters, 100 original illustrations, and six distinct endings, spread over 10 chapters! So, as always, choose wisely.
Free to play, on desktop, mobile, and tablet.
Nominated for best Independent Creator at the Webby Awards 2021, and best Narrative Game at IndieCade 2021.
Press for The Boy in the Book interactive:
“When self-confessed ‘obsessive’ Nathan Penlington bought 106 second-hand copies of Choose Your Own Adventure books on eBay he thought he was just indulging a childhood passion. Little did he realise that when he found an extract from a troubling, hand-written diary inside one of them, it would set him off on a life-changing adventure of his own.” – BBC Arts – Culture in Quarantine
“An online interactive experience that blurs the lines between gaming and documentary filmmaking…there’s something about the intricate procrastination of The Boy in the Book that makes it feel like it was tailor-made for a lockdown. If there was ever a time to use multiple realities as a way to distract from our own, this is it.” – Time Out
“The discovery of diary pages inside an old Choose Your Own Adventure book sparks a choose-your-own-doc…probing, poignant – and free” – Total Film
“An immersive, fascinating experience which leads to a real emotional investment” – Starburst Magazine
“People say the books helped them think more about making decisions. Might our political leaders do worse than a crash course in the Packard oeuvre?” – Daily Telegraph
“Conflating fact with fiction, The Boy in the Book is a love letter to a forgotten genre that only stalwart fans could conjure up: life-affirming, celebratory, and devilishly constructed, the Choose Your Own Adventure-style production is like nothing else” – A Younger Theatre
“Sometimes the past should be left in the past, but this interactive style is a reminder of the importance of choice, and how sometimes you need to go back a little in order to push forward. I am now on a different path for Nathan, and I am hopeful that it will lead to a better outcome. If not, I can safely say I have no regrets – perhaps one day I can look at life with the same lens as well.” – Cultured Vultures
An immersive, fascinating experience which leads to a real emotional investment.