Netflix’s Interactive Stories Are Entertaining, Even If You’re Not a Kid
Netflix released its first interactive story on Tuesday . Similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books from our childhood, Netflix TV shows allow viewers to choose where the story should unfold, and it’s the best thing ever.
At the moment, only one interactive story is available: “The Cat in the Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale.” Fortunately, it is fun and well written for both adults and children.
In this episode, viewers can follow Puss as he watches remixes of popular fairy tales. They are confronted with a book in which they are asked to choose one of two options, while the narrator and the Cat comment on both options. Instead of a progress bar showing how far you’ve come to watch the video, there are interactive book pages at the bottom of the screen that let you navigate to decisions you can make. If viewers don’t decide in time, Netflix will automatically make the choice for them.
There are also characters from Puss in Boots that have been redesigned to take on new roles, such as Toby the pig playing a pirate. There are three teddy bears that can be kind or not, depending on what the audience chooses. And there is my favorite character, the evil queen, who goes down in history by telling her mirror: “I’m just saying that maybe we could talk from time to time about something other than who is the fairest. Don’t know, art, music? “
Unfortunately, according to Consumerist , the episode is only interactive on smart TVs, game consoles, iOS devices, and Roku devices. On the web, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Android devices, episodes play as if Netflix made the choice for you.
Obviously, creating interactive stories was an idea that took two years to complete . Netflix will release another interactive episode of Buddy’s Thunderbolt on July 14. In 2018, an interactive episode of the Stretch Armstrong series will be released.
Since it’s interactive, it’s not easy to watch a bunch of episodes in one sitting. There are other benefits as well, such as allowing children to think about different ways of creating a story and the potential consequences of choices (the cat ends up suffering a lot of trauma).
Hulu is also working on creating adventure games to choose from. They are developing a series called Door # 1 in their VR app, but the audience is for adults.