Fabler is Here: Diary Entry #4, Bursary 2013

A second diary entry from 2013 Writing Platform bursary winners actor and writer Ben Gwalchmai and James Wheale; this team used the bursary to build on their existing work on story and movement and build a prototype of a mobile app called Fabler. Fabler enables users to experience story through movement: stories will play when the user is moving and stop when the user is still, with bonus content being revealed as the user progresses through the story. 

Read their first diary entry here and their project wrap interview here.

Hear about creative matchmaking from the second team, Caden Lovelace and Laura Grace, here and here and read their wrap interview here.

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Well we’ve gone and done it now – we’ve got ourselves a prototype.

It’s not yet as fully functional as we’d like but it certainly works.

If you’d like to try it out too, you just need to download the AppFurnace app from your App Store and add an app to AppFurnace with this URL: http://the.appfurnace.com/test/K25Nr/

Once you’ve loaded Fabler, select your activity [walking, running, cycling] in the settings then select your story in the content. Walk. Done.

In the coming months we’ll be adding more to it. You’ll be able to unlock more the more you come back.

We had a great day at the Mix 2 Digital conference presenting Fabler and talking with a great many fascinating people.

In many ways, we’re still analysing and working with the contacts we’ve made over the past 2 months to see what else Fabler can do.

As discussed at the conference, we’ve big plans for Fabler:

• Fabler: Still
• Fabler: Sports
• Fabler: …

That last isn’t a plan so much as a project plan – ‘Let’s see what else Fabler can do.’

We’re applying for Arts Council funding to further our research and we’ll be applying for a fund together with the Mixed Reality Lab from the University of Nottingham to see just how much Fabler can do.

The prototype isn’t the end of Fabler but, rather, just the beginning.