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How to Make an ARG — Transcript

by Ayso · 3,048 words · 454 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00So, you want to make an ARG, huh? Do
0:02you? Well, luckily for you, you won't
0:04need to watch another video on how to do
0:06this. All you need is right here. This
0:08isn't a video on just how to make a good
0:09ARG, but we're also going to be covering
0:11good writing, uh, how to make a good
0:13story, and also how to make your ARG go
0:17viral, because we all know that you want
0:19to be the one to make the next big
0:21internet mystery that lives on for years
0:23to come. So, let's dive in. [music]
0:27>> Trans Media. This is when an ARG uses
0:30different forms of media to tell its
0:32story, presenting fictional events in a
0:35realworld sense, essentially just
0:37spreading fake news. I'm not even
0:40kidding. It's kind of like that. These
0:41ARGs always tend to try to shy away from
0:44being obvious. [music] They try to hide
0:46in the shadows more. So, you kind of
0:48have to discover that it is an ARG.
0:50Alternate reality games like this tend
0:52to utilize a lot of different things
0:54such as websites, YouTube, Instagram,
0:57Twitter, social media platforms in
0:59general, but some ARGs take it to the
1:01next level, bringing it into a realworld
1:04environment, utilizing physical
1:06locations and even payoneses. The most
1:09famous example of this is an ARG that
1:12defined the genre, the I Love Bees ARG.
1:15We're going back in time all the way
1:17back in 2004. Players were deep in the
1:20lore, analyzing a corrupted beekeeping
1:23website that was in reality a fractured
1:25AI narrative tied to the [music] launch
1:27of Halo 2.
1:33This ARG had many online puzzles, but it
1:36wasn't only online. If you dug deep
1:39enough, you would eventually find a URL
1:41that led to some coordinates and a
1:44timestamp. Imagine you are one of those
1:46players. You've driven to a forgotten
1:48street corner at 3:00 in the morning.
1:50You're alone and standing in front of a
1:52cold, forgotten piece of infrastructure,
1:55the pay phone. Then, at the precise
1:57second mandated by the AI, the phone
2:00rings.
2:03It wasn't a generic pre-recorded
2:05message. It's a real phone [music] call.
2:07When players answered, they were
2:09connected to a character, an AI from the
2:11future, suddenly present with them
2:13[music] on their street. Answering the
2:15phone was a instant physical commitment
2:17that they had to make. Players known as
2:19axons [music] had to correctly answer a
2:22cryptic question derived from the game's
2:24lore. Cracking the cryptic question
2:27meant that the next piece of an
2:28unsettling audio would be unlocked for
2:31the entire community.
2:32>> More than 3 months ago, I was
2:34shipwrecked here. A dead body, a broken
2:37shell,
2:39but you gave me life. Now, just by
2:41simply being innovative with their ARG,
2:43they made this entire story so much more
2:46powerful and creepy. Admittedly, it's
2:50[ __ ] creepy to go to a street corner
2:51at 3:00 a.m. Put that in your ARG. It'd
2:54be cool. This flips the entire script,
2:56making the players part of your game.
2:58They're not playing it. They are
3:00actively inside of it.
3:02>> Encryption. In late 2022, a social media
3:06creator named Freakbait began posting
3:08daily animated videos. And these videos
3:11included unidentifiable colorful
3:13characters censored with this TV static
3:16sort of look, becoming something you
3:18have likely sent one of your friends
3:20while you are doom scrolling at 1:00 in
3:22the morning.
3:23>> Today's mission. Whoever you send this
3:25video to owes you $5.
3:29But not me. It doesn't count on me.
3:30>> Now, the format of these videos are
3:32simple. It opens up with a mission for
3:35these colorful characters to perform
3:36[music]
3:37and typically has a funny punchline.
3:39>> The juice will eat away at the latex and
3:42they'll start popping randomly.
3:47>> So, it would be quite weird if Freakbait
3:49posted a advertisement [music] for a
3:51quantum mechanics laboratory. That would
3:55be weird. Weird. Very weird. At [music]
3:58Demiurge Incorporated, we push the
4:00boundaries of innovation and
4:02exploration.
4:03>> And it would also be weird if the name
4:05of the laboratory referred to an evil
4:07being that created the universe.
4:10>> Demiurge. Demiurge. [music]
4:12>> I mean, you get the hint. Freakbait
4:14posted an advertisement for a quantum
4:16mechanics laboratory.
4:17>> Demiurge [music] Incorporated. Discover
4:19the future. Shape reality. The void
4:22[music] is waiting.
4:23>> Is it part of an ARG? Yeah. Yeah,
4:26definitely. This is when most of
4:27Freakbait's audience clued into the fact
4:29that there was an ARG building. But a
4:32few select people already knew that
4:34there was an ARG here before the big
4:36announcement to the entire community. So
4:39a month or so before this laboratory
4:41advertisement was posted, Freakbait
4:44uploaded a very suspicious video. So,
4:46the colorful characters, one of them,
4:48the red guy, was kidnapped in the back
4:51of one of these videos, taken into a van
4:54with the word Demiurge Inc. on it. You
4:57know, that entire evil being that
4:58created the entire universe. [music] And
5:00this right here spirals into what is now
5:02known today as the today's mission ARG.
5:06Now, eventually, this reveals a website
5:08called demierjink.com. This website
5:10includes logs, experiments, and so much
5:13goddamn lore. Not just with the
5:15narrative, but with the characters as
5:17well. There is some really good
5:19character writing in this ARG, and it's
5:21why I love it so much. Now, many ARGs
5:24need something overly complicated for
5:26the investigators to kind of learn and
5:29crack to keep the normies out of the
5:31way, keeping the majority of people from
5:34understanding what's really happening
5:35here. This could either be done by using
5:38hidden codes such as Morse code or B 64,
5:41or you could use something like
5:43steganography, which is also a really
5:45interesting way of hiding messages in
5:47your ARG. There's so many different ways
5:49to hide messages in your ARG, but this
5:51ARG in particular took a different
5:54route.
5:56Quantum mechanics. It's incredibly
5:58complicated and it literally talks about
6:00the fabric of reality which kind of
6:02makes it perfect from keeping those
6:04normal people from understanding your
6:07lore. And you could do something very
6:09similar with your ARG as well. When I
6:11asked Freakbait [music] how he knew all
6:13of his info on quantum mechanics, he
6:15literally just told me he already knew
6:16it. He was [music] just interested in
6:18it. So all you got to do is just find
6:20something that you are interested in
6:21that not many people know about. You
6:23could literally just make an ARG
6:25surrounding that. You can mask your ARG
6:28with anything. Make a topological ARG.
6:31Make a paranormal ARG. Or [music] [ __ ]
6:33it, make a Scientology ARG. Don't
6:36actually do that. No, that's a bad idea.
6:38Okay, so now we've understood, you know,
6:41we got to mask our ARG with stuff. I
6:43think it's time for a little bit of a
6:45history lesson. We've already talked
6:47about the I Love Bees ARG from 2004, but
6:50let's go ahead and go back to the ARG
6:52that started it all. The beast. the
6:56story that invented the term alternate
6:58reality game without ever having a name
7:00for it. A murder mystery launched in
7:022001 to promote Steven Spielberg's film
7:05AI. [music]
7:06It started with a mysterious credit on a
7:08movie poster.
7:14[music]
7:19Sentient machine therapist G9 Salah.
7:22This introduced the concept of this is
7:24not a game. There was no disclaimer.
7:27Players found a network of 40
7:28professionallooking fictional websites,
7:31voicemails, and even [music] classified
7:33ads, all detailing the death of an AI
7:36programmer.
7:36>> If you need to know how to get to the
7:38funeral, please call Nancy at
7:40919-4252310.
7:44And if you have any [music] idea how
7:45Evan of all people could die on a boat,
7:48then please tell me because God knows I
7:50still can't believe it. And the creators
7:53of this ARG were reading the community's
7:55forums and [music] actively writing this
7:57ARG in real time. This audience, this
8:00group of people is so much smarter than
8:03we thought they were. Very first day,
8:06surprise. They solved all 6 months of
8:07content in about 2 hours. That was the
8:09day I installed a bed in my office cuz I
8:12knew I'm not going home ever. That is a
8:15high stress commitment. [music]
8:16You don't have to do that for your ARG,
8:17but that's kind of cool. Okay. Thumbs.
8:20Thumbs. key rules of thumb. Let's dive
8:22into it. The goal here is to make your
8:24story so addictive that players will be
8:26willing to dump hours of their life on
8:29brain numbumbing code cracking in order
8:31to solve your mystery. [music] If you
8:33want your ARG to be genuinely addictive,
8:36keeping people hooked at 3:00 a.m.
8:38digging through possible ciphers, you
8:40need to understand obsession. People get
8:42connected to well-written characters all
8:44of the time when reading books or
8:46watching movies. Never ever slack on
8:49writing your characters. Gamers will
8:51instantly get hooked if they can
8:52emotionally be connected to a character.
8:54Character development is key here,
8:56[music] by the way. At the end of the
8:57story, you don't want your character to
8:59be the same person they were at the
9:00beginning. You want them to have some
9:02[music] development and change
9:04fundamentally as a personound.
9:07>> Well, that's that's all of life, right?
9:10I mean, it's just it's [music] the
9:11constant. It's the cycle. It's solution.
9:15This solution just over and over and
9:17over. It is growth. then decay, then
9:21transformation.
9:22[music]
9:25>> It is fascinating.
9:27>> If your character doesn't change, then
9:29what really happened in your ARG? For a
9:32good ARG, it always starts with
9:34something inconspicuous, as if [music]
9:36you weren't meant to discover it, like
9:38when Halo 2 dropped its trailer and
9:40flashed a hidden link at the bottom of
9:43the screen. It's not meant for many
9:44[music] people to notice, but some
9:46people did. And for that little small
9:48door of players that noticed this, that
9:50made them feel exclusive. You could also
9:52leave cryptic comments on social media
9:54posts, slowly drawing gamers into the
9:57story. You don't want anyone playing
9:59your ARG to feel like they were supposed
10:01to see this. You want to do this right,
10:03though. Like, what I'm saying here is
10:04you don't want somebody to click onto
10:06the main hook of your ARG and not really
10:08see anything creepy [music] or weird
10:10going on. You want there to be something
10:12to keep them digging deeper. If not,
10:14they will just click off your main hook
10:16for your ARG and forget about that
10:19creation that you potentially spent
10:20months on. Okay, now that your players
10:23are hooked into the game, you got to
10:24keep this going for a little while. Now,
10:26think of your ARG as a knot. You want to
10:29try to make this knot as strong as you
10:31can, like a Gagian knot, make it
10:34incredibly difficult to break. But why
10:36would I do this? I want people to dive
10:38into my lore. I I put a lot of effort
10:40into this story. Well, the reason that
10:42you're doing this is cuz you just bet
10:44your life savings that a bunch of
10:46professional knot untieers couldn't
10:48untie your Gagian knot. Now you got a
10:50crowd forming around you and a bunch of
10:52people wanting to see these professional
10:54knot untiers. They want to see them
10:56untie the knot. Now, this is just a very
10:58weird way on how to describe making your
11:01ARG secretive and secure, but that's
11:04kind of just how I that's what that
11:07Yeah, I don't even know. That's what I
11:09was thinking in the coffee shop when I
11:10was writing this video.
11:14If that makes sense, that's great. But
11:15the reason for all of the security is
11:17you want your ARG to last. Typically, an
11:20ARG's lifespan will go on for a couple
11:22of months. Many go on for years. You
11:25don't want the story that you build to
11:27be solved within a weekend. That kind of
11:29just makes it boring, and not many
11:30people will be interested in that. The
11:32longer it goes on for, the more
11:34interest, and the more people end up
11:35seeing it. Now, making your own ARG is
11:38going to take a lot of time. It's a huge
11:40commitment, kind of like starting a
11:42family. So, you're going to need some
11:43tools to help you along the way. And
11:45these tools I personally use myself.
11:48It's such a game changer. Now, let me
11:49just get in here real quick. Personally
11:51for me, when I'm researching ARGs, I use
11:54this [music] uh website called Milanote.
11:56They also have an app on your phone, so
11:58you're able to input ideas when you're
12:00on the go. This is really good for
12:02storyboarding and in general just like
12:04making character boards. It's such a
12:06perfect thing for organizing your entire
12:08mind onto like a sheet of paper or a
12:11sheet of a website, whatever that means.
12:13Rise essentially just tracks your
12:15productivity, allowing you to clock in
12:17and out of work. And in the meantime,
12:20after work, you'll be able to go back
12:21and know what you were getting up to. If
12:23you're getting distracted while you're
12:25working, Rise will also just let you
12:27know, hey, get back to work. It's really
12:29useful if you're trying to make some
12:31really big story like an ARG or in
12:33general if you're just a college student
12:35or you work from home. If you want to
12:36use this tool yourself, there is
12:38actually a free version and I would
12:39highly suggest that you use it. That's
12:41actually what got me into using Rise
12:43personally. You can use my affiliate
12:44link in the description below and you
12:46get 25% off if you use code ASO. I would
12:49highly suggest you use that code. All
12:51right. Now, do you want to make your ARG
12:53get seen by millions of people? Uh,
12:56yeah, I do. It's not easy. It's pretty
12:59hit or miss. I'm going to be honest with
13:00you. You want to try to attract the
13:02YouTubers or the investigative social
13:04media gurus. These people will typically
13:07take all of the info from the
13:08investigators and turn it into a deep
13:11dive video investigation. This is when
13:13the internet becomes aware of the
13:16mystery that you have made. [music] But
13:17how do you get these social media
13:18creators attention? Well, luckily for
13:21you, I make videos covering ARGs and I
13:24know [music] what I look for in an ARG
13:26before I cover it. so I can just give
13:28you the deeds. On top of that, I also
13:30asked a couple of YouTubers who cover
13:32lore and ARG on the internet and I made
13:36them do a little bit of a fun quiz. So,
13:38we're going to be diving into the
13:39results of that as well. So, I've made a
13:41few videos in my time. The J Schlatt
13:43ARG, today's mission, Nutterbutter ARG,
13:46Maphat ARG, etc., etc. It goes on and
13:49on. Now, what do these titles have in
13:52common? These titles surround something
13:55that is popular such as J Schlatt. J
13:58Schlatt is a famous YouTuber. MattPat,
14:00also a famous YouTuber and politician,
14:03something like that. I don't know what
14:04he's doing. Anyways, this is called
14:06social hacking. Making an ARG
14:08surrounding a celebrity or a thing that
14:11is just popular will instantly make it
14:13more attractive to just the general
14:15population of people who's on the
14:18internet. Social hacking is very
14:19effective, but not everybody can use it.
14:22All right, drum roll, please. Let's dive
14:25into the quiz results.
14:27All of these creators cover ARGs or
14:29cover lore on the internet, and I would
14:31highly suggest that you check them out.
14:32They make really good videos. So, uh,
14:34link in the description below. First
14:36question though, what is your favorite
14:38ARG? My Casey Valentine said Lacy Games
14:41and Baby
14:44Justin Bieber. Remedy said Petcop.
14:46Willie St. Willie said Allan Tutorial.
14:48Hul
14:50said chain mill chasers [music] and
14:53sysstics said cicada 3301 which is a
14:56really good ARG. You should totally
14:58check that one out. What do you look for
14:59in an [music] ARG/Lore before making a
15:02video on it? Scope/realworld
15:04implications. Quality [music] and
15:06substance. If an ARG is mediocre, then I
15:08will not cover it. I am not a slopp. if
15:11it's good and hasn't been covered.
15:13[music] The amount of content there is
15:14to look through as well as if its
15:16storytelling device is different/ stands
15:19out. Mainly [music] two things. How
15:21disturbing/enter entertaining it is and
15:23how immersive slash somewhat believable
15:25it is as well. To be a good series, it
15:27doesn't [music] need to do both.
15:29Although some managed to do it, but it
15:31needs to do at least one of these. And
15:33then the last question is a really big
15:34question. All right, block in for this.
15:38Pancakes or waffles? I didn't think
15:40there was going to be a correlation to
15:41this, but um four out of five of the
15:43YouTubers said that waffles were top
15:46tier. So, take that as you will. Now, I
15:49don't want you feeling discouraged about
15:51these guidelines or rules. Ultimately,
15:53the ARG scene is just the wild [music]
15:55west. Take this video as more so
15:58motivation for what you're going to do
16:00with your ARG. Have fun with it. [music]
16:02Explore mysteries and do something
16:04crazy. Maybe once the ball starts
16:06rolling for your ARG, you'll have the
16:08next famous game-changing lore on the
16:10internet [music] that many people dive
16:12into years to come. And you've done it.
16:15Now, I would appreciate it if you
16:16subscribe to the channel. We're at
16:1737,000 subscribers, and I'm really
16:19trying to hit that 50K mark where I lose
16:21my personality. [music] So, if you
16:23subscribed, I would really appreciate
16:24it. Now, typically at this point, I
16:26would just try to pitch you to watch
16:27another one of my videos, but I think
16:29it's best that we separate and you go on
16:31and make your own ARG. But if you want
16:33to keep watching, you should go ahead
16:35and click on this video that's over my
16:36face. It's a It's a really good video. I
16:38probably cried a few times during it. Uh
16:41it's probably very emotional and very uh
16:44lovely.

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