User:Rroberie/sandbox

Earplay is an entertainment startup from Boston, MA that produces interactive audio stories. The Earplay library, accessible from voice platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant as well as a standalone iOS app, consists of interactive audio narratives released in chapters. The primary form of interaction is voicing the player character's decisions at predetermined points, and the story branches towards a number of different outcomes accordingly.

Xconomy described the medium as "a cross between radio dramas of the early 20th century, 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books, and new voice recognition technologies." Fast Company and the Amazon Developers Blog both credit Earplay as the first platform to turn broadcast audio, a traditionally one-way medium, into an immersive and responsive entertainment format.

Earplays are accessible to the blind and visually impaired, as its virtual assistant platforms are voice-operated and the iOS app is compatible with VoiceOver. The user experience involves both audio engineering and directed voice acting, and the stories are developed in collaboration with script writers and intellectual property owners.

=History= Earplay was first co-founded as Reactive Studios in May 2013 by Jon Myers (CEO), Bruno Batarelo (CTO), and Matthew Albrecht, a shareholder and advisor. The prototype for an interactive radio drama dubbed "Codename Cygnus" was unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in March 2013, followed by a Kickstarter campaign that raised $13,943 on its $11,000 target. With the funds for professional sound effects, technology licenses, and necessary plug-ins, Cygnus was released as a standalone application for Android and iOS that September at PAX Prime.

Dave Grossman, known for his work at Telltale Games, was hired in 2014 as Chief Creative Officer to expand upon the medium of voice-activated storytelling. The company went on to participate in the 2015 MassChallenge startup accelerator with the goal of developing a cross-platform library for interactive audio stories. The accompanying change in name to "Earplay" reflected their new focus, and is a derivative of the radio drama series broadcast on NPR between 1972 and the 1990s.

The first edition of the Earplay app, which supported multiple demo-length stories and a content creation pipeline, was released in August 2016. August also saw the release of an Earplay "skill," a voice app for the Amazon Alexa platform.

=Titles=
 * Earplay Demo (2016)
 * Half (2016)
 * Codename Cygnus Reactivated
 * Mission 1 (2017)
 * The Orpheus Device Teaser (2016)
 * The Orpheus Device Full-Length (2017)

=See also=
 * Interactive media
 * Types of fiction with multiple endings
 * Narrative Structure: Interactive narration
 * Interactive fiction

= Notes =

= References =



=External links=
 * Codename Cygnus official website