The next-generation audio game revolution begins in Italy: Tuscany-based startup PlayNook combines AI and the magic of sound to bring the world high-quality interactive audio stories.
Stefano De Vivo, COO of PlayNook: “Our innovative storytelling puts people back at the center of stories, making them the protagonists of wonderful adventures that they will create themselves. Through technology and sound, we want to give everyone the freedom to imagine.” After the gamebooks of the 1980s and the podcasts of the early millennium, a new way of experiencing great stories is born, diving into vast narrative universes of adventure, suspense, twists. The first audio game, “Marco Polo: Adventures”, – available in English and Italian – will take audio gamers from Venice to the China of the legendary Kublai Khan, testing them with all kinds of decisions and adventures. The first chapters will be released on the PlayNook app in May.
The Italian revolution of next-generation audio games has begun in Tuscany, the cradle of the Renaissance. Its protagonist is PlayNook srl, a creativity-intensive technology startup founded to bring high-quality interactive audio stories to Italy and the world. It is an innovative method of storytelling and playing that allows users – audio gamers – to immerse themselves in vast narrative universes created through words, sounds and music, becoming protagonists of breathtaking adventures, fantastic journeys, thrilling plots and unexpected twists.
It is an artistic, technological and cultural revolution at the same time. In a world that is increasingly based on images and immediacy, PlayNook offers stories full of emotion and mystery. In them, audio gamers forge their own destinies by making choices and solving puzzles, and they are called upon to show their altruism and courage.
PlayNook’s stories are made possible thanks to a groundbreaking digital technology made in Italy and nourished by the evocative power of voice, sound, and notes: e.g. a dialogue with a Chinese princess or a Persian merchant, a Mediterranean-sounding melody, the gallop of a horse, the crackle of fire, a gunshot in silence, a downpour of rain. Audio and interactive stories to be enjoyed quietly, like a good wine.
PlayNook can count on a team of brilliant creatives and technologists, led by renowned director and screenwriter Roan Johnson and programmer and AI-specialist Stefano Parmesan, legal expert Carlo Marinozzi, audio producer Stefano De Vivo, and three veterans of Italian innovative entrepreneurship: Gabriele Antonelli, Michele Barbera, and Luca Barsotti, known for founding SpazioDati, a sales intelligence company based on big data and AI.
“Since the dawn of time, human beings have always loved to listen to stories. Italy is the land of great and universal storytellers. Through innovative storytelling that combines advanced technology and imagination while harnessing the power of sound, voice and the audio dimension, we want to help breathe new life into this extraordinary tradition. We want to give everyone the freedom to imagine and immerse themselves in wonderful stories. Stories they can create and be a part of. Like a video game, but better, if I may say so,” says Stefano De Vivo, COO of PlayNook. “Unlike a video game, our stories do not require expensive consoles to play: all you need is a smartphone, our app, and the will to imagine new worlds and new lives.”
According to De Vivo, “sound is enveloping and immersive; its evocative capacity is infinite. It offers us experiences that the visual dimension cannot give. In fact, the best stories, the ones that stay with us, are the ones our grandparents or parents told us when we were kids, or when a teacher read The Odyssey to us in school. Everyone played with gamebooks in the 1980s, and a few years ago the global podcast phenomenon exploded. At PlayNook, we are taking it further with AI, sound magic, and an exceptional team of creatives, writers, and actors. Our audio games are about people, their imaginations, their hopes and their dreams. Our stories are full of crossroads; players will choose what to do each time.”
In May PlayNook will release its first story, available in English and Italian: the first two chapters of “Marco Polo: Adventures”, a wonderful experience in which the audio gamers will become the Venetian traveler, experiencing his journey from the splendor of St. Mark’s Square to the court of Kublai Khan in China; an extraordinary voyage from Italy to the heart of Asia, full of wonders and twists, but also of adventures and dangers that will astonish the audio gamers and test their skills, instincts and sense of justice. This unique story will also be available to the blind and visually impaired, because PlayNook wants its revolution to be as inclusive as possible.
