We are thrilled to announce the launch of The Living Stories Lab, an ambitious initiative born internally at &why Studio, originally ideated by team-member and Creative Technologist Juan Cuadra. The project is now funded by the European Union through a Creative Europe Grant. This project aims to take a groundbreaking step forward in the realm of digital storytelling, aiming to redefine how we experience films and media.
What is The Living Stories Lab?
The Living Stories Lab is a research team that seeks to revolutionize the world of storytelling by bridging the gap between traditional linear media like films and TV shows and the dynamic, interactive world of gaming. The core objective of this project is to create a new European standard, toolset, and framework for non-linear storytelling—allowing audiences not just to watch but to simultanously interact with stories in real-time.
This approach will enable creators to produce interactive films that let viewers shape the narrative, much like players do in video games. By leveraging the latest gaming technology, The Living Stories Lab seeks to deliver a novel way for audiences—especially the digital-native geneations—to engage with content that feels fresh, immersive, and deeply personal.
The Vision: A New Era of Interactive Stories
Historically, stories have been told through fixed formats—books, movies, TV shows—each bound by its linear nature. Meanwhile, gaming has exploded as a storytelling medium, using real-time graphics to offer players agency in narrative-driven experiences. The Living Stories Lab aims to merge the best of these two worlds, creating a hybrid format that captures the emotional depth and collective experience of films and the interactive, choice-driven, unpredictable nature of games.
The project's key outputs will include:
Defining the first European standard for interactive films: Setting benchmarks for storytelling that invite viewer participation.
Developing software tools for creators: Providing filmmakers with a suite of cutting-edge tools designed to produce non-linear, interactive content.
Establishing a distribution platform: Utilizing game streaming technology to spread these new interactive films to audiences worldwide.
Why Now? The Need for Innovation
The Living Stories Lab emerges at a pivotal moment when traditional media is grappling with the rise of interactive content and where AI threatens to upheaval the way we create media. Research shows that younger audiences increasingly prefer engaging experiences that put them at the center of the action. The rapid growth of the gaming industry—now surpassing the film industry in revenue—underscores this shift.
Our project aims to harness this momentum, positioning Europe at the forefront of interactive storytelling innovation. By standardizing and democratizing this medium, we hope to foster collaboration among European creators, studios, and technologists, giving them the tools to lead in the global market.
The Future of Story
Looking ahead, we envision a world where interactive stories become a mainstream format, appealing to both the gaming-savvy youth and traditional movie lovers.
How do we write and distribute stories for Augmented Reality? How can we produce and execute stories made to be consumed in shared real and digital space? Can we go to the theater together and play an interactive story simultaneously? How will AI allow use to tell fuller, complex and encyclopedic stories in the future?
The Living Stories framework will provide the foundation for these possibilities, ensuring that Europe not only participates in but leads the next great leap in digital storytelling.
We believe that by combining cinematic artistry with interactive technology, we can captivate new audiences, inspire creativity, and set the stage for the future of entertainment. As we develop this exciting project, we look forward to collaborating with European creators, studios, and innovators to bring this vision to life.
Stay tuned as The Living Stories Lab unfolds, and join us on this journey to redefine how stories are told, experienced, and shared. The future of storytelling starts here.
