If you're intrigued by interactive storytelling and want to find out what the fuss is about, then take a look at the iPad app of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps. Made by Faber in partnership with the Story Mechanics, it is visually stunning and technically brilliant, lovingly crafted and faithful to the novel. An unbelievable effort has gone into creating a pitch-perfect 1910s feel, from the illustrations and sound effects to the virtual props, including old facsimiles of the Observer.
It is, in short, the most impressive example of interactive storytelling I've seen. Thing is, I'm not sure I like interactive storytelling.
Not from a literary purist standpoint – a bit of a lost cause with The Thirty-Nine Steps. No, my objection is more fundamental: I find interactivity exasperating. Prod, prod, prod to reveal gobbets of text, trace code symbols with your finger to unlock a door, search for a notebook and tap to look inside: it's engaging for five minutes, but then it's just tiring. Especially because the pace is determined not by you, but the app.
The graphics may be beautiful, but pausing every few minutes to pan around a room or take in a vista of London makes the whole storytelling business desperately slow. It was over an hour before Richard Hannay made it to Scotland.
Maybe they picked the wrong book. It's quite a risk to take on a novel so famously adapted by the master of suspense. If anyone out there is making an app of Rebecca, forget it.
But I think, ultimately, interactive storytelling is a matter of taste. The Thirty-Nine Steps app wasn't for me, but I can see how it could make someone else – someone with a lot of patience – very happy.
