<aside> 💡 In the modern era of Kindle, forgotten manuscripts and drawer drafts are a thing of the past - something Tom McGee knows a lot about.  As Content Development Lead at publishing conglomerate, Wattpad, McGee knows what it takes to make a hit. He has spent his career helping people make them.

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“We are literally living in an unprecedented age of opportunities for your stories.”

Content Development Lead at Wattpad, Tom McGee

“When you look at tools in something like Tales that will let you do things that, traditionally, you would need an animation degree to do…or heavy-duty, hardcore coding experience, the barriers just keep coming down.”

These barriers to entry have long plagued the world of publishing, and limited opportunities for talented creators. Where before one needed an ink-dried publishing deal to allow the world to see their work, the explosion of digital storytelling has allowed more creative works to be experienced by millions of more readers.

And if you want your story to come chock full of top-of-the-line audio-visual effects, dynamic player choices, and leverage assets from the largest library in interactive fiction…you now have just the place to go.

An age of opportunity indeed.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Experience it yourself by diving into McGee’s own work on the Tales platform.

Picture it: a vast, unyielding wasteland.

The hot, burning smell of gasoline.

The roaring symphony of a hundred high horsepower engines drowning out all else.

Call it apocalyptic, call it dystopian, call it what you want. Us? We call it one thing and one thing only: seriously badass.

Little Red Driving Hood

As Red, your granny has been kidnapped in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the glyph markings at the scene of the crime point to none other than the deadly Wolf Clan. Now it's up to you to bring her home and get your vengeance.

Suit up, Red. This is your favorite fairy tale - Mad Max style.

Sound fantastic? It is.

No stranger to original concepts and taking risks, McGee expertly leverages stunning VFX and custom-built character actors throughout his series to evoke an eerie, unforgettable sense of manic doom that has seeped over this dangerous new world.

With Little Red Driving Hood not only are the more ‘mundane’ choices memorable (do you explode the entire car that the rival gang member is driving or just catapult into the passenger’s seat and wrench control of the wheel yourself?), but the high-stakes live-or-die atmosphere of this apocalyptic setting means that when the big choices come in, you know you’re going to feel the effects of your decisions far down the line as well.

Because interactive fiction should be actually interactive.

Because we’re ready to stop yelling at the big screen about what our bloodied, haunted hero should do and start making that choice ourselves.

Because like our protagonist Red, we’ve got to get to Granny’s house on time - or else.

And believe us, when you slice into a bloodthirsty member of the infamous Wolf Clan seconds before he’s at your throat, when you light up the sky with fire and smoke as you blaze your way back to granny, when you save the life of just one wasteland wanderer with a rare act of selfless generosity, you’ll feel it.

Every. Damn. Time.

Because beyond capturing the reader’s attention and engaging them within a primal, post-apocalyptic reality, these choices and these effects bring feeling.

Hopeless at your granny’s disappearance.

And a gritty taste of vengeance on your tongue.

McGee has long praised the power of keying into what you leave your reader with.

“When they close your book when they close the app when they hit the end credits, what’s that feeling? Have you created that feeling for them?”

Because if you leave a reader with a feeling…you got ‘em.

So to all the new readers, creators and intrepid explorers of this new age of modern storytelling - we salute you. And we invite you to tell your stories on Tales.

"At the end of the day, if you just have a story you want to tell, you have literally never been in a better position to be able to put it somewhere."

You heard McGee… get creating. And make something that will make others feel the passion, just as you do.