Story is the shared exploration of a relationship over time.

We’ve been telling stories since the dawn of time. As a means of exploring our relationship to our environment and each other, they’ve been important tools in our survival and in the survival of our culture. Whether expressed as myth, literature, vaudeville, or cinema–stories have been how we show ourselves as we’d like to be, or how we fear we might become.

We believe that story is an idea that transcends the mediums that transmit it. Because of this, we are always exploring new ways of telling our stories, and new ways of helping you tell us your stories.

Play is any pastime with a primary goal of self-guided exploration of possibility within a bounded space.

Like story, play is something that has been around since the dawn of time. Play has helped us train future generations to survive, whether their perils include hostile neighboring tribes or highly stressful school environments. Play is how we challenge ourselves, push the limits of our abilities and our comprehension. Play is how we express joy at our capabilities and recognize our limitations.

We believe that story and play are exponentially more powerful when forged into a single experience. We play games with our stories and tell stories about our games. And whenever possible, we blur the line so completely we’re not sure where the story begins and the play ends.

Community is a group of people who have interests or experiences in common.

No definition can accurately describe the power of community. Without a community, there can truly be no story, and no play. Thanks to the growth of technology throughout human history, our communities have grown ever larger and ever more diverse. Our community provides us with shelter, with protection, and the emotional security of belonging. Our community challenges our perceptions of self, provides us with opportunities to face our fears (of not belonging, perhaps), and provides a buffer against the rampage of our egos. Our community functions as our single most important means of survival, all the while acting as a mirror for self evaluation.

We believe that a conscious awareness and understanding of your community can only lead to a happier, more secure, life. And what is the best way to understanding your community, and help your community understand you? Telling stories and engaging in play, of course!

Participatory Storytelling is the intersection of story, play, and community.

Participatory storytelling is a way of looking at storytelling that acknowledges the importance of play and community. It is a critical framework for analyzing storytelling media, from traditional storytelling to video games, with an eye on its ability to include the audience in the storytelling process. It is also a goal of story as conversation, where a storyteller and her community play together in the creation of story.

The roots of our participatory storytelling theory can be found in the whitepaper, Games and Storytelling, by Corvus Elrod. Continued thoughts on the topic can be found on Corvus’ blog, Man Bytes Blog. Participatory storytelling is also the guiding principle of Zakelro Story Studio and we hope you’ll find that it is reflected throughout all of our projects.