How to Make an ARG

0:00So, you want to make an ARG, huh? Do

0:02you? Well, luckily for you, you won't

0:04need to watch another video on how to do

0:06this. All you need is right here. This

0:08isn't a video on just how to make a good

0:09ARG, but we're also going to be covering

0:11good writing, uh, how to make a good

0:13story, and also how to make your ARG go

0:17viral, because we all know that you want

0:19to be the one to make the next big

0:21internet mystery that lives on for years

0:23to come. So, let's dive in. [music]

0:27>> Trans Media. This is when an ARG uses

0:30different forms of media to tell its

0:32story, presenting fictional events in a

0:35realworld sense, essentially just

0:37spreading fake news. I'm not even

0:40kidding. It's kind of like that. These

0:41ARGs always tend to try to shy away from

0:44being obvious. [music] They try to hide

0:46in the shadows more. So, you kind of

0:48have to discover that it is an ARG.

0:50Alternate reality games like this tend

0:52to utilize a lot of different things

0:54such as websites, YouTube, Instagram,

0:57Twitter, social media platforms in

0:59general, but some ARGs take it to the

1:01next level, bringing it into a realworld

1:04environment, utilizing physical

1:06locations and even payoneses. The most

1:09famous example of this is an ARG that

1:12defined the genre, the I Love Bees ARG.

1:15We're going back in time all the way

1:17back in 2004. Players were deep in the

1:20lore, analyzing a corrupted beekeeping

1:23website that was in reality a fractured

1:25AI narrative tied to the [music] launch

1:27of Halo 2.

1:33This ARG had many online puzzles, but it

1:36wasn't only online. If you dug deep

1:39enough, you would eventually find a URL

1:41that led to some coordinates and a

1:44timestamp. Imagine you are one of those

1:46players. You've driven to a forgotten

1:48street corner at 3:00 in the morning.

1:50You're alone and standing in front of a

1:52cold, forgotten piece of infrastructure,

1:55the pay phone. Then, at the precise

1:57second mandated by the AI, the phone

2:00rings.

2:03It wasn't a generic pre-recorded

2:05message. It's a real phone [music] call.

2:07When players answered, they were

2:09connected to a character, an AI from the

2:11future, suddenly present with them

2:13[music] on their street. Answering the

2:15phone was a instant physical commitment

2:17that they had to make. Players known as

2:19axons [music] had to correctly answer a

2:22cryptic question derived from the game's

2:24lore. Cracking the cryptic question

2:27meant that the next piece of an

2:28unsettling audio would be unlocked for

2:31the entire community.

2:32>> More than 3 months ago, I was

2:34shipwrecked here. A dead body, a broken

2:37shell,

2:39but you gave me life. Now, just by

2:41simply being innovative with their ARG,

2:43they made this entire story so much more

2:46powerful and creepy. Admittedly, it's

2:50[ __ ] creepy to go to a street corner

2:51at 3:00 a.m. Put that in your ARG. It'd

2:54be cool. This flips the entire script,

2:56making the players part of your game.

2:58They're not playing it. They are

3:00actively inside of it.

3:02>> Encryption. In late 2022, a social media

3:06creator named Freakbait began posting

3:08daily animated videos. And these videos

3:11included unidentifiable colorful

3:13characters censored with this TV static

3:16sort of look, becoming something you

3:18have likely sent one of your friends

3:20while you are doom scrolling at 1:00 in

3:22the morning.

3:23>> Today's mission. Whoever you send this

3:25video to owes you $5.

3:29But not me. It doesn't count on me.

3:30>> Now, the format of these videos are

3:32simple. It opens up with a mission for

3:35these colorful characters to perform

3:36[music]

3:37and typically has a funny punchline.

3:39>> The juice will eat away at the latex and

3:42they'll start popping randomly.

3:47>> So, it would be quite weird if Freakbait

3:49posted a advertisement [music] for a

3:51quantum mechanics laboratory. That would

3:55be weird. Weird. Very weird. At [music]

3:58Demiurge Incorporated, we push the

4:00boundaries of innovation and

4:02exploration.

4:03>> And it would also be weird if the name

4:05of the laboratory referred to an evil

4:07being that created the universe.

4:10>> Demiurge. Demiurge. [music]

4:12>> I mean, you get the hint. Freakbait

4:14posted an advertisement for a quantum

4:16mechanics laboratory.

4:17>> Demiurge [music] Incorporated. Discover

4:19the future. Shape reality. The void

4:22[music] is waiting.

4:23>> Is it part of an ARG? Yeah. Yeah,

4:26definitely. This is when most of

4:27Freakbait's audience clued into the fact

4:29that there was an ARG building. But a

4:32few select people already knew that

4:34there was an ARG here before the big

4:36announcement to the entire community. So

4:39a month or so before this laboratory

4:41advertisement was posted, Freakbait

4:44uploaded a very suspicious video. So,

4:46the colorful characters, one of them,

4:48the red guy, was kidnapped in the back

4:51of one of these videos, taken into a van

4:54with the word Demiurge Inc. on it. You

4:57know, that entire evil being that

4:58created the entire universe. [music] And

5:00this right here spirals into what is now

5:02known today as the today's mission ARG.

5:06Now, eventually, this reveals a website

5:08called demierjink.com. This website

5:10includes logs, experiments, and so much

5:13goddamn lore. Not just with the

5:15narrative, but with the characters as

5:17well. There is some really good

5:19character writing in this ARG, and it's

5:21why I love it so much. Now, many ARGs

5:24need something overly complicated for

5:26the investigators to kind of learn and

5:29crack to keep the normies out of the

5:31way, keeping the majority of people from

5:34understanding what's really happening

5:35here. This could either be done by using

5:38hidden codes such as Morse code or B 64,

5:41or you could use something like

5:43steganography, which is also a really

5:45interesting way of hiding messages in

5:47your ARG. There's so many different ways

5:49to hide messages in your ARG, but this

5:51ARG in particular took a different

5:54route.

5:56Quantum mechanics. It's incredibly

5:58complicated and it literally talks about

6:00the fabric of reality which kind of

6:02makes it perfect from keeping those

6:04normal people from understanding your

6:07lore. And you could do something very

6:09similar with your ARG as well. When I

6:11asked Freakbait [music] how he knew all

6:13of his info on quantum mechanics, he

6:15literally just told me he already knew

6:16it. He was [music] just interested in

6:18it. So all you got to do is just find

6:20something that you are interested in

6:21that not many people know about. You

6:23could literally just make an ARG

6:25surrounding that. You can mask your ARG

6:28with anything. Make a topological ARG.

6:31Make a paranormal ARG. Or [music] [ __ ]

6:33it, make a Scientology ARG. Don't

6:36actually do that. No, that's a bad idea.

6:38Okay, so now we've understood, you know,

6:41we got to mask our ARG with stuff. I

6:43think it's time for a little bit of a

6:45history lesson. We've already talked

6:47about the I Love Bees ARG from 2004, but

6:50let's go ahead and go back to the ARG

6:52that started it all. The beast. the

6:56story that invented the term alternate

6:58reality game without ever having a name

7:00for it. A murder mystery launched in

7:022001 to promote Steven Spielberg's film

7:05AI. [music]

7:06It started with a mysterious credit on a

7:08movie poster.

7:14[music]

7:19Sentient machine therapist G9 Salah.

7:22This introduced the concept of this is

7:24not a game. There was no disclaimer.

7:27Players found a network of 40

7:28professionallooking fictional websites,

7:31voicemails, and even [music] classified

7:33ads, all detailing the death of an AI

7:36programmer.

7:36>> If you need to know how to get to the

7:38funeral, please call Nancy at

7:40919-4252310.

7:44And if you have any [music] idea how

7:45Evan of all people could die on a boat,

7:48then please tell me because God knows I

7:50still can't believe it. And the creators

7:53of this ARG were reading the community's

7:55forums and [music] actively writing this

7:57ARG in real time. This audience, this

8:00group of people is so much smarter than

8:03we thought they were. Very first day,

8:06surprise. They solved all 6 months of

8:07content in about 2 hours. That was the

8:09day I installed a bed in my office cuz I

8:12knew I'm not going home ever. That is a

8:15high stress commitment. [music]

8:16You don't have to do that for your ARG,

8:17but that's kind of cool. Okay. Thumbs.

8:20Thumbs. key rules of thumb. Let's dive

8:22into it. The goal here is to make your

8:24story so addictive that players will be

8:26willing to dump hours of their life on

8:29brain numbumbing code cracking in order

8:31to solve your mystery. [music] If you

8:33want your ARG to be genuinely addictive,

8:36keeping people hooked at 3:00 a.m.

8:38digging through possible ciphers, you

8:40need to understand obsession. People get

8:42connected to well-written characters all

8:44of the time when reading books or

8:46watching movies. Never ever slack on

8:49writing your characters. Gamers will

8:51instantly get hooked if they can

8:52emotionally be connected to a character.

8:54Character development is key here,

8:56[music] by the way. At the end of the

8:57story, you don't want your character to

8:59be the same person they were at the

9:00beginning. You want them to have some

9:02[music] development and change

9:04fundamentally as a personound.

9:07>> Well, that's that's all of life, right?

9:10I mean, it's just it's [music] the

9:11constant. It's the cycle. It's solution.

9:15This solution just over and over and

9:17over. It is growth. then decay, then

9:21transformation.

9:22[music]

9:25>> It is fascinating.

9:27>> If your character doesn't change, then

9:29what really happened in your ARG? For a

9:32good ARG, it always starts with

9:34something inconspicuous, as if [music]

9:36you weren't meant to discover it, like

9:38when Halo 2 dropped its trailer and

9:40flashed a hidden link at the bottom of

9:43the screen. It's not meant for many

9:44[music] people to notice, but some

9:46people did. And for that little small

9:48door of players that noticed this, that

9:50made them feel exclusive. You could also

9:52leave cryptic comments on social media

9:54posts, slowly drawing gamers into the

9:57story. You don't want anyone playing

9:59your ARG to feel like they were supposed

10:01to see this. You want to do this right,

10:03though. Like, what I'm saying here is

10:04you don't want somebody to click onto

10:06the main hook of your ARG and not really

10:08see anything creepy [music] or weird

10:10going on. You want there to be something

10:12to keep them digging deeper. If not,

10:14they will just click off your main hook

10:16for your ARG and forget about that

10:19creation that you potentially spent

10:20months on. Okay, now that your players

10:23are hooked into the game, you got to

10:24keep this going for a little while. Now,

10:26think of your ARG as a knot. You want to

10:29try to make this knot as strong as you

10:31can, like a Gagian knot, make it

10:34incredibly difficult to break. But why

10:36would I do this? I want people to dive

10:38into my lore. I I put a lot of effort

10:40into this story. Well, the reason that

10:42you're doing this is cuz you just bet

10:44your life savings that a bunch of

10:46professional knot untieers couldn't

10:48untie your Gagian knot. Now you got a

10:50crowd forming around you and a bunch of

10:52people wanting to see these professional

10:54knot untiers. They want to see them

10:56untie the knot. Now, this is just a very

10:58weird way on how to describe making your

11:01ARG secretive and secure, but that's

11:04kind of just how I that's what that

11:07Yeah, I don't even know. That's what I

11:09was thinking in the coffee shop when I

11:10was writing this video.

11:14If that makes sense, that's great. But

11:15the reason for all of the security is

11:17you want your ARG to last. Typically, an

11:20ARG's lifespan will go on for a couple

11:22of months. Many go on for years. You

11:25don't want the story that you build to

11:27be solved within a weekend. That kind of

11:29just makes it boring, and not many

11:30people will be interested in that. The

11:32longer it goes on for, the more

11:34interest, and the more people end up

11:35seeing it. Now, making your own ARG is

11:38going to take a lot of time. It's a huge

11:40commitment, kind of like starting a

11:42family. So, you're going to need some

11:43tools to help you along the way. And

11:45these tools I personally use myself.

11:48It's such a game changer. Now, let me

11:49just get in here real quick. Personally

11:51for me, when I'm researching ARGs, I use

11:54this [music] uh website called Milanote.

11:56They also have an app on your phone, so

11:58you're able to input ideas when you're

12:00on the go. This is really good for

12:02storyboarding and in general just like

12:04making character boards. It's such a

12:06perfect thing for organizing your entire

12:08mind onto like a sheet of paper or a

12:11sheet of a website, whatever that means.

12:13Rise essentially just tracks your

12:15productivity, allowing you to clock in

12:17and out of work. And in the meantime,

12:20after work, you'll be able to go back

12:21and know what you were getting up to. If

12:23you're getting distracted while you're

12:25working, Rise will also just let you

12:27know, hey, get back to work. It's really

12:29useful if you're trying to make some

12:31really big story like an ARG or in

12:33general if you're just a college student

12:35or you work from home. If you want to

12:36use this tool yourself, there is

12:38actually a free version and I would

12:39highly suggest that you use it. That's

12:41actually what got me into using Rise

12:43personally. You can use my affiliate

12:44link in the description below and you

12:46get 25% off if you use code ASO. I would

12:49highly suggest you use that code. All

12:51right. Now, do you want to make your ARG

12:53get seen by millions of people? Uh,

12:56yeah, I do. It's not easy. It's pretty

12:59hit or miss. I'm going to be honest with

13:00you. You want to try to attract the

13:02YouTubers or the investigative social

13:04media gurus. These people will typically

13:07take all of the info from the

13:08investigators and turn it into a deep

13:11dive video investigation. This is when

13:13the internet becomes aware of the

13:16mystery that you have made. [music] But

13:17how do you get these social media

13:18creators attention? Well, luckily for

13:21you, I make videos covering ARGs and I

13:24know [music] what I look for in an ARG

13:26before I cover it. so I can just give

13:28you the deeds. On top of that, I also

13:30asked a couple of YouTubers who cover

13:32lore and ARG on the internet and I made

13:36them do a little bit of a fun quiz. So,

13:38we're going to be diving into the

13:39results of that as well. So, I've made a

13:41few videos in my time. The J Schlatt

13:43ARG, today's mission, Nutterbutter ARG,

13:46Maphat ARG, etc., etc. It goes on and

13:49on. Now, what do these titles have in

13:52common? These titles surround something

13:55that is popular such as J Schlatt. J

13:58Schlatt is a famous YouTuber. MattPat,

14:00also a famous YouTuber and politician,

14:03something like that. I don't know what

14:04he's doing. Anyways, this is called

14:06social hacking. Making an ARG

14:08surrounding a celebrity or a thing that

14:11is just popular will instantly make it

14:13more attractive to just the general

14:15population of people who's on the

14:18internet. Social hacking is very

14:19effective, but not everybody can use it.

14:22All right, drum roll, please. Let's dive

14:25into the quiz results.

14:27All of these creators cover ARGs or

14:29cover lore on the internet, and I would

14:31highly suggest that you check them out.

14:32They make really good videos. So, uh,

14:34link in the description below. First

14:36question though, what is your favorite

14:38ARG? My Casey Valentine said Lacy Games

14:41and Baby

14:44Justin Bieber. Remedy said Petcop.

14:46Willie St. Willie said Allan Tutorial.

14:48Hul

14:50said chain mill chasers [music] and

14:53sysstics said cicada 3301 which is a

14:56really good ARG. You should totally

14:58check that one out. What do you look for

14:59in an [music] ARG/Lore before making a

15:02video on it? Scope/realworld

15:04implications. Quality [music] and

15:06substance. If an ARG is mediocre, then I

15:08will not cover it. I am not a slopp. if

15:11it's good and hasn't been covered.

15:13[music] The amount of content there is

15:14to look through as well as if its

15:16storytelling device is different/ stands

15:19out. Mainly [music] two things. How

15:21disturbing/enter entertaining it is and

15:23how immersive slash somewhat believable

15:25it is as well. To be a good series, it

15:27doesn't [music] need to do both.

15:29Although some managed to do it, but it

15:31needs to do at least one of these. And

15:33then the last question is a really big

15:34question. All right, block in for this.

15:38Pancakes or waffles? I didn't think

15:40there was going to be a correlation to

15:41this, but um four out of five of the

15:43YouTubers said that waffles were top

15:46tier. So, take that as you will. Now, I

15:49don't want you feeling discouraged about

15:51these guidelines or rules. Ultimately,

15:53the ARG scene is just the wild [music]

15:55west. Take this video as more so

15:58motivation for what you're going to do

16:00with your ARG. Have fun with it. [music]

16:02Explore mysteries and do something

16:04crazy. Maybe once the ball starts

16:06rolling for your ARG, you'll have the

16:08next famous game-changing lore on the

16:10internet [music] that many people dive

16:12into years to come. And you've done it.

16:15Now, I would appreciate it if you

16:16subscribe to the channel. We're at

16:1737,000 subscribers, and I'm really

16:19trying to hit that 50K mark where I lose

16:21my personality. [music] So, if you

16:23subscribed, I would really appreciate

16:24it. Now, typically at this point, I

16:26would just try to pitch you to watch

16:27another one of my videos, but I think

16:29it's best that we separate and you go on

16:31and make your own ARG. But if you want

16:33to keep watching, you should go ahead

16:35and click on this video that's over my

16:36face. It's a It's a really good video. I

16:38probably cried a few times during it. Uh

16:41it's probably very emotional and very uh

16:44lovely.