Intel and USC bring Leviathan to CES

This week at CES 2014, the USC School of Cinematic Arts World Building Media Lab brought an interactive story experience called Leviathan to Intel's booth.

The "hybrid storytelling platform" casts players int the role of Huxleys, genetically engineered flying jellyfish who follow the Titualar whale, Leviathan, on a voyage through CES. The game's premise was inspired by steampunk-infused Scott Westerfeld story from 2009.

"We are entering a new space for storytelling," said Alex McDowell, professor of practice and director of the USC World Building Media Lab. "Not film, television, literature, theater, animation, or even interactive media. Leviathan weaves of them all into visionary tapestry of modalities. It inspires us to experience stories, with an unmatched level of freedom and perspective."

The university created the "storyworld" in collaboration with Intel Labs.

"Built storyworlds like Leviathan spark new ways to both create and play," said Tawny Schlieski of Intel Labs. "Intel is exploring this new narrative platform with tools that enable artists and technologists to collaborate, integrate, and create immersively from the earliest inception of story, while giving fans the ability to move and play naturally inside built virtual worlds."