EXCLUSIVE | 'Artificial: Remote Intelligence' showrunner Bernie Su dishes on worldbuilding and character creation
Twitch's 'Artificial' is easily one of the most advanced shows out in the world right now, harnessing audience interaction in a way we've never seen before. Season 3 of the show is set to take things to the next level with special worldbuilding episodes that will allow the audience to actually create a character for the show. MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) caught up with showrunner and co-creator Bernie Su for an exclusive interview where he talked about how the show seems to have some inspiration from tabletop role-playing games like 'Dungeons & Dragons', especially in terms of having consequences to the audience's choices.
"A lot of the people who create the show or write the show have D&D backgrounds," Bernie Su said. "I used to play RPGs as well. And it just like, it's the same idea, right? If you lose a weapon, you lose the weapon and it's gone. You don't get to undo it. If you do this for your character, you've done it, you don't get to undo it. So RPGs are a great example of this. Um, and, and you could say that we're very much like that. The funny thing is that in Thursday's episode, the audience is going to create a character with that. So technically it's almost like an RPG. We're going to create a character, guys. Like, what do you guys want to do?"
"So I think that'll be really fun and to see what happens there, it's going to be a fun little journey for us," he continued. "I think this is something, creating a character as a writer, I've never given any audience this power before. The idea of this is my show and I'm creating the world and all this, and they're gonna just basically will up a character."
Of course, there will be some rules to character creation but those are just to keep things in line with the general world of the show. "We're giving quite a few parameters just so it fits in the world," he explained. "But to basically give them the power to branch this or determine this and, you know, name the character. I'm really, really excited about this challenge. I think it's going to be so fascinating."
One aspect of the show's new worldbuilding episodes that has received a lot of hype is the possibility that the audience might be able to cast the characters they create. However, Su clarified that this is still something that's in the works, though it could happen if things work out.
"That's a TBD because we're only picking the character first," he said. "So what has to happen logistically is, when the audience picks the character, designing the character, this week, we have to go and cast that character. That's not immediate, right? I can't have 500 actors ready to go. It's going to be this man, this height, this race, etc, etc, etc. So the casting part of the decision potential of the show is going to happen later in the season."
He continued, "It may or may not be for this character. We haven't made that decision yet. Right now, they are literally just designing a character for us, with us together. And then the casting choice may happen a couple weeks from now, or it may not happen at all. Maybe we just cast the character and bring them in and have them do another character. But we do want to explore at least the ability for them to cast the character."
With or without the casting part, the chance to create a whole character for the show is an exciting one and we can't wait to see how it turns out. Join us as we watch and shape the world in Episode 2 of 'Artificial' Season 3 (also titled 'Artificial: Remote Intelligence'), streaming live on Twitch on May 28 at 6 pm PT/ 9 pm ET.
