Inanimate Alice (2005 – ongoing)

The “Inanimate Alice” series, which started in 2005, is an award-winning ongoing interactive multimedia project that tells the story of a girl growing up in the early years of the 21st century and dreaming of becoming a game designer. The reader first meets her when she is 8 years old and, in five subsequent episodes published between 2006 and 2016, accompanies her on her way to becoming more involved in the gaming industry. The technology used to tell Alice’s adventures matures with her alongside her own game design abilities; while the first episodes were created with Flash, the latest ones used more advanced technology, including virtual reality. While the series is produced and owned by Ian Harper and the Bradfield Company, Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph created the first episodes on their own; later others, such as Andy Campbell, joined the Inanimate Alice team. Pullinger was the primary story author for all the main episodes, taking on the role of the story consultant in some of the additional projects, like the VR episode created by Mez Breeze. For many, “Inanimate Alice” is the most awarded and well-known example of e-literature for children (in 2023 it was awarded ISTE Seal), although initially, it wasn’t conceived as a text for younger readers.

A multitude of paratexts were created to accompany the original “Inanimate Alice” story, as it was easy to write stories that continue the original plot. Good examples are “Alice Adventures in Australia”, produced by Australian pupils and devoted to time between the first and second episodes, or travel journals from Alice’s gap year that describe the time between the fifth and sixth episodes (Lori Hopping created these). Additionally, the character Pullinger created had its own life: Alice Field has had accounts on many social media (Facebook, Instagram, Everloop) and published blogs or development journals linked to games she created.These elements combined to make “Inanimate Alice” a true example of transmedia storytelling and spreadable media practices and an excellent resource for teaching digital literacy. The series has been acclaimed as a “pedagogical blockbuster”, it was the first digital text officially listed as a recommended text in the Australian and Portuguese curriculum guidelines and is still frequently used to teach digital literacy in various countries, supported by multiple translations. With time, additional teaching materials and teaching licences for “Inanimate Alice” episodes were offered by its publisher, the Bradfield Company.