TRANSMEDIA DAY @ Festival of Future Storytellers 2026

The TRANSMEDIA DAY is part of the Festival of Future Storytellers 2026 and is co-created by Seriencamp & CreatiF Center. It’s various talks & workshops are dedicated to the intersection of film and other media forms such as books, marketing and games – it lives where stories become communities and even whole worlds. The TRANSMEDIA DAY provides you with talks and workshops on storytelling and various industry insights. We will explore how storytelling can grow across media boundaries and what to look for when developing a brand IP to your story, and building a devoted community.

Morning PROGRAMME I 10:00 - 12:30

Worlds, Stories & Content? Thinking Across Media

In the current media sphere everything is unavoidingly connected: art and music, games and series, film and memes, politics and creative expression are flattened into content through the ever-churning machine of social media. Success - however defined - is tied to breaking through barriers between formats and occupying space that spans multiple media as recent breakouts of titles like OBSESSION and BACKROOMS, FALLOUT and ARCANE have shown.

Why has this approach conquered the way stories are produced, distributed and consumed? What does it mean for creative practice and expression? And how can it be used as mode of empowerment in the face of the entertainment death stars that the global cultural industry is dominated by? Just some of the questions Gerhard Maier (Artistic Director, Seriencamp Conference & Festival) is exploring in his opening keynote.

With Gerhard Maier, Artistic Director, Seriencamp Conference & Festival

World-Building as Creative Practice - Rethinking How We Develop Stories

We increasingly move in a media ecosystem, where formats are in constant communication with each other - novels, podcasts, games, movies, series and media art, saturated in the primordial soup of social media. While choosing a format early helps focus a project, it also shapes the creative possibilities we explore. What happens when development begins with a world, its themes and relationships and the questions it raises?

Writer and world designer Kurt McClung and narrative design researcher and multi-media storyteller Christy Dena explore hopw keeping the form open can enrich creative development. How can world-building and openness to format enrich development processes by creating a shared creative foundation while recognising what each form makes possible.

Through examples from their practice, the conversation focuses on how to break out of industry silos, explore narrative possibilities and collaborate across disciplines through the approach of world-building and interdisciplinary thinking across writing, design and audience experience.

With Kurt McClung, writer and world designer and Christy Dena, narrative design researcher and multi-media storyteller.

From Page to Platform – The New Life of Stories

The Witcher, Dune, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – books that made it onto screens: from cinema, streaming, to games, and social media. But what are the signs of a stories’ potential for more? How does an IP develop? In this talk we will explore how IP-thinking is changing the search for stories, the role of community culture in shaping storyworlds, and the value of media literacy for producers.

With Sema Kara, Head of Film & TV Rights at Penguin Random House

AFTERNOON PROGRAMME I 13:30 - 18:00

The Making of A Night at Moka Efti

How do you turn a successful TV series into a game that feels authentic, engaging, and worth playing? In this session, the producers of A Night at Moka Efti: A Babylon Berlin Story take audiences behind the scenes of creating a narrative game based on one of Germany’s most recognizable media brands.

Together, we will explore the creative, editorial, and production challenges of adapting an established IP into an interactive experience, discuss the role of games within public service media, and share practical insights into how gaming projects are developed inside the ARD ecosystem.

The session includes exclusive production insights and a live demo of the game. The game itself was developed by Paintbucket Games and published by ARD Gaming as a narrative adventure set in the world of Babylon Berlin.

With Sebastian Demuth, Senior Innovation Manager, SWR X Lab and Daniel Stolz, Senior Innovation Manager, SWR X Lab

Workshop with Kurt McClung (14:45 - ca. 18:00)

Registration for all events coming soon!

The TRANSMEDIA DAY is open to everyone and free of charge.