In a desolate world consumed by sand, bones, and remnants of the past, a father and son walk through the wasteland. Around them, plastic fragments and scattered debris mark the passage of time. Ahead, a vast pit, the Yellow Mouth stretches endlessly consuming everything in its path. Each day, they move forward, leaving the pit behind as they rest, always pushing just a little further away.
Is this a scenario for a game or a book? Is it a metaphor for the coming challenges and the wisdom we must carry forward? It is all that and more.
It Remains is the name of the immersive novel, beyond-dystopian book that becomes “alive”. “We are raising awareness for plastic pollution and for homelessness,” tells us Vasil Tuchkov, the author of the graphic novel and the founder of Yellow Mouth Studio, an entertainment media franchise for decentralised audiences.
Revolutionizing storytelling: turning audiences into creators
The idea behind It Remains is to transform the audience into an active participant in the entire experience. “The book is gamified, and we are launching a computer game, mobile application, and blockchain integration,” shares Tuchkov. Currently, their community exceeds 70K people. The project also has a collection of non-fungible tokens or NFTs.
“When the pandemic began, I was going through a challenging time in my life. I felt the need to create something new,” explains Vasil on building the post-dystopian world of It Remains. The novel gets its inspiration from various artists and projects – from the post-apocalyptic novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy to the desert of the Burning Man festival, as “the fuel of innovation is imagination,” says Vasil. He also shares that he visited various cities and took photographs of homeless people, which were later transformed into the artworks.
Tuchkov’s idea is to be the first decentralized franchise, based on blockchain and the creativity of a large community. “We want to be the link between Hollywood and web3 communities,” he says.
The idea managed to attract the former art director of Pixar and co-founder of ARC Academy – Antony Hristov. Illustrator and concept artist Rob Prior, known for his work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Warner Bros., also takes part in the project – as an artist and a shareholder.
“Currently we are three primary partners – Ed Matinyan, Christo Peev and I, as well as more than 20 investors from around the world,” shares Tuchkov. “Our core team of 12 people is in Bulgaria, but we have contributors all around the world,” he explains.
Redefining interactive entertainment
“The future of entertainment should be interactive and seamless,” says Vasil while explaining their idea of creating phygital products – offering a blend of physical and digital. Tuchkov also highlights that they have presented It Remains immersive experience in 17 countries, where entrepreneurs, collectors, investors in the NFT industry, and fans have the opportunity to gather and network. So far, their core markets include the USA, UK and Asia.
“The big news is that we are working on a pilot episode for Netflix animation,” shares Vasil. He also mentions that they plan to further expand the project with a movie combining both animation and live-action elements.
Tuchkov explains that Yellow Mouth Studio is the aggregator for all the projects they are executing as a decentralized entertainment franchise where the audience is involved in creating and executing the projects. “You can share the idea with the community and we can fund it from the studio’s treasury.”
On the question why they haven’t tried to raise a substantial amount of capital for their endeavors, Tuchkov smiles and quotes the headline of Frank Zappa’s album – “Shut up and play your guitar. We want to do our job first before asking for money. I don’t share the idea of asking for a million when you just have one presentation in your pocket. Nevertheless, that is something that many founders apply, but we want to use reverse engineering.”
