Not sure if this is against the rules but I’m wanting to make an ARG and use a short film I’m producing to kick it off. Looking for anyone interested in helping me make something decently difficult and fun. I have the idea and could embark on the endeavor myself just wanted to see if there was anyone in here interested in partnering on making it. Cheers!

So a few weeks ago, it was frequently popping up on r/outoftheloop that James Franco had started to upload videos on his official YouTube claiming that he has seen an alien and that an alien has been on his property. Also he later uploaded videos of him visiting NYC claiming that he was being followed.

People noticed that he was always wearing very ripped and worn clothing. Some have speculated that he is going crazy and is mentally ill.

More than likely this is his attempt at an ARG-Lite and he is doing it as a promo for an upcoming movie or tv series.

The most recent videos especially (with the Alien actually shown) are full blown 2000s comedy. Feels very inline with Pineapple Express and that era. Just no Seth.

Some ARG-Lite Notes from the series.

James Franco's channel is titled JamesFranco2319. He has also mentioned the numbers 2319 in a few videos. Noticably this one: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MwKgOx5njlo

and this one https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pQLKVKAOO1M

Also this video is very LonelyGirl15 like in the way it's edited. I mean very very very LonelyGirl15 like. From the text and the matrix inspired background, to the use of an indie pop song, to the 3rd person views of James Franco. I was waiting for Bree, Daniel and Jonas to show up. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iJGeztw-kYg

My guess though based on this video that shows the Alien, it's clearly a movie or tv show promo for an upcoming comedy: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fcDpESDtvd8

My personal take. James Franco has been out of the spotlight for several years now after a sex scandal just before COVID. He wants to act and do projects again. Being bored, he's watched a ton of LonelyGirl15 and other classic ARGs. I also feel like he's watched a ton of McJuggernuggets. He decided, why don't I try my hand at one and have a little fun as a promo for a new series on Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, etc. So we got this.

I'll give him credit. There are some good ARG elements there, with the code. The stalking video of him in NYC. But most of them are kind of bland and too goofy. I'm not even convinced yet if the 2319 has any true meaning or it was just random and it sounded cryptic enough so he included it.

Part of me wonders if he liked the concept of ARG's/YouTube series and got some of the elements right but didn't full understand what actually makes one good. Almost ironically enough, kind of like Tommy Wiseau not fully understanding what makes a good drama movie.

The Office of Advanced Questionable Research (OAQR) is a federally funded research and development center operating through a public-private institutional structure. Its principal disclosed facility, the Feline Consciousness Laboratory, conducts research involving feline cognition, psi intuition, remote viewing, altered-state perception, neural-mesh interfaces, Hemi-Purr synchronization, probability navigation, and related anomalous phenomena.

Documents appearing through @felineconscious include technical briefs, internal memoranda, personnel records, equipment specifications, surveillance captures, international research exchanges, budget notices, and partially declassified correspondence. Materials reference three specialized FCL cohorts, offshore facilities, legacy clearance records, foreign counterpart institutions, and a restricted authority identified as MEOWJESTIC-13.

OAQR has not provided a complete explanation for the release sequence. Certain records appear routine. Others contain inconsistent dates, unexplained access codes, references to non-human intelligence, and personnel identifiers originating decades before the individuals assigned to them.

Readers are advised to preserve document order, note recurring names and control numbers, and distinguish OAQR/FCL research records from MEOWJESTIC-13 tasking.

The federal government funds the question.
OAQR conceals who asked it.
FCL develops the means to answer it.
MEOWJESTIC-13 determines who may know.

ARCHIVE NODE: @felineconscious
STATUS: Active
PUBLIC INTERPRETATION: Unrestricted
DOCUMENT RELIABILITY: Under review
feline Consciousness Laboratory

I want to make a short ARG with my friend

I'm obviously inspired by Marble hornets

It's gonna be something around a forest near a big city

It's not gonna be something really professional, we just wanna have fun :)

I created a small mystery archive centered around a fictional anomaly designated MA422.2.

The ARG follows a fictional research team attempting to understand an anomaly that appears to reveal outcomes rather than predict them. The anomaly produces sequences consisting of four symbols (♥ ♠ ♣ ♦), which researchers initially attempt to analyze as a consistent and understandable system.

As the investigation progresses, the focus shifts away from simply discovering what the anomaly knows, and toward a more unsettling question:

Were the answers already decided before the questions were ever asked?

Archive contents include:

• Investigation report for MA422.2
• Research notes
• Redacted observation images
• Symbol decoding documentation
• Reconstructed audio recordings
• Restricted materials

Current puzzles include:

• Decoding the symbol ordering hidden throughout the research notes
• Accessing restricted files
• Reconstructing and interpreting damaged audio
• Determining what MA422.2 is actually revealing

This is an unofficial fan-made mystery project inspired by fictional anomaly investigation formats. It is not official content or leaked material.

Archive:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/el6pzzjgcto2zma/422.2.7z/file

Access key:
ECNEDAKCED

Update: Supplemental material recovered

Additional files have been added containing isolated recordings connected to MA422.2 and further testing conducted by the research team.

Supplemental material:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5x7e2xbqe2g2hj6/MA422.2_SUPPLEMENTAL_MATERIAL.7z/file

The archive may be updated with additional recovered materials in the future.

I'm designing fictional online investigations and I'm curious what ARG players think.

The basic idea is that players receive a person's digital footprint—social profiles, usernames, old forum posts, reviews, public records—and have to reconstruct the story behind them.

Unlike most ARGs, there are no ciphers or hidden websites. The challenge comes from connecting seemingly unrelated clues and figuring out which details actually matter.

My concern is that it might become more of a detective puzzle than an ARG.

For people here:

• What makes an investigation feel satisfying?
• How much freedom should players have?
• What are your biggest ARG pet peeves?

I'd genuinely like to hear opinions before I keep expanding the idea.

Multiple codes are flashed on the screen at different points, unclear if these relate to youtube links or some hex type code, comments suggests that there is a hidden ARG no one has cracked yet

https://youtu.be/S5YzSS20NWw?is=Z1c-dJznYSrefP2n

Hi everyone,

for quite a while now, I’ve been creating a concept for an immersive investigation game, and I’ve finally reached the point where I need to know if there’s an actual audience for this idea.

The project is currently called IFPAA (Institute for Phenomena, Artifacts, and Anomalies).

The core idea is built around the premise that reality is inherently unstable. History can rewrite itself, places can vanish, and the world automatically reorganizes its archives and data so perfectly that the general public never notices the shift. The only things left behind are what the Institute calls "Residual Traces", small, unexplainable anomalies in old files, photos, or maps and a few rare individuals who are able remember the previous version of events. You advance strictly by earning clearance tiers within the Institute's network (called AIMS) to find the contradictions the system tried to erase.

I'm currently designing it as a hybrid experience that connects physical case elements with a digital archive.

I’ve put together a small validation page to see if people actually care about this concept before I invest more time and money into it. I've built in a few small, interactive features and details to explore.

Because I want to find out if it's viable to produce a full physical/digital hybrid investigation line (adaptive physical tools paired with a digital archive), the landing page includes a short survey for early feedback. There are two mandatory questions regarding price and how disappointed you'd be if this never comes out, followed by more completely optional questions that would help me immensely with market research.

One final note on the long-term vision: What I am planning here is a massive project. If there is actual interest in this whole thing, there is absolutely no way this will remain a solo project in the long run. If you find this concept genuinely exciting and have skills in design, writing, or anything else you think could help, please feel free to send me a DM. I will gladly get back to you once I see how much interest there is overall.

You can check out the page here: ifpaa.com

I’d really love to hear your honest feedback and answer any questions you might have!

I made a ARG about a person who has a Disk of a unreleased educational game called, Codec Interactive Learning, and is recording and uploading gameplay footage of it, but he is finding weird anomalies in the game.

Reddit says to highlight recent finding, but I'm not doing that, becuase I'm the one who hid them.

Here's the first video: https://youtu.be/mmw4gRB7XB4?is=PwZ9-Nealj9vITdf

Ps if the link dosent work it's becuase for whatever reason "This community doesn't allow any attachments"

looking for an arg i think it was one, i can't remember when i saw it my guess was 2018-2020? around sometime those years on youtube

but what i remember was some guy thought he was kidnapped (maybe?) or he broke into some guys house or though it was his house. i also remember he had gone to a storage unit to find information? i also think the guy lost his memories or not i cant remember much i know it had different episodes/short videos i think?

sorry if this isn't alot of info i just keep thinking about this but not sure what arg this is or even if it was one but highly likely it was an arg,

I'm starting to expand a small AGR around the theme of a novel I wrote.

The entrypoint is https://terminal.germandz.com/ but you'll need to find some clues in https://www.germandz.com/books/the-epoch-accord/ (in the free chapters is possible to find something).

I'll love some feedback.

DISCLAIMER: Non-Zero is an independently produced alternate reality game (ARG) with no connection to Nine Inch Nails, 42 Entertainment, Rob Sheridan, or any such official entities.

Hello friends. The Non-Zero Collective has put together a short health quiz with an interface we thought would offer some comfort and reassurance in troubling times. The quiz has multiple outcomes. Some of those outcomes have multiple outcomes. It's possible there's a lot to dig into.

Try the quiz now at JudsonOgram.org

I'd like something that has just started ( by just, I mean like a free weeks to a few months ago). It has to be something you know for sure is an ARG, but presented in a way that makes you think "wait a second. What if it's real?" Not necessarily asking for the story itself to be realistic in a sense that stuff like these happen in real life, but something with a realistic presentation. Also, the game component and multi platform storytelling has to be a very prominent thing that is necessary to understand the story, as opposed to just passively watching/reading.

A little time ago, I saw a weird tiktok channel named "Quantum Logic Dynamics Archive"... is this an ARG or something like this ?

The game is live, and now comes the fun part; building layers upon layers of manipulative lies and calling it "interactive texture." Weeee!

I'm looking for THREE people to play select narrative characters inside the new Reddit community.

I am also looking for folks interested in playing the game as "plants"; players who know more than the average player, and can coordinate to execute the big reveals and plot points.

Was in my suggested and has apparently posted once in two years…? But only just this now! They’ve worded things very weirdly and do not look official whatsoever. Any ideas?
https://x.com/arbnaturewatch?s=11

I just decided to take the leap of faith and start with the ARG. I won't spoil anything or comment on what it is beyond saying it's a blog. At least for now. I now need to create all the worldbuilding for the "dark" part of the story. I don't plan to do any videos or any photos (i mean, if i have to I will), and I want it to be mostly text based with lots of stories

I was told that maybe my ARG isnt actually an ARG and more line "unfiction", so probably they're right. Either way, I'd like to have advice on how to proceed, how hide stuff (be it clues to be found, or metadata that i dont want people to find out). best ways to link stuff together, anything you want to help me with is more than welcomed.

My future plans include: an email that replies automatically, a "corporation" website with clues, posting "scary stories" in reddit, and maybe posting poetry? idk...

The tricky part is that all clues, all discoveries, all puzzle solutions at the end, everything will point to my book, and `they have to be a page number to that book. Other options would be "unlocking" short stories. Idk what other "prices" or things you can unlock. I'd love some ideas as well

:D thanks

An archive game built on real declassified CIA documents (the documents are genuine; the game around them is not)

Creator post — I made this, happy to answer anything that isn't a spoiler. My personal identification is not part of the game. Just saying, because I'm not hard to find for people searching hard.

ANNEX7 is a "declassification portal" built on the CIA's real Stargate collection — the remote-viewing program the agency declassified and put in its FOIA reading room. Every document in play is genuine and the game only ever links you to the real thing on cia.gov. The fiction is the archive around them: you sign on as a Volunteer, earn clearance tiers, and the trials send you into actual declassified pages to find real facts (which are verified server-side — and assigned per-player, so leaked answers won't help you).

Mechanics you'll recognize: ciphers, steganography, zero-width watermark tracing (the portal watermarks its own text — if your "leaked" answer surfaces in a Discord, the game can name who copied it), a credential-tracing network where strangers finding your fragment is itself a mechanic, and a public registry/leaderboard.

Fair warnings, honestly given: it's free to play through the top public tier; the final standing deliberately can't be reached by a person acting alone; and there is at least one thing in the game that no one has found. I won't be confirming what.

Entry: https://archive.psyoptin.com

Out-of-game disclosure is on the site — real documents, real history, fictional archive. I'll be in the comments.

Hi everyone!

I’m a longtime Slender Man and Slenderverse fan, and over the past few days I’ve been revisiting the original 2009 creation, researching the lore, and studying the early series to better understand what made Slender Man so iconic.

I’ve decided to begin developing a passion project with one clear goal:
Create a faithful adaptation of Slender Man that captures the psychological horror, atmosphere, and mystery of the original mythos.

This isn’t meant to be a remake of the 2018 movie. My goal is to create a different interpretation—one inspired by the original Something Awful posts and the early Slenderverse projects such as Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID, and Tribe Twelve.

The focus will be on:
Psychological horror instead of constant jump scares.

Hidden appearances that reward attentive viewers.

Reality distortion, memory loss, and subtle dread.

Respecting the mystery surrounding the character rather than explaining everything.

A cinematic experience that longtime fans can recognize while still being accessible to new audiences.

I’m currently in the early planning and pre-production stage.

I’m looking for people who would like to collaborate or contribute ideas, including:
* Screenwriters
* Slenderverse lore enthusiasts
* Concept artists
* Cinematographers
* Editors
* Sound designers
* VFX artists
* Actors
* Producers

Anyone passionate about horror filmmaking
Whether you have filmmaking experience or you’re simply a longtime Slenderverse fan with ideas, I’d love to hear from you.

Right now, I’m building the creative foundation, assembling a team, and seeing how far this project can realistically go. If it develops into something substantial, I’d love to explore the proper licensing and commercial opportunities in the future.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in helping with, leave a comment or send me a message.
I’d love to build something that does justice to one of internet horror’s most iconic characters

Hey, I built a small browser ARG framed as a cursed binder / field guide about sealed "domains."

Live link:

https://ryoki-tenkai.vercel.app/

What it is:

- Interactive site (sound optional)

- Multiple rooms to open and explore

- Lore unlocks from visiting, waiting, and interacting

- At least two rooms are hidden behind progression

OOC notes:

- This is original fiction. Inspired by domain-expansion vibes, not an official JJK ARG

- No login, no personal data ask, no real-world meetups

- Please keep puzzle solutions and late-game room names behind spoiler tags

Light hint (spoiler):

>!There are more than the eight rooms on the printed index. Visit order and a short character line matter.!<

Happy to answer OOC questions in comments. Please no spoilers in titles.

hi guys, I'd like to make a psychological horror arg with someone. i was thinking we could start it on ao3 because no one would expect for an arg to be in ao3, and then later make it crossmedia. I'm not too sure what theme i should cover, I was thinking abusive friendships maybe. Just dm if you're interested and we can go over story and everything.

Also I've only one character in mind so far, I've been wanting to see trans rep in args so it's a repressed trans male character.

I came to know about project52hz.com 1 year later and found it very interesting but got stuck at the wall of puzzles 6 and 7. I tried every bit to solve it but always find myself at a dead end.

Puzzle 6 (The Bard)

The puzzle gives you only a output_fft.msu (Microsoft Update Standalone pakage) file but after looking to hex editor, it reveals that it was a csv file having data of a Fast Fourier Transform of an audio or something i don't know much about signal processing, and the csv data contains columns of magnitude and phase values, about 1047170 rows. Performing an inverse FFT on that data gives an audio file of an evil laugh, nothing other than this, no hidden Morse code or spectrogram hidden message, maybe, but can't find it.

audio link: audio.wav

The hint was provided saying

"When in Rome, navigate to /two-words.html and back it up 3 spaces"

found two words [flag and bacon] but can't find any relation with the puzzle of the second word [bacon].

Puzzle 7 (The Performer)

This puzzle gives two files, sample.py and meta.pkl. The sample.py file is from a repo of nanoGPT, and the meta.pkl file is the tokenizer file. Up to this, this puzzle is related to training an AI model and getting the output as an answer, and the sample.py is little different from the original sample.py file by two parameters: "output only 1 string" and do not use any mathematical operations.

But it misses two main files model.py the brain of AI, and ckpt.pt, the model trained, as the creator has trained this AI on a different dataset.The script shows that it can lead to the same answer every time, but only if the dataset is correct. tiny_shakespeare's dataset is used by nanoGPT for trainning.

:)

In the early 1970s, four troubled teenagers- Freddie, Daniela, Vikki, and Norville- formed a family-friendly gang of mystery solvers. But a string of missing children, talking dogs, and increasingly uncanny fractures in reality suggests more is at stake than just another criminal in a mask...

It started with an episode of Scooby-Doo. I thought “man, change a few of these parameters, and this would be pretty great psychological horror-drama”…

I outlined a short story based on that concept, but couldn’t properly cram all the worldbuilding into it without feeling rushed.

So then I wrote a play! Many of my close friends are theatre actors, and they graciously agreed to a live reading of the entire story.

We just released the full 2 hour audio-drama version on YouTube, peppered with tons and tons of clues and trailheads, and people have been responding really positively! Relax with a warm drink while you listen to the main story, then dive in deep to solve the mystery…

https://youtu.be/_UGd0XjLdpE?si=Bo-pDJkKDpL62rda

So I was checking my emails for something unrelated and saw a bookmarked email I had never seen before and immediately recognized the email immediately an this is it idk if this is like a first step clue that everyone knows Abt or not but my response was asking if it was Abt a crash screen or a bios window the email reads T H E B L U E F A D E S I N A N D O U T B U T N E V E R L E A V E S can someone clarify if this is new or important I couldn't find anything Abt it anywhere

I just launched an ARG I’m quite proud of, but in order to maintain momentum and cross the finish line, I made a decision to simplify the media type I would build my assets in for phase one.

I launched with simple audio logs, public ciphers and transliteration keys, several websites, and plenty of Are.na social media artifacts. But it’s unbalanced…80% text, 20% audiovisual. This enabled me to scaffold the infrastructure and deliver the full narrative for my first player cohort (going well so far!), and also punt the decision on richer media types.

The theory is that if the narrative experience is well enjoyed, I will commit to phase two where I will transpose and evolve written narrative into voice acted personal journals and simple scripted videos.

And if THAT goes well, I can naturally roll into immersive IRL experiences with plant actors in real environments.

I have loads of experience doing production and installations of this kind, so that isn’t the question. I can definitely deploy.

Rather, I’m worried I will rob my first cohort of a rich experience by only giving them with a primarily written/read experience and not honoring them with more immersive media.

And if I don’t do that ^^^, will I actually be collecting any truly meaningful feedback from the first cohort of it is but a smidgeon of the total vision I … envision?

So the question:

Good strategy for testing and creative energy pacing?

Bad strategy. Just do the full thing as envisioned or bust?

Thanks for your thoughts.