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The Gallery: Aviary Studios’ new FMV action interactive title is now available on mobile

Navigate a story full of mystery and intrigue!

The Gallery, a brand-new FMV/live-action game and interactive film hybrid, is now available for iOS users on the Apple Store and Android users on Google Play, as announced by Aviary Studios. The interactive authoring for The Gallery was provided by Stornaway.io. The Unity game engine build and porting were undertaken by Aviary. The Gallery is localized (subtitled) into 11 languages: Arabic, Chinese (simplified), French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian) Russian, Spanish (Latin America), and Turkish. 

The Gallery is a suspenseful blend of hostage thriller and social drama with a sprinkling of global film festival cinema aesthetics, written and directed by Paul Raschid, one of the most prolific live-action video game / interactive film creatives. twenty years. Two personas. You’ll need all of your resources if you want to make it through the night.

The game comprises 5 hours of content along with 150 branches and 18 different endings

With its blend of excellent production values, a stellar cast, and a nuanced script that depicts the games’ two time periods, 1981 and 2021, both of which are of significant political, social, and cultural significance in UK history, The Gallery has been created to captivate both gamers and interactive film enthusiasts.

The Gallery available
Image via Aviary Studios

With George Blagden (Louis XIV in Versailles and Athelstan in Vikings), Anna Popplewell (Susan Pevensie in the Disney Narnia series), Kara Tointon (Mr. Selfridge and Eastenders), Rebecca Root (The Queen’s Gambit), Richard Fleeshman (The Sandman and Coronation Street), Shannon Tarbet (Killing Eve and Love Sarah), and Fehinti Balogun, The Gallery has an impressive cast (I May Destroy You).

Funnily enough, the premise came to me in a dream back in 2016! I wrote the script as a traditional, linear film but I ended up focusing on other projects. After I had entered the interactive space and made ‘The Complex’, ‘Five Dates’ and ‘Deathtrap Dungeon: The Golden Room’, I felt so empowered by the format that I looked back at other scripts I could ‘interactivate’ – it was a no-brainer to return to ‘The Gallery’

Paul Raschid

“We had planned to shoot in 2020 but like all independently financed productions, we came to a halt due to Covid. Thankfully the UK government announced a Production Insurance Scheme to cover Covid, so we kept things ticking over until it was implemented in late September 2020. We could finally tell cast and crew we were green-lit to start in February 2021 at Stephens House & Gardens in Finchley, London.” he added further.

The Gallery available
Image via Aviary Studios

Speaking about what challenges they had faced Paul said further, “The production itself was ambitious – we shot 5 hours-worth of content in 6 weeks (3 weeks on the 1981 narrative and 3 weeks on the 2021 narrative). Logistically, this was a pace at which I have become accustomed to shooting on all my projects. It was made possible by having a supremely talented and experienced cast & crew who brought their A game every single day.

However, the new challenge that none of us had much experience with, was of course: Covid. At the time of the shooting, the UK was in the middle of another wave and we were on a full lockdown. So, my biggest challenge was navigating 6 weeks of uncertainty weighing down on all our plans. Going into work every day, not knowing whether we would have a positive case and need to shut down, ratcheted up the pressure to a level I had not experienced before… but lady luck was smiling and we didn’t lose a single day to Covid interruption. It was a miracle and a tribute to our cast, crew, and support team sticking to the protocols so stringently.” he added

Working on The Gallery was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had as an actor.  The entire team felt completely committed to delivering a monster of a project – a 400 page mountain of creativity from the mind of Paul Raschid.  This commitment meant that you felt completely supported as an actor to just play, and be brave and bold with the choices you made.  This is what you always aim for as an actor, but rarely do you feel so enabled to do this.  Paul and his team made the process of making The Gallery the perfect combination – working on something extremely challenging, whilst always remembering to have fun doing what we do.  The whole experience was so rewarding because of it

George Blagden about their experience making The Gallery

“I am absolutely in awe of Paul- I don’t really know how he was able to hold so many varying strands of the same story in his head whilst we shot at a such breakneck pace. He was incredibly diligent and so well prepared for the shoot. I’m very grateful to him for how open he was to George and my questions and suggestions, and how supportive he was of us on set. He knew exactly what he needed from each day and yet still found space and time to let us try things or discover new notes and beats.” said Anna Popplewell

The Gallery just felt like such an adventure of a shoot. Each morning I would look at the 21 pages we were meant to film that day with a bunch of stunts and explosions and props and Covid precautions and moving parts and various cast popping in and out of different setups, and think: ‘this is not possible. And then at the end of the day, we would somehow have done it. It was difficult, but there was this amazing sense that the cast and crew were all in it together, and that was really special- the teamwork.” she added.

Are you excited as The Gallery is now available on both Android and iOS? Let us know in the comments below!

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