by Bev Vincent
A: Nope.
Q: Robin Furth speculated at the time that if there was some hidden tragedy in Gabrielle and Steven’s past, it might explain their cold relationship.
A: Everlynne at Serenity knows everything that there is about Roland’s sister, whose name is Clarissa Deschain. Everlynne knows a lot about that family. It would be kind of good to go back and talk about her a little bit. She’s a good character. That’s all I know. I don’t know a lot about these things.
Q: Do you have any sense of what’s going to happen with the movie adaptation?
A: I think something is going to happen with it at Warner Bros., but I haven’t heard anything from Ron [Howard] in a while, and I let them go their own course. I can just say that if the movie does get made from the script that I read, I think that the people who read the books will be in equal parts delighted and infuriated by what they see, but I also think that they’ll keep coming back because, to me, they got a brilliant take on the whole thing. My lips are sealed. I can’t say. But I can tell you that the character of Jake Chambers is very important, and Akiva Goldsman did a brilliant job of integrating the fantasy world of Mid-World with the real world of New York City, and the two things interchange in a way—I was just delighted by it and by the way that they use Blaine the Mono. I hope it happens, but I’m not counting the days or anything. Ron’s very determined to make it, and I think in the end he will.
DISCORDIA
Stephen King’s official Web site, stephenking.com, has a section devoted to the Dark Tower series. It covers the books, the graphic novels, the artwork, connections to other books, has a glossary, and features a section called Discordia, which is the name for the chaos out of which Mid-World arose and to which the Crimson King wants all realities to return.
Note: Discordia players are advised that it contains a parental advisory due to graphic text and imagery. It is intended for adults. Discordia—and the discussion below—also contains numerous spoilers for the Dark Tower series.
When King’s Web site was revamped in 2007, designer Brian Stark came up with a concept that focused on North Central Positronics, the company built by the Great Old Ones to meld magic and technology in Mid-World. Imprints of NCP and its various subsidies, including Sombra Corporation and LaMerk Industries, are seen throughout the Dark Tower series. Stark thought that he could design the Dark Tower section of the Web site using a “retro-tech” theme derived using NCP concepts. The ultimate goal of the redesign was to sharpen the Dark Tower brand and present a better understanding of the story to the uninitiated.
The North Central Positronics concept gradually evolved into an online game—a progressive storytelling platform—called Discordia. It is inspired by the Dark Tower series, though it gradually developed its own mythology. The idea of an interactive experience appealed to King’s personal assistant, Marsha DeFilippo, who had fielded many requests over the years for a video game based on the Dark Tower mythos. While the concept is firmly rooted in the ongoing war between Sombra Corporation and Tet Corporation, the company founded to protect the rose and Stephen King in the real world, the Discordia story line reaches far beyond the day-to-day conflict between the two companies.
Phase I of the project took two years to develop and execute. King’s former research assistant, Robin Furth, became the project’s director. As Stark rendered the artwork, designs and animations using high-powered custom computers, he sought feedback from a focus group called the Secret Window that consisted of ten people who were regular visitors to the message board on King’s site (including the author of this book). As executive producer, King approved all artwork and concepts and made decisions great and small, helping to keep the development team grounded in the world of the Dark Tower.
In Chapter I, which launched in late 2009, players are given a verbal mission briefing by Stephen King. In the role of Op19, a highly trained rookie agent working for the Tet Corporation’s Investigation and Surveillance Unit, players are to search the Dixie Pig for magical objects created by North Central Positronics. Op19 is then to travel beneath the restaurant to the Fedic Dogan. If mutants or robots or Sombra Operatives are encountered, they are to be neutralized. Once the mission is complete, players will need to find a doorway back to the present, where they are to provide a full report.
Chapter I (now considered to be the prequel to Discordia) begins with a shooting range tutorial, where players acquire skills they will use in Chapter II. Then Op19 enters the filthy, disgusting Dixie Pig, fully rendered in 3D graphics that are utterly faithful to the way the restaurant is described in The Dark Tower. Alert players will observe details and items that reference the series as they explore. The exquisitely lit and incredibly detailed set features the main dining room, the kitchen, pantry, bathroom and VIP room. Players can explore these rooms by moving the mouse—a perspective that can be as dizzying as the one Roland experienced when he went through the doorway into Eddie Dean’s body—and by clicking on numbered viewpoint icons that change Op19’s location in the room.
To complete Chapter I, Op19 must find five magical items (an Oriza, for example) and seven orbs that depict major characters from the series, designed by Michael Whelan, the artist who illustrated the first and final novels. The model Whelan used for Father Callahan was David Williamson, the current proprietor of Betts Bookstore, an online store that deals exclusively in Stephen King books, many of them signed or rare. DeFilippo interviewed Williamson about the experience for King’s official Web site.
As each orb is located, players are given the chance to download a high-resolution image as computer wallpaper. Printable high-resolution versions of these definitive character depictions are awarded to players who find all the orbs. Whelan also contributed art used in the opening-credit animation and made other conceptual and art direction contributions for Discordia.
A secret passage provides access to a lobby that gives way to the mind-trap tunnel that leads up to the doorway that allows travel between New York and Fedic. Players who know the magic word that opens the door are rewarded with the closing credits.
Every time a player enters a new room, his journal is updated with a discussion of the room’s significance to the story narrated from the point of view of Op19, who is investigating the Dixie Pig as a crime scene ten years after the fact. These entries contain hints about what players might expect to find in that room. Players can also access descriptions of the magical items and lengthy biographies of the characters associated with the orbs, all written by Dark Tower expert Robin Furth.
With Chapter II, which launched in 2013, the story branches out into completely new territory. Going down the rabbit hole, in the words of Brian Stark. New characters are introduced, and the war between the two powerful corporations veers off from King’s story line. Roland and his ka-tet are not part of the plot except for their appearance in the orbs. However, members of the development team were mindful of “the faces of their fathers,” seeking to honor the original series while mapping new territory.
One of the interesting aspects of Discordia is the fact that it plays out in real time. Between Chapter I in 2009 and Chapter II in 2013, the world did not stand still. Op19 spent the intervening years in Mid-World, engaging in battles with opposing forces, monsters, demons and todash creatures. Op19 can’t return to the Keystone World because he hasn’t been able to find a working doorway out of Mid-World. Worse, the doorway to the Fedic Dogan malfunctioned after Op19 passed through, which means Tet Corporation can’t send backup forces to assist him.
The real-time aspect goes a step further. Roland returned to the Mohaine Desert at the end of The Dark Tower. Time has been moving forward for him since then, so, by 2013, nearly a decade has passed. Roland has repeated the events of The Gunslinger and is asleep after his meeting with the man in black. He doesn’t play a part in the interactive adventure, but the designers imagine that Op19 could conceivably venture off to the golgotha and find Roland asleep there.
There is a thre
e-way struggle going on within the Fedic Dogan. The three sides are represented by Op19, Richard Sayre—who is working on behalf of the Crimson King to gather Breakers and bring down the Tower—and a new character named Arina Yokova, a Russian mobster with a Mid-World fixation. Arina and her mercenaries are headquartered in Castle Discordia, which is protected by skilled marksmen and armed sentries. Sayre’s operations are disrupted somewhat by the arrival of Op19 and Arina. He and his team are using isolated parts of the Dogan and the tunnels beneath as their base of operation.
Who is Arina Yokova? She is the daughter of Pasha Yokova, the boss of the Crimson Crescent, a multigenerational crime family, one of the oldest and most dangerous in the world. As a child, Arina was sheltered from her family’s business. She was educated in Russian boarding schools and obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from Brown University.
While in graduate school, Arina’s father dies and she inherits leadership of the Crimson Crescent from him. She has no choice but to accept the position, but she becomes a figurehead, delegating the day-to-day operations to other family members.
Arina is a huge fan of the works of Stephen King and, in particular, the Dark Tower series. Her studies in metaphysics and science lead her to believe that Mid-World and the Dark Tower really exist. She holds Roland Deschain in high regard and engages in online debates about the science of the Dark Tower. This attracts the attention of Sombra Corporation, who make her an offer she can’t refuse. They tell her that her theories about the existence of the Dark Tower are true and that Roland really does exist. Once they offer to take her to Mid-World, she agrees to become the CEO of Sombra while maintaining a close connection with the Crimson Crescent.
In 2002, Sombra is looting the Fedic Dogan of the ultra-advanced weapons stored there, including weapons of mass destruction. Sombra reverse engineers and sells these weapons to private and government organizations connected to the Crimson Crescent in the Keystone World.
Arina is shocked, enraged and perplexed when, in 2004, she reads The Dark Tower. She interprets Roland’s situation as being analogous to a software programming glitch that causes an infinite loop, and she becomes determined to free Roland from this loop, by any means necessary, an endeavor she code-names “The End Game.” Her advantage is this: she knows every detail of Roland’s life from the Mohaine Desert forward.
To fund her operations in Mid-World, she embezzles billions of dollars of profits that Sombra’s arms operation garnered, using the Crimson Crescent’s money-laundering network. Once her crimes become known to intelligence and investigative organizations in the Keystone World, Arina becomes a hunted woman, but she is safe from arrest in Mid-World. She takes advantage of the hundreds of magical and scientific doorways in the rotunda to gather as much information about the Dark Tower as she can.
This is the situation Op19 encounters on the other side of the Fedic door and forms the basis for Chapter II of Discordia.
AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN STARK
Brian Stark is the producer and art director responsible for more than one hundred interactive and branding projects. He created the Streetwise.com portal and co-owned a production boutique in New York, building a catalog of well-known and highly respected clients.
He became a specialist in interactive culture and admits to an obsession with culture, motion pictures, music and technology. A filmmaker at heart, he attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan but, during orientation, discovered that digital video editing was poised to make what he was being taught in the classroom obsolete.
He took a job as a digital video editor for a CD-ROM developer that exposed him to programs like Adobe Premier and Macromedia Director. Then he began to experiment with digital music and sound. He and his partner created a Web site for their Vertigo Studios in 1996. Vertigo produced dozens of songs for companies around the country. Stark then switched gears, building Web sites for other companies, which is where he discovered Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash, a product that brought new freedom to Web designers with motion graphics and integrated sound.
His obsession with Flash developed into an asset. He worked on projects for companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Harvest Consulting. He then created Streetwise.com, which was an immediate success, drawing the attention of Time, Billboard, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He created and maintained interactive content for bands like Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Papa Roach, and the attendant publicity got him side gigs with Ozzfest and others. He also produced the official Web site for the movie Almost Famous for DreamWorks.
He and his partner reinvented themselves as Metro Digital Media Artists. One of their first big jobs was building the official Web site for La Bohème on Broadway. They followed up with sites for Les Misérables and Man of La Mancha.
In 2004, he was hired by Stephen King to work on the Dark Tower section of his Web site. The following interview was conducted by phone in February 2012, prior to the launch of the second phase of Discordia.
Q: How did the connection with King come along? Did he approach your company?
A: This goes back to 2003. Another Web developer was hired by Stephen to build a new official Web site. That developer placed a call for designers on a popular job board. Judy [Hahn] responded to the ad and we were hired a few weeks later. In a strange twist of fate, the original developer was forced to abandon the job. We then took over as webmaster and have been with the team ever since.
Q: What was your familiarity with King at that point? Were you a fan?
A: I have a picture of me on Christmas morning opening Nightmares & Dreamscapes. I had read The Gunslinger when it was a couple of years old. Stephen King was my idol all through any of my creative efforts. I loved The Gunslinger and The Dark Half and all the movies that were out at the time like Stand By Me and Misery. All of that stuff really captured my imagination. Then I got the opportunity to work for Steve. It was really strange that it came to that.
I took The Gunslinger out of the library because I was so fascinated with Whelan’s art and fell in love with the story. The whole cowboy thing that you would get from looking at the cover wasn’t that appealing to me. I had no idea that it was all such cool sci-fi/Matrix-like content.
Q: At some point you decided to do a Dark Tower section of the Web site. Was that Steve’s suggestion?
A: We did a design for the official site and we were also tasked with doing the old Flash Dark Tower site that had a Tower that moved when you clicked buttons. I think that was the first thing I ever did for Steve, a Dark Tower site, so they wanted to do that before I was ever in the mix.
Q: That would be around the time when the final books were headed toward publication.
A: It was. We were representing the existing books and then adding them for, I guess, a year or so.
Q: You had a concept inspired by North Central Positronics.
A: We were going to design a new Dark Tower Web site to get away from it being a Flash vehicle. We took this concept of a site that looked like it was made by North Central Positronics. I can’t believe this is actually the inception point for Discordia. It’s so far and completely removed—technologically, the way the execution is and everything else—compared to what Discordia is. That’s the first time that the development team that’s on it kind of fell in love with doing something about North Central Positronics and Tet. It goes back that far.
Q: How did it get from there to Discordia?
A: We did The Office [an interactive tour of Stephen King’s office], saw it was cool, and then we wanted to apply that to the Dark Tower. That was when we went back to the North Central Positronics concepts and the war between Tet and Sombra. We saw the potential of using 3-D to do very cool things. We wanted a special-feature project for the Dark Tower just like The Office.
Q: When Robin Furth came on as director, had you already developed this concept?
A: Robin came on as a director from the very beginning. We had a meeting in the city at th
is crazy vegan restaurant. Robin was immediately up for Discordia, even though it’s kind of expanded universe and it’s minimizing the ultra-importance of some of the sacred aspects of the Dark Tower. Discordia said that expanded universe is okay. If you want to think of it as canon, think of it as canon. If you want to think of it as expanded universe, think of it as expanded universe, which is what I do. I believe it gives us much more creativity and freedom to do things. It’s a separate thing.
Q: The fact that Stephen King recorded the mission plan at the beginning for Discordia is his stamp of approval.
A: Absolutely. And we really needed that with some of the outlandish things that we brought to the table with the Discordia concept. That really helped.
Q: The Marvel graphic novels were already in the works, so the idea of branching out from King’s stuff into new territory had already been accepted.
A: Other than the fact that we were creating a couple of characters, most of the time we would be doing representations of things that were specifically mentioned in the books. Early concepts for Discordia revolved around more espionage-type things going on in New York City between the two companies. Those ideas were scrapped, and then we moved on to the more creative concepts of the Dixie Pig and going to Mid-World, which was a huge step for us. Representing an adventure to Mid-World is huge, and a big responsibility for me creatively. Getting that changed from a simpler game that took place in New York City to a Mid-World adventure was huge for me. That’s the stuff that we spoke about at that initial meeting on one of the hottest days of the summer that I can ever remember in New York. That Op19 would exist. The war between Tet and Sombra is really a great angle to tell a lot of other things, and I think that’s the way we all saw it. To tell more about the Dark Tower universe in almost a promotional sense. Discordia continues to grow and evolve, whether you’re talking about creative or technology or 3-D.