Berlin Games Students Explore Immersive Storytelling with Candle House Collective

Students at MetStudios Berlin took part in an amazing workshop with Candle House Collective, an award-winning New York-based immersive theatre experience group.

About Candle House Collective

Candle House Collective creates intimate, interactive storytelling experiences delivered directly to participants through everyday communication methods such as phone calls, texts, emails, and mailed packages.

Blending elements of theatre, alternate reality games, and performance art, their productions blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. The Collective was recently awarded the 2025 No Proscenium Audience Award for Outstanding Immersive Work for their ‘Lennox Mutual’ experience.

The workshop

Artistic Director, Evan Neiden, and Development Director, Wren Mack, joined via Zoom from their New York headquarters to share their unique approach with our Games Design and Development students. The roots of their work are based on practices that our students investigate deeply in their classes, such as branching narratives, interactivity, narrative design, and the way these practices integrate with game design.

Following their inspiring talk, Evan and Wren guided students into designing their own immersive play experiences. Students were asked to listen to and formulate stories, reinterpret narratives, and ultimately create their own unique experience using Candle House Collective’s framework. These original creations were then performed by students for their peers and evaluated by Evan and Wren, who provided valuable feedback to help students refine and expand their concepts further.

Distance is not an obstacle to provide our students with the most thrilling and enriching learning experiences. Neither are we shy of exposing our cohort to spectacular out-of-the-box formats of play and games. This unique concept widened our student’s perception of play and game design. The experience boosted our students’ creativity and encouraged them to explore new expression paths. Without doubt, one of the greatest highlights of their experience studying with us to date.

Dr. Enrique Pérez

Why creative exploration matters

The art of Game Design is about more than building digital games. At MetStudios, we place equal emphasis on mastering the latest tools and developing creative thinking skills, together forming the foundation of exceptional game design.

Through active engagement with diverse gaming forms, such as board games, tabletop RPGs, interactive theatre, and alternate reality experiences like those pioneered by Candle House Collective, our students learn to explore and expand their creative boundaries.

By immersing themselves in varied gaming mediums, students discover how mechanics, storytelling, and interactivity shape player psychology and emotional engagement. This deeper understanding enables students to innovate beyond conventional frameworks, crafting unique, impactful, and memorable player experiences.

At MetStudios, we believe that broadening our students’ creative horizons through encounters with a multitude of gaming practices ultimately empowers them to become versatile, imaginative, and successful designers, capable of leading the next generation of interactive entertainment.

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