Overlay Dynamics

Immersive narratives layered onto reality

THE EXPERIENCE

Invitation

You're walking down the street when a strange poster outside the local library catches your eye. It advertises an experimental novel called A World Unto Itself, written and set right in this neighborhood.

Disappearance

A QR code leads to a website claiming the book vanished decades ago. A reward is offered for anyone willing to track down a surviving copy of the book – or its author.

Traces

Exploring the site, you uncover fragments of the lost novel and a growing list of leads. One shows a damaged page with a sketch of a brick warehouse, its name scratched out.

Discovery

The building from the sketch is just across the street. Above its entrance, carved words read “J.H. & SONS.” You enter the phrase online and unlock the next layer of the story. New clues draw you through cafés, gardens, and public spaces nearby.

Immersion

Words and symbols in plaques, signs, and artwork you’ve passed countless times before now hold hidden meaning. They become the keys to enigmas woven through the story. You become less an observer and more an archivist – piecing together a forgotten narrative woven into the city.

Return

The trail leads you back to the library where you began. A secret phrase shared with the librarian earns you a hollow book containing the last chapter of A World Unto Itself, a small artifact to mark the journey you've taken, and an invitation to explore the other Overlays waiting to be uncovered.

THE APPROACH

Spatial Storytelling

Overlays combine the adventure of a scavenger hunt, the puzzle-solving of an escape room, and the narrative flow of an immersive theater performance to expand the boundaries of spatial storytelling.

Real World Exploration

Each experience is tailored to a specific area – from a building, park, or neighborhood to an entire city. We use landmarks, public art, and historical markers as clues – imbuing existing spaces with wonder without large-scale builds or physical infrastructure.

Active Engagement

Overlays reward curiosity, turning audiences into active participants rather than passive viewers by putting them at the center of narratives that progress at whatever pace is right for them.

THE POSSIBILITIES

Every Overlay is an expertly crafted story tuned to its environment, audience, and intent.

Contained Campaigns

Minimal build, outsized impact

Linear stories utilizing existing infrastructure
Static websites or paper/pen interaction
Ideal for libraries, cultural orgs, festivals, neighborhoods

Multi-layered Experiences

One story, many surfaces

Custom websites, puzzles, branching narrative progression
Expanded physical footprint, multiple difficulty levels
Ideal for brands, universities, cities, institutions

Deep Immersion

The story becomes the space

Custom installations, live performance, bespoke artifacts
High-interaction, full integration with experiential activations
Ideal for launches, major campaigns, flagship moments

THE WORK

Join Cult

Cult is a question that calls itself an answer, a pestilence disguised as a balm, a lodestar that leads seekers to madness… and a tour of Culver City hidden in iambic tetrameter that went viral in 2021.

The progenitors of Cult have released the Document, "the recursion that withdraws the soul from her bounded instability," and invite you to partake in "The Prime Distraction." Does this cryptic mumbo jumbo make any sense? Not exactly, but the puzzles hidden in the text at JoinCult.com will if you're in downtown Culver City. Using hidden links and rhyming verse, Join Cult takes players on a tour of the local business district, revealing more about a fictional secret society along the way.

One clue reads "The beast in cage of water revels, it's Baum who was his tamer / On bench in brass with news of past we find this city's namer." This leads players from a fountain featuring the lion from the Wizard of Oz to a nearby brass statue of Harry Culver reading a newspaper on a bench. Each subsequent stanza takes players to another permanent landmark in view of the location they're currently at, until they've explored eight city blocks and unlocked the arcane secrets of a cult simply called "Cult."

After organically discovering Join Cult online, a player attempted to solve it using Google Maps and satellite imagery. They chronicled their attempt on Tumblr, which went viral and led to JoinCult.com receiving over 30,000 visitors in a single week without a single dollar of marketing spend.

A Discord channel with thousands of alternate reality game enthusiasts from around the world then worked together to complete the game, eventually sending Los Angeles locals to clue locations in person. The audience on Discord watched their progress, proving that an Overlay's reach can extend far beyond the area in which it's built.

The Foxglove Papers

A former intelligence analyst has been on the run for years. Now she wants to be found. Using a map, a codex, and a stack of letters addressed to her abusive boss, Emma Foxglove leads you on a journey across downtown Los Angeles, right to her door.

Emma Foxglove is a former intelligence analyst who was betrayed by the CIA. Fed up with life on the run, she wrote a series of papers that tell her story. Hidden within them are codes that will lead pursuers to landmarks around downtown LA, and eventually to Emma's current location. The Foxglove Papers is currently playable in downtown Los Angeles as an entirely offline experience.

After solving a clue in Gloria Molina Grand Park, you find yourself at the Redwood Bar & Grill, where you notice that the ceiling tiles are maritime signal flags. Using clues found in the page you're on, you discover the flags spell out the word "BOAR." Looking at the map, you'll find a boar's head icon over Disney Concert Hall, your next location a couple blocks away. Once there, you'll have a new puzzle to solve on the next page.

The Los Feliz Everywhen Association

There's a community council near Griffith Park that communicates between the past, present, and future to guide the neighborhood through time. By completing location-based challenges in a web app and scanning NFC tags placed throughout Los Feliz, you could qualify to represent your time period on the LFEA Board.

The Los Feliz Everywhen Association is a community council with a simple twist – each of its board members represents an eight-decade period between the years 1700 and 2200, and they communicate outside the confines of time to preserve the character of Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood through the ages. All this (and much more) is explained on the organization's website.

The board is currently seeking candidates for the 1952-2035 seat, and you're invited to apply. But first, you have to prove your dedication to the five other council members. Using a web app built into LosFelizEverywhen.org, players log in and earn endorsement badges by completing location-specific puzzles that reveal more about each representative.

Each puzzle leads to an NFC sticker hidden near a storefront along Hillhurst Avenue. When you've scanned all five, you're invited to submit a candidate statement that's hosted on the LFEA site. Down the road, you'll be invited to an in-person forum so you can make your case for representing your time period on the board.

THE PURPOSE

Every Overlay is shaped in close collaboration with the place it inhabits.

We draw out the potential hidden in ordinary places to create experiences that are both unexpected and lasting, with far less overhead than most temporary activations. With additional investment, they can grow in scope, incorporating live performers, physical artifacts, and narratives that unfold across entire neighborhoods or cities.

Our experiences aren't timed attractions, simple scavenger hunts, or tech demos. They’re built to last for as long as the project requires – from a limited engagement to an always-on puzzle waiting to be discovered. And while some are created just to see more wonder brought into the world, they're typically commissioned by cultural institutions, cities, brands, or organizations looking to create a lasting, story-driven public experience.

Overlays offer meaningful engagement and insight into how people move through story and space. They invite exploration and encourage collaboration, whether it's with a group or for an audience of one. Anchored to existing landmarks, they can serve as lasting cultural assets with minimal long-term upkeep.

THE STUDIO

Overlay Dynamics grew out of a fascination with immersive storytelling and alternate reality games, along with a desire to see experiences like these become accessible in more places, by anyone.

To bring our stories to life, Overlay Dynamics employs a team of wildly talented media professionals with backgrounds in marketing, game design, immersive theater, film, and television.

The company is owned and operated by Ben Deeb. Ben is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and game designer who wrote on three seasons of ABC's Black-ish. When he's not writing or designing Overlays, Ben builds custom furniture and stained glass windows.

The Overlay Dynamics team has worked with major brands, marketing agencies, and tourism boards.

We'd be thrilled to work with you next.

CONTACT

Overlay Dynamics makes living stories, woven into the fabric of reality, experienced firsthand by the people moving through it.

We seek to imbue the everyday with a sense of wonder – not just adding to the world, but revealing the extraordinary layers already waiting within.

If you're curious where building an Overlay may lead you – whether you're exploring an idea or already have a place in mind – take the first step and contact us.

Let's Begin

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