True Crime, Now Playable: Inside Scriptic's Cross-Platform Bet

About this episode

The episode explores the intersection of true crime and interactive storytelling with Scriptic's Studio Director, James Nicholls.

In this episode, host Kalie Moore sits down with James Nicholls, Studio Director at Scriptic, to explore one of the most fascinating intersections emerging in entertainment today: true crime, interactive storytelling, streaming platforms, and AI-powered production. Scriptic’s breakout title, Scriptic: Crime Stories, became one of the top-performing games in Netflix Games history by turning players into detectives investigating crimes through phones, voice notes, chats, and digital evidence. James breaks down how the studio built a new category they call “narrative play,” where stories come first and gameplay is designed to feel invisible, intuitive, and accessible to audiences far beyond traditional gamers. They also dive into why true crime became the perfect genre to unlock mass-market interactive storytelling, how Scriptic’s TikTok strategy generated over 100 million views, and why platforms like YouTube Playables and streaming-first gaming represent a major shift in distribution. Along the way, James shares how Scriptic uses AI across its production pipeline without sacrificing human storytelling craft, and how the future of entertainment may blur the line between watching a…

People in this episode

Host: Kalie Moore

Guest: James Nicholls

Topics covered

• true crime
• interactive storytelling
• gaming
• AI in production
• narrative play
• streaming platforms

Keywords

• true crime
• interactive storytelling
• Scriptic
• narrative play
• AI production
• gaming
• Netflix Games
• TikTok strategy

Sponsors

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Scriptic, Netflix Games, TikTok, YouTube Playables

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