iPad Summons the Prince of Darkness
A thoroughly modern approach to Bram Stoker’s classic spooky tale, Dracula, makes its debut on Apple’s App Store today, just in time for Halloween. Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition, a fully interactive eBook, blends nearly 300 pages of text with 600 illustrations and implements the iPad’s touch screen functionality to create a user experience similar to video game play. Readers can use a lantern to light up words on a page, reveal information on tombstones by blowing away leaves and use their virtual blood to uncover hidden messages. The interactive book was developed by Padworx Digital Media using the company’s proprietary game engine. “It really is a different kind of reading experience,” Jeffrey Schechter of Padworx Digital Media tells USA TODAY. “…Not only can we do everything other interactive books can do, but we can also bring in 3-D graphics and game-play elements.”
Priced at $4.99, this multimedia Dracula experience is the only one endorsed by the Stoker Family Estate, and includes numerous Easter eggs and extras such as 21 indie rock songs to set the mood for each chapter and a full version of the film Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau in 1922. For the die-hard Dracula fans, the Stoker Estate has even approved the inclusion of an image of Stoker’s real death certificate.
The spirit of Halloween has inspired interactive versions of several classic scary stories. The War of the Worlds and Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch are slated to be released in the coming weeks, along with another interpretation of the world’s most famous blood-sucker, Dracula HD.
Watch preview video of Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition