Did you look at other interactive comics for inspiration and what did you learn from them?

AST: Well, like I said, when we started development there really wasn’t much available in this space, Thrillbent hadn’t even launched yet, so we were mostly reacting to things out there that we didn’t like.  We saw people touting motion comics, choose your own adventures, and a sort of DVD extra behind-the-scenes functionality as the “future of digital comics!” and we thought that didn’t seem right.  This was just turning comics into pale imitations of something else.  I mean, choose your own adventure is easier in a digital format, sure, but the whole concept is based on a print series, and Jason Shiga already proved you can do amazing stuff with it in print, so it’s not exactly a revolution.  We basically took that list and said “None of that!”  Once we knew what didn’t feel like the future of digital comics it was easier to settle on that guiding principle that the stories we created had to only be possible digitally.  Things just sort of fell into place from there.

What for you makes a great digital comic? Does it need sound and motion or is it all about the story and the ethos behind it?

AST: I actually think sound and motion can sometimes detract from a digital comic.  They aren’t inherently good or bad.  To me what makes a digital comic great is when it uses the unique properties of the medium to tell a story in a cool way.  That doesn’t have to be a “new” way necessarily, although that’s great when it happens.

I think about it like color film.  Color opened up all these new ways to express emotions, guide the viewer’s eye, and tell stories.  That didn’t invalidate black and white film, and not every color movie was groundbreaking, but you can either use it to great effect, or not.  It’s always better when you use the tools you have to the fullest.

What features would you like Apple to develop next to help your stories and are there any existing features you’d like to build a story around?

AST: At this point the basic feature set of most devices is pretty well locked, but then every once in a while they add something like the fingerprint reader, so who knows what’s next?  I could see Apple announcing a new feature and a lightbulb going off for an amazing new story.  Until then I’m happy to play in the sandbox we have.  The beauty of working in Unity is that we can do a lot without Apple (or anyone else) necessarily changing their hardware.  Lately we’ve played a lot with Augmented Reality, and I know Google is making real strides with the kind of input that will create an AR environment, so that could be a really interesting space to play in.  The beauty here is that once you open yourself up off the printed page, the sky really is the limit.

You mention AR has a next potential step, I assume you’ve checked out things like the Anomaly project and Marvel’s AR apps, what do you think of them and how do you think you could improve on them?

AST: I think they’re great for what they are, which is an added experience to the main story in the book you’re reading.  What would be fascinating, and I won’t pretend I’ve thought this through enough to know how to do it, would be to tell a story within an Augmented Reality experience.  That could be pretty easy in a single city, say, where finding certain markers reveals the next piece of the story, but I’m sure there’s a way to do it that’s more general.  I think a lot of the fun for me is taking the pieces of technology that aren’t often used for narrative and turning them into a crucial part of the storytelling.

Any plans to develop Re:Active for the iPhone or does that offer a whole host more problems? What do you think of the potential for digital comics on the iPhone?

AST: I think Re:Active will stay where it is, happy on the iPad.  The iPhone screen is too small for a lot of our content, so it would be a serious rework to get it there.  Unfortunately I think the screen size makes designing for both platforms really difficult.  On an iPhone you’re really limited to one panel at a time if you want it to be legible, and that doesn’t lend itself to interesting layouts with the larger iPad version.

Comics that are designed specifically for the iPhone, like “Valentine,” can be really killer, but I think you have to start with iPhone in mind.  Who knows, though.  I spent the whole interview talking about playing with the technology, so maybe someone will come up with an amazing creative fix for that problem and it’ll become the new standard for comics because it works across all these different screen sizes.  That person is probably reading this article.  they should get cracking!

What’s next for the Re:Active team? More comics? Another app? Other projects?

AST: We’re always developing and playing with new ideas, so definitely a bit more of all that.  We recently released FREEQ, an audio adventure game where you can eavesdrop on and affect events in the future, which was a 2013 Indiecade selection and got a lot of press for being accessible to vision impaired players.

I also have a new comic called “Blood,” about a kid who can read a person’s memories if he touches their blood who has to solve a rash of kidnappings in his small town (facebook.com/bloodcomic).  That will be coming out through Thrillbent, and I really can’t say enough great things about the whole Thrillbent team.  They’re crazy supportive and forward thinking, and I can’t wait for the launch of “Blood” early next year.