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"A digital haunt in an analogue life..."

Digital Haunt is the name for Sparkles*'s 7 year-old secret project. The project's existence revolves around the concept of an ARG (Alternate Reality Game), whereby clues to the project's existence lay hidden in multiple media, such as lyrics from Ghost Cassette or Album Art.

'Digital Haunt' is an anagram for 'A Digital Hunt'.

Digital Haunt

Sparkles* hinting about the ARG concept.

Similarity to an ARG

According to Wikipedia, ARG's posess certain unique terminology, most of which bears resemblance to Digital Haunt.

"Puppetmaster – A puppetmaster or "PM" is an individual involved in designing and/or running an ARG. Puppetmasters are simultaneously allies and adversaries to the player base, creating obstacles and providing resources for overcoming them in the course of telling the game's story. Puppetmasters generally remain behind the curtain while a game is running. The real identity of puppet masters may or may not be known ahead of time."

The Puppetmaster in the case of Digital Haunt is clearly Sparkles*. He is ally to those who wish to uncover his secrets by dropping hints frequently, however hides his clues with great care, such as backwards whispers in Prologue III (Echodeath).

More importantly, the concept occurs in the lyrics of Euphemia: "I became your puppetmaster..."

"The Curtain – The curtain, drawing from the phrase, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” is generally a metaphor for the separation between the puppetmasters and the players.[3] This can take the traditional form of absolute secrecy regarding the puppetmasters' identities and involvement with the production, or refer merely to the convention that puppetmasters do not communicate directly with players through the game, interacting instead through the characters and the game's design."

Sparkles* does not directly tell the 'players' any information, however leaves hints in his songs and videos.


"Rabbithole/Trailhead – A rabbithole, or trailhead, marks the first media artifact, be it a website, contact, or puzzle, that draws in players. Most ARGs employ a number of trailheads in several media to maximize the probability of people discovering the game. Typically, the rabbithole is a website, the most easily updated, cost-effective option."

Sparkles* has his own Rabbithole in the form of Soundrop, where he has revealed most of his clues and repeatedly invites his twitter followers to join.


Lurkles

Lurkles* returns from lurking temporarily to reveal info.

The Haunt

In Soundrop, it was revealed that the name 'Digital Haunt' itself is indeed relevant to the ARG, as Sparkles* had owned the domain 'digitalhaunt.com' for a while.

How ideas are put into songs

Main Article: The Four Song Levels

Trivia

  • On Sparkles*'s DeviantART page, his bio states 'inbetween the zero and the one'. If Sparkles* is haunting the digital world, it would make logical sense to state he haunts the world by inhabiting the space between 0 and 1, the two numbers used in binary code.
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