When thinking about the creative process, the focus is often on success: the films that win critical acclaim, the video games that shatter sales records, the immersive story experiences so brilliant they makes us numb with jealousy. But scratch the surface of every successful project and chances are you’ll discover layers of failure. Bob Dylan said “There’s no success like failure” and Samuel Beckett famously outlined the creative process with “Fail, fail again, fail better,” leading us to conclude that failure is as much a part of the creative process as the paint, lyrics, celluloid, or code from which it was made.

Convergence has asked some of immersive storytelling’s most prolific thinkers to reflect not on their storied successes but on the soul-crushing, career-altering, relationship-shattering failures that made them who they are today. The panel will include Lance Weiler (Pandemic 1.0 director and Lyka’s Adventure creator), Michael Andersen (Senior Editor, ARGNet), Andrea Phillips (author of A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling and serial The Daring Adventures of Captain Lucy Smokeheart), and will be moderated by Brian Clark (Founder, GMD Studios and Phenomenal Work).