Introductions: Antti

Hi, my name is Antti and I’m a co-producer of the Odysseus project. I’m also the lead set design, with the whole physical manifestation of the ship being in my hands.

I started larping in 2001. I thought larping sounded silly, but my high school rpg group back then were adamant that it was something that we needed to do. Today, I’m the only one of us who still larps. I think I have participated in the creation of games since 2004, and I’ve been on and off making larps with other people since. Mostly I took smaller responsibilities, but after 2010, I’ve taken on more, focusing on production and design rather than character and plot writing. My main accomplishments are the horror larp called Yksinäisyyden Kaiku (of which I was one of five organisers), and Bravo Beach Assault, a 120 player sci-fi war larp, which was split into three sections, containing their own converging games. I also produced Tartuntavaara, which Laura previously mentioned as one of her main inspirations, so that’s cool too.

I have had the dream of creating a functional spaceship interior for a larp for a few years, giving a presentation on how to build things such as sliding doors and other scifi elements at X-Con 2015. In 2017, Laura talked to me about her project idea, and I got really excited. The whole idea of making something big and international is something that has been close to my heart, so I was immediately on board. I have dreamed of working on or with larps as a profession, and this is one of the steps that might lead to realising that goal some day.

For me, the thing I most enjoy in a larp is the feeling in the back of your head, when you are completely immersed in a character, and cool things happen. The feeling of “whoa, this is just as if I was living in a movie!” That is the feeling I very much strive to create for my players in the games I’ve run or helped run. In this project, I will try to give you, the players, that same sense of wonder and “whoa” factor by creating a setting in which you can truly feel like you are actually in the great void of space, but inside a vessel that has a purpose, that is used for something, and that is bigger than just the sum of its parts. I want to make something that is so cool that it will have players coming back to Finland to re-experience the wonder of space travel, of climactic moments and drama, and just to bleeping feel what it is to live and travel in space.

Antti, co-producer of Odysseus