Rob Morgan (he/him) is a writer, experience designer, digital dramaturge, and founder and Creative Director of immersive design studio Playlines. Rob writes and narrative-designs award-winning AR and VR experiences and is a pioneer of XR theatre.
He has helped build story worlds and immersive installations for some of the world's largest licenses, attractions, and cultural institutions. As a writer, voice director and editor, Rob has helped create some of the most critically-acclaimed games in VR and interactive narrative.
Rob wrote and voice-directed the critically-acclaimed ‘A Fisherman’s Tale’ (Game of the Year, VR Awards ‘19).
He was content editor of the multi-award-winning mobile game ‘80 Days’ (TIME’s Game of the Year ‘15), and co-wrote with J.K. Rowling the ground-breaking, platinum-selling 2013 PlayStation3 Augmented Reality game ‘Wonderbook: Book of Spells’ and its sequel ‘Book of Potions’.
As an immersive narrative consultant, Rob helps create expanded universes and explore new relationships between audiences, narratives, and brands. Clients have included Premier PR, Preloaded, Factory42, Maze Theory, Wonderbly, unrd, Catalyst, and Seeper.
A former Lead Game Writer at PlayStation London Studio, Rob wrote the first-ever playable demo for PlayStationVR, ‘Shark Cage’. He wrote the VR games ‘The Unfinished’ (Tribeca ‘18) and ‘Maskmaker’ (H@LY SH1T Prize, VRNOW Awards ‘21) with acclaimed VR studio Innerspace.
He has also written and narrative-designed numerous VR training simulations, including conflict zone training for journalists and the world’s first accredited VR business masterclass (‘GEMBA’, with Lean pioneer Peter Hines).
He is currently co-writing a ground-breaking VR theatre/hyperreality production about Climate Change with UK studio Megaverse.
As Creative Director of Playlines, Rob helps pioneer cultural experiences and theatre in XR. Rob led Playlines’ 2020 Residency at the National Gallery, developing AR tools for curators and patrons in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, then led development of 'The Augmented Gallery', a major covid-safe location-based XR installation for London’s West End, created in partnership with the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy and Sky Arts.
Rob's other recent Playlines projects include an Augmented Art Gallery at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow, and the ‘Magical Gallery’, a unique layer of interactive art and gameplay installed within the National Gallery to promote Netflix's 'My Little Pony: A New Generation'.
Rob co-devised and directed Playlines’ ground-breaking XR Hip-Hop theatre installation ‘CONSEQUENCES’ with record-breaking MC Harry Shotta (Finalist, Future of Storytelling Prize ‘18; Official Selection, Raindance ‘19).
Rob was also the narrative designer for an immersive overhaul of one of London's most iconic attractions (3M+ visitors/year, due to launch 2022). Rob is digital dramaturge on major new immersive productions for the National Theatre of Malta and DreamThinkSpeak, and is a Visiting Fellow at King’s College London.