Miss Once Upon a Time? Hypable has the first look at the solution to ease your summer withdrawal! Check out our interview with Keith D. Cardin, creator of Storybrooke Live!

What if there were a way to relive Once Upon a Time‘s past three seasons in time for the season 4 premiere that did not involve an all night bender on Netflix? Thanks to Keith D. Cardin, creator of Hogwartsishere.com, you can experience Storybrooke in an entirely new way!

Mayor Regina Mills invites Storybrooke Live users to join the residents of Storybrooke beginning with season 1, episode 1 for an immersive Once Upon a Time experience. Starting in July, every day will chronologically follow the episodes leading straight to the premiere of season 4. The experience will then unfold in real time with the episodes that air weekly on ABC.

Hypable spoke with lead developer Keith D. Cardin about what to expect as a new citizen of Storybrooke and gained some insider clues to help guide users through their time among familiar faces.

Who can we look forward to interacting with?

Because we’re starting with Season 1, episode 1, you’ll only be able to view and interact with characters that were introduced only in that episode. As the episodes progress, along with our experience, more characters will become available. We’re not leaving anyone out. Every character will be released into the experience, and every character will be interactive.

Will I be interacting with other newbies to Storybrooke as the story goes on?

Yes, the town will be an interactive and collaborative space. Most websites we use rely on interacting with our already-existing friends (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr), but SL will be designed to be a collaborative experience with others, so that you can join alone and make friends within the experience.

Can we expect to have daily tasks that coincide with the episodes to actively engage and more the story along?

Yes, sometimes things will be needed (passwords, objects, etc), to move the ENTIRE website story forward… and sometimes we’ll rely on very small groups of people, or even just one person, by sending them a text message as a character containing information needed to progress the story. Yes, users can receive occasional texts from their favorite characters.

Curses come and go, but I still feel connected to my Enchanted Forest counter part! How much can I expect to explore that area of my past life?

Storybrooke Live (SL) allows you to create two versions of yourself on the website — the first being your post-curse self, and later on in the experience (when visiting The Enchanted Forest is unlocked), you’ll be able to upload a different photo, create a different name, background story and even choose your own species classification all under the same account. SL is about creating your own fairy tale story, and living it, while living out the Once Upon a Time storyline.

When the fourth season starts up, how much originality is going to come into play? Is the plan to take as much from the episodes as guidelines, but open the door to a community engaged building experience?

Fourth season will be interesting, because we’ll be operating parallel to the show. SL launches in July as a recreation of the entire show, starting from the very first episode of Season 1, and is designed to end in late September, when we expect Season 4 to start, where we’ll follow along live. Users will not only help main characters with their individual journeys, but they will also be able to help create and browse through fan-created material that explores the world further — such as Rumpelstiltskin’s full-fledged contracts, Snow and Charming’s wedding invitation, Belle’s Diary and more.

Some of these features will be constantly growing or changing (such as Belle’s Diary), some will be one-time creations (like Snow and Charming’s wedding invite), and some will be small and interactive for keepsake purposes (like reserving a room at Granny’s and getting an email confirmation).

I don’t want to give too much away now, but an example of a larger, community-based interactive feature is from Season 1, episode 8 — users of SL will view Sheriff-elective speeches from Emma and Sidney, be able to vote for and promote their choice of candidate.

Seems simple enough, but we don’t want to give too much away about more exciting things!

As new residents of Storybrooke, what is the most important piece of advice you can offer us?

Be careful who you befriend. Some users will choose to help Emma and her mission, while others have the chance (and right) to stand on the side of Mayor Mills/The Evil Queen. Both sides will be given goals and objectives to fight against the other.

You can sign up for your invitation to Storybrooke now, so visit Storybrookelive.com!