BurtcherWay
This Could Be A Most Unusual Day
Experiential and Digital Creative Services
Brands & Collaborators
About The Company
We offer bespoke creative & digital services for individual, charity and corporate clients who are looking to engage with the world in a different way.
We like challenges. We don't think challenges have to mean stress. We like to solve problems, be helpful, and have some fun.
Breadth of experience is our strength, from live events to digital experiences.
We can deliver bread and butter digital needs like getting your website built and armed with essential SEO, analytics and content suggestions to help you do whatever it is you're trying to do: run a business, advertise your brand or engage your audience.
We offer creative services like writing, direction, ideation and production for live events, immersive experiences, interactive stories and games.
We are well suited to help you with more complex (or weirder) projects that require a blend of creativity and technical expertise, like delivering the front- and back-ends of your cloud-based immersive adventure game festival app, and helping you script and direct the live actor encounter you've planned for midnight on the final day.
We work with talented people from a variety of disciplines to handle both the creative stuff - writing, direction, ideation - and the technical stuff - development, design, production.
Past projects include unique live experiences and events combining adventure, games, technology and performances, from big festival productions to one-to-one encounters.
We also make creative purely digital experiences like games, puzzles and online stories (which are better for you than doomscrolling).
We especially love projects which combine lots of these things at once..
Hang On: That's A Lot Of Things
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DO CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE, AND DIRECT THEATRE, AND DO BRAND EXPERIENCES ETC?
We mean: we do all those things. And more. It is amazing what you can learn to do in a busy lifetime - even more so if you work with good people.
WHICH ONE IS THE SIDE HUSTLE?
None of them. They are all equal-hustles.
DOES THAT MEAN YOU ARE RUBBISH AT THEM THOUGH?
No. We work really hard and do things properly. It's gone well so far, though there's always more to learn.
THIS SEEMS RIDICULOUS.
Just imagine what it's like trying to make ourselves SEO and LinkedIn friendly.
MAYBE REDUCING OURSELVES TO JUST ONE SKILLSET OR IDENTITY TO DRIVE CLICKS IS A BIT SAD, CULTURALLY SPEAKING.
You know, you might be on to something.
WHAT'S WITH THE NAME?
That's my name. I'm Mat Burtcher and I started the company as a way of centralising all my projects. I picked the name to help me remember not to do things in the cynical and mean ways that are often promoted as 'normal' by business people. Doing things the Burtcher Way means aiming to do them incredibly well, with integrity, and making amends where you fall short of either. It is something I work at. So now you know.
SO YOU REALLY DO ALL THOSE THINGS?
Yes - though of course I work with lots of great people. Personally speaking: I cannot sit still, I want to do everything, and as I have gotten older I have tried to stop torturing myself into pretending otherwise. Life is unimaginably short, so I like to keep busy.
As a result, I have extensive experience producing, marketing & managing big events (like London's VAULT Festival). I've done a lot of recruitment and leading of teams and casts. I have worked on many promotional activities for big brands, from writing copy and designing experiences in advance to directing hosts, performers and brand ambassadors on the day. I am also a software engineer (predominantly .NET though I also have to work in JavaScript, PHP & Python from time to time like everybody else) and a cloud solutions architect at DSys Plus Ltd, where I design and implement solutions for clients as diverse as art galleries, charities, ocean fleet operators and tea importers. I have variously produced, written and directed plays and immersive shows, designed escape rooms, and delivered big weird narrative escapades for Festivals where we combine live performance with app-based storytelling and treasure hunts (though I haven't come up with a pithy description for that sort of thing yet).
It does sound like a lot - but I truly believe that each one of those things informs the others, and they all help me understand the needs of others a little better. I don't pretend to know everything, or even most things in each of those areas and I am suspicious of anyone who does. Instead, I love hearing other people's challenges, asking questions and helping them find solutions, whether those solutions are strange and exciting or just neat, clean and simple. That approach works for delivering big events, building web apps and everything in between.
Has that helped?
I'll let you know.
Case Studies
Game Changers Live: UEFA Women's Champions League Final
A weekend long celebration of the UWCLF Final in Oslo, bringing together fans, creatives, athletes and leading voices on behalf of PepsiCo, with guest contributors VERSUS. Featuring a panel with Ian Wright and Sarina Wiegman, a special appearance from Steph Houghton and a full fashion show and concert from leading Norwegian popstar Julie Bergan. Burtcher Way provided event scripts, experience design for audience activities, directed the event hosts James Threlfall and Kristine Arntzen and ran the main stage's showcaller duties throughout the weekend.
Disney: The Wonder Of Friendship
A multi-sensorial pop-up event produced by Haygarth which enchanted 40,000 ticket buyers across London, Berlin, Paris, and Madrid. We provided scripting, narrative design and performer direction for this immersive experience that celebrated the magic of Disney's iconic friendships. The event featured a series of interactive rooms, featuring 360 projection, sensory experience and collaborative activities, each themed around some of Disney's most beloved characters.
Who Let The Toys Out?
A four-day interactive collaboration with 6FootStories for Standon Calling that seamlessly blended high-energy live activations, immersive storytelling, and game app tech with a prize in mind: golden tickets to the next year's festival. Audiences drove the narrative forward and earned points all weekend through physical challenges like laser tag and rc racing, unlockable one-on-one experiences, and roaming characters who recruited them as double agents, and a massive site-wide Lost Toy treasure hunt driven by a bespoke web application. The app featured QR-triggered riddles, "ToyDar" real-world geolocation proximity tracking, and badges, as well as awarding points dynamically for innovative and creative players.
In The Pipeline
The Chalice of the Dread King
A faithful recreation of the lost 90s text adventure by Black Lizard Software. Coming 2026.
A faithful recreation of lost 90s text adventure The Chalice of the Dread King, the third and final game in the Dread King series from Black Lizard Software. Originally ported in a limited run, we're working with Black Lizard to bring this cult classic to a new generation of players in 2026.
PAINBALL
A tactical roguelike deckbuilder in the pleasingly familiar world of brutal bloodsport. Coming 2026.
Big hits, big egos, and big ethical questions plague a society in thrall to brutal bloodsport spectacle in this tactical roguelike deckbuilder. Manage your team of Painballers, build your deck, and fight to the death in a pleasingly familiar dystopian vision where entertainment is the only escape. Coming 2027.
© Burtcher Way Ltd.
Registered in England and Wales, Company No. 13488053