Flo (played by actress, Stephanie Courtney), the smart and helpful Progressive Insurance clerk who is featured in a multitude of “Superstore” commercials, got a makeover recently alongside her well-known cast of characters. The insurance company partnered with Adult Swim’s stop-motion animated comedy show, Robot Chicken to produce two 30-second spots to promote the benefits of the Name Your Price Tool.
The commercials debuted last week across Adult Swim, Cartoon Network and Progressive’s overall media schedule. “Air Flo,” where the character shows off her amazing dunking skills, was previewed during the NBA All-Star Weekend on TBS/TNT, taking advantage of the relevant and heightened environment. The second TV spot, called “Hustlin’ Flo” shows that she can throw down with a hip hop battle anytime.
The partnership is part of an experiment with the tried-and-true creative model, which has produced more than 150 TV spots to date. It seeks to engage with Adult Swim’s passionate fans and a younger demographic in general.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI7Tze8XYxs
When asked how the partnership with Adult Swim came together, Bruce Perlman, integrated marketing business leader at Progressive Insurance, told [a]listdaily that, “our team had a vision of bringing Flo and our cast of characters to life in an animated way. We were interested in collaborating creatively with a media partner who we knew had animated programming, and we already had a trusted media relationship with Turner, the broadcast company for Adult Swim.”
In discussing why Progressive chose to experiment with its creative model, Perlman said that “Progressive encourages a test-and-learn philosophy, which is highlighted in the way Flo has come to life in so many ways over the years. Working with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios and the Adult Swim family on stop motion was another interesting way for Progressive to get creative with our advertising, while maintaining the authenticity of the characters and staying true to our brand.”
Perlman also discussed how Flo’s new animated look fit in with Progressive’s brand message, established by the live-action commercials. “Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the production company behind Robot Chicken, are the experts in stop motion animation, just as we’re experts in insurance,” he explained. “Together we were able to create a network extension of Flo and our cast of characters, while keeping the tone and message of our brand consistent with our live-action ads.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWKdK0-CWWw
So, will we be seeing more of animated Flo in the future? “We’re always looking for new creative ways to keep Flo culturally relevant and fresh,” said Perlman. “This stop motion collaboration is a creative outlet for the brand, and allowed us to produce scenarios we might not be able to capture in live-action.”
The Syfy show Incorporated is a thriller set in the year 2074, where corporations have unlimited power. The series follows a young executive named Ben Larson (played by Sean Teale), who must infiltrate this dangerous world by climbing the corporate ladder to save the love of his life. In doing so, he must compromise his position on the entire corporate system.
Aruna Inversin, creative director and visual effects supervisor of virtual/augmented reality, Digital Domain
The show premiered last fall, and its early promotion included a pop-up VR experience developed by Digital Domain that was shown at the San Diego Comic Con. Aruna Inversin, the creative director and visual effects supervisor of virtual/augmented reality at Digital Domain, spoke about the technical details of the Incorporated VR experience, called Welcome to the Quiet Room, at the Game Developers Conference. Inversin also sat down with [a]listdaily at the conference to discuss how Syfy wanted to create a memorable activation that would leave people wanting more.
Welcome to the Quiet Room involves a soundproofed room where the corporation test recording equipment along with its interrogation techniques. Dennis Haysbert, who plays Julian Morse on the show, interrogates the user (who is tied to a chair) with various torture devices. In the real-life activation, users were asked to keep their hands behind their backs, leaving them free to look around, but limiting their movement.
“The project takes place in a room and in real-time using the HTC Vive and we shot it with plate photography,” said Inversin, explaining how the VR experience was made. “We went on location and shot Dennis Haysbert live on a green screen stage and then used our internal system to make a narrative in the real-time space. You’re actually watching the performance, but you have the position of ability to move your head. I don’t think anybody has done it to the extent that we have yet—putting in moving plate photography into a real-time environment. Most of the time, I think it has been about capturing a 360 video and putting it in a sphere. This is a more game-centric approach toward building a narrative.”
Inversin said that fans were ecstatic about the experience. “We were able to make magic and pull the wool over people’s eyes, in a sense,” he said. “It was a defining project in the sense that not a lot of people have been able to overcome using live-action photography, and we did this on a small budget and time frame. I think people liked it, but I wish more people had been able to see it.
According to Inversin, the activation was held at a Hard Rock Café, where Syfy set up a booth near the convention. As a result, there wasn’t as much foot traffic as they would have gotten if they had a show floor presence. However, there was significant word-of-mouth promotion, which kept the lines going down the block.
A consumer-facing experience, in the form of a downloadable game on Steam, was discussed but never went forward because of costs. But Inversin is fine with that, stating: “It was always meant to be an activation that people went to in order to experience it.” However, Digital Domain did make a 360-degree video version of the experience for YouTube and Facebook when the series premiered. Unlike the VR activation, people can see the experience but can’t interact by moving their heads around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrhI17YBdOU
When asked why Syfy decided on a pop-up activation instead of appealing to the largest group from the start with a video, Inversin explained that “often, when we have clients come in and they talk about what they want in a VR experience, they usually go to their staples, like a 360 video to put on YouTube. We’ve done that in the past, but it’s not pushing the envelope of VR forward.”
He continued by stating that, “the future of VR isn’t necessarily with monoscopic video, even though I think there might be a need for it for broadcasts and livestreams. In terms of the interactive narrative and storytelling, you’ll get a much more impactful presence on the consumer marketplace with positional tracking. Even the ability to move your head just an inch gives you that nuance like you’re there.”
Inversin also stated that Syfy had partnered with HTC to develop the experience for the Vive, so it didn’t make much sense to settle for a 360 video. “We wanted to cater to the hardcore people who understood the technology,” he said.
We asked Inversin about the relationship between VR and actual reality, since the activation included a real-life recreation of the quiet room, and participants make an agreement with the presenter to keep their hands behind their backs. He said that being in a real-life space “helps to get your mind used to those textures in real life. We did a pretty good mimicry of that room, so when you put on the headset it still looks like you’re in the same place. We worked regularly with the set crew and we built our room based on their dimensions and used the same textures for the soundproofed walls. So, I think it makes a big impact and it gets you prepped for the experience.”
In discussing whether a home experience might have had the same impact, Inversin said: “I don’t think so. One of the reasons why is because, at a pop-up activation like that, you have control over the viewing environment. With VR, you have no control over what the user does and sees. So, if we were to release it as a kind of stand-alone experience, you would be able to see the gags of how we did it right away.
The user would be able to get up, walk around, and see the magic behind the trick, which is what we were trying to prevent. In the experience, in addition to having users keep their hands behind their backs, we had a ‘safe zone.’ If the user got out of that safe zone to peek around, we made some post-processing effects to make it nauseating. Your vision gets wavy, as if you were drugged, which helps steer the person back into the safe zone of seeing everything clearly. That’s part of the experience too, because you’ve been drugged when Dennis Haysbert interrogates you.”
With television shows such as Westworld and movies such as John Wick 2, we’re seeing an increased use of VR as a part of their promotion. We asked Inversin for his thoughts about Hollywood’s increased use of VR.
“I think VR gives the user a chance to experience a world that you can’t do with a traditional film,” said Inversin. The mythology and richness of some of these movies makes you want to see another one, or get inside the character’s head to see how that world ticks. Something like that can only be done in VR, where the users create their own narrative.
John Wick and Westworld put you into these worlds that are engaging and let the users define that. It’s another step forward into tying VR into the traditional film and television schedule. There is a marketing push that will keep engagement going in between films, like with the game Star Wars Battlefront. People are engaging with that world while the movies are still in production. But the caveat is that if it’s all game-based graphics, then it’s not as photorealistic like the film. With Incorporated, we were trying to create a live-action VR experience that’s a narrative but isn’t part of the show.”
Since the line that separates a VR promotion from a video game is becoming increasingly blurred (or in the case of John Wick, non-existent), we asked Inversin if he thought increased interactivity would be part of future promotions—beyond users moving their heads around.
“With every increase in interactivity, you have to have a failsafe,” Inversin said. “What if they don’t follow your rules? What if they decide to jump out a window or go in a different direction? A lot of traditional directors want to do a narrative that’s directable but not necessarily interactive. They like the VR immersion but they want people to follow their vision.” The resulting compromise is a 360-degree video.
“There also needs to be a specific beginning and end to the experience with a specific time spent with it,” Inversin continued. “A lot of these activations need to get people in and out. But as consumers become more knowledgeable, they’ll want to do more, like move their heads around. So, I think that’s the next big step—positional narrative. That hasn’t really been done before except with games.”
Although Quentin Tarantino’s suspense action movie, Reservoir Dogs didn’t become a cult favorite until the director’s breakout success, Pulp Fiction, hit theaters two years later in 1994, the movie is seen today as a kind of masterpiece of cinema. The movie is beloved for a long list of reasons, including its nonlinear storytelling from multiple perspectives and flashbacks, where the story reveals itself over time. Then there’s the witty dialogue (marked by an explicit three-minute monologue about Madonna’s song, Like a Virgin at its start) and unforgettable performances by Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, and Tim Roth. And yes, let’s not forget about the violence, which includes Mexican standoffs, a character bleeding out from a bullet wound throughout much of the film, and another who has a body part cut off while being tortured.
However, cult success doesn’t always translate into great video games, as demonstrated by ill-received PlayStation 2 era third-person shooter game based on Reservoir Dogs. But the Barcelona-based studio, Big Star Games—with members who have worked on blockbuster hits such as Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Payday, and Split/Second (along with the independently developed Biblical zombie beat-em-up comedy, Fist of Jesus)—is looking to change that up with Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days.
The game is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the movie by launching for the PC later this year with an Xbox One version to follow sometime after, and it has an unexpected twist: it’s neither a first- nor third-person shooter. Instead, it uses a top-down perspective, where players look down on the action and control Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink and Mr. White on a series of heists that precede the big jewelry store robbery depicted in the movie. Furthermore, the game plays with the movie’s sense of nonlinear time with the “Time Back” mechanic, which rewinds time to the start of the previous turn when the point-of-view switches to a different character. The new character is then tasked with changing the outcome before the time limit runs out. So, a character that initially gets gunned down may end up surviving without a scratch after his teammates make their moves.
Liam Patton, CEO of Big Star Games, sat down with [a]listdaily after a live demonstration of the game at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and said that making the game came from a tremendous love of the film. He then talked about making a tactical shooter based on the famous Lionsgate movie, with an emphasis on innovation to give gamers and fans a new experience.
What are the challenges of working with an IP as well-known as Reservoir Dogs?
It’s definitely not straightforward. We’ve spent many hours working with Lionsgate on a weekly basis. They’ve been super supportive, but the challenge is in not making a derivative story out of the game because there are rights that we need to look out for. So, we need to be super communicative with our licensor and be disciplined so that we don’t fall out of the legalities of the property. But it is a very positive challenge.
How do you keep a sense of freshness to a game based on such a popular movie?
What we always have in mind is: who is our target audience? Our audience could be a 20-year-old gamer or it could be a 40-year-old gamer, who both love the movie and playing with the six criminals who don’t know each other very well as they complete the missions that Joe Cabot is giving to them. Part of the freshness is through the art style, which is stylized with a touch of anime. We integrated a lot of the dialogue and the style that Tarantino put into Reservoir Dogs and I think the word “fuck” is in there about 85 times. These are not “white glove” criminals. These guys are rough. We use random heists in the Los Angeles area with scenarios from the movie. We keep things fresh through innovative gameplay, but we have all the atmosphere that you expect from Reservoir Dogs.
How will the movie’s signature dialogue be represented?
We have quotes from the movie, but we try not to force the dialogue into the game if it doesn’t make sense. But the characters bark to each other in character during each mission. They’re always arguing between themselves. Many of the movie’s situations will be reflected, but this is not a narrative game—it’s an action game with a strategic layer. Also, there are some surprise references to the movie, but even if you haven’t seen the movie, we believe you’ll still have a lot of fun.
How do you think fans will take to the styled characters, especially since they’ve gotten used to the looks of the actors?
We do not have the rights to the likenesses of the actors, but we’ve run through more than a hundred interviews showing the art style that was approved by Lionsgate, and it’s not a nuisance toward enjoying the game. Fans will understand that there are limits to everything, and they will definitely have fun playing with Mr. Blonde, Pink and Orange and their personalities. We’ll put their personalities into the dialogue and character skill sets. We try to be very close to the movie but there are limits that the fans will understand.
The previous attempt at a Reservoir Dogs game wasn’t received well. Do you think that there’s still a stigma against movie-inspired video games?
We are gamers, and we’ve played the Star Wars games along with Mad Max, which is a great example of a good game made out of a movie, in addition to Shadow of Mordor. There are very good games made from movies, but our approach has been to be gamers first. This is a game. This is an interactive experience where you can take control of your actions. This is not a passive consumption of content.
I cannot comment on other games or the previous game made from this property, but I can comment on our experience as a studio making games out of licenses. If you think specifically about your target user, you will be more successful than forcing several scenes from a movie together. Our first target for this product is gamers, who love and enjoy it. If you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll appreciate all the references, but you have to be a gamer first. That’s how we’ve approached the innovative gameplay with this product.
How are you getting the word out to gamers and movie fans about the game?
First, we’re doing interviews like this one. We also believe that this game will help YouTubers (influencers) enjoy the experience because the way you resolve the heists in the game is very unique. Every single game will play in a different way because of the layer of strategy. There’s no one single way of solving a level. We’ve seen people play for hours and hours and they’ve solved every single scene in different ways. So, we believe that YouTubers will brag about showing off their choreographic moves as they switch between characters to the solve levels. You could be cautious and go step-by-step or you can be very courageous. The game allows for a lot of showing off.
We also have a media plan in the works, and as an independent developer, we’ve reserved some money for that. Here at GDC, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, which will help us over the next few months. We’re also getting support from Lionsgate and their social networks as soon as we have more to show and get closer to the launch.
Lionsgate is very proud and happy with the product. They’ve been giving us a lot of support since we gave them to the concept a couple of years ago. They’ve remained a great partner, and as we get closer to launch, they’ll be supporting us with their channels to communicate that this product is out.
Skydance Media acquired The Workshop in May 2016 and rebranded the virtual reality game company Skydance Interactive, and the studio went to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) to showcase its first original VR project, Archangel. The company will also debut Life VR on March 24 in conjunction with the Jake Gyllenhaal feature film release and Archangel in July.
Skydance Interactive president, Peter Akemann, told [a]listdaily that this has been a fantastic opportunity to bring his studio’s experience as lifelong console developers and combine it with the film powers of the Skydance film and television crew to bring big ticket experiences to the new medium. He said, “the insights both from gaming and cinema are going to be key to shaping the kind of quality entertainment that’s really going to drive the platform and help create the next generation of VR content.”
The film-driven Life VR experience will bring players onto the International Space Station command module to fight against a rapidly evolving life form from Mars. After launching for mobile platforms like Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, Life VR will ship on Oculus Rift, Steam, HTC Viveport and PlayStation VR.
The original game, Archangel drops players into the cockpit of a six-story-high war-machine that must stop a tyrannical corporation from taking over a post-apocalyptic America. The game will be released on Oculus Rift, Steam, HTC Viveport and PlayStation VR.
“One might expect that a Hollywood company’s main interest in VR would be making products to support its film slate, however that’s not Skydance’s strategy,” Akemann said. “Our fundamental strategy at Skydance Interactive is to create original games and original IP in the medium. That’s what you’re seeing here with our debut product Archangel. When film opportunities come up, and they certainly will, we definitely want to take advantage of that. Skydance has a lot of great properties that would work very well in games, but it’s very important that the interactive vision stand on its own creatively as an originator of IP on par with the film and television wings of the company.”
Akemann said the mechanized war machines of Archangel allowed the studio to go beyond one-to-one VR. “When we first conceived of Archangel, we were already seeing some very successful products in the market that delivered convincing one-to-one experiences, and yet one-to-one experiences are intrinsically a bit limiting with the hands and the body doing exactly what I’m doing,” Akemann said. “The magic of a gaming has always been to take you somewhere else to let you be something bigger and more awesome than yourself. We wanted a level of abstraction that put you in command of something that projected yourself. In our case, we chose to be this big awesome dude. Our vision statement for Archangel very early in the first hours of conception was whether we could capture a sense of me and the huge thing that I’m commanding. When we achieved it, we knew we had something special.”
Akemann said his team, which has worked on games like Brothers, The Evil Within,Armored Warfare,Sorcery and Rekoil over the years, embraces the VR gaming concept.
“I take issue with the use of the word ‘VR experiences,’” Akemann said. “We’re making games. I feel like ‘experience’ is a word for people that don’t want to call it a game for fear of generating an expectation. We embrace that expectation. Seeing and realizing that VR was ready to be treated as a serious gaming platform was one of the principle reasons for creating the company in the first place. It’s our thesis to prove. We’re trying to do that with Archangel.”
Akemann said it takes some time to develop a AAA VR game. The team has been working on the Unreal Engine 4 title for 10 months and has another five months before release. “That’s a pretty short time to deliver something that feels AAA,” Akemann said. “The fact we’re doing it is something I’m very proud of. I’m very proud of the team for pulling this off. In the future, we’d love to have more time, but you know it’s a fast moving train. We had to jump in and get on, so that’s what we’re doing.”
Skydance Interactive’s main effort was to target a platform space that would exist in every major commercial high-end rig, and they chose only to focus on the headset and the two hand controllers as the principle mode of playing a game, which exists on Vive, Rift and PlayStation VR. The game also supports controller gameplay, but Akemann prefers the two-handed gameplay because that was the inception for gameplay. Archangel will also be available at VR arcades like the IMAX VR Centres that are opening across the country.
“The VR arcade location-based experiences are creating a portal with a $10 barrier to entry, where you’re looking at a $600 to $2,000 barrier to entry every other place,” Akemann said. “VR is unique in that it’s so hard to share. Almost the only way to experience it is for someone to tell you how awesome it is and then to go play it yourself. It’s almost a philosophical problem in communicating it to you. So, we believe the location-based centers are going to perform in a central role in doing that.”
Akemann said that location-based centers typically deliver a higher-end hardware than what you can expect from the consumer level, and his team is able to take advantage of that technology to add some premium touch to the VR games. In some ways, the VR industry is replicating the classic arcades of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and the home gaming industry that grew out of that.
“I’m hoping the same happens here in that VR arcades will bootstrap the home markets so that in 20 years if location-based has finally run its course and home is where it’s at, that would be awesome,” Akemann said. “But I don’t think that will happen because there are certain things you can do in location-based that you’ll never be able to do at home, like have a lot of space. There’s no limit to how fancy the hardware you can have, but you can’t create space when you’ve got some of the experiences that the Vive makes possible at room-scale. There’s always going to be a very important place for location-based for that.”
Twitch may be known for its mighty gaming prowess, but the streaming platform continues to diversify its content with TwitchPresents—a dedicated channel for programmatic TV marathons. A number of TV programs have aired on Twitch to positive community reception, from single episodes of Silicon Valley and Mr. Robot to marathons of classic shows such as Julia Child’s The French Chef, Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting, and the Pokémon animated series.
It’s Morphin Time!
Beginning on March 14, TwitchPresents will host a 17-hour marathon of the iconic Saban’s Power Rangers TV series, spanning 23 seasons and featuring all 831 episodes. Viewers will have a multitude of options for enjoying the show, which include co-streaming on their own channels. Those who subscribe to the TwitchPresents channel will receive access to exclusive Power Rangers-themed emotes for use in the chat, and the livestream is timed to get fans excited for the Saban’s Power Rangers film headed to theaters March 24.
“Guided by feedback from our community, Twitch has been focusing on content beyond gaming that nurtures the culture around their interests, whether it be anime, art, cooking or pop culture, in general,” said Annie Berrones, product marketing director at Twitch in a statement. “As an iconic sci-fi, superhero franchise that achieved legacy status over the past two decades, Power Rangers fits right into our community’s wheelhouse.”
In a different part of the digital world, the relationship between interactive livestreaming and television has been a happy one thus far, as proven by some eight million Game of Thrones fans working together to reveal the season seven premiere date on Facebook Live Wednesday. The premiere date was placed inside a block of ice and viewers could blow fire at it by following instructions, such as typing keywords into the chat and attracted over 100,000 viewers at any given time. While livestreams tap into a fear of missing out, the other side of the coin is that anything can go wrong. After about 15 minutes, the stream went dark and HBO ended up revealing the date (July 16) after failed attempts at bringing the stream back online. It was a cool idea, anyway.
Twitch Gets More Social
Twitch is definitely trying to keep viewers glued to their screens forever, from TV marathons to a new social media network called Pulse. Now streamers and viewers can interact outside of livestreams, share content and more from the Twitch site or mobile app. To further bring its community together, the company has rebranded its Curse communication app as an all-new Twitch desktop app that includes community servers, voice and video messaging as well as game content distribution. The public beta for this new desktop app will begin on March 16.
“Since the Twitch community thrives on building solid and meaningful connections with each other, we have been hard at work building products that address this need,” said Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch in a statement. “The Twitch Desktop App—which features all of the elements people love about the Curse app, such as screen sharing, voice and video calling, and community server creation—is now bolstered by Twitch features. This includes Friends, Whispers, activity sharing, and will soon serve as a game library for purchases fulfilled by Twitch. The result is a one-stop shop for connecting members of our community.”
Harmonix and Hasbro are bringing the party this fall with the release of DropMix, a music-themed mobile game where players collect physical cards to play against each other. The cards, each representing a music sample from a variety of different artists and genres, are read by the DropMix board, which connects to devices. Players have the option to turn up the music by connecting their mobile devices to a Bluetooth speaker.
The game will feature multiple modes, but the main one is called Clash, and it involves players replacing each other’s cards on the board to be the first to reach 15 points. As each card is put down and replaced, a new song is created and modified, meaning that a rock guitar can potentially be combined with a hip hop beat, and both may be brought together with vocals from a pop song. DropMix will feature music from Afrojack, Bruno Mars, The Chainsmokers, Ed Sheeran, Fall Out Boy, The Jackson 5, Meghan Trainor and Sam Hunt, just to name a few. The potential combinations are endless as players create decks based on their music tastes and discover new ways to appreciate their favorite genres.
DropMix is pioneering a new path for mobile gaming by requiring both an external device and physical cards to play, but Harmonix has experience with the transformative power of music on gaming and being social, having created the Rock Band series and others. The DropMix starter pack will cost $99.99 when it launches in the fall for both iOS and Android, and it will include the DropMix board, 60 cards and four themed playlist decks. Hasbro plans to release themed playlist packs ($14.99) and discover packs ($4.99) for players to collect. The DropMix app, which connects devices with the board, will be a free download.
Jonathan Mintz, creative lead for DropMix at Harmonix, sat down with [a]listdaily to throw down some beats and talk about the unique game that will let players bring the party virtually anywhere.
Jonathan Mintz, creative lead for DropMix at Harmonix
How would you describe DropMix?
DropMix is a fast-paced music making game that runs on an iOS or Android device and allows you to mix music with your friends with no skill required. It allows you to create your own playlists, with music and samples that you love, and use them to dominate the mix and show off for your friends.
What inspired the creation of a music-themed collectible card game?
A big part of it is that I’ve always been a music collector and a card collector. So, at Harmonix, we’re always looking at new ways to create music-based gameplay. That was part of my inspiration on the game design side of it—thinking of ways to combine these two things that I’m really into with the idea of, “what if a card could make music?”
We developed some technology that allowed us to do that in software. Then, working with Hasbro, we were able to build them into physical cards, which takes things to a whole other level. You’re magically able to pick up a card, put it down on this board, and hear music come to life. Then you can combine it with lots of different music, mix music on the fly, and create an original mix just by playing the game.
How did the partnership with Hasbro come together?
We had developed a software version of this concept, and we’ve been in touch with Hasbro for a while, looking for opportunities to partner on. We approached them with this game concept, and in working with them, we developed the software idea into this super fun, original, physical play pattern that takes advantage of Bluetooth and a wireless card sensing technology that they had been looking at. We put those pieces together to create this whole new magical experience that brought the whole thing to life.
Why go with a physical card format instead of sticking with a digital card collection game?
At Harmonix, a lot of what we’re about is making music with your friends. When people have Rock Band parties, they all get together and they’re in a band cooperating to make music. While it’s cool to make this as a digital experience, we thought that was a way to bring this concept out to the world and make the most magic for the most people. It would be incredibly fun to hold the physical card in your hand and bring it to life. I’m still one of the people who goes out and buys records. There’s a lot of joy for me in discovering new music and being able to pick it up and hold it. DropMix brings that feeling of excitement in a whole new way. Not only can I hold the music that I love, but I can also transform it and create a whole new sound with it, which is fun.
What audience demographic would you say DropMix is geared toward?
The people that we are trying to reach out toward certainly start with music fans, although the game is accessible to anybody, whether you have any music skill or not. I’d say probably people in their twenties—folks who are in the music festival crowd, but anybody who is into music can pick it up and play. Obviously, it’s for people who are fans of some of the artists in the game. It’s great to discover different parts of music that you might not have heard before by mixing up the different samples from the artists you love.
How will you convince a mobile audience to pick up the DropMix board?
We found that Rock Band instruments transformed the console experience from sitting on the couch with a controller to a different sort of party atmosphere around the console. One of the things that we’ve long wanted to do was to be able to take that party anywhere. So, this is a little bit more portable of an experience. Anywhere where you have your board and your phone, and maybe a Bluetooth speaker, you’ll be able to break out a party and mix music. We’ve had testers come in who were excited about being able to take it out and play it by the pool in the summertime, bring it to parties, and things like that. What we’re psyched about is that it’s this whole new way to play. If you’re trying to play a game with your friends, it’s tough to do that around the single device. But because the DropMix app keeps track of all the gameplay action and all the music mixing on the fly, you don’t really need to worry about it. You just connect it to the board and go, focusing on the game and music.
How many genres will there be at launch?
At launch, we’re trying to go pretty broad. There’s a core mix of genres in the starter pack that’s mostly focused around rock, pop, hip hop, and some electronic. But there’s also a little bit of extra flavor in there, with a few Latin and country cards to mix things up and go along with the playlists and discover packs. One of our goals is to bring in music from all across the spectrum because we’ve done experiences that have been focused on specific styles—Rock Band being one, and Dance Central focuses on party dance music. But here, one of the great things is discovering combinations that don’t seem like they should work, but surprisingly come to life when you put the cards together. So, we really want to broaden the music library as much as we can to discover what’s out there and let people experiment for themselves.
So, DropMix will become a platform for music discovery?
Absolutely. At Harmonix, one of the things that we love is empowering people to create and discover music. The studio was founded with this goal of giving the joy of music making to everybody, and this is a whole new frontier for that because it gives us a creative output. But we also work with our music partners all the time to not only find out about new acts that are up-and-coming, but also classic acts that people might not have heard of.
I’m psyched that we have cards from Run DMC and A Tribe Called Quest—people who were doing sampling and mixing back in the ‘80s and ‘90s—so there might be a whole generation out there that will play this game that haven’t heard about those artists before, but they’re grabbing cards from them. Grab a Run DMC beat and drop a Carly Rae Jepsen vocal on top of that—it’s super surprising and fun, and hopefully it will introduce people to music that they haven’t heard before. Hearing surprising combinations can be transformative, whether you’re a big music fan or whether you think you like a genre or not, this can change your perception of that.
Do you think Harmonix’s reputation with console games will help with the popularity and discoverability of DropMix?
I certainly hope so. This is kind of a new frontier for mobile gaming because it has a connected accessory, but it’s also trying to create a new kind of social play that’s a little more like a console experience. So, we’re hoping that people who are familiar with our other games and our reputation for bringing the party to your living room will be interested in this as a result. We see this as a new way to make music with friends.
Is there any chance of DropMix coming to consoles or PC?
It’s definitely something that we’re looking at in the future. Harmonix is very much a multi-platform studio, so working with Hasbro, we have an eye on that. But for this fall, we’re focused on the iOS and Android releases.
What would you say is the key to standing out in both the saturated mobile and collectible card game markets right now?
I think what’s distinct about this game is the approachability of it and the magic of mixing music. We really tried to make a card game that anybody can get into, but even more than that, if you just walk up to it and start putting down cards to mix music, there’s a joy and a magic that comes from that. That’s something that we hope that players will be as excited about as we are and will want to go out there to discover new music, collect new cards, and explore the content that way.
For a more core gamer audience that will want to customize their playlists, find the perfect sound, and the perfect play style, that will be available for them as well. But because it is physical, you’re not just posting a deck list or playlist and sharing with friends; you can actually show it off, play it live, and have that fun of making music in real-time.
Kabam, makers of Marvel: Contest of Champions is rolling out with Transformers: Forged to Fight in a huge way. The mobile game reaches across generations of fans by having “robots in disguise” appear from a multitude of different media. That includes everything from the original (Generation 1) 1980s television show, to the comic books, to the toy lines and Michael Bay’s explosive movies from the past decade. Players are challenged to assemble and strengthen the ultimate team of Transformers using Autobot and Decepticon characters from almost every part of the franchise’s extensive history to battle corrupted robots and their villainous overlord using a variety of attacks and transformations.
Cuz Parry, creative director at Kabam, describes Forged to Fight as “an action fighting RPG game with deep strategic systems and a wide variety of modes and social features available to keep the game fresh and engaging for all types of Transformers fans.”
Parry also talked to [a]listdaily about how Kabam worked with Hasbro to develop the game’s story. “We’ve been lucky to partner with Hasbro to create a completely original story where characters from various Transformers realities collide on a decidedly hostile planet,” he said. “You are a battle commander who joins with Optimus Prime and the Earth Defense Command to unravel the mysteries of the planet and ascertain who’s really behind the chaos that is happening. Along the way, you’ll collect and level up a team of your favorite Transformers from Generations, the movies, and Beast Wars to start.”
Players will encounter over 25 characters when the game launches this spring, and they’ll have a chance to play through various story missions, arenas and special events.
When asked how characters from the ‘80s and ‘90s compared with more recent depictions, Parry said: “Visually, our artists have been working with Hasbro to create a look that allows all the characters to exist aesthetically in the same world. Obviously, classic ‘80s animation characters look quite different than the ‘90s Beasties (Beast Wars) and the recent cinematic bots, but we think we’ve updated and added our own flair to make them work together. In terms of gameplay, we have to make sure that everyone’s favorite characters are capable of competing (and beating) any other character depending on your skills and the strategy you employ in composing and leveling up your team. Lots of early players and previewers are pretty stoked to live out some cross-generational battles they’ve long dreamed of.”
In addition to revealing a new trailer at the New York Toy Fair last month, Parry said the game has been reaching out to Transformers fans by ramping up community engagement. “We just presented at Google’s keynote speech during GDC, and we’re getting ready for a big trailer reveal and hands-on booth presence at PAX East March 10-12. As Optimus might say, we’re really starting to roll things out!”
With Transformers: The Last Knight hitting theaters this summer, we asked Parry if there were any cross-promotional plans. He said, “although we are not a ‘movie game,’ there definitely will be some surprises from The Last Knight entering into Forged to Fight. We’ve had tremendous success with Marvel: Contest of Champions in giving fans of all aspects of the Marvel Universe fun and relevant content, and with Forged we’ll continue that tradition. Characters, environments, unique events . . . who knows?”
Parry also discussed the lessons learned from developing Marvel: Contest of Champions and how they applied to Forged to Fight. “From a technical standpoint, there were some things we wanted to do that technology has now allowed for,” he said. “You’ll see it in the effects, destructible environments with physics applied to objects and in other places.”
He also added that the Base Raids feature differs greatly from Contest of Champions. “We realized that in Marvel, as you play over the months, you accumulate lots of heroes that don’t really have a purpose anymore,” said Parry. “We addressed that by adding lots more things you can do with your bots. Away team missions, forging characters to strengthen other bots, and base defense all add depth and strategy to what you can do with your favorite bots. Base Raids are a big departure from Marvel and proving to be very popular with early players. It gives you a chance to place a gauntlet of your favorite bots on your base to defend your HQ and resources.”
The Transformers brand spans almost 33 years of television shows, movies, comic books, toys and more. We asked Parry about his thoughts on why these battling robots make for such an enduring franchise. “Wow, so many things contribute to the enduring love for the franchise,” he responded. “Classic stories of good versus evil resonate with the fan base. Bots with unique personalities that have developed into iconic and beloved characters helps. I think part of it is the point of entry for many is on the toy collecting level. The relationship and imagination that the toys spark truly touches people and pushes them on to other media to explore the stories and lore.”
Parry then added, “And, I guess there’s just something about giant robots that can transform into all sorts of cool things, waging a never-ending battle of right versus wrong, that is at the core of a lot of fans’ love of Transformers.”
Cinedigm and The Wham Network will launch The WHAM Network streaming channel in Q3 with a focus on gaming lifestyle and eSports. The companies will jointly operate and market the channel, which will be available across all major connected mobile devices, gaming consoles and set-top boxes. Additionally, the companies are in talks with other platforms, skinny bundle providers and cable operators in order to make the channel broadly available on all modes of distribution.
Founded in 2016 by Gary Kleinman with a dedicated team of native gamers, entertainment, media and advertising professionals, WHAM has over twenty original series slated for production, with a target of at least 160 hours of original programming in 2017.
“ESports and gaming are fast becoming a lifestyle and culture and there is a gap in the coverage of how gaming impacts not only professional gamers, but society as a whole,” Kleinman told [a]istdaily. “With the broad impact of gaming, it is prime time to cover news and information about the global world of gaming, coupled with original entertainment programming.”
Early content will range from news, celebrity gaming and documentaries to reality shows, gaming competitions and live event coverage. Kleinman described how the content will differ from current livestreaming giants like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. “These platforms, for the most part, cover the games and competition themselves and do not focus solely on lifestyle and culture in the gaming world,” he said. “WHAM will cover (through an OTT environment) all of the gaming stories that impact and touch our lives—whether it is a gaming tournament, celebrity gaming or where and how to obtain gainful employment in the global business.”
Some of the shows in development for 2017 include Good Morning Gamers, Celebrity Gaming, The Grill, WhamFam, eOasis, Wham Live, The Quad, The New Best and I Know. “We are focused not only on the games and competition, but more importantly, on the stories that make up the lifestyle of gaming,” Kleinman said. “This includes how gaming reduces the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease to how gaming is utilized in early education to foster learning to what does it take to become a professional gamer.”
ESports will be a big part of this new network, but streaming live events like the recent IEM Katowice or upcoming DreamHack Austin won’t be part of the game plan. “We see eSports as an integral part of programming from the story of the players, the dynamic of teams, college competition and the lifestyle of being a professional gamer,” Kleinman said. “We will not stream games.”
Kleinman said this new streaming network will open up opportunities for sponsors and companies interested in eSports and the gaming lifestyle. “Brands can create unique and customized messaging to the target audience with credible messages whether by sponsorship, brand partnerships, branded integration, sponsored content and syndicated content,” Kleinman said.
In addition to the streaming network, WHAM will host a consumer gaming festival in Los Angeles this October called Button Mash Live. Kleinman said this show will tie in sponsorships across the convention and digital channel through cross promotion, value add, additional messaging opportunities and unique experiences tying digital placement with experiential activation.
“The first event will be in the Los Angeles area and only for one day as a teaser for a three-day outdoor festival,” Kleinman said. “We are not at liberty to discuss participants and expect the festival to be limited to 35,000 people.”
The WHAM Network is the fourth channel from Cinedigm’s rapidly growing Digital Networks Group, which plans, launches and operates both owned-and-operated and partner networks. Currently, the company operates the factual network Docurama, the fandom lifestyle network CONtv, and the family-focused Dove Channel. Combined, the three channels have approximately 3.34 million app downloads, 610,000 registered users and approximately 80,000 active subscribers. The company plans to continue to pursue additional network partnerships in the coming months.
DiRT Rally, developed by Codemasters, is regarded by many as one of the most realistic Rally Car racing games out right now. Launching in 2015 for PCs, then in April 2016 for consoles, the combination of high-end graphics, realistic physics and dynamic weather conditions gave off-road racing fans exactly what they craved.
Andy Gray, product manager at Codemasters
Last July, Codemasters decided to take DiRT Rally‘s sense of realism to the next level by adding Oculus Rift support. Players could drive naturally, turning their heads to see the world around them, and play the whole game in VR. The upgrade was so popular that the developer decided to bring the update to the PlayStation 4 release. PlayStation VR (PSVR) support was added last month through a $13 premium add-on to the game.
When asked what initially inspired the VR update, Andy Gray, product manager at Codemasters, told [a]listdaily that “VR is a development that we have been following for some time.”
He continued by explaining how virtual reality worked to enhance the racing experience. “It is something that we are very interested in as we see it as a great fit for racing games,” said Gray. “It allows you so much more control and flexibility when you are driving. It becomes more natural and we are finding that, once people are used to it, they are able to go much quicker. You can see the inside of a bend and judge distances, braking points and look into a drift or slide with complete ease. It is very intuitive.”
Gray also discussed why the PSVR update was released as a paid DLC update. “Developing the game for PSVR obviously comes with a significant cost,” he said. “For example, we had to rework all of our art assets as you are now able to see areas of the car that we previously didn’t model in great detail.”
However, he asserts that the experience is well worth the price. “We feel this is a really compelling update,” said Gray. “Every car, every discipline and every location is fully playable in VR. Plus, we have the all new co-driver mode which allows a second player to give the co-driver calls using a controller and the social screen. There is an awful lot of content and we believe the pricing is fair considering what is on offer.”
Codemasters is renowned for its racing games, which include multiple games and spin-offs from the DiRT franchise, the annual F1 series and Grid Autosport. When asked whether or not VR support would be included in upcoming racing games such as DiRT 4 when it releases in June, Gray said, “We will continue to monitor the take up, response and reaction to DiRT Rally and VR in general and that will inform our future decisions. It is certainly a technology that we are interested in but it is a little too early for us to state that we will definitely support it on our upcoming titles.”
With VREAL, audiences can come together in a virtual space to watch content created in VR games. Unlike traditional streams, content creators can place virtual cameras inside a game to broadcast to 2D platforms such as Twitch, so viewers aren’t stuck seeing everything from the player’s point-of-view. Meanwhile, those with VR headsets can meet-up in a virtual hub space, interact with each other, jump into game broadcasts as a group, then move around the game space and interact with the streamer in fun ways.
The best demonstration of VREAL technology came with the launch of the Twitch show, ER VR, created by Hyper RPG and sponsored by Akamai and Alienware computers. In the live show, guests play the comedic game, Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality as other fake doctors look on, offer commentary, and judge their performance.
VREAL CEO, Todd Hooper, and the company’s VP of marketing, Bryan Chu both sat down to chat with [a]listdaily. The two talked about the debut of ER VR and how the VREAL platform could help virtual reality further grow as an entertainment medium.
Todd Hooper, VREAL CEO
How would you say VREAL will help VR grow?
[Hooper]: If you look at the two big trends over the past five-to-ten years, we think that one of them is that VR is the future of gaming. Gamers have been waiting for this technology since reading science fiction. The other big trend is that games themselves have become media. Games aren’t just something that you just play, they’re something that you watch. Now, there are more people watching games at any time than playing them. The way people watch games today is on a flat screen using video, whether it’s live on demand. We think that VREAL is the way games will be viewed in VR in the future and sharing that content. But it’s not using [2D] video, we’re re-rendering that world around you. It’s fully immersive VR tech.
Can both premium VR headset and mobile users come together using VREAL?
[Hooper]: The platform is designed to scale to many people watching content. Certainly, there is some content that is better suited for the desktop for high-end, and some content better suited for the low-end. What we’re seeing today is that most people who stream games today are doing it from PCs, not mobile. Generally, if you look on Twitch or YouTube, most of those people are creating content on PCs, not mobile phones or consoles, so that’s why we’re starting there.
How do you create the excitement of VR on a 2D platform such as Twitch?
[Hooper]: In the past, you’ve been limited to a single viewpoint. So, when I’m playing Surgeon Simulator, you’re seeing my viewpoint, and every time I move my head, you see things move around. That’s nauseating at best and it’s infuriating to watch that. VREAL lets you pull that viewpoint away from the player and put the cameras around the room. So, when you watch ER VR, you get all sorts of views–almost like there was a film crew in the operating theatre. You get the view above the patient, you can see the player, and you’re not locked into the player’s point-of-view. Generally, when you go to a movie, you want to see the actor, you don’t want to see from the actor’s eyes.
If you are filming a movie, you wouldn’t go in with just a single camera held to your head. You’d set up a bunch of different cameras and angles. We’re effectively enabling streamers to do that. As long as you give the streamers the tools to create something great, they’ll amaze you with their creativity.
[Chu]: If you’re watching something through a screen, that’s your entire world. It doesn’t matter if what’s on the other side of the camera is Times Square, Seattle, San Francisco or a VR space. The idea of conveying VR to you, as a viewer watching in 2D, is conveying that the space is real. It isn’t about the headset feed. Strapping a GoPro to my head doesn’t give you a sense of immersion and space. The way for me to communicate space to you already exists. It is to treat it like the real world and position multiple cameras, with multiple views and dramatic angles. That’s the way you’re ready to consume it. Up until now, we haven’t been able to do that in virtual spaces. By being able to inhabit the space by putting in cameras, VREAL is able to transform virtual worlds into “real” worlds.
Will the conversations in the hub space be audible and in real-time?
[Hooper]: We’re still evolving how that’s going to be for general public experience. The vision for right now is that it’s where you go to meet your friends. You’re not going to drop 1,000 people in there. That’s the place you go when I send you a link to watch a stream. We effectively come into this place as friends and then go into the game together.
Bryan Chu, VREAL VP of marketing
What are some of the social features?
[Hooper]: When you’re in VR, you have head tracking and hand to tracking. I do look you in the eyes, wave at you, and interact physically. We have voice so you can speak with people and emotes to express your emotions. You can also move around the space and stand in different groups. Even though you might be sitting at your desk, you feel like you move around [in the virtual space] to different groups for a bit of privacy. We also let you take video and photos—everyone wants their photo taken in VR. Most things lend themselves to social sharing on Twitter or other platforms.
[Chu]: The social features continue to evolve as we move forward. That platform is it rolling out monolithically. We just launched the recording client that we’ve been working on with key partners like Hyper RPG. They give us valuable feedback on what they want to capture. That’s our approach: we work with customers to help them help us define the experiences that they find most valuable.
How will VR interaction work when there are a lot of viewers?
[Chu]: Imagine a stadium with infinite box seats. Each box seat holds a quantity of people—say, somewhere between one and ten. That’s our group of friends, and that’s who you going to interact with. The developer also controls that viewing experience. For example, in Surgeon Simulator, the space is a very tight. A box with more than four people will impact the viewing experience. But maybe a game with wide open vistas will have eight people. So, imagine being able to walk into a concert and turning it into a small park experience.
We can also do a “main stage” event that’s viewable to everybody. A host will put on a show and there will be people watching in native VR and the host can interact with them there. Meanwhile, we have a camera crew broadcasting to Twitch and YouTube. So, through one experience, we’re able to provide something for people in VR and 2D audiences with highly interactive social experiences.
[Hooper]: You feel like you’re having a personal experience just with that streamer, but in fact there are multiple instances with groups.
How would you describe ER VR?
[Chu]:ER VR is the first show using the VREAL platform, coming from Hyper RPG using Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator. It’s the first show filmed in VR and broadcast to Twitch as a 2D show, turning a VR space into a sound stage.
What inspired the creation of the show?
[Hooper]: Zack [Eubank] is the president of Hyper RPG. We just brought him in and gave him a demo, showing him some of the stuff we were working on. I think that planted the seed. He came back and pitched us on an idea for a weekly show. He would bring in a guest doctor every week and have pretend doctors judge them. I think it’s really fun and it’s effectively the first time the VREAL tech is being shown publicly. We’re very happy with it.
[Chu]: It’s a great way to show how, once you are able to get inside the game, you can create a huge variety of content. Normally, when you’re streaming a game, you’re basically held prisoner by the player camera. There’s only so much you can do when creating interesting programming around that. But because VREAL is integrated and has cameras inside the game, they are able to put on a show that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. They can basically film a comedy hospital drama inside an operating theater. Hyper RPG came up with this concept, but others might do something different.
[Hooper]: That same concept can be used for show that’s humorous, competitive or whatever you feel like doing. Again, we’re creating the tools and the platform for those creative people to do what they do best.
Will you still consider it great success for VR if more people end up preferring to watch content through Twitch than from a headset?
[Hooper]: Definitely. Twitch is a great partner, and we’ve worked closely with them on ER VR. The fact is, it evangelize VR and gives people a way to experience it before they get their own headset. Today, 99 percent of that audience is on Twitch and YouTube, not a VR headset. We see that as the onramp to the future, where more gamers VR.
[Chu]: I think we’re witnessing the birth of a new media. I always draw the analogy of the radio world and the birth of television. Those first television shows were basically a radio shows but with cameras. People didn’t really understand how to use it or what they could do with it. What you’ll see is that, as people learn the medium and what to do, not only will the content creators get more sophisticated but the audience will get more sophisticated too. We as audiences evolve along with the media. It becomes a journey that everyone goes on together.
The thing about the VREAL approach is that we partner with developers and content creators to serve audiences to consume content that they want in the best way that’s possible. Ultimately, that means we raise the bar. The aspiration has always been to create virtual worlds that are more compelling than the real world with games. Now we are able to do that.
What are your thoughts on how VR technology has grown so far?
[Hooper]: We always thought it would be a long-term transition. It wasn’t going to be last year or this year that everyone suddenly has a VR headset. We think it will be three to five years before it becomes mainstream. I think the first year went great—hundreds of thousands of people bought headsets. So, clearly gamers are interested. There’s more work to be done on hardware, and more work to be done on content, but I think we’re off to a very good start. Anyone who thought there would be tens of millions of headsets sold in the first year were probably being a little overoptimistic.
We’ve always been realistic and we’re taking our time. But there’s more hardware coming to market. The reality is that you’ve got Facebook, Google, Valve, HTC, Microsoft and possibly Apple all lining up behind VR. So, it’s a thing. It’s here, and it may take a little while to make a headset that fits every possible person, but we’ll get there.
Although Quentin Tarantino’s suspense action movie, Reservoir Dogs didn’t become a cult favorite until the director’s breakout success, Pulp Fiction, hit theaters two years later in 1994, the movie is seen today as a kind of masterpiece of cinema. The movie is beloved for a long list of reasons, including its nonlinear storytelling from multiple perspectives and flashbacks, where the story reveals itself over time. Then there’s the witty dialogue (marked by an explicit three-minute monologue about Madonna’s song, Like a Virgin at its start) and unforgettable performances by Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, and Tim Roth. And yes, let’s not forget about the violence, which includes Mexican standoffs, a character bleeding out from a bullet wound throughout much of the film, and another who has a body part cut off while being tortured.
What audience demographic would you say DropMix is geared toward?
Do you think Harmonix’s reputation with console games will help with the popularity and discoverability of DropMix?
