WriteShootPlay

Breaking out with Google

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:01:00 -0400

Nerds young and old can celebrate Atari Breakout’s 37th birthday in true Google fashion this year.

In keeping with Google’s web antics, the tech giant has brought the classic breakout game unto their search engine as an Easter Egg.

Simply search “atari breakout” under Google’s image search and the search results transform into a breakout board. After clearing a board the search results will update with a random search item and the game continues.

Simple, clean, and fun. This Easter egg follows a long line of Google powered web delights that users have come to expect and love from the brand.

And for those who haven’t seen this for I/O, here is the homepage for their I/O 2013 event.

https://developers.google.com/events/io/

Check out the different combinations of I and O to unlock different looks and games.

jaymug: Fox Movies Magazine Ad- No commercial breaks Simple....

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 20:53:52 -0400

jaymug:

Fox Movies Magazine Ad- No commercial breaks

Simple. Easy. Effective. (Except for the four page media buy…)

Superbowl Ad Picks

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:53:00 -0500

Well its that time of year again. The biggest day for TV advertising and football fans - at least Ravens and Niner fans. As usual we’ve got the fan made Doritos commercials filled with the usual sort of ridiculousness we’ve come to expect but nothing particularly special. Nevertheless this year’s Superbowl entries do not disappoint. My top three picks for the year are from M&Ms, Dodge, and Axe.

Good Clean Fun: M&Ms “Love Ballad”

Inspirational: Dodge Ram “Farmer”

Axe being Axe: Axe “Lifeguard”

Bond for 70 seconds.

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:12:38 -0400

Coca-cola has been at the center of some fantastic alternative advertising in recent years. From Google’s Project Re: Brief to their Happiness Machines, Coke is just one of those brands that can go anywhere. Their most recent foray into the exciting realm of alternative advertising is a partnership between Coke Zero and the upcoming Bond film: Skyfall.

The masterwork of communications agency: Duval Guilaume Modem; this ridiculously interactive experience gives everyday Coke Zero drinkers a chance to fall in line with the likes of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Daniel Craig for seventy intense seconds.

Starting with a Coke Zero vending machine, commuters in the Antwerp Central station who want a chance at free Skyfall tickets are prompted to make their way across the station to collect their prize. As the countdown clock starts, nearby street performers break into a well timed performance on the iconic Bond theme music and the race is on for the unsuspecting commuter. The mad dash through the station is naturally riddled with the usual Bond inspired obstacles before finally ending at another Coke Zero vending machine - and of course the tickets.

This wholly interactive experience is perhaps one of the most exciting alternative advertising effort this writer has seen to date. From the street inspired rendition of the classic theme song, to the well timed and choreographed performing obstacles. You’d be hard pressed to top this experience with anything short of giving away forty carat diamonds on the street.

As you might have already guessed, the first hand exposure to this experience is limited to only the handful of participants and intrigued passersby that were there. As is often the case for alternative advertising tactics success lies in media exposure. Within twenty hour fours of the video’s posting on YouTube, some 53,000 views and nearly seven thousand likes have been earned. Ideas like these don’t often have the chance to come to fruition as marketing objectives tend favor more traditional approaches. However, given the right brand, the right time, and the right idea, every now and then, something truly exhilarating can come along.

In stark contrast to experience depicted above, below is a TV spot done in France for Coke Zero on the same premise of Unlocking The 007 In You.

Cool, but not quite the same.

Waterproof.

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:38:00 -0400

When selling a product in a thoroughly saturated market, the need to stand yourself out from the rest is perhaps a slight understatement. Generally speaking, businesses, marketers, and advertisers will explore every aspect and every feature of a product to find the best way to sell it. For the most part, we rely on a unique selling proposition or USP - the one thing that this product has that no other product out there has. Or at the very least, the one thing that no other product is saying loudly enough that they have.

I recently came across this inventive package design for Festina’s Profundo watch. A watch that is - for lack of a better word, description, or really anymore need for elaboration - waterproof. (See picture below for clarification.)

Winning gold in 2011’s Epica Awards for Package Design, this boastful, but elegant display of the product’s USP by German agency Scholz & Friends is simply brilliant. A waterproof watch is of course nothing new, with most watches on the market have a guaranteed waterproof depth of at least a hundred feet. However, no other watches to date have voluntarily taken a dive in a transparent water-filled bag for the duration between packaging and purchase.

On its worst day, the Festina Profundo in a bag is an irresistible head turner. On its best: revenue. This simple idea that exploits the importance of a selling proposition and product packaging is one that is both demonstrative and eye-catching. An idea that is perhaps making a few creatives wonder why they didn’t think of that sooner.

Mentos. The official sponsor of Singapore's reproductive endeavors.

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:31:00 -0400

So here’s one creative session I would’ve killed to be a part of, or at least watch. If I might venture a guess, the creative objective here is to get the Singaporean population to do some additive math by way of the bedroom. A creative objective one doesn’t expect to hear very often – with all the overpopulation and world hunger problems going on in the world. Singapore though, has an apparent fertility problem and its people might have to abstain from abstinence (bad pun very much intended) for a while. So as it stands, the internet was recently exposed to a very public and thankfully not too graphic plea for love making.

Coinciding with Singapore’s National Day celebrations, Mentos Singapore has given its fresh-making properties to the higher pursuit of baby making. This kinetic type music video, filled with all sorts of innuendo woven into everyday aspects of Singaporean life, is perhaps the tamest way to broach the subject. With such a stimulating subject, one can’t help but wonder the different concepts that came and went through the creative process: Some sort of installation piece? Perhaps a phallic addition to the Merlion? Or a slightly x-rated augmented reality experience? The insinuating and inappropriate possibilities are endless.

This video is the work of none other than Bartle Bogle Hegarty. As some of you might recall, BBH was in the public spotlight not too long ago for their work in Austin. Wherein during South by Southwest, the agency fitted a number of homeless “volunteers” with Wi-Fi devices, offering internet connectivity to pedestrians in return for a small donation. The Homeless Hotspots initiative garnered an overwhelming amount of negative responses from both the media and public and was shut down. BBH’s National Night video is its most recent incursion into the public, and one that is fortunately less crass than before.

Whether or not we can expect to see overfilled maternity wards in nine months is still up in the air at the moment. The video itself is amusing in a crude, schoolyard sort of way without being terribly off-putting. While the apparent crowning of Mentos as the official sponsor of Singaporean reproduction is not too shabby as far as brand positioning goes. Personally though, I think that calling the world’s favorite pastime a “civic duty” is a bit of a turn off and that the video has some interesting possibilities in the campaign for abstinence

A look at Ouya.

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:17:00 -0400

A month ago, an oddly named video game console project came online via Kickstarter – the popular crowd funding platform. Promising to change the video game industry by creating a new open source console, Ouya, the project gained an obscene amount of media attention. Within four days it had surpassed its $950,000 funding goal and was well into its fourth million. On August 9, 2012, the Kickstarter campaign for “Ouya” comes to a close at $8,580,329 and 63,2701 backers, with an additional 127,376 likes on Facebook.

So what is Ouya, really? Well, initial impressions have since heralded it as the second coming of the joystick and the proverbial messiah of the gaming industry. Sporting a chic design look for both console and controller and a similarly elegant user interface, designed by Yves Behar (know him by his works or not – with name like Yves, you expect pretty things); the console itself is already prettier than its big brand counterparts. The campaign’s famous claim to “upend console gaming” have swept the gaming masses into a joyous frenzy as the promise of a fairly priced open source console takes root. The concept for Ouya is really to create the console gaming equivalent of the Android app store; ideally removing all of the profit based bureaucratic hurdles that every mainstream game has to go through. This is possible of course, through the same business models that iTunes and the Android app stores have created, in which the store will take a percentage of each sale in the marketplace. Another bragging point for the console is the claim that everything they offer will be free to play – a claim almost no one has been able to make. So, is Ouya really worth all the hype? Is this really the beginning of the end for conglomerated gaming? Many seem to think so, but let’s hold back on the reins a little and take a closer look.

Ouya will be first new video game console to contend in a market dominated by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. While each of the big three has cornered its own little niche in the marketplace; Ouya looks to be in a prime position to take advantage of the sizable casual gaming market and hardcore gamers looking for more indie alternatives. Ouya’s hardware specifications seem more akin to a tablet than a full fledged video game console, using the Tegra 3 processor from Nvidia and no dedicated graphics engine. Scant comparisons can be drawn between the console and tablet devices currently in market. With no optical drive, apps and games will have to be downloaded and stored directly on the device for use. However, its meager eight gigabytes of internal storage can only hold as much data as my old iPod touch. Naturally, internal storage space can always be bolstered by an external hard drive; but the single USB 2.0 port is hardly fit for use in anything else other than app storage and video playback.

From a purely technical standpoint, the Ouya is the prettiest looking barebones console to enter the market. With perhaps only enough space to play several fully fledged hardcore games or a bunch of smaller games. Forget Mass Effect or Uncharted, the console simply won’t be able to hold all that data or even run it properly. Ouya will feature games more along the lines of Minecraft or Bastion – both shining examples of independent developers utilizing digital distribution. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Limited storage space will force developers to better optimize and compress their products prior to release – doing away with the trend of ever increasing installation sizes that mainstream games have fallen into. Of course, being the smaller, cheaper alternative to the big consoles and providing an open platform for independent developers is their goal from the very beginning.

So what exactly is wrong with the gaming industry as it stands, that warrants such a radical alternative to mainstream gaming? – Healthy competition aside of course. Well, if flimsy plotlines, repetitive gameplay, and the generally self-serving attitude of game publishers like EA doesn’t get gamers riled up; I’m not entirely sure what will. It is generally accepted that mainstream games have goose-stepped wholeheartedly into decline in the name of profit. From bug filled rushed releases to cutting more corners than a Grand Prix race; games have gotten progressively more expensive with less than satisfactory content. And while on the subject of content, one of the industry’s most shameful trends as of late has been the implementation of “downloadable content” or DLCs. Simply put, it’s the practice of milking a dead bull.

It started as a way to provide gamers more content at cheaper price than a sequel or full expansion pack. A harmless enough idea, that is, until the profit hungry executive at the end of the conference table decided to put his well paid for MBA to use. Suddenly DLCs were released at the same time as the base game, enticing gamers with answers to massive plot holes or extended play time that should have been part of the game from the beginning. Moreover, some DLCs have become little more than an additional collection of multiplayer maps – here’s looking at you Call of Duty – that in days gone by should have been free. Perhaps it might not be so bad if it didn’t happen every time or even if the prices don’t add up to a small fortune. And perhaps it might not be so bad if gamers didn’t eat it up like a much desired second helping of gruel, but that’s neither here nor there.

In principle and claim, Ouya will give console gaming back to gamers. Being completely open sourced, the idea is to allow anyone to make the next big game and release it easily. The concept of free development also comes with the caveat that each game has to have a part of it be completely free. With support already promised from OnLive! And VEVO, what’s not like, right? Well, when something is new and too good to be true; due diligence must be given.

Let’s start with the enforced free-to-play model for the console. This basically means that only a small segment of the actual game needs to be free. This can be done by having trial or demo versions of games released; not unlike the demos of almost every game out there. More popularly, games working off the free-to-play model can often release the game entirely free. However, level restrictions, extra content, in game items and appearance modifiers will pressure you to eventually shell out some cash. Naturally, expectation of something to be completely free is asinine, for without the profit – well, why bother? In the end your standard free-to-play business models usually end up costing the average player more than buying a game right out.

The proposed selling point for this feature is that players are allowed to try the games before actually committing funds. This allows for reviews, ratings, and recommendations from friends and family without cost. Pretty much like your standard video game reviews and demos available all over the internet, or even like the user rating system used by Apple and the Android app stores. So, what’s new there? The app store for video games? – Isn’t that just called the app store? Alright, snarky comments aside, Ouya is offering an online service to rate, download, and play games without the need for a retail distribution model – like Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace, Playstation Network, and WiiWare. Sorry, there’s that question again: what’s new there?

Staunch supporters of the Ouya project call it the future of gaming, and there are many who fiercely argue that Ouya’s open source system can only guarantee the release of great games in the future. That assertion is basically the intellectual equivalent of saying that given enough time, the sun will rise. Great games come and go regardless of profits and bureaucracy. The measure of a game lies in gameplay, story and experience; and even with all their faults, the conglomerated gaming industry continues to churn out notable titles every year. It goes without saying that no game is ever perfect, especially those that go through more passes through bureaucratic sieve than the Nineteenth Amendment. This does not mean however, than given free reign, independent developers create only excellence. Every now and then, a fantastic game can come from either side of the trade and its merits or demerits generally have very little to do with which side of the line it came from.

At the end of the day it boils down to the developers and their ideas. Opening up a console like Ouya would give the freedom of game creation to pretty much every bedroom developer out there. Yes, this will of course mean that there will be more games being released for the console than ever before; and the optimists among us will assume that this will also mean more good games. Realistically however, is that we’d see the console parallel to the Android Appstore. A marketplace filled to the digital brim with useless apps and games that become nothing more than statistics. Sure every now and then you’ll have an angry flock of birds break out into a pop culture success, but the cesspool remains deep and wide.

From the start of Ouya’s Kickstarter campaign and their subsequent online attention, there have been innumerable remarks made in reference to the end of mainstream gaming as we know it. From predictions of price drops to an irreversible change in the marketplace, groundless speculations are plentiful. These predictions are mostly based on the fundamental idea that competition will lead to better products – a principle of free economics that is by and large true. What people often forget is that the competition has to have an equal value in the marketplace to actually have an impact. The case for Ouya posing any sort of credible threat to any of the big three consoles is modern equivalent of David going up against Goliath. Except this time Goliath brought along two of his buddies and David left his slingshot at home. Granted, everyone loves an underdog story. There is nothing the world loves more than to stick it to the man and bring to ruin the status quo. The thing is, the corporate titans in the video game industry have simply grown too big and too embedded into the lives of too many subservient gamers that attempted coups become minor speed bumps.

Ouya’s basic principles are nothing new: from empowering independent developers to providing an easily accessible platform for large scale digital distribution. The whole notion of the underground indie movement taking over the world is nothing more than a hipster’s pipedream and a little hypocritical if you ask me. It’s like the Apple fans who still believe that Apple is the underdog company making cheap computing devices for the impoverished masses.

In 2003, the idea of digital distribution in video games took hold via Valve’s then revolutionary platform: Steam. The advent of digital distribution meant that game developers didn’t have to worry about manufacturing, distribution, and retail costs and instead release their products digitally with minimal overhead. Steam works off the same business model that will later be adopted by the app stores – taking a small percentage of sales made through their platform. What Steam brought to the game industry was not only a way to easily and inexpensively distribute games throughout the world, but also the first cloud-like service for games and a place for indie games to flourish – for the computer. As of today there are well over a thousand games available for download (a hundred of which are currently owned by this writer) and more than fifty million users worldwide. Since then, almost every major game release had found its way into this platform and independent developers now had a way to reach millions of gamers around the world.

Steam is one of those rare creations that somehow balances the line between consumer savings and profits. Daily, weekly, seasonal, and special discounts take as much as ninety percent off titles listed on Steam, allowing gamers to indulge their vices responsibly while still giving developers a good amount of added revenue. Bear in mind that people will shell out cash for anything they really want. That means that many gamers will indeed pay full price for pre-orders and new releases, giving full sales profit to the developers right off the bat. Then, as time wears on and the game stops being relevant, the discounts draw in further purchases by gamers who might not have considered an initial purchase. These sales then become supplementary income to the developers without the loss of manufacturing and retail costs. If Ouya can do for the video game console what Steam has done for games on the computer then it stands a chance in making a small impact in the world. Unfortunately though, even the meteoric success of Steam’s digital distribution platform did little to change anything.

Digital releases continue to cost the same as physical copies of games and the price for PC and console games have held steadfastly on the $59.99 mark. Why? Because, despite the number of cheaper and incredibly well crafted indie games out there, gamers continue to pay top dollar for top shelf games. Short of a complete boycott of all the major studios and publishers, the price margin has very little motivation to decrease. The fact is, Ouya and its eventual tide of independent titles will do very little to stop the sale of any mainstream title. Businesses as a whole are self-serving and self-moderating, and the gaming business is no exceptions. Mainstream titles like the HALO and Call of Duty series will continue to charge at the a higher price point because they cost appropriately more to make and – minor grievances aside – are generally worth the price. Games that don’t deliver or are just plain awful will eventually reduce its prices as negative sales figures slowly get the point across to their developers.

It goes without saying that you will get what you pay for; maybe not to the exact measure of its worth, but close. Big budget video games will cost their due while low budget games will of course charge less. Flooding the market with independent games will not stop the rest of the world from playing the corporation fueled major titles. In the best case scenario, Ouya could carve itself a small niche in the industry. Bringing to it independent developers worldwide that will make release their games to a price point that will eventually even out appropriately. As it stands, indie games range between one to twenty dollars, because they are usually short, sweet, and nothing more.

To be fair, Ouya is a sleek and refreshing take on modern console gaming. Being entirely open sourced from hardware to software will mean interesting new innovations in gaming peripherals and other miscellaneous devices. Its price tag is reasonable, considering its specs and potential, and its promise to bring a torrent of indie games onto the console scene is commendable. As can be extrapolated by the tens of thousands of supporters and millions in raised funds, the launch of this console will make more than a few splashes in the industry. Already the debate on its impact rages online as lines are drawn and sides are taken. Ouya fans will continue to argue that the time of corporate gaming is nearing the end, while the opposition eagerly awaits HALO 4.

Chants of “Viva la Ouya revolucion!” aside, the success of this console will rely on the number of Ouya exclusive titles that will be ready by their March 2013 release. Not, on the promise to bring over the Android appstore to the TV. To the disappointment of the many supporters who believe that the industry will be turned upside down. On its best day, Ouya could only create a new market segment – a market that will shine a much deserved light on independent developers worldwide. Ouya will be the gaming console for the indie gamer and developer. Should the console last, it will present gamers with a welcome alternative to triple-A games – an alternative, but not a replacement for the status qou.

Watch the Kickstarter video:

Old timey internet. Love it.

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:42:09 -0400

Old timey internet. Love it.

jaymug: Batmobile Golf Cart

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:28:00 -0400

jaymug:

Batmobile Golf Cart

The instrument of the future.

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 14:36:03 -0400

Just when you think you’ve pretty much hit the limit on musical instruments and resorted to using trash cans and empty containers to make music - “Stomp” comes to mind - a bunch of brilliant guys down in New Zealand come up with this:

Using the Kinect, prerecorded sounds, and some software manipulation, the V Motion Project turns the body and its movements into a musical instrument. No, this isn’t like Guitar Hero or one of those Kinect dance games where you’re pressing buttons or moving to music. Here the music comes from the movements the young man is making in front of the Kinect. This is of course a promotional project for the V Energy Drink but the possibilities that come out of it are exciting.

From a whole new evolution in DJ-ing to turning this into an actual instrument, the new musical possibilities are almost endless. Imagine an entire dance floor that creates music from a dancing crowd - or entire symphonies and arias played only by one person. This technology even lends itself into a game that can actually allow the player to make music instead of following a specific sequence for points.

While recent years has seen the creation of many new musical inventions such as the Tenori-On, Eigenharp, and the Hydraulophone. Nothing quite embraces technology and the future like the V Motion Project does - and to be quite frank, the Hydraulophone is really just a water wasting gimmick more than anything; cool, but hardly the instrument of the future.

As we move headlong into a very motion interface oriented future, the adoption of the Kinect as a potential musical instrument is indeed exhilarating. I mean, it sure beats having to lug a violin case to school everyday.

kawaicandy: #YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE #IT WAS SAID YOU COULD...

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:20:40 -0400

kawaicandy:

#YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE #IT WAS SAID YOU COULD DESTROY THE BARATHEONS #NOT JOIN THEM #YOU WERE TO BRING BALANCE TO KING’S LANDING #NOT LEAVE IT IN DARKNESS #~I HATE YOU~ #YOU WERE MY BROTHER NED #I LOVED YOU

Oh that’s just delightful.

imsirius: All of Stan Lee’s Marvel film cameos A man of many...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 05:20:14 -0400

imsirius:

All of Stan Lee’s Marvel film cameos

A man of many faces.

jaymug: Axe Towel Axe is at it again with this sexy collateral...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 16:14:55 -0400

jaymug:

Axe Towel

Axe is at it again with this sexy collateral idea. I actually want to see this towel for real.

Having spent almost half my life between school in Singapore and...

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 07:32:28 -0400

Having spent almost half my life between school in Singapore and home in Jakarta, Singapore’s Changi airport was more than a departure/arrival point for me. It became sort of a second home - always there to see me off and welcome me back. Even as a frightened little boy flying alone, I always relished the chance to spend an hour or two before my flights to explore and check out whatever new exhibits and installations they might have.

Always on the cutting edge of technology and design, this new kinetic sculpture for Changi’s Terminal 1 is a fitting addition to the only airport that I could possibly love.

oneofthepaths: A timeline of the Standard Model of particle...

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:51:06 -0400

oneofthepaths:

A timeline of the Standard Model of particle physics.

(via Daily chart: Worth the wait | The Economist)

How to to feel smarter in less than ten minutes and some more...

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:32:00 -0400

How to to feel smarter in less than ten minutes and some more light reading:

Higgs Boson proof

When Google met LEGO.

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 22:56:00 -0400

Remember those little blocks with pegs you used to play with when you were a kid? The ones that let you create anything your devious little minds could think of? Legos? Well, pair them up with Google and you get “Googo.” Or is it “Leggle?” Ok, not quite, but we do get “Build with Chrome.” A joint venture by two brands that go together like peanut butter and chocolate for LEGO’s 50th anniversary down under.

Build with Chrome lets users pick a plot of land in a Lego version of Australia or New Zealand and build whatever they want using virtual Legos right in the Chrome browser. Those intimately familiar with games might find this experience incredibly similar to Minecraft, and in principle it’s pretty similar - with the jarringly welcome absence of exploding monsters among other things.

When your childhood toys catch up with technology, the results tend to be quite delightful. And this time, you won’t get calluses from excessive creativity. Enjoy: buildwithchrome.com

Your friendly neighborhood social network.

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:49:00 -0400

In an age where pursed lips, peace signs, and generally trivial updates of our everyday lives attract more attention than a child’s picture on a bulletin board or news cast; it’s incredibly refreshing to find something like the World’s Most Valuable Social Network come online. The concept is to create an automatic feed for either Facebook or Twitter that posts information about a missing child in Canada. Sure, there are governmental bulletin boards and systems in place such as the AMBER alert in the United States, but let’s be honest for a second. Your average narcissistic self-shot-bathroom-mirror-posed-cellphone picture gets more attention than an AMBER alert simply because it is reaching everyone of your hundreds of friends right away.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time anyone has ever reached out to an online community for help looking for a lost soul. The key difference here is that the efforts aren’t limited to only the immediate relatives and friends of the missing, but also the online community of “donors” and their respective networks. Donors simply “donate” a small virtual space on their Facebook or Twitter accounts and Canadian authorities are allowed to post information on their page. Granted, the chances are slim that someone on your friend’s list might have even seen something pertinent, but a slim chance is a chance that every missing child deserves.

Here’s to hoping that this initiative can spread to other countries as well. For more information or to donate your social network presence for something other than virtual pets and pokes, visit: valuablenetwork.ca

Beautiful.

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:38:50 -0400

Beautiful.

T-minus: Coke and Fries.

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:44:45 -0400

Here is a smile worthy installment from DDB for McDonald’s. The concept is simple: display the estimated time of arrival for trains in terms of the McDonald’s menu. In partnership the transit authority they had a display put up that did just that.

This idea takes advertising into yet another outlet of everyday life that has yet been untouched. The execution isn’t over the top and in your face and is just cool enough to make commuters look twice while walking by. I am personally a huge fan of simple and clean guerrilla or installation ideas that doesn’t take up a lot of space. While still serving as a fully functional timetable, this installation gives the passerby a smile and takes advantage of the usually mindless idle time spent waiting for a train.