Kerb debuts ‘live footage’ online game with E4
- Added:
- May 30, 2008
Digital engagement agency Kerb has launched of an online campaign for E4.com that combines live video footage with gameplay.
The game, ‘Stack Da E4 Police’, forms part of E4.com’s branding campaign for its newly launched website.
The game will be seeded across a wide range of game sites to increase brand awareness for E4.com, and ultimately drive traffic to the video-based site.
The Kerb team developed the Flash game using Adobe ActionScript 3 to deliver natural physics within gameplay.
The combination of video footage and programming introduces strong elements of unpredictability into the game, increasing its complexity and challenge without making it too difficult to enjoy.
The team filmed on a live set using two characters who had previously featured in E4 trails. A cargo craft has accidentally dropped a team of mini-E4 riot police in mid-flight.
The aim is to stack the E4 police, who are in containers, so the craft can pick them up again. Unfortunately the characters are moving around inside the containers, making them unstable.
Each of the actors was filmed making 30 different key movements and the video was then edited and programmed into the final Flash game.
Jim McNiven, Managing Director of Kerb, said: “developed the idea for ‘Stack Da E4 Police’ with 4Creative, and managed the whole development and production including the film shoot and actor buy-out negotiation.
“What’s really pleased us is that the live footage in the game adds a new interactive perspective, instead of using animated characters. We could add highly realistic movement and response within the game, which makes it infuriatingly playable. This is a perfect example of what can be achieved for a client with a decent budget and faith in a good idea.”
Steve Forde, New Media Marketing Manager at Channel 4 comments: “We wanted to create something new with Kerb that would entertain people who spend time on the E4 website with memorable characters and great gameplay, Stack Da E4 Police is sure to appeal to our 16-24 age audience, and we believe that the viral effect will give us a much better return on investment than a traditional brand awareness campaigns would.”