Studio Exploration: AGENCYNET & BOB'S CUBE

AGENCYNET is an award-winning studio that specializes in interactive video/multimedia design and branding, with offices in New York and Fort Lauderdale.

I chose AGENCYNET's website, since it seems to give a good example of a well-designed interactive flash site. Visitors get access to a floor plan of the studio's office in Soho, New York, and are welcomed with a video message by the company's receptionist. The floor plan not only shows the studio's physical setup, but also animated work scenes with members of the team.

You can see AGENCYNET's list of clients as refrigerator magnets that can be moved around, whereas AGENCYNET's special capabilities are listed in the form of an interactive crossword puzzle. One thing that I found to be useful is the contact sheet that pops up in an extra window, with text that can be selected and copied...

An extra addition to their site is a link to ANidea, a blog that includes topics surrounding creativity, technology, strategy, innovation, as well as recent news about AGENCYNET. It includes a search function and the option to change the background theme of the blog, which I found interesting.

The following link offers a comparison to AGENCYNET's presentation of an interactive office environment: BOB'S CUBE allows the user to open drawers and play around with different office gadgets...providing a fun experience to visitors. It is provided by the web hosting company Hostway and mixes interactive games with smart facts about Hostway's hosting services.

Resouce Exploration

We all need a little inspiration from time to time, so since it is early in the semester I have decided to research some Flash sites that will help as creative inspiration and technical resources.

Since this is a class on Flash I might as well begin with an Adobe website. Actually it is the Adobe Edge Newsletter. If you do not already subscribe to it you should consider doing so. Not only does it offer links to Flash content, but it also highlights the other products in the Adobe library. The Flash section of this newsletter has links to some great sites that may inspire the designer in you. Some are simple, while others are very elaborate. One of my favorites is a site done by an ad agency called Boone Oakley. They have actually created their website using Flash animation, and have posted it on YouTube, rather than having it posted on a traditional server. A number of sites also offer technical resources like articles, tutorials, sample scripts, and even free sounds.

Two sites that I have found are Flashkit.com, and Actionscript.org. Flashkit was created as a resource site for Flash developers after the creator had spent hours on end searching for raw materials to create his flash content. You can find images and sounds that will help spice up your own Flash movies. Actionscripts.org on the other hand is oriented more towards forums, articles, and tutorials.

Speaking of tutorials, many of you may already be familiar with Lynda.com. This site offers online training and tutorials, some of which are free, but most are a pay-to-play. The training is rather in-depth, and some of you may find it worth the money. If you’re so inclined you can search for whatever interests you by using the subject and software buttons to navigate to the Flash section.

Lastly, there are sites that create 3rd party plug-ins for Flash. Plug-ins can help the functionality, or increase the ease of use of applications. You can get plug-ins as freeware, shareware, or you can pay to download them. Free Download Manager is a site worth looking into. Much of the software is shareware, and it can add features like 3-D text effects. Another fun site I found, although it is a pay-to-play site, comes from an animation studio in Brazil. Tips or Script.com was developed by Labocine Digital when they were asked to create a feature-length animated movie using Flash. They found that they needed to repeat a number of animations when creating characters for the movie. They were able to create a plug-in for Flash that would take the laborious task of creating movies for mouth synchronizations, eye movements, etc.

There are many more sites out there that offer the same resources, but I hope I have given you a jumping off point for your own explorations this year.

Actionscript Resources

During the course of my professional adventures with Flash I've found several web sites worth mentioning. One is Actionscript.org. It offers a lot of good information neatly organized into categories such as Tutorials, Articles, Press Releases, and Community. One item that really caught my eye was the Flash Components section under Recommended Links. It has a lot of Flash templates and other goodies for sale. However, being a cheapskate that likes to learn Flash, for me it's good for ideas (only) to consider for my own future projects.

Another really good one is Kirupa.com. It's chock full of tutorials for beginner to advanced level Flash'ers. Its also nice in that it covers Flash in its various incarnations (MX, 8, CS3, CS4) in addition to Actionscript (1.0,2.0, and 3.0).

It breaks things out as:

• Animation
• Drawing and Design
• Common Tasks
• Actionscript Basics
• Special Effects
• Isometry
• Game Development

Definitely worth bookmarking for work or play.

Still another gem site was Pixel2Life. Here's a sampling of its offerings:







Finally, Flash Magazine caught my eye. It caught my eye because it went beyond tutorials and had articles, product reviews, and news for the Flash community. For those interested in working on web sites it has a good article (for advanced users) about passing parameters to Flash using Javascript. I've been interested in Javascript and Flash integration for some time and now have another tool to use for it.

That's it for now. I'm confident that out of these sites you'll find something to help you (and keep you sane) during MAT190.

Jorge Torres Resource Exploration: Money Money Money

So you just developed a game, and now want to share that with the world, but you suddenly stop and think. The game you just made seems too good to be true, and perhaps even revolutionary. Then you realize the opportunities that can be had with this game, and you decide that you want to capitalize on this great game. But being a savvy Action Script Guru doesn’t really help you find your way around the business world. Do not lose hope, for I have found a few sites that are willing to help you, and package your idea to make you a millionaire.

Some people might consider creating Flash games a difficult, tiding, and patient process, and for the most part those people are right, but I feel that the hardest part of Flash Game design starts right after your done developing the game. You don’t really hear of the success stories of thousands of flash games making millions, and this could be due to a lot of things. The game could be unpopular, or it could not be accessible as much as it should be, or it could just be that flash games are not popular. If none of these are the problems then the problem might be you have not chosen the appropriate monetization model. A monetization model is how you transform traffic (people using or showing interest in your game) into cold hard cash.

Here are a few sites listed here that are willing to work with flash developers to find a monetization model that might work for you. MochiMedia offers the model that uses advertisements on your website (http://www.mochimedia.com/developers/). The one thing to think about when deciding to use this model is to ask yourself if you are ok with the idea of annoying ads to be in your game, and if the ads being used are to your tastes. I mean if you are a hardcore Coca-Cola fan, you wouldn’t want your game to advertise Pepsi. But let’s say you don’t care about what advertisements are put on your game, is this way even worth any money? The ads are a risk reward model; if your game is very popular then the ads will get a lot of exposure and those companies paying for you to put your ads will be happy and probably pay you more. They can also add a counter that will find out how many people use your game and see their ads. If your game is somewhat popular, but advertisers aren’t happy with the numbers, they might not be interested in you for long. So this model is a real risk reward model.

Then there is the sponsorship model. Armor Games (http://armorgames.com/page/sponsorship) offers such a model, and popularity isn’t as important to them. What is important is the quality of the game, so you mainly just have to impress a small group of people rather than a large audience. This however gives the sponsor all the control on how much you are going to be paid. The monetary value offered by Armor Games ranges from $1,000 to $7,500, for your game (note: Armor Games are very picky about what games they sponsor, and they don’t regularly deal with amateur flash developers, but you never know). Other sponsor might offer much less, and some will offer much more if the game turns out to be hugely popular. MediaTonic is a studio who started out with few developers, and then hit it big when their games became very popular. Now they have a contract with several clients like Cartoon Network. Sponsors like armor games will also let you keep your programming code private, so one else can copy your material.

There are several other models you can use, the subscription model, portal model, licensing model, premium model, and the patronage model. All these models deal with different ways of turning your traffic into cash. For more information on these and other models please visit http://www.gamasutra.com/ the art of video game making and business. This blog post was to offer something different that your usual coding resources, and studio explorations. This is to provide you and inspire you to jump into the Flash Game community, and take advantage of the opportunities out in the interwebs.

Two Movie-Based Flash Sites

As the title suggests, I'm writing this Design post discussing a pair of Flash-powered websites designed for movies.

The first site was designed for the well-known action series, Mission: Impossible. Visitors are immediately greeted by a black screen with red symbols indicating load status, concluding with a quick message linking the site to the films: "Agent Identified." A brief action sequence coupled with the iconic Mission: Impossible theme song ease us into the main portion of the site.

The black background was likely chosen as it causes orange and red foreground items to seemingly pop out of the screen. Accompanied by excellent selections from the exciting musical score, popping explosions seem to be the defining theme of the site, although some pages offset all the excitement with cooler colors like steel or grey-blue. Additionally, the use of chevrons in place of scroll arrows provides flavor while reminding us that this is a military movie.

Because the movie appeals especially to a teenage male audience, it's especially fitting that a shooting game is provided on the site, allowing players to go through agent training before fighting enemy agents and, if you're good enough, rescuing hostages as well.

All of these design choices were made in an attempt to sell Mission:Impossible DVDs. Some efforts toward this end are obvious: the first page you are brought to is the "Buy DVDs" page, where the trailer immediately tries to entice you. Some evidence is a little more subtle; for example, in the Flash game, you pick up DVD cases to replenish your health. If these promptings initial promptings don't convince you, the designers successfully remind you of the high points of the movie: large explosions, sleek costumes and props, and the soundtrack recur all over the site.

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The second Flash site I analyzed was based on Requiem for a Dream. While the Mission: Impossible site assumed no previous knowledge of the film, requiemforadream.com makes almost no sense unless you've already watched the movie, or at least come with the following basic understanding of the film:

The story follows the life of a young man named Harry, as well as those of his mother Sara, his girlfriend Marion, and his friend Tyrone. The movie is primarily about addiction; specifically, drug abuse. As the lives of the characters become increasingly dependent on drugs, more and more scenes become confusing, frightening or tragic.

The website does not try to sell DVDs; its purpose is more to create an experience containing many of the themes seen in the movie. What struck me most about this site was how themes were related through the imitation of internet experiences, instead of being directly captured as seen in the film.

In lieu of the characters' deteriorating lives, we are shown a supposedly deteriorating website. Upon connecting, we see an entirely white page (analogous to the relative innocence of the beginning of the movie), with a single ad in the middle of the page. As the experience progresses, we can see more and more wonky ads, black screens, broken image links, visible code sections, and mouse-related glitches.

In an early section mimicking Harry's story, an ad asks whether you or a friend is suffering from "web addiction." Upon clicking a button, you are sent to a mock casino page. You are tempted to play once for free, and if you do play, you automatically win the highest possible stakes. "You could retire early if you invest further," says the excited text. "Click here to claim your prize!!!!"

Even though Requiem has nothing to do with gambling, the designers ingeniously draw their audience into the story by using common internet-addiction techniques to relate the film to the user's current activities. We win an imaginary sum, click on a link, and suddenly we are sharing in Harry's initial ecstasy.

The thematic parallels continue throughout the rest of the experience. As the events in the movie grow darker, the designers also darken the background from white to grey to black. As the characters lose their ability to think straight, the website starts succumbing to static, flickering, and crashing.

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Each of these movie-based sites was well constructed, and you can tell that the designers put a good amount of thought into color and content. Although it is less visually pleasing, I actually like requiemforadream.com a little better because of the way it changed elements of the story to extend its message into the theme of internet addictions. missionimpossible.com, while a very slick-looking site, simply met expectations without taking any risks.

Interactive music-making

For this blog post I browsed to the FWA (Favorite Website Awards) website to see what new Flash URLs were being highlighted and I came across two interesting sites which ask the user to "create" music by keying in or dragging and dropping symbols.

Designers are always looking for new ways to attract attention. Great visuals can do the job, but people are also auditory creatures and so are attracted to novel ways to play with sound and music. Here's where interactive music-making comes into play.

Incredibox, a French design firm (I guess it's a team of designers -- there's little information about what the website is really about), let's you string together rhythms, beats and vocal sounds to make harmonies. You do this by dragging various instrument symbols (percussion, voices, effects, etc.) onto the chests of a chorus of animated men. The men play out the particular sounds assigned them and voila, you have music.

When you click on a "what this is about" button you are told that Incredibox is an online application that "offers you to discover the musical universe of The Incredible Polo, handling a range of human beat-box sounds created by the artist." I have no idea what that means. It's bad syntax too.

I'm not sure if Incredibox is something you can buy (an application) or just a fun diversion created by three men (the contact link credits Allan Durano, Paul Malburet and Romain Delambily).

I like the Incredibox site design scheme. It's simple, black and white, no clutter. The animations are amusing and uncomplicated. I suppose with a little effort MAT 190 students can put together a similar site. It looks like it's a series of movie clips that are triggered by mouse clicks. In fact, I'm SURE MAT 190 students can put together just as good a site(!)

Another example of interactive music-making is Optus' whale song site.

Optus is an Australian business consulting firm. The company deals in broadband and mobile phone applications and appliances. On their whale song site you can make sounds with keystrokes to communicate with whales(!) Or at least you can pretend to communicate with whales.

I suppose whales are popular with the public and it doesn't hurt a company to identify with them.

The Optus site is well-designed and sophisticated. I'm not sure MAT 190 students can pull this one off.

Both of the sites mentioned above are entertaining diversions. They don't seem to be designed to sell a particular product (unless The Incredibox is something to be sold). But they are fairly cool diversions and as such serve to keep users occupied and thus there's a likelihood they will explore the website further.