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How did the project start?
The project started following a meeting with CITV, and with the launch of their brand new TV show Captain Mack, they required a well priced, high quality game to help market and increase exposure to this exciting new brand through the CITV website. Having been impressed with our company portfolio and commitment to quality products, CITV chose to commission us to design and create the game.
Captain Mack is a copyright of Fireback Entertainment (all rights reserved).
What options did you consider?
As we were given complete freedom in the design process, providing it was suitable for the Captain Mack brand, we chose to propose a variety of ideas; varying in scale from the very simple to a much more pervasive interactive experience, including multiple games wrapped within a 'Mack' themed world/website. In the end we settled somewhere in the middle, and decided to create a single high end flash game using a blend of 2d and 3d and the integration of video cut scenes, all based around an original story.
What help and expertise did you receive?
Due to the relatively high profile status of the 'Mack' brand it was necessary that everything was produced to be consistent with the brand and quality of the show, as well as being an exciting and authentic experience for its users. We worked with and ran any major design decisions past the shows producer and IP creator/Brand guardian to ensure there were no discrepancies. We also had to work with the IP creator when developing the story so that it was child friendly and fitting to the shows ethos.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
We faced a variety of challenges throughout the development process. The first we encountered was the issues faced when dealing with a strong IP, and adhering to very strict guidelines in some cases, which sometimes required slight redesigns or changes which may not have otherwise have been anticipated. In addition to this there was challenges faced in dealing with 2 external influences on the design process, each based in different locations, which caused some slight delays as a result of having to communicate through multiple parties.
We also encountered some underlying problems with our in-house games engine, and as a result of really testing the engines capabilities we were able to identify and fix these problems, resulting in a much greater performance from this and other titles which were in development.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Working on Captain Mack offered Twisted studio a variety of valuable opportunities and experiences. Firstly it allowed us to put our name alongside another instantly recognisable Brand/TV station. As a result our game has now been not only played but actually completed by over 100'000 players.
This experience also allowed us insight into developing according to strictly outlined brand guidelines.
We continued to develop our game engine alongside this product and as a result we now have a good development framework for future and ongoing projects.
What are your plans for the future?
We hope to continue our work with CITV over the coming years, developing further titles for the Captain Mack brand or other Brands owned by CITV. We also hope to use our experience with them to develop for other major brands and TV channels.
We continue to use our engine on our own internal and client based projects for both fun and educational products, either completed or in varying stages of develop. We also see 'Sky Rockets to the rescue' to be a valuable show piece among our products range, which continue to help us demonstrate our capabilities to new or potential clients.
