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more ROAR for series 6

roar_2The new series of CBBC’s ever popular ROAR got started this week and, accordingly, a new update for our online game has been rolled out too. We’ve added a load of new content and features including a new habitat (British Countryside), new animals, treats and cheat codes, new ‘Furry Facts’ video content for each of the 30 or so animals in the game (including some great footage taken from the BBC Natural History archive). Also in this release we’ve added a brand new feature ‘Feeding Time’ – where presenters Rani and Johnny take a closer look at how animals are fed in the wild and captivity, and we also see the return of the ROAR ‘Best Kept Parks’ leaderboard. All in all a great new update, developed again with our partners Fish In A Bottle, should keep our junior park keepers busy until next year.

Play ROAR on CBBC (you’ll need a BBC identity account to play)

This Just In…

Justin..And  some breaking news coming from the ‘Internet’ ..I’m finally able to start talking about a cool new site I’ve been producing with Endemol comedy supremos Zeppotron and Channel 4. This Just In… is a website that aims to mix new comedy talent alongside existing big names that will be making up to the minute gags on the day’s breaking news and trending memes.

From September 6th we’ll have a team of comedians, sketch writers and video artists assembled each day turning out headlines, stories, infographics and whatever else they can think of to poke fun at what’s happening in the world.

Channel 4 are living up to their reputation for cutting edge commissioning – this is an online only project with the focus firmly on making the funniest, edgy comedy. They are committed to reaching as wide an audience as possible, that’s why we’ve developed the site to automatically syndicate jokes out through the social network channels of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. We want to encourage This Just In’s audience to consume the site’s content in whatever way they find convenient and of course to share it as much as possible.

And making his debut appearance on the site is ‘Justin’ ..a degenerate newsreader character designed by Oggy Hawkins, of the truly terrifying twobob.tv fame (here’s a clue, he’s Bear Grylls). Justin will be dishing out the daily news direct from Endemol towers, or occasionally on location – so watch out for him; he’s always bad news..

The site will be turning out the funnies for three months starting 6th September, so catch it while you can – and don’t miss a gag by following us on:

Website – http://thisjustin.channel4.com

Twitter – @C4ThisJustIn

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/C4ThisJustIn

YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/C4thisjustin

now playing! Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption

So I’ve just finished a wonderful game that I’m sure will soon be regarded as a modern classic.

Red Dead Redemption excels in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to begin, but for me the game’s magic lies in the way Rockstar have set their sights on (and for me achieved) surpassing the film industry at their own game. With each new Rockstar release they get closer to mastering cinematic concepts such as spectacle, storytelling, atmosphere and emotion. To me Red Dead Redemption is a further proof that video gaming is in the business of seriously disrupting traditional cinema and TV.

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mapping ITV’s Australian Balloon Adventure

ABAWe recently put out some show support content for ITV’s Stephen Tompkinson’s Australian Balloon Adventure. As the name suggests the show follow’s TV’s Stephen as he undertakes several balloon trips across Oz culminating with his team taking part in a ballooning competition. We worked with ITV, the show’s producers Tiger Aspect (a fairly recent addition to Endemol UK’s group of production companies) and the Australian Tourist Board to develop an interactive map that follows the balloonists’ journey. It complements each show with additional content, video diaries and journals written on the road.

I put together the IA and some creative direction (of the map, unfortunately not the website!), but while we’re dishing out credits the real one’s should go to Neil (PM), Alex (art director) and @TrevorBoyle for Flash, who all did a great job. Check out the site – the map’s fun and complements the show nicely ..and the show’s not bad either, one for the ‘older viewer’ perhaps, but with some stunning photography in places -  especially if you catch in HD!

twemote: fixed and back on the app store

twemoteA very quick post to say our TV themed twitter iphone app ‘Twemote‘ is back up on the app store. It hasn’t been working for a while now, following some changes to the Twitter API, but the clever engineers at our technology partner Isotoma have it all working again and lovely. We’re now having a think about where this product goes next.. more on this soon, in the meantime download it now from iTunes and get tweeting about your favourite shows.

William Hill Betlive

Score_Boards_Football_TenniOver the last couple of weeks we’ve been working on some updates to an old project that I designed and produced last year for bookmaker William Hill. Looking at it again, against the backdrop of the ongoing World Cup, made me think it was worth putting down some thoughts on the project, where it came from and how its doing now.

‘Betlive’ is a Flash application we developed as part of the complete website rebuild that William Hill undertook over 2008/9. This was a massive project for them; not only redesigning their brand and website but also moving their entire back-end infrastructure from an existing in-house solution to OpenBet, which is pretty much the industry standard platform for serious players in the online gambling industry.
William Hill took this opportunity to overhaul their live betting offering and put this at the heart of their website experience – which is where we came in.

Deal or No Deal Live – new features!

CaptureWe’ve put an update live for our social multiplayer version of Deal or No Deal, it includes a number of new features that we’re hoping its small, but loyal, community of fans will enjoy.

The most noticeable change is that we’ve added a feature allowing players to auto-join a match mid-way through (no more hanging around waiting for the next one to start), a counter that keeps tally of how many times you have beaten the Banker – helping players reach a number of in-game awards. Free gifting is a cheeky way of adding chat icons and communicating with other players online, and we’ve updated the way the game connects to the game server – solving some of the connection issues that have plagued the game for some users since its launch December last year. Read More

now playing: Bioshock 2

Bioshock 2 Bioshock was my standout game of 2007 so a purchase of Bioshock 2 was pretty much an automatic reaction. I couldn’t wait to return to Rapture and I’m happy to say it was well worth the trip.

This time it’s gameplay that takes centre stage while the crumbling art deco environment and story, for me the most interesting part of the original, slipped below the ridiculously high standards set by it.

now playing! Heavy Rain

Quantic Dream has managed to pull off something very different with Heavy Rain. If you’re not already familiar with it then I think it’s fair to describe the game as an ‘Interactive Movie’ ..and if this description makes you shudder with fear, well, you’re not alone. So, has David Cage, it’s director, managed to break free of the stereotype you’re thinking of? ..almost.

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