The full site launches in October but we wanted to give you a sneak peek at the Sony Movie Channel Teaser Site. The site features Sony movie hits including “Ghostbusters,” “Remains of the Day,” “Das Boot,” The Graduate,” and more! Stay tuned.
Archive for the ‘Projects’ category
Sneak Preview
September 3rd, 2010Penguins: Power in Numbers!
August 26th, 2010Smashing Ideas and Nickelodeon just launched the last in a series of four mini-games for The Penguins of Madagascar! The final game stars Penguin Kowlaski and features up to five missions in the mini-game that’s never the same twice! Players try to match Kowalski’s smarts through an exercise in molecular physics of explosive mathematics. Like all the Penguins of Madagascar mini training games, Number Power ties in to the Penguins of Madagascar Clubhouse Experience where players rise up through the Penguin ranks and earn awards by completing special game and trivia missions. The site was built using Flash and incorporates hundreds of unique missions creating a collaborative Meta experience across all games.
Mega Music
August 18th, 2010Just launched: Moose and Zee lead little maestros through the Nick Jr Mega Music Game. Players make all the creative decisions to build their own Mega melodies with their favorite characters. Featuring The Fresh Beat Band, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, or Ni Hao, Kai-lan, players pick a theme song and make it their very own. They can speed up the tempo and volume, select which voices and instruments they want to use, sing along with lyrics on the bottom of their screen and really customize their Mega music experience! The site was created using Flash as well as Adobe SoundBooth for the time-stretching tempo adjustments. “Do do Dora, do do do Dora – hooray!”
Aloha Pokémon World Championships!
August 12th, 2010Pokémon fans unite this weekend for The Pokémon World Championships™! Pokémon TCG and video game players from around the world come together to showcase their gaming talents in fun filled weekend of intense competition at the Hilton Waikoloa Village in Waikoloa, Hawaii. Smashing Ideas partnered with The Pokémon Company International (TCPi) to design and build 2010 Pokemon World Championships website. This is the biggest event of the year for Pokémon and the site will provide competition updates direct from the event, including news stories, photo and video galleries. Smashing Ideas utilized Flash for the animated header on the site, wrote the site in CakePHP, and tied into TCPi’s existing CMS for most of the content. We’re excited to follow the results of the championships on the site and wish all the players Maika’I pomaika’i, that’s “good luck” in Hawaiian!
Working Design for Kids
July 30th, 2010Yesterday’s news was full of stories about the new book from Jay Greene, Design Is How It Works. The title loosely refers to a 2003 New York Times interview with Steve Jobs. When asked to discuss design, Jobs said, “…..it’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
So we’re thinking about this statement/idea a lot and how it applies to Smashing Ideas, the work we create for our clients and the youth market. We agree. Design IS how it works.
HOW the game works is often the biggest design principle, especially when it comes to building games for kids. We illustrate a few things we’ve learned in designing games for the preschool set (ages 3-5) from Jarrett our Senior Producer extraordinaire:
- Bold – Bright – Chunky: Design aesthetic for preschoolers (3-5) features lots of large, bright, colorful elements to engage and entertain.
- Graphic Elements: In designing for preschoolers all elements need to be represented in graphics copy has to be limited and voice-overs used often.
- Green and Yellow: Use colors that preschoolers recognize – make the “play” button green; “next” or “skip” buttons yellow – an industry standard that often gets overlooked.
- Motion Graphics: Clever rollover effects and motion graphics keep the preschool audience engaged in the games.
- Limit small areas: “Hit” areas (e.g. buttons, fill-in coloring areas, pick-ups, etc.) should be generous and not require the child to click on small areas that make it hard for children to achieve their goals.
The end result of these design principles creates a game that a preschooler has the opportunity to learn something new, gain confidence with words, letters or numbers, and most importantly have fun! A few examples below from Fresh Beats Band and Super Why
How do you see design as it relates to this space? Share your thoughts – we’d love to hear them! Oh and we’ve already added Greene’s book to our iPad bookshelf!
