Alcohol. Education. Pet care. Not the typical digital menage-a-trois, but Thought Den don’t do route one (unless we have our serious hat on and our client has their serious face on) Believe it or not these three seemingly unrelated industries have become important strings to our viral bow. Over the last few years we’ve produced a tonne of games for the big boys, mostly through Team Rubber, but we’ve struggled to persuade Kerve’s client Southern Comfort to join the party. Our Pet Factor videos for the National Office of Animal Health went down well but we’ve still not done a game for them. And then the penny dropped. Games are unrivalled for in-depth brand engagement when you get the hard bits right – playability, entertainment, messaging. See the success of the Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek ARGs. So along came two great briefs from Kerve resulting in 6 stonking, time-frazzling, finger-jiggling, play-monsters.

Whet your whistle with some southern Comfort Swamp Drifting (don’t drink and drift…) in this game in support of Southern Comfort’s sponsorship of the True Blood TV series on FX. Once you’ve collected HM Heron’s precious cargo from the ‘gator infested Bayou (linky-link to Swamp Drifter), pop into New Orleans for a bit of Vamp-dodging. This second game for the True Blood series of digital treats takes inspiration from Jewel Thief, a skanky, pixel-tastic, PC-based game of childhood yore. Collect the gems. Don’t get caught. Here’s the link – Vampire Chase.

Cute-animal alert! Ask yourself this – should rabbits eat broccoli? Not according to the law of Cybervores! This little digi-toy combines a cracking little suite of mini-games for kiddie-winks, crafted over almost 6 weeks of game-testing and development at the Den.

It’s a bit like tamagotchi, but we got rid if the boring click-to-cuddle / click-to-feed and focused on gameplay / gameplay with classics like as Catch, Hide and Seek, Sports Day and Pairs. Have a quick play, they’re all under 2 minute interactions, and let us know what you think. And damn, the illustrations are good.

Many thanks to all the good people who have contributed – our main man on the visual side Mr Ben Webb; all the cool dudes at Communicator in London; Dom, Ben and Dave at Kerve for joyous XML wrangling and file uploading.

Yup, we’re looking for graduates. Specifically, 2 separate positions to join our Bristol team on 8 week sponsored internships (and possibly longer!). Below are the headlines for the posts, the first is for a Flash Programmer & the second is a Studio Marketeer.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Thought Den – Flash Programmer

Thought Den – Studio Marketeer

Note
No agencies

Text versions

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Flash programmer

WAGE
£300 per week

DESCRIPTION
We build addictive games. That’s why we’re chosen to work with agencies on their big clients like Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, BBC and leading British Universities.

Our Flash Programmer role will involve intensive Actionscript programming to develop gameplay, but will also involve building connections to databases and loading XML files. You will be supported by the creative and technical team in terms of visual assets and complex technical solutions.

See some of our examples
The JD Set – http://www.thejdset.co.uk/
Fire Kills – http://campaigns.direct.gov.uk/firekills/game.html
Virtual Tour – http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/virtualtour/

You need to have a good understanding of Flash and Actionscript, or at the very least, a strong desire to learn.

TASKS
- ideas generation
- rapid prototyping
- programming
- testing
- deployment of game

DURATION
8 week trial

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GETTING IN CONTACT
Please send to dan@thoughtden.co.uk
- a Cv, some links to your work (student, graduate, own time)
- a zip file of 1 Flash project, code+fla. (no more than 5MB!)

SCRABBLE IT TOGETHER BY
April 6th

THEN
If we like the cut of your jib, we’ll find a time to chat from the April 7th

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Studio Marketeer

WAGE
£250 per week + commission

DESCRIPTION
Thought Den are going places. We’ve been working with agencies on their big clients like Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, BBC and leading British Universities for 5 years.

Now we need someone to start shouting about it.

Ultimately this role is responsible for raising the profile of the company and generating new business leads. Thought Den design, build, collaborate and educate. We need someone to take responsibility for separating and defining our range of services, develop the appropriate sales strategies for each and then execute the strategy.

The successful candidate should have a good understanding of the digital industry, including trade magazines, blogs and other appropriate channels. But of most importance is the creative spark and enthusiasm that will help communicate Thought Den’s passion for delivery rewarding digital experiences. Financial rewards for doing well.

TASKS
- writing blogs / articles / tweets
- researching target clients
- cold-calling new clients
- placing articles in the appropriate channels
- brainstorming and creative thinking

DURATION
8 week trial

——–
GETTING IN CONTACT
Please send to dan@thoughtden.co.uk
- a Cv, some links to your work (student, graduate, own-time)
- a mini-blog post to sell “iPods to your Nan”
- 200 words max.
- 1 hand-drawn image. A drawing, pen/pencil/pasta choose a medium
- delivered in a blog/word doc/plain text doc + attachment

SCRABBLE IT TOGETHER BY
April 6th

THEN
If we like the cut of your jib, we’ll find a time to chat from the 7th April

We’ve not yet blogged about our latest game D’oh! It’s a neat little spin (you’ll see what I did there) on standard web bowling games put together by the dream team – a Thought Den / Team Rubber reunion with our star Flasher Corin and Team Rubber’s Dave doing the hard graft. You’ll need to play it a few times to get the hang of it, but that was the point…

As ever, we all got very excited with the brief, came up with some amazing game-play mechanics, tried to cram them all into one game, moved the goalposts a few of times and almost threw the baby out with the bathwater, but eventually ended up with a tight piece of work. Tear’s were shed but lessons were learned and here are our golden rules:

Team buy-in from the beginning

The sooner everyone involved can understand the underlying aim of the game the better. This means the client’s aims too. If the creative vision for the project ultimately only exists in one person’s head, an awful lot of management time will have to be committed down the line to ensure everyone is gunning for the same target. When the goals, creative vision and problems are shared from the beginning there less links in the communication chain and each member of the team has more understanding and ownership of the project.

Use the right documentation at the right time

There are client-facing docs, internal docs, technical specifications, flow diagrams, testing feedback and wireframes, all with their own valuable role to play. But we’re here to build the game, not make a million documents explaining why and how we’re going to do it. The documents are there to ensure everyone is on the same page, all boxes are ticked and limit nasty surprises along the way. Be strict on what information you are representing in which document. How much of it is really relevant at that stage, and what important details are being left out? Early input from the team and a shared understanding of the challenge at hand makes the documentation the best it can be but also means it is not the only resource to rely on.

Rapid prototyping and play-testing

The sooner a game can be played, the better, no matter what state the graphics are in. Forget splash screens, buttons, highscores and preloaders, we need to play it, get a feel for it, discover the fun bits and reveal any potential trip-ups down the line.  In fact, a prototype is the best form of documentation in terms of game-play and what is a game if it’s not about playability? Cynics might say brand engagement or data capture, but the best way to achieve these is by rewarding the user with quality interaction.

Keep talking

The management process is a thousand times easier when you’re not left in the dark. And in the engine room too, it is essential the production team keep talking so that the pieces of the puzzle join seamlessly at the end. No matter how tight the production process, there will always be a desire to improve and innovate the output. In all likelihood the goalposts won’t stop moving until the 11th hour and the only way to prevent nasty surprises is to make sure people are talking to each other. Of course, it’s possible to over-talk, which is why development cycles and milestones are so important as checkpoints at which information is exchanged, keeping everyone up to speed.

Manage the feedback

The game should be played but the feedback must be collected, filtered and distributed correctly. The target audience are your most important motivator (besides the client I imagine) and it will be someone’s responsibility to make sure the game serves its purpose. With prototype feedback  coming in from all angles, inevitably some of it will not be relevant and the build team need to be drip fed only the most pertinent information, organised so they can tackle it efficiently.

The War Room

As a project nears completion the loose strands need to be tucked in, the stodgy bits stripped away. This requires executive decision making from the project leaders and quick turn around from the technical team. If the shit hits the fan, this is where the team needs to be – all in one place for the final hurdle.

Make it good

Finessing a project and showing it some love when the build is essentially finished is the stage that so often goes by the wayside. This is when it can become something beautiful! Finishing touches like improving the user feedback, splash screen layout, calls to action and sound effects add the gloss and shine to a project that makes it something to be proud of.  Unless, of course, you’re massively over budget and desperate to get the damn thing out the door. And then it’s for the seeding team to worry about!

It’s soon to be Christmas and the deadline looms…we’re hard at work on a beast of a project for the TV Industry – it’s kinda like Base Camp and it’s bloody hard core and it’s going to kick ass. Besides the technical development we’ve also created some lovely animations with Joe Snow and we’ll be sure to shout about these next year. Help bring us some Christmas sparkle by interacting live through the custom-built streaming app below. We’d love to hear from you! Merry Christmas from the Den.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, draw near for the day of the digital un-dead is nearly upon us. Your iPhone cannot save you now. Update your status if you must, but you are simply adding to their power. Tweeting cannot prevent the ruthless and twisted onward march of technology gone bad.

Fear not, for Thought Den have visited the sensory soothsayers, taken prayer with the bluetooth gods and consulted the ethernet queen. A parchment of infinite age has been entrusted to them, along with the fate of creative Bristol, and there-in were the words of salvation. A virginal sacrifice has been made and the voodoo artefact has been positioned on the beta meridian. Now we must all hold hands and pray that Bristol will be spared the wrath of the Digital Devil as he prowls these rich lands in search of HTML horrors, Photoshop faux-pas and Flash bashing.

May your wits remain with you,

Best wishes from all at Thought Den.