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OC’s Line Rider game turned into McDonald’s commercials

June 5th, 2008, 3:00 am by

McDonalds adds Line Rider TV commercialsMcDonald’s has started airing two TV commercials starring Internet-hit sketch game, Line Rider, a product of inXile Entertainment in Newport Beach.

The campaign was created by Leo Burnett, the Chicago advertising agency. Apparently, someone over there “loves Line Rider,” said Brian Fargo, inXile’s founder.

If you have every played the flash-animated game, it’s very simple. Draw a few lines on a virtual sketch pad and click ‘play.’ Then this little guy on a sled starts cruising along the lines you drew. While simple, Line Rider isn’t easy. First timers will likely create a course where their sledder crashes and burns within seconds.

Line RiderSome fans have spent hours, weeks, possibly years, fine tuning their sketching so the sledder rides the lines perfectly, even coming to a standstill. In fact, thousands have recorded their game and posted it to YouTube, attracting millions of views. In late 2006, inXile bought the rights to the game from its creator, Bostjan Cadez, a Slovenian art student who created the game for a class project. The web distraction is being turned into a game for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

The commercial’s creators at Leo Burnett “probably spent two to four weeks” just creating the 10-second and 30-second spots in Line Rider, Fargo said. And it was created within Line Rider except for the end shot where the sledder jumps over the yellow McDonald’s logo — you can’t add color to Line Rider. Three commercials have so far been approved by Fargo and will air over the next three months, Fargo said.

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If you notice in the middle of the commercial, the Web address linerider.com, appears for about four seconds — that was part of the negotiations, Fargo told me. Since the commercial started airing last week, traffic to his site has doubled.

“I did not get money. I traded it (for the Web mention),” Fargo said. “But to be clear, when my web site traffic doubled, that’s my payoff. They’re not going to pay me a million dollars to use my character. I don’t even care about money. I just want the promotion and coverage and that’s why we’re able to get what we got.”

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Wii Fit selling out fast

May 21st, 2008, 10:48 am by

See updates below…

If you didn’t line up this morning for a Nintendo Wii Fit, you may be out of luck. Many local stores contacted reported they were out of stock of the $89.99 gaming accessory minutes after the store opened.

OCRegister reporter Niyaz Pirani told me he showed up minutes before the Aliso Mission Viejo Target opened at 8 a.m. He was the 20th person in line and the new game accessory sold out by 8:01. There were 44 in stock. Read his tale HERE.

Gadgetress contributor Sonya ‘iGirl’ Smith also found herself in line at the Target in Cerritos at 7:40 a.m. The store had 40 in stock and she left with one as well.

At Best Buy, early reports say that Wii Fits are likely sold out through the chain, according to a spokesperson. She didn’t know when more would be in but offered some advice: “Customers just keep checking back and sometimes they can befriend the game people because then they’re on a first name basis,” she said.

Online, it’s a sad story: Wal-Mart is out of stock. Amazon is out (it sold 2.5 Wii’s a minute in pre-orders!) and offers Wii Fits only from its market sellers, starting at $140. Same with Buy.com, which was offering one from a retail partner for $170.

However… there are some still available!!

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Get taught by Blizzard — a perk if you attend Laguna art school

May 20th, 2008, 3:04 am by

Daniel Stultz, a wanna-be artist for Blizzard EntertainmentDaniel Stultz sketches detailed images that look like they could exist in the land of Azeroth, a place inside the popular World of Warcraft game from Blizzard Entertainment. His artistry is inspired by the massively multi player online game and because of his choice in colleges, he’s closer to Azeroth than most gamers.

Stutz, pictured on right, got a chance to work with artists from game company because he attended the Laguna College of Art+Design in Laguna Beach, just 7.6 miles from Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine. The Laguna college has 22 students in its brand-new video game major, which ended its first year last week. (This is the same college that hosted a World of Warcraft art exhibit last year.)

Read my story today about the perks of going to video-game school — here’s the LINK.

Thanks to the very connected Sandy Appleoff, the college’s chair of the Game Art major, students also got to work with artists from Dreamworks Animation, Double Helix Games (formerly Shiny Entertainment and The Collective) and, of course, two guys from Blizzard. Specifically, Blizzard’s Ely Cannon and Dion Rogers are on faculty at LCAD. Blizzard also sent a team to scope out talent at last week’s student showcase, which is where I interviewed Stutz.

“I can’t play Warcraft anymore,” confided Stutz, who has been drawing and playing Dungeons & Dragons since he was four. “The options were I play Warcraft or I finish school.”

Daniel Stultz, a wanna-be artist for Blizzard Entertainment

Daniel Stultz, a wanna-be artist for Blizzard Entertainment Daniel Stultz, a wanna-be artist for Blizzard EntertainmentHe finished school. Now, he’s looking for a job. (All images are from his portfolio, btw…)

“I talked to Blizzard. That was a huge deal,” Stutz told me. Blizzard reps told him he needed a bigger portfolio with more 3D art, which is basically what every game studio wants these days.

He wasn’t the only Warcraft fan at the art school.

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The Sims goes bargain hunting at Ikea

May 15th, 2008, 6:00 am by

The Sims meets IkeaLast year, it was H&M.

This year, it’s Ikea.

Announced today, the Swedish retailer of inexpensive furniture and home furnishings is the latest company to open shop in The Sims, the extremely popular computer game where people play house and make sure their virtual characters are fed, rested and regular.

The Sims 2 “Ikea Home Stuff” software pack includes all those unpronounceable names, like the VIKA HYTTAN table, the HELMER drawer unit and, can’t forget, the LACK zig-zag shelf system. Some screen shots of the game, gratis Electronic Arts, which publishes the game (click for larger images):

The Sims meets Ikea The Sims meets Ikea

Last year, The Sims added clothing from Swedish fashion shop H&M, which was a huge hit online and offline. When I interviewed The Sims president, Nancy Smith, last month, she mentioned that as part of the H&M promotion, they organized The Sims 2 H&M runway event online with clothing designed by fans. Broadcast on Yahoo, footage ran for six weeks and attracted 50 million views. More big news about this partnership is expected this summer.

However, there’s no mention if the Ikea/Sims partnership will continue to collaborate outside of the game.

Ikea Stuff goes on sale for $19.99 on June 23 in North America, June 27 in Europe and June 20 across the Asia-Pacific regions.

Related stories:

The Sims Carnival: Design your own game for free
OCRegister, April 2008: OC native is head of The Sims

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Free pack of gum if you hate video-game movies

May 8th, 2008, 7:30 am by

Stop Uwe BollStride gum will give out free gum coupons if you sign a petition to fight poorly done movies based on video games. Specifically, movies by director Uwe Boll, who credits include clunkers such as Bloodrayne, Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead.

(I thought this was a joke but it’s true, confirms Kathy Beyer, manager of corporate communication for Stride’s parent Cadbury Adams.)

Apparently, Boll told FearNet, a horror movie site, that if 1 million people sign the petition, he’ll stop making such video-game adaptions. Back then, the April 4 interview mentioned that 18,000 people had signed the petition. Now, the Stop Uwe Boll site has gathered 239,686 signatures.

Stride gumStride gum, ‘the ridiculously long lasting gum,’ is doing this because, says Gary Osifchin, Stride North American marketing director, gamers are its people.

“Since gamers are one of our most supportive groups, we’ve been looking for ways to return the favor. And what better way is there to get gamers’ backs than by helping them rescue their cherished video games from the clutches of Uwe Boll?” Osifchin said.

The free-gum catch: Stride won’t pay up unless the petition reaches 1 million signatures by next Wednesday, May 14, 5 p.m. eastern time. If the goal is reached, each signer will receive a digital coupon for a pack of gum.

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Line Rider inspires site to launch free tools

May 7th, 2008, 2:48 pm by

Line Rider, the original BostjanOne of the Web’s favorite free distractions, Line Rider, has inspired a new company.

Newport Beach’s inXile Entertainment spun off a new company called SparkWorkz. Line Rider, the new Bostjan

Line Rider, which started in 2006 as an art-school project, is a web-based game where users draw lines and then watch a bob sledder ride the lines. It has since been played by thousands who then uploaded their creations to YouTube. The most popular Line Rider video has been viewed 7.4 million times.

InXile bought the rights to the game in late 2006 from creator Bostjan Cadez, who spent time in Newport Beach to meet the developers. Read the original Register story: If you draw it, Line Rider will come. Line Rider is now heading to the Nintendo Wii and DS this summer. The first preview of the game for the Wii and DS is expected to be posted at game site IGN.com Thursday night.

Online, anyone can play for free. The official site features a ‘Bostjan’ with a new look but the game is pretty much the same.

“Vanity is a big thing on the Internet. It’s either you show off, ‘Hey, look at me,’ on Facebook and MySpace. Or it’s look what I can do. That show-off aspect is what I like,” said Brian Fargo, inXile’s founder.

Line Rider was created by Bostjan Cadez Art student Bostjan Cadez started Line Rider by scribbling in his drawing pad More inspiration from Bostjan’s drawing pad More inspiration from Bostjan’s drawing pad
Above: See the inspiration of Line Rider from art student Bostjan Cadez’ drawing pad.

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Fullerton students win honors in Microsoft eco-game contest

April 22nd, 2008, 8:18 pm by

Team Clean the WasteNot just anyone can build a video game. But if you’re a student, Microsoft provides free software tools to develop games for the computer and Xbox 360.

Two groups from California State University, Fullerton took Microsoft up on its offer and then entered their games into the Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s student technology competition. Results were just released and locals Team Green Pill placed second and Team CTW came in third in the national contest. Team Ligersoft from George Washington University took the first place trophy.

Not bad considering the 16,000 student teams registered for Imagine Cup, which included nine categories such as software design, algorithms and short film. All projects had to relate to this year’s theme, the environment, so it’s appropriate that the finals took place on Earth Day.

“You’d be amazed by the quality of these games. The artwork is really, really impressive,” said Jim Pinkelman, Microsoft’s director of academic relations for the U.S.

The students got to work with Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express, a kit for hobbyist game developers to turn pastimes into games for the computer or even the Xbox.

But will we get to see any these games for our own Xbox?

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Design your own game for free

April 15th, 2008, 9:25 am by

Create your own games with Sims CarnivalWhile working on a story about Nancy Smith, president of EA’s super-popular The Sims games, I learned about a new site in the works: Sims Carnival. Just as Sims players can create and customize anything from fashion to furniture, the new Carnival site will let people create games.

Although it’s in a closed beta, a big green button on the site invites anyone to sign up and “become part of The Sims Carnival community.”

Dreaming up games sounds like fun but oh so complicated, especially for people like me with no programming experience. Carnival has managed to simplify the process. The company invited me into its beta test so I’ve been playing around with game creation for a few hours. Just follow the step-by-step wizard to “create” a game. Choose what type of game you want to build — shooter, racing, action and puzzle — and then add features like time limit, amount of ammunition, speed, etc.

Create your own games with Sims Carnival

The site also offers a downloadable game creator kit. This allows users to customize what actions happen if, for example, players hit the space bar or an object collides with another object. You can use the free art and sound effects or add your own. With the kit, you can also download other creator’s games and see how they did it.

I don’t know a thing about programming a real game, but I created a game, which I deleted because it was lame. I want to do better. Perhaps I will revisit the site and develop my own game. One expected caveat: the game can only be played on the site. (Hopefully, you don’t give up all rights to the game if you happen to create the next Tetris.) It’d also be nice if they let you embed the game into your site/blog. Is that even possible? Sims Carnival is slated to launch “in the next few months,” the company told me.

Design your own gamesIn the meantime, if you have a hankering for some easy-to-use game creation tools, Sploder.com is another simple, web-based game creator site. Also check out this list of software for non-programmers. If you have others to share, please do. I’d like to check them out myself with all the extra time I have …

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