Run to it Quickly
Published by Christy Dena July 30th, 2005 in Uncategorized, games, Text Art.
TNT has launced a “micro-site” for the US TV series Wanted. On the site are 2 interactive comics which are the most interesting I have seen in a while. They mix ‘old media’ styles with new ones. For instance, the pages are turned (which we’ve discussed before), the hand-drawn cells are read/viewed, but then there is also “rich media” elements. There is a mini-game, for example, where you can fly the helicopter the characters in the comic are hanging on to. The movement between the fixed and mutable elements of the works is well designed. There are 2 “graphic stories” on the site: Ignition 1, and Ignition 2, with Ignition 3 coming soon. It has been created by Studiocom. Like all advergames, check it out before the campaign is removed.
[view academic citations]
For anyone interested, you can download the shockwave files for
Wanted: Ignition 1 and Wanted: Ignition 2 directly from TNT. Luckily the files appear to be fully self contained rather than streaming / Digital Rights Managed. Why on earth companies want to create free promotional material and then have it disappear down the memory hole is beyond me….
Some interesting points to note:
- There are in-page animations (a helicopter blade, flames, street blur behind a car) that are continuous. The ones that make use of a screening effect (street blur) like the one described in Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics or used in anime jumping pan shots (a still drawing is moved across animated lines to signify “jumping”) seem to work better than the ones that are in-scene (helicopter blades). The animated blades make the helicopter uncanny and emphasize its bizarre stillness over the building, which previous didn’t seem odd. Although considering that hovering is what helicopters do, maybe that isn’t the best example….
- There are in-page animations (a wrecking ball, a kicking foot) that activate after a certain amount of time or a mousover. However because the mouseover is for the page rather than for the panel, the animations tend to go off while you are reading elsewhere - you read ahead then to see what animated and why. Intereting, but awkward.
- My mouse pointer changed to a hand while rolling over several elements in each comic (a truck, a door) however clicking did nothing.
- The in-page games are quite innovative - they offer a popup mini-game, but give you the option to skip (auto-succeed). When you win the game, the game invitation is replaced by comic panels that continue the story. When you lose, the game invitation in replaced by comic panels that show a “you have died” scene, with an invitation to retry. This would be especially interesting in a branching story that wasn’t sudden death.
- One thing is strange about the success panels revealed by a game - they tend to leave out the critical action of the optional game. Thus, one in-page game involves jumping to another rooftop. When the game is over, it is replaced with panels showing what happens after the character jumps. The odd thing about this is, when you scan the page, now the fully revealed comic omits the crucial action - the jump itself - and doesn’t scan.