Coca Cola announce the launch of their new ‘Neverending Dance of Happiness’ games for Facebook and Android devices. The games coincide with Coke’s experiential festival campaign  across European countries in 2011.

They encourage players to connect and win prizes via Facebook. The more you score against the 120 dance move options, the higher you rank. The Facebook game uses 3D character renders and is fully customizable across 6 genres with male/ female clothing options for that unique avatar style.

Coca-Cola is spreading some summer happiness with a new game on Facebook. The ‘Neverending dance of happiness’ will get you interacting with friends as you test your dance moves in rock, disco, salsa, electro, hip-hop and metal. By earning points during the game, you can save up for cool summer prizes – from Coca-Cola headphones to festival tickets.

You can also share your summer memories through videos and images you upload to the Facebook fan page. Why not get your summer groove on too with Coke and Facebook and spread a little happiness?

To refresh the festival season in the Benelux, Coca-Cola has launched the ‘Make Your Move’ campaign, spreading summery vibes on- and offline from June to September.

The beverage brand is present at festivals like Pinkpop, and can be found on the beach, where a Coca-Cola beach hut not only offers refreshing drinks, but also fine tunes to dance on. And those moves can be shared live via the ‘FaceLook’ face-recognition app.

Coca Cola also spreads some summer happiness through another app called ‘The Never-ending dance of happiness’, with which you can test your dance moves on several music-genres. Unlock new moves by ‘bump’ technology when bumping with other app users. This game lets you earn points and save up for musical summer prizes like festival tickets.

Trafalgar Origins – Channel 4 from Preloaded on Vimeo.

Following on from their success with 1066 The Game, Preloaded have launched Trafalgar Origins which was also commissioned by Channel 4 Education. Sliced Bread Animation also had a part in this production, creating some of the in-game assets; namely the ships rolling states (including the damaged states plus furled/ unfurled), the sail simulations, explosions and barrel rolls. Jon at Poked Studios partnered on the project to assist with the character design.

The most complex part to our assignment was creating a workflow for the rolling states of ships (sail open, closed, damaged etc.) which had to cover every direction permutation. As a best practice approach, we built all 3 ships as 3D assets and created a toon-like shader to not only keep within the look of the overall design, but also to have better control over the required simulations. We then set-up a Maya’s inherent dynamic system to control the sail shapes.

“Trafalgar Origins is a game commissioned by Channel 4 Education for the Bloody Foreigners season to be broadcast in June 2010, supporting the Hardy Pictures production of Battle of Trafalgar. The game has been created by Preloaded, the same studio responsible for Channel 4’s award-winning game 1066.

“We’ve created an educationally robust, casual game that combines the energy and drama of 19th Century naval warfare with the social context and human history that underpins the Channel 4 season. The history has provided a backdrop for a rich and dramatic gaming experience which will resonate strongly with the target audience.”

Phil Stuart, Creative Director, Preloaded

It is the first game to use Channel 4 Educations new Facebook Connect component.

We have just completed a 2nd Flash game installment for the Fire & Rescue Service (client: Meteorite) called ‘Hotel Havoc‘, the game comprises of 3 games in 1 and includes a PaperVision (3D) element.

Usually a haven, this hotel is now reeking havoc upon its guests. A fire is raging. The building unstable. And five people’s lives hang by a cable, in a broken lift. It’s up to you to save the day. But you’ll have to be quick, think on your feet, and smart to get the job done. The call is in…

Game 1 – The fire is spreading fast. You’ve got 60 seconds to get it under control and extinguish the flames. But be careful not to run out of water, and watch out for the wind!

Game 2 – You’re about to see how to support a building by using wooden poles. Memorize the picture. You’re going to have to replicate the structure in 2-minutes. Good luck!

Game 3 – There are five people trapped in the lift. You need to navigate the corridors and get to them ASAP. The only problem is, the lights are broken and the hallways are clog with smoke. So mind your step.

The online game 1066 won a BIMA last Thursday (19th Nov 2009) for Best Online Game, The BIMA awards  ‘celebrate the work of the UK digital creative industry’. As previously blogged we were responsible for creating over 270 animated assets in just over 2-weeks. Preloaded did all the creative and site development, and we created the Norman, Viking, Saxon and Villager character animation elements. We are very proud to be part of its success, the quality of the game speaks for itself in terms of the gaming results:

Since launching in May 2009, the game has received an overwhelmingly positive response from both the gaming community and online press.

The project has received no marketing budget, simply relying on the audience and community to seed and share between themselves. The traffic to date is testament to the quality of the game and the compelling nature of the content.

The Multi-player mode plays a large part in the distribution mechanic of the game and this is reflected in the continued and sustained and growth in traffic and game-play duration.

Effectiveness

> Number 1 search result in google for ’1066′
> Current total game-plays standing at over 5 million
> Average game duration over 25 minutes

And the reviews:

“If half the Proper Wargames released each year showed as much imagination, style and spirit as 1066 the genre would be in a far healthier state”

Tim Stone – rockpapershotgun.com

“Pleasing to play and pleasing to the eye. Check it out.”

Brian Ashcroft – kotaku.com

Argos have recently launched this Sliced Bread created game (client: Meteorite) to coincide with their ‘Toy Tester for Year‘ competition and ‘Big Play’ Roadshows. The game has 3 competency zones, each with 4 playable levels. Players can also invite their friends to join them in mini high scoreboards. You can play the game here.

I’m Angus and this is my awesome Toy Testing factory. It’s my job to make sure all the toys are off the Fun-o-meter scale! But there are so many great toys here, I need another Toy Tester to help me. So let’s see if you’re up to the job. Collect as many toys as possible from the Big Play Area zones – the clock is ticking!

Things have been pretty busy here over Sliced Bread recently, and we are please to announce one of a favourites projects 1066 The Game has now launched. In partnership with Preloaded we created over 270 animated assets in just over 2-weeks. Preloaded did all the creative and site development, and we created the Norman, Viking, Saxon and Villager character animation elements.

Preloaded have created the web-based 1066 The Game to coincide with Channel 4′s 1066 documentaries. 1066 The Game puts the player into the muddy boots of the English, the Vikings and the Normans, to play through the actual battle situations of Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Hastings.

Using historically accurate troop formations, battle styles, troop makeup and featuring a voice-over by Sir Ian Holm, 1066 The Game is educational and battle strategy gaming at its very best.

To give the user a full game ‘simulation’ experience it needed a sufficient library of character sequences to make it work. Preloaded pre-planned them and we considered the best approach in getting them delivered in the timeframe. We did this by creating a generic character, then modelling and animating bespoke assets for each character trait, there was also a requirement to create a horse for the Norman soldiers. We devised a working pipeline that allowed us to manage all the game requirements from build to animation, and then finally to render. We also needed to consider the correct historically accurate shields, weapons, helmets the soldiers used. Using the render layers in Maya, we were able to turn on/ off the required elements after the animation move had been completed. All the sequences were rendered as vector for Flash.

Pre-planning pipelines and considering the best approach  is integral within any animated production. This is because once you are committed to production it is very difficult to go back and re-think the approach, timeframes for online projects seem to be a lot tighter than TV or film. We were very fortunate in this particular production that the ‘nice-to-haves’ (i.e. different ways of  the soldiers being killed) were also able to be delivered.

I wrote a draft post about this some months ago (see below) but held back until the release was confirmed. Now an official release has been sent via Kotaku, its now Ok to reveal that Disney are now releasing 3D games titles (with glasses) and we helped them. Back in the Summer of last year I was ask in to consult (for free!) on how to get the 3D (anaglyph) looking right, and in early March of this year I was shown the complete G-Force game with the 3D capablity. The strength of the 3D came into question against health and safety concerns, watching a minute piece is OK but for hours of playing time, this can be an issue (Disney ran a couple of focus groups to deal with this). When I was there to see the final piece I really thought the developers had done a superb job, the 3D was at the right level against the concentration of gameplay, where the cuts scenes also made full use of the 3D effect.

From Kotaku:

Guinea Pig sporting action title G-Force and Wii mini-game collection Toy Story Mania will both ship with 3D support, the developers announced tonight.

G-Force, a game based on the upcoming 3D movie, did have the 3D display on show this evening. Both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game will support 3D graphics, which can be switched on and off on the fly.

The 3D graphics used in the game requires gamers to sport a pair of cardboard blue and red lensed glasses and uses a type 3D known as off-axis, the developers said. The effects seen in motion were surprisingly good, The guinea pig lead stood out on the screen, enemy shots seemed to blow out of the television and the world felt more realistic, though with slightly muddled colors because of the graphics.

Though not the first game, by a long shot, to sport 3D graphics the game certainly seems to put a shine on the red/blue technology.

Draft post not sent [Jan 5, 2009]>>

Not a particularly ‘animation’ post this one, nor am I entirely sold by the trailer. However, I do have a little insider knowledge on the G-Force Wii game that is due to be part of this, where I know they are definitely doing an anaglyph (with glasses) version of it. How do I know this? Well back in the early summer of last year I was invited to Disney HQ in London to consult for a couple of hours as they were having an issue getting the 3D working. There are so many permutations to getting it right, and of the few projects we have done, we have always come across various issues – but the end result is always rewarding.

Its interesting that the anaglyph approach has become fashionable once again (remember Jaws in 3D?), I think it has something to do with the upcoming Monster vs Aliens by Dreamworks which will be the first ‘proper’ 3D release on their new-fangled screens (no need for glasses here). Apparently its based on the same technology as our ‘special’ 3D monitor.

There are no hard and fast rules on getting the 3D right for use with glasses (although you should ensure you have the right type of glasses), but having some knowledge on distancing and targeting objects does help (there are a number of Maya and After Effects tutorials online that can assist). That’s was mainly the problem at Disney, and thankfully the game developers had given them some tools so that we could adjust aspects in situ. Its a thoroughly satisfying experience to be able to pass on the (little) knowledge that we have and I’m sure the end result will look amazing. Although, I  am slightly concerned about people playing an anaglyph game for hours on end – but we’ll leave that for another day!

Here at Sliced Bread we are really enjoying these UPisodes from the forthcoming Pixar feature movie ‘UP’. I’ve said before this movie looks like it could be a ‘hit’ or a ‘miss’, but these little snippets are a great way for potential audiences to start to ‘bond’ with the characters. Click image to view.

There’s still time to win a PSP Slim + football manager 2009 game with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission – http://www.cwgc.org/glorydays. Closing date is 31st December 2008.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have just launched an online competition to win a PSP Slim plus a copy of Football Manager Handheld 2009 for under 18s. Three runners-up will also win a copy of the PSP game. Sliced Bread Animation assisted in creating the competition form and animated assets.

Glory Days – Football in Times of war, remembers some of the footballers that have lost their lives in the wars.

Create your own football player, pick your team and then help them to win The Big Match, with an exciting penalty shoot out at the end, whilst learning new facts about the footballers. Test your knowledge at the end of the Match with the ‘On the spot quiz’.

Find out facts about the heroic footballers in the Hall of fame and find which present day football stars are supporting Glory Days.

Boyce Dungood, football manager extraordinaire and presenter of Glory Days- Football in Times of War would like to hear your stories. If you have any to share with Boyce about a relative who died in the First or Second World War, an education project based around remembrance, or any thoughts you’d like to share with him, why not make Boyce your friend and tell him your story?!