mousematt

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2010-04-30T02:24:00.001-07:00

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Unusual Design Orphans

2009-09-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Four design posts that all had a premature demise: a tech company, a childrens book, a console game pitch and cinematic bingo - yeah, you know, cinematic bingo.

Voipster was on of a number of companies going after Voice Over IP (like Skype) in 2004.

The combination of day to day business values with approachabilty and a friendly medium sent me looking up things like Dilbert, Mister Men and Niceday branding - which ended with these homely colours, cartoon illos and a paint print finish.

If I say so myself, the client loved it - but then the work stalled as they promptly called for a review of the company name. So it goes.

My sister has published two non-fiction books as Sarah Burton and she followed them in 2008 with a reworking of the nativity in a childrens book. Loyally, she asked me to pitch as the artist. The story weaved conflicting folk tales details of the story together and I did this spread to show the same event perceived in two ways. Turned out the publisher already had an established house style of soft, loose, pencil sketches.

Not a lengthy design job - but I was pleased with this style I did for numerous screens needed to illustrate a console game format. This was needed because in 2007 I won a place in 'Lizard's Lair' - a competition to pitch a console game idea to a panel of game luminaries for Channel 4 and London Games Week . It was a format called Duplicity which explored Time Travel paradoxes. True to Dragons' Den form, I was kicked around a bit for not knowing enough about the intended market - but Lizard No 1. - Peter Molyneux - spoke up encouragingly in defence of the idea - which is the bit I'll remember : )

Design 4: Bingo reboot. Some US conglomerate associated with the ODEON chain wanted to run an automated movie-like experience allowing people to play live National Bingo at the cinema. Pitching the look for the new brand, I did 3 cheesy, gold, sparkly, 'LE' looks ( light entertainment) and this one. My patter was pretty poor - I'd used up all my chutzpah trying to sound hopeful about the cheesy ones, in case they wanted them. By the time I presented the last one, I ended up muttering " …and then I just wanted to …get this…uh… feel"
I mumbled some more but I can immodestly add I was immediately shushed with a " It's great!" Ultimately, the project was a department-busting mix of digital, broadcast and tech, toes were trodden and direction was fought for. I reluctantly relinquished creative control under demands from other projects. However, much of the early feel survived into the final product - which also featured a white-suited Vic Reeves recorded into countless video loops as the interactive compere to the bingo nation.

The Weird and Wretched | Endemol Digital Formats

2009-09-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Endemol Digital had a stab at in 2003 - 2004. They were both enjoyable to interpret into brands and visual experiences, but they had their problems too.

I hate the phrase that starts " You can't polish a…" - not least because it's often how an Endemol producer is describing the project I am having to work on. Home Video Junk went one better, it started with a whole load of sub- "You've Been framed" clips dredged from Endemols global plumbing, and attempted to create a format that would make them palatable.

More than one gallant producer tried to find a creative slant, and a budget that would work, finally lumping for a couple of space creatures who talk through the footage - hence the UFO connotation of the logo.

Ask certain New media practitioners in their late-thirties if they worked on Mighty Truck of Stuff- the web game, and you may ignite long suppressed night terrors in them. Here we had a game that many thought might actually bring down the company, such was the impossibility of realising it's apparently modest requirements.

First ingredient, as always, was a TV bod on the client side with no real interest in online. Then mix in a soured commercial history to the relationship meaning the online producer of the game will live his days in a world of make believe priorities and expectations. This is the time where no-one in charge will hear them say "too expensive" or "not enough time" - but they will still whisper it loudly, to themselves.

Now, as production rolls forward, like some huge medieval device no-one understands, it is ensured that those with the technical knowledge required are whisked off to firefight something else - now those left will scrabble to pull people off the street to create this immersive interactive video game. If there's anyone left from the start of the project, change them now.

Overnight, the schedule becomes a joke, a laugh, a crying shame. There's no longer time for any two people making the thing to talk to - or even meet each other - it's going to be great. Time for the client to check progress!

Remember that we are talking about mid-2004, in the London New Media business, so there's an 80% chance that the client will now be someone who wasn't there at the start - good thing!

It's time to hit the valley of madness. A perturbed realm of countless, deranged client amends and requests, requests for things no-one ever, ever, mentioned, for any game. It is into this insanity that accessibility requirements now rise, like an unvanquishable army of unreasonable skeletons. People start each day with the knowledge that the game is now undead.

And that's all…you never really hear that the game is finished - it's eclipsed by a few redundancy announcements and people moving on to "…pastures new!".
After a month or two, someone tentatively uses the name of the game as a euphemism for dying slowly of terminal cancer - and it starts to feel okay again.

Flash Games Victoria Real 2003

2009-09-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

Baltimore drop was a gaming format pitched as a casino-friendly kiosk game.
Battleships was created by the crack team of Bruno Deroulede, Brian MacSweeney and myself. We pitched a number of ideas to The National Lottery for instant win online games. Bruno came up with the the simplest and strongest idea, Battleships - but with random grid positions, set by dice.
With such a straightforward gameplay, I was free to make the 'action' as rich as possible, and I'm still very pleased with the depth charges, explosions and flare effects in the game.
Staying Power never went live - it was the product of Endemol's relations with a US gaming company, for a few sweet months we made a rock solid massive multiplayer online quiz show. Starting with live crowds in their hundreds, whittling the experience down to a lucky few at the end.
It was a great balance between elimination and satisfying gameplay for the majority.
This poster screen was composed initially by Julia Manninen, a designer who brought really strong and unusual touches to lots of projects at VR and Endemol.

Flash Games 2002 - Grow Me The Money, Devastation Derby etc.

2009-09-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

Paper Scissors Stone proved popular - we made a Gold version and one to play on TV for Sky.
'Skinning' an exisiting game became a common practice in game design and Devastation Derby was an awesome reskin of a dice game; you had to bet which way both cars would land.

Flash Games 2001 - Gold Rush, Lucky Falls

2009-09-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

Games with a Montana feel seemed to fill my summer in 2001. The 'Falls' games had a great animations of coins falling off the shelf - made your coin drop feel more than randomised.

There was an easter egg in Tuppenny Falls - you clicked on a part of the log cabin window and it opened a Fly your kite game from my website.

Past Games 2001

2009-09-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

Another screen from Whoulette and a fruit machine format for Gala Casino.

Campdown Races was pitched as a fun online racing bet format.

Past Work - Ads and Games

2009-09-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

A viral campaign for Cartoon Network | Action Man, and 3 soft gaming formats for Gala Games.

Still very pleased with Whoulette - which was, as you can guess, 'Guess Who' meets Roulette. A notable aspect of the game, in terms of gambling, is that I remember it had a bet with a 0% rake: the 'Beard' bet.

This didn't mean you would definitely win of course - just that you had the lowest chance of losing of any online gambling game.

Past Work - TV and Lego

2009-09-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

3 TV Title images and a screengrab from an interface I did for a Lego site.

Pud 'n' Pup Strips from Scenes From The Inside

2009-09-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

More posts of my earlier work - In the mid-nineties, Scenes from the Inside was a small press Comic Anthology published by my first company: Drat 'n' Blast Books.

I ran it with other comic creators and we all edited and contributed strips.

Pud 'n' Pup was my strip about lab tested animals, inked by Abi Stubbs. Here's 3 episodes.

Some Loading Screens from 2001

2009-09-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

More from King Africa

2009-07-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

Testing the awesome Picasa app - this is a visual for an Endemol Gaming title

2009-06-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Game Show Problem - Television Tropes & Idioms

2009-02-19T02:57:00.000-08:00

Game Show Problem - Television Tropes & Idioms

This whole site is just about everything I am interested in with Arcomedia Ltd.

This page talks about the interesting probability scenario in a famous game show - also talked about at length in the book : The Curious Case Of The Dog In The Nightime.

In a nutshell, you have a 1 in 3 chance of choosing a prize in a box, after you nominate your box one of the other two boxes is shown to be empty and you are given the option to now change your choice. Question, does this apparent 2 in one choice really give you better odds if you act on it?

A number of people have 'reminded' me this is called The Monty Hall problem.

Deal Or No Deal - Attitudes To risk

2009-02-19T02:51:00.000-08:00

An interesting risk behaviour is talked about in this clip of economists studying Deal or No Deal

No Brainer - Week In Westminster - Baroness Greenfield

2009-02-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

The House of Lords has been discussing childhood this week, including talk about Social Networks. I just heard some comments on Radio 4's The Week in Westminster from Baroness Greenfield that I had to write into them about .

The piece is here - at 16mins 30 secs

From: mousematt@mac.com

Subject: No Brainer - Week In Westminster Feb 14th - Comments by Baroness Greenfield

Date: 14 February 2009 12:28:41 GMT

To: feedback@bbc.co.uk

Dear Feedback,

I followed Baroness Greenfield's concerns about the possibility of Social networks having a detrimental effect on the brain with interest.

She was candid about the current lack of evidence but she nevertheless offered a theory based on what I thought were weak assumptions: that time spent online was largely visual and therefore involved less abstract thought - and also that this was because words "don't work very well" on screen.

What she seems to have done is taken a small grain of truth - that text can be more comfortably read on paper - and ignored the explosion of discussion, comment, humour, criticism and reflection that online culture and online communities have brought about. ( All online activities, by the way conducted largely using the written word.)

Her description of an internet user's experience as '"Yuk, Wow" and click to change to something else' is not only crude but it is surely more appropriate to describe television viewers.

A more accurate example of current online activity, say someone seeing a video link on Facebook, involves mental activities such as: " Evaluating it's relevance, choosing and watching while continuing to evaluate it's value, reflecting, commenting, summarising to a colleague and discussing further" even if this may come down in some cases to arguing the merits of The Pussycat Doll's hair length, it is surely good news for abstract thought - and ultimately the health of the brain.

I am in the business of developing online entertainment that is worthy of this complex, sociable, vocal and critical group of people - it would be a brainless job indeed if this audience were as lobotomised as Baroness Greenfield suggests.

regards,

Matthew Burton McFaul

Arcomedia.co.uk

RTE Production airs on Monday

2009-01-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

This Monday I have some titles on TV, it shows how one job leads to another.

Last year, I supplied interactive games and motion graphics to Endemol for a comedy show they ran over the summer for BBC3, called 'The Wall' with Alexa Chung and Rhys Thomas. The titles work ended up creating my first real showreel.

From that work I've now got a bit of a line in comedy TV Titles thanks to Irish production company Green Inc.

My company produced titles for an E4 comedy from Green Inc. last year and they now have this new comedy pilot showing on RTE2. It is on SKY 268 in the UK, apparently. Here's the titles:

Arcomedia Help Oil Productions win Canadian Film Board Funding

2008-12-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

Operating as our interactive format development company, Arcomedia, my wife Jen and I picked up a last minute consultation gig from Oil productions at the end of October: Oil's Mike Bennett had a great idea for an interactive format involving GPS tracking crossed with ecological methods of travel. Oil were very pleased to be invited to this year's Sheffield Doc-Fest to pitch it in a competition for some development money, but they had clashing meetings in LA.

Having had a number of conversations with Mike and Mark McKeown from Oil about my own formats, I happily accepted, with help from Jen, to work up the format a bit more and pitch it . This turned out to be a lot of fun, and my first exposure to Crossover Labs - an organisation that sets-up cross platform brainstorms. And we won, we won we won. It means some development prize money for Oil to take the format further - and the first feather in the cap for Arcomedia's consulting powers.

BurtonMcFaul.com : Interactive Formats and Production

2008-07-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

First things first. Anyone looking for interactive consultancy for online dramas, games and drama formats for social networks, or new interactive entertainment bubbling up through some strange, hot, new platform, should read on.

I work with companies like Nintendo, Lego, Endemol and the BBC to create interactive formats. These are great when they happen along and if I am waiting on one I also get my hands covered in pixels, doing Flash game design, After Effects work, and general graphics street brawling of one kind and another.

A good reference for the brightly-coloured soft gaming world I originally came from can be found at my portfolio site, at mousematt.com.

My After Effects work for the BBC3 Comedy show called 'The Wall' is on this showreel.

A PDF with about 10 of my favourite design projects can be found in this portfolio. It includes two formats I helped define: the immersive drama 'Signs Of Life' for the BBC, and the children's online zoo game, ROAR which was the BBC's most successful online game ever.

Finally, for anyone wishing to contact me or take a closer look there is the modesty-to-the-wind production that is my cv - beware, it contains some New Media phrases that are so cutting edge they are barely meaningful.