ppcgroup

Well that’s now two award nominations in as many days!

[From Silverscreen]

Alphazone4 is ending 2009 with the Alphazone4 Playstation Home Awards. The site has been influential in drumming up support in the UK for Playstation Home and it is great to see them recognise and reward the people behind the scenes.

We Are Autobots, the Augmented Reality app we put together for the theatrical promotion of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has picked up a gong for ‘Best Web Based Augmented Reality App’.

Winning the Readers Choice Awards, run by website Augmented Planet, is a great recognition for our work in AR and is also a kick-ass end to the year.

Next up, The Webbys. Bring on 2010.

[UPDATED 22.12.09] - D&AD has featured We Are Autobots as one of this year’s leading AR campaigns in this morning’s Metro newspaper including a few trusty words from our very own Dan Light.  Click on the image below to read on…

We have once again teamed up with Capcom to promote another of their New Year releases. This time round we have been working on the January 2010 release of Dark Void.

The brief was to create an engaging online mini-game that actively encouraged users to grab the game and share it through various social networks. At the time of the brief we felt that we needed something that had a bit of stand out amongst the wide range of online games available whilst still creating a game that educated on some of the key features of Dark Void Itself.

In answer to this we created JETPACK ATTACK – a 2D flyer/shooter, where you can not only play as Will to fight your way through the void, but you can also create your own game using a simple game building tool featured on jetpackattack.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

The domestic and international online campaign for the DVD release of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE has involved our entire studio at one time or another over the last six months and has been one of our most ambitious projects to date.

In total we ended up creating five microsites for an integrated global campaign, ranging from a couple of fun and sticky games through to an application that put you in a Harry Potter style moving photo with Professor Slughorn and his students!

Death Eaters Duel
Lord Voldemort’s army of Death Eaters have been reunited with him and their power is growing. Duel with Malfoy, Bellatrix LeStrange and Fenrir Greyback in this online Wii game to make sure you are ready for the fight.

Read the rest of this entry »

After a year spent gaining a reputation as veterans of virtual worlds and augmented reality, it is great to get our teeth into some new and fresh tech. Just before the year draws to a close we have got our first app onto the iPhone, to support the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release of Paranormal Activity, one of this year’s surprise box office hits.

Available today in the iTunes App Store, ‘Paranormal Activity Locator’ enables you to take photographs of your environment, augmenting the images with evidence of any paranormal activity in your vicinity.  These photographs are recorded on a map of the surrounding area, and can be easily shared on Facebook and by email.

Paranormal Activity is the story of a middle class couple who move into a suburban house and become increasingly disturbed by a demonic presence.  Produced for just $15,000, it has already grossed more than $100million dollars globally and is being released on DVD and Blu-ray in the New Year.

We have executed some ground-breaking social gaming and augmented reality applications already this year, and hope our debut app for the iPhone will be the first of many.

iTunes App Store Link

The anticipation surrounding Avatar has definitely been one of the main talking points this year. Luckily for us here at PPC, Fox International gave us the opportunity to be involved in introducing James Cameron’s vision of Pandora.

To coincide with the release of the full online trailer, we created an interactive experience that allowed the user to learn more about this new world whilst viewing the trailer.

Essentially as the trailer plays out more and more information becomes available for you to access. Each hotspot contains written descriptions, additional imagery/diagrams and in many cases 360 degree 3D models. To enhance the experience further, the navigation closely reflects the interface design used within the film itself.

The Avatar interactive trailer experience has now stretched far and wide and we have an updated version with more artwork, stills and 3D models.

View the interactive trailer at http://www.theppcpresents.com/avatar3d/

With the Christmas DVD release of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, STAR TREK and G.I. JOE, we have been busy developing Augmented Reality (AR) experiences for each title. As frequent readers of this blog will know, we have already produced AR content for their cinema releases so it was essential that the updated versions improved on the three very popular experiences.

TRANSFORMERS II now lets you control Optimus Prime in a battle simulation against Decepticon targets – but only after you have completed the tasks necessary to return Optimus to battle ready status. You can now see a full model of Optimus as well as examine his main weapons.

Check out the below video for a preview of the experience and check back in the next week or so for more info on the Star Trek and G.I. JOE experiences still in production.

STAR TREK has been divided into three separate AR experiences: A condensed version of the tour with emphasis on firing the weapons and Warp engines. A wonderfully simple flying game where you launch the Enterprise into the room and watch it fly around your head and a 3rd person navigation exercise where you can test your reactions as you negotiate your way through asteroids and laser fire.

G.I. JOE was always going to be a desktop fighting game - the perfect fit for a title of such palatable aggression and action sequences. As with all our Paramount AR developments we used 3D models from either the film or the official game to deliver the best possible experience. For this game the challenge is simple (even if its execution takes some practice) – choose to fight as Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow then battle your sworn enemies…

Augmented Reality encourages the users to interact with the product in a way which they previously could not. It changes the relationship consumers have with packaging; previously it could be seen as a means to an end, simply a way of protecting and delivering the product. However in using the packaging to launch official, original content we can raise the value of what is being purchased to a much higher level.

Click on any of the images above to check out the individual experiences

Christmas is fast approaching but that doesn’t mean things are slowing down here. We are always in need of kick-ass (and we mean kick-ass) freelancers so if you fancy working on interactive campaigns for some of next year’s biggest film and game titles then drop us a line via the contact us link.

The SAW 6 Carousel of Death is your chance to play as Jigsaw and his apprentices by adding your friends to the carousel and choosing their fates. Add your friends by uploading their photos or connect to the carousel through Facebook and select who you want to add from your friends list.

You then have to choose two to live and four to die… let the game begin…