HEAD BLOG

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Whilst I mostly blog about the approaches we take here at Head First, how we go about creating campaigns or designing product communication, every now and again I like to share some of the work we do. It gives our competitors a glimpse at brilliance and prospective clients an understanding of the sheer range we have on tap here.

The long road to release for Dead Rising 2, your everyday game about the wholesale slaughter of thousands of rotting zombies, has been paved with almost every kind of skill. From advertising and pack design to exhibition work and 3D animation, we’ve really run the marathon on this. Over the next month or so I will be showing some of that work and today I’ll start with the Dead Rising 2 dynamic theme.

Dynamic Themes are one of the cooler, most underused features of the PlayStation 3. I could spin you a half hour presentation about how they could benefit non-games companies (far more, in truth, than they can benefit games companies) but suffice to say that they are cool.

In essence they are animated desktops, adding life to the main menu screen of the console and used, like any good wallpaper, to personalise it.

For Dead Rising 2 we were asked to create a theme in keeping with the Vegas stylings found in the game. The slot machine design we originated made  a pretty good impression with its spinning wheels and weapons of mad destruction. Technically that meant dealing with Sony as well as making sure the code and 3D designs meshed perfectly.

It’s just the start of where we want to go with Dynamic Themes but it’s an exciting start which pushes advertising and brand messaging into a whole new cake.

An eye on the future

Natal is exciting.

I was excited when the Wii was announced (and remain so to this day) but Natal is something else entirely. A hands-free approach to gaming which can change everything.

At Head First, where we strive to find what is exciting about any product, that’s something to sit up and pay attention to.

What’s more exciting, however, is how Microsoft are beginning to crank up the interest in it.

On Wednesday, Sony issued a press release to inform the world that their version of the Wii motion sensor was delayed. For those of you who aren’t glued to video games, Sony are entering the same market as Nintendo Wii motion and Microsoft’s Natal system. Their answer, announced last year will arrive in the form of a wand device which would be tracked by cameras similar to those on the Nintendo Wii.

On its own that would have been impressive.

But then Microsoft blew everyone out of the water with Natal. If that were me, I’d have taken my wand home and sulked for a while, muttering about not being understood.

To their credit, Sony haven’t done that and without getting a hands-on experience I can’t tell whether it won’t be even more successful than Natal. I certainly hope it competes because I love what Sony does.

So what’s exciting about Microsoft’s approach?

Apart from the technology, which sounds amazing, it comes down to Wednesday and Sony’s press release.

Microsoft took their time, all of a handful of hours, and responded with a bold claim about Natal.

It was, they said, “fraught with risk“.

This is a great thing to say. Put yourself in a movie for a minute and listen to the dialogue when two heroes are faced with an almost impossible situation. They think of a plan. “It’s risky, ” they say, “but it might just work”.

That’s what Microsoft have effectively done. Showing great confidence in their product by making claims to the contrary.

It sounds like they aren’t going in quiet on this one.