I still have to come up with a good title..

..originally thought as an academic project, the production of this game became something different, something real.

The main idea, when i started, was a vague “to study Advergaming“.
..Suddenly I realized that if I wanted to brand a company via a game, I had to have a very deep understanding of the organization i was dealing with, to efficiently identify which values and which messages to communicate via an interactive application.

..This process brought me through a long period of analysis of the history and identity of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the organization chosen as topic of the advergame.

This allowed me to create a campaign motivated by a real issue, pushing me towards the necessity of finding a concrete solution to the problem I chose to face.

What fascinated me about this project was the nature of Advergaming itself.

I consider this marketing strategy to be an often misunderstood and underestimated one, which can reveal itself incredibly powerful, if developed properly..

The Issue

Most of you have just heard of these guys on tv news, without paying to much attention.. You know, those gangs of punks, driving inflatable boats at near-miss distance from whaling vessels, holding banners representing “eco-terrorist thoughts”..? Ok, the guys I worked for (..or better said, worked with) are the evil cousins of them. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a non-violent no-profit organization, who aims at protecting marine animal wildlife via direct action. In the case of the issue concerning this project, this direct action takes the form of physical obstruction of whaling operations, justified as enforcement of the international commercial whaling ban disregarded by the Japanese government.
Using a loophole in the treaty, in fact, year after year the Japanese whalers carry out whaling operations under the false pretense of being “researching” the cetaceans. Where diplomacy and international pressure fails in enforcing the international moratorium on commercial whaling, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society takes a stand to protect biodiversity, and to face the illegal poachers.

The Game

The player will play the role of an anti-whaling activist, opposing the whaling operations. Initially she will be asked to document the situation but, keeping faith to the real course of events, when faced by the ineptitude of governments and their games of power and economical interests, the goal of the game will pass progressively from the will to Expose the poachers, to the will of Confronting them. This can be seen both as challenges the player will face, and also with the fading mood of the history, fading towards a more and more dramatic struggle. This progressive deepening of the intensity of the story will essentially provoke emotional immersion in the game, enhancing the possibilities of successfully communicate a message embedded in the story.

Converting a game into an AdverGame..

..and this is where the magic happens. Emotional immersion will hopefully ease the chance of having the player embracing the set of values pushed by the game (carefully chosen to communicate a message positive to the brand). Moreover, interaction with the game will enhance the retention of this message, in a much more powerful way than other more classy forms of advertising. A last attempt to make this application useful for the organization, is the idea of embedding a last playable level unlockable only on the main Sea Shepherd website. This will close the gap between the casual gamer and the organization, in a situation in which the player will suddenly realize that the history she is immersed into is actually real, and that action and information is at one click of distance.

Technicalities..

Bababa the game was developed in Actionscript 3, putting particular effort in developing a program with a flexible and pondered architecture.

Working alone, I preferred to organize my available time into multiple sprints, with the recurrent production of prototypes widely tested in both quantitative and qualitative manner by relevant representative of my target group. This allowed me to focus on the usability of the game, in the intent of enhancing it’s entertaining potential, improving the chances of both a viral effect and the retention of the message due to the repetition, seen as replay value.

And yeah, i had some kickass good time doing this stuff..! ..handed in wanting for more!

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