Boys Life magazine
Advergame
There is no Merit Badge for VideoGaming. Yet. Black Hawk, Colo.Breaking this month, an advergame created by digital agency Relish Studio, Black Hawk, Colo. for Boys Life, the official magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, Irving, Texas, aims to build web traffic for the magazines website and to foster preparedness, or at least pre-planning, among its Cub and Boy Scout target audience. Space Scout Dredd Speeds Defenders of the Earth http://bit.ly/aWd3FE is a transition game, part thumb-presser, and part strategy-based. Before the timed target-shooting begins, players must use their alloted credits to purchase the arms and ammunition that, along with some hand-eye coordination and fast reflexes, will allow them to defeat the games villains. Buy too much materiel and you will run out of credits. Too little and you will be outshot. It is meant to encourage the players, boys 7 13, to begin thinking about resource management. It is also meant to increase their online involvement with Boys Life. Typical play time is about an hour; two of the games four cadets, Pedro and Dredd Speed, are recurring and familiar to all Scouts; and game-players online chat rooms are among boyslife.orgs most popular subsites. See http://bit.ly/c9GZgc . Creative credits go to Relish creative director/designer Cortland Langworthy, and to programmer Terry Ranson. Quality control evaluator was Langworthys 8-year-old son Vaughan (Awesome!). Relish Studio, Black Hawk, Colo. (30 minutes west of Denver, el. 8056), is a full-service digital agency, with clients including, among others: Boy Scouts of America, Dallas; Herman Miller, Zeeland, Mi.; Renewable Choice Energy, Boulder; and Peppers Ghost Productions, London. www.relishstudio.com Client: Boys Life magazine Official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, Irving, Texas Agency: Relish Studio, Black Hawk, Colo. Advergame: Space Scout Dredd Speeds Defenders of the Earth. http://boyslife.org/games/online-games/9838/defenders-of-the-earth/ or http://bit.ly/aWd3FE Target: Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, 7 13 Dual brief: Traffic Drive traffic to, and increase community involvement at, boyslife.org. (Game is advertised in Boys Life magazine. Game-players chat rooms are among the sites most popular forums. See http://bit.ly/c9GZgc ) Educational Gameplay is a transition step from thumb-presser to strategy-based. Success requires resource management and non-obvious pre-planning. Typical play time is one hour. Play istechnicallynot shoot-to-kill, but target-practice. Description: Choose a name and use your alloted credits to purchase the arms and ammunition that, along with some hand-eye coordination, will defeat the games villains. Buy too much materiel and you will run out of credits. Too little and you will be outshot. Characters: Two of the games four cadets, Pedro and Dredd Speed, are recurring and familiar to all Scouts. CD/Designer: Cortland Langworthy Quality control evaluator: Vaughan Langworthy, 8 (Awesome!) Programmer: Terry Ranson Breaks: May
