Mobile games bring trading cards alive - Nukotoys' iPad games

Excerpt:

Ellen Lee, June 13 2011, The Chronicle:

"For children growing up in the digital age, the next generation of trading cards will no longer be just about collecting them all, but also about linking them to the iPhone and iPad to make them come alive.

That's the premise for San Francisco startup Nukotoys, which plans to launch two projects this fall that marry the real world to the digital one, using old-fashioned trading cards and an interactive mobile game. Today it is formally announcing one of them, a partnership with the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet.

Children will be able to purchase packs of trading cards, much like Pokemon, which they can collect and swap with their friends...."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/12/BU791JSJQ6.DTL#ixzz1bnDV3mdM

Interesting deets: Children's conference: transmedia is essential | The Bookseller

Children's conference: transmedia is essential

Publishers must explore transmedia approaches to engage children whose lives revolve increasingly around gaming, online communities and social networking, The Bookseller's annual children's conference, sponsored by Huzutech and Dubit Research, heard last week (29th September).

Jeff Norton of Awesome Media & Entertainment urged delegates at the event, held at the British Library, to "think not about platforms, but audiences". Peter Robinson of cross-media research company Dubit Research said: "Kids expect a presence for a story across platforms. There are so many ways that kids can consume a story."

Egmont m.d. Cathy Poplak said BZRK—the company's first experiment with transmedia, which has seen a young adult thriller series launch as a cross-platform project, beginning with an alternate reality game and social networking—has had 87,000 visitors to website www.gobzrk.com since its September launch.

"In the industry we want to turn children on to the joy of reading. I still believe in the universal appeal of a good story, but have to accept that some children can't see the story for the book," Poplak said. However, she stressed the need to remain grounded in the storytelling basics publishers know best, with BZRK's plotline and characters created by "practised, professional" writer Michael Grant, working in a traditional relationship with his editor.

Andrew Piller of new media production company FMX Fremantle described the art of telling stories in the digital space as a "creative model which is the future of storytelling". Online teen dramas like "Freak" and the forthcoming "Threads" include a linear story told by online video content, boosted by non-linear backstory content such as blogs and webcam footage, plus interactivity allowing the audience to get involved by becoming extras in the TV filming or providing music for the soundtrack. Money is made through commercial partnerships with the likes of Tampax, with a "loyal audience ready to follow us to branded microsites", Piller said.

FMX Fremantle is also responsible for Sorted, the online "cooking community" set up across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and its own site, which offers the 15–30 demographic an "immersive entertainment experience" and now has 80,000 subscribers in the UK. It recently signed a book deal with Michael Joseph for 2012.

Fascinating: 80 Million Links A Day Don't Lie: How Bitly Reveals The Web And The World | Fast Company

"It's been fascinating to watch Bitly grow from a purely engineering orginzation into something where we're able to say, 'OK, there's still a lot of work that goes into that, but we're pretty good at that core piece of infrustructure--what can we build on top of it?'" says Mason. "Our products are starting to grow up and become adults."

Click play on the video below to learn more about Bitly's mission and what inspires Mason to keep innovating. 

  • EMBED

Sweet! Meet Dot: The iPhone Panoramic Video Camera You Funded - available Nov. 1 (via maskable.com)

Excerpt via mashable.com

Dot represents the collective intelligence gleaned from Kogeto’s experience building Lucy, an advance desktop panoramic video camera designed for professional and educational use.

“We wanted … to put a panoramic capture device in everyone’s hand, and Kickstarter allowed us to do that,” Glasse explains.

Glasse started Kogeto and initially launched Lucy with his entire life savings. And while Lucy has been successful enough to keep the small company afloat, Glasse knew that Kogeto would need to take on more capital to turn the Dot prototype into a product that consumers could buy in stores. But he didn’t want to take on venture capital at the time.

Enter Kickstarter, the crowd-funding service making it possible for small startups like Kogeto to finance their dream products — just so long as the community believes in the mission too. Kogeto sought to raise $20,000 via Kickstarter to fund and produce Dot. More than 1,000 backers had a better idea: They pledged a total of $120,514.

“We started with a $20,000 goal and we were hoping to beat it … to raise $40,000. We raised $120,000,” Glasse says. “But more importantly, we knew there was a demand for Dot.”

Gamasutra - News - Is Microsoft's Kinect Kids Program Coming Too Late?

Media_httpwwwgamasutr_gmgdg

Excerpt:

By Chris Morris

October 24, 2011

"The introduction of the Kinect For Kids initiative certainly sounds wise, given the company's push in that direction. After all, who can argue with creating family-friendly titles with some of the biggest names in family entertainment?

The problem is: When you look at Microsoft's longer-term goals, things become a bit squishier.

While the company would never come out and say it directly, this push for the toddler and elementary school gamer is as much about making hay today (as the Xbox 360 hits price points that are affordable for the mainstream audience) as it is about setting up future generations of players.

Basic advertising theory holds that brand loyalties run deep when they're formed at an early age. It's why geezers like me argue the merits of King Vitamin and Boo Berry breakfast cereal vs. today's Honey Kix and Banana Nut Cheerios. And it's the crux of the never-ending debate over whether the Nintendo Entertainment System or PlayStation 2 was the "best console of all time".

By offering games from Sesame Street, Pixar and other companies, Microsoft wants kids to get used to playing with Kinect - and develop a devoted attachment to the Xbox brand.

That might sound a little sinister, but it's pretty standard practice in both the business and gaming worlds. (Let's face it: The Game Boy was one of the more obvious gateway drugs to hit store shelves in the last quarter century.)..."

David Lynch: mild at heart, coolest hair yet, & an obsession with dentistry...(& did I mention Peter Frampton?) - Telegraph

Media_httpitelegraphc_gzrmc

Excerpt:

"...In a voice that has been described as “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”, he rhapsodises about the “old, large, stainless steel contraption” with which Dr Chin holds his “super-sharp needle… And the thing is filled with Novocaine. So he first puts a little bit of something on your gum to deaden just the surface. OK? Then he introduces the needle into that gum. And just presses a little bit of Novocaine,” he whispers again. “And you don’t really feel it. But now he’s numbing as he goes. He’s numbing as he goes,” he repeats, and, coffee notwithstanding, I’m starting to feel sleepy.
“So that needle could come clear up through your brain and you wouldn’t know it! He numbs as he goes. It’s so fantastic. I love going to the dentist.”
The late writer David Foster Wallace defined the word “Lynchian” as referring to “a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter”. And this seems a pretty accurate description of my morning at Lynch’s house...."