Last year was a real benchmark for us at Preloaded. We took a step back, looked at how we were working and who we were working with, and changed a lot of things to improve our positioning and the way we did things.

The results of that process mean that 2010 is all set up to be a great year for us. We've got a brand new website and won four major projects at the end of last year, all of which will be challenging, exciting and creatively fruitful. We are equipped to carry them out more efficiently and effectively than ever before. We're excited, and so are our clients.

One of the biggest changes we've made is the relationships we have with our clients. We don't work for them any more - we work with them. It sounds like a really small thing, but as a ...

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At the beginning of the redesign project we agreed some design tenets: the new site should be a best-practice showcase and an opportunity to learn and use some of the latest web technologies; and it should employ existing services where practical.

To achieve the former we targeted users with the most modern web browsers, using the graceful (or progressive) enhancement method to ensure that even with older technology, no-one would be left unable to read all of the site content.

The most obvious example of this is in the design of the buttons; users with a decent browser (e.g. Firefox or Safari) would see these with rounded corners — because these browsers are capable of producing them natively with the CSS3 border-radius declaration — while users of other browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer) would see them square:

Browser comparison. Top: Safari 4; Bottom: Internet Explorer 8

While all users see the ...

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So, after much postering, we have a lovely new site. We'll be ironing out tiny bugs and adding new content in the new year, but if you spot anything please drop us a line!

The most significant change is the inclusion of the blog. We'll be using it as the place to share our thoughts, processes and ideas as well as satisfying our personal blogging habits. We'll be adding new categories as and when, but if you want us to post anything specific, please let us know.

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This year we had the honour of sponsoring Playful, a one-day event all about games and play. Organised by Toby Barnes and his team at Pixel-Lab, this year’s theme was ‘Cross Disciplinary Frolicking’.

Conway Hall was filled to the brim with great speakers, an eager audience and three gigantic tea urns pumping out tea and coffee all day. The day was jam-packed and I’ve written up some of my personal highlights:

'The Ashes'

I've met Tassos a couple of times and both occasions he has either talked about or has been watching cricket. His analysis of The Ashes as an ambient game experience for those watching, or listening to it was passionate and fun. He suggested the 'play' happened between the bowling and the overs and something we could all be involved in. It was a tough pre-lunch slot with enough mentions of cake to keep the ...

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I recently presented some of the planning documentation for our CDX game at SXSW. Thinking that this may be of wider interest, I've sifted through the archives and found the full set. 

Clearly these types of diagrams need context so I have summarised what each type indicates below. The best context is of course the game, which is available here (kindly sponsored by Adobe - Thanks guys!) 

Episode diagrams

Due to the limited budget the game is principally set in one location; Adam's Apartment. It acts as the game space in which four types of activity can occur; 'Conversations', 'Games', 'Tasks' and 'Explore'. A fifth, 'Interact', was identified as a non-led activity which would occur naturally at the end of each episode.

The diagrams show how each episode is constructed from these basic building blocks. Approaching it in this way gave us a clear sense of narrative pace and ...

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