Every project allows us to build on previous experience and try out new things. Trafalgar Origins was no exception, giving us the opportunity to evolve the multiplayer system used in 1066 as well as take our first big step into the muddy world of Facebook Connect.

Facebook integration was an integral part of Trafalgar Origins but was developed as a separate set of components that could be used by other Channel 4 indies in future commissions. We wanted to demonstrate by example, best practice with the heady ambition of it ultimately unifying how future Channel 4 projects integrate with Facebook.

This blog post is all about the learning from this process and the reasons behind the specific implementation of their new system.

Socialising the game design

Our biggest inspiration for single-player socially connected gaming was Trials HD. Being a firm studio favourite, it motivates play by showing your score in ...

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With game plays in excess of 14 million and numerous awards and nominations (SXSW, BIMA + BAFTA), we thought it time to write a post on how we made 1066. 

Getting started

1066 was our first project with C4 Education, commissioned to coincide with a two-part TV drama produced by the nice folks at Hardy Pictures. Keen to repeat their previous game success, C4 gave us a small chunk of development money to put together a game prototype in late September 2008.

C4 Education's brief was to develop a game that was both entertaining and educationally robust. The subject matter suited this brief perfectly, and working alongside Greg Jenner (the historical consultant) and Hardy's Art Department we collected historic and visual resources to act as reference for our early ideas.

Alongside this research, we also conducted some qualitative research with school children who helped steer us towards a blood-thirsty ...

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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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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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