Away Media has recently been involved with CBBC in the development of an online interactive story for the kid’s TV show My Almost Famous Family. The show tracks the highs and lows of the Swann family as they try to make it as a band, and the recently launched online story continues the narrative with a series of minigames based around the children of the family as they attempt to form a breakaway group and win the local battle of the bands tournament.

The entire game is located in a 3D ‘map’ of events as they unfold, with various mishaps and discoveries along the way unlocking new content. The user is drawn into the narrative with a clever use of webcam video of the band seen as if they were communicating directly with you, and it is here where the main story unfolds. Each event is punctuated by either a video clip or minigame, with the latter requiring the user to perform a task that allows the story to advance to the next stage.

Each minigame can be completed fairly easily so that no one game is a barrier to progressing through the story, however for those who like a more competitive edge, results and highscores are logged and users can revisit a game at any stage to try and improve on their personal best. There are also some nice touches in the story where the results of your completed tasks are used directly with the narrative.

Away Media’s role in the project was primarily the development of the global navigation and game shell, with the 3D map using a mixture of Away3D Lite and native Flash 3D. The minigames were contracted separately and integrated into the main site with the help of the Away Media development team, who also looked after all server communication, asset loading, video playback and control interfaces. The end result is an engaging interactive story that treads new ground for the online portal of a TV show, mixing live action video with interactive flash games in a seamless and convincing manner. Check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/myalmostfamousfamily/

Toyota have recently launched the English version of their minisite for the new Verso. Based around a series of minigames, the Verso minisite was built as a collaboration between Rehab Studio and Away Media for the Brussels branch of the media agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

Away Media were responsible for the development of the minigames, which included some 3d elements that were created using Away3d. Each game integrates with the rest of the site using video shorts that play after completing one of the game tasks. Games developed by Away Media include the Luggage game, Personal storage, Driving dynamics and Harmony.

The entire site is built to be localised and has already been translated into French & Dutch for the Belgian version which can be found here.

Last week saw the launch of the new version of Intel’s ITManager gaming experience: IT Manager 3 : Unseen Forces. The premise is a simple one - you are an IT manager charged with running an office whose success relies on your ability to keep things running smoothly.

Away Media acted as 3d consultants on the project, assisting MRM Worldwide to achieve the best possible 3d experience with the Away3d engine. The game takes advantage of a lot of Away3d features to produce something never before seen in a Flash game - highly detailed interactive 3d scenes running at a smooth pace.

Starting with only 3 floors, you can work your way up to bigger and better offices by providing the best technical assistance to the company. Performance is linked to a number of different scoring systems, including your mystical ITChi level which reacts to the overall competence of your actions. Get this above a certain point and you’ll achieve “ITChi enlightenment”, a nirvana-like state in which everything turns a calm blue, and special power-ups are awarded.

The game requires that you register a username and name of your virtual company before commencing battle with your evil computing nemesis. For login details, go to  http://itmanager3.intel.com.

While having a brief respite from the pressures of the very real 3d world, I managed to slot in a game for my friends over at creativestream. It’s a tribute to the slightly backward but still immensely popular Deal or no Deal game on Channel 4, and instead of money, you win christmas turkeys (among other things). You get one chance to win a prize every day, all the way up to the 24th. Surely that’s better odds than the lottery! Oh wait…

Unfortunately his paisley-shirtedness Noel was unavailable for comment.

Rob