Posts Tagged ‘Onteca’

Onteca with the support of the Capital of Culture have run a number of animation workshops in collaboration with the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside (NMGM). NMGM currently have an exhibition called ‘Animated Adventures’, this exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to see original models and sets from feature animations including ‘Wallace and Gromit, The Curse of the Were-rabbit’

Onteca have run 12 day long workshops with visitors to this exhibition. Children and their parents have been able to produce their own short animations by working with experienced professional animators. The response of participants has been enthusiastic with every participant spending at least an hour producing their own piece of animation.

All the films made by participants in the workshops and further information are available on the website The Community Animation Project

HeaL8, a charity working in public health in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, approached Onteca about the possibility of the creation of an educational animation. They wanted an innovative animated film that warned about the dangers of excessive marijuana use, especially the risk of cannabis psychosis.

As Onteca’s lead video games illustrator, Pauline Wong, had experience in animation, we agreed the project. It was an interesting experiment in constructing an entertaining narrative with the purpose of involving and influencing young people. Abi Atkinson directed the piece, as well as editing it and contributing towards the script. Initially, the script was written by Michelle Richards based on the life story of Cathy Cuthbertson. This script was used to create the short film, Blowing Our Minds.

Later, a re-edit of the film introduced a new voice-over, written and voiced by Cathy Cuthbertson, the woman whose personal experience had inspired the film

Blowing Our Minds is now used by HeaL8 as part of its work in Schools throughout Merseyside.

A design for a virtual world which combined elements of cinema, video game and art installation, created through a collaboration between a group of disabled artists and Onteca, involving an extensive training element.

Occuring between 2002 and 2004, this project originated as a training programme and period of development meetings involving a group of Disabled artists and Onteca. One element was the provision of training in new media production techniques for some of the disabled artists involved. This training was in basic skills such as image manipulation and video editing, more advanced skills such as 3D modelling and video compositing.

The eventual project, as conceived by the group, was a virtual game world where insects that incarnated certain personality types (such as aggression, or calmly hardworking, or carefree) would clash in a virtual environment. This environment would be projected on the wall of a space and the game would be controlled by the audience positioning themselves within that space. Advice would be delivered by three ‘Fates’, pieces of video designed to sync with the action of the game and projected on the ceiling.

Onteca has run a series of short workshops (lasting from two days to a week) in professional media production skills, many on behalf of Media Training North West. Each of the skills are used by Onteca in the cross-platform work of the company. These courses have been pitched to meet a number of different student needs, from community groups without previous experience, to working professionals seeking to refine their skills. Examples of previous courses are:

After Effects & Premiere
Concentrating on the use of these production tools to create CGI for moving image. These editing packages can be comined with colour keys and production techniques to provide effective special effects.

Game Design& Quality Assurance
Looking at how to use a variety of design theories and industry practices to ensure a smooth and creative workflow.

Java Programming for mobiles
Applications that work across platforms, networks and phone types, drawing on Onteca’s extensive experience in this area.

World Builders
‘Modding’ existing games can be an easy way into 3D design for beginners, and a useful way to speed up production schedules for professional game designers. Increasing numbers of games that started of as ‘mods’ have become comeercial properties in their own right. Also the use of generic world builders that can be used across, games, engines and platforms.

Introduction to 3D Modelling
A beginner’s introduction to Maya. This is a complex and very powerful application that is used across the Games and CGI industry. This course provides an initial access point for personal or further study. To become good takes years, but you have to start somewhere.

Web Design Using CSS and accessible GUIs
Web design the correct way. Useful both for beginners and those web-designers who have become trapped in the habit of using tables and want to evolve their practice to fit the current industry standards.

Ring-tone Production
Creating your own ring-tones from scratch.

Games are about having fun. They are about history, maths, art and IT, as well.

This Key Stage 4 engagement project is being delivered by Onteca, a professional Video Games Design and New Media Company, so it will be about skills that are useful in industry. This is not an academic course, it is very much practical. Written skills aren’t important. Student reports can be given in the form of Video Diary.

Stage One of the course involves playing a lot of video games. Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games, that teach all sorts of interpersonal communication skills and good IT basics. Supervised and facilitated by Onteca.

Stage Two is to get the young people thinking about what makes a good video game. To learn some design skills used by industry professionals, in a fun and easy way, with lots of in-game examples. By the end of this stage a Bronze Arts Award will be achieved by all those participating.

Stage Three involves the young people actually making a game environment. Putting their own designs, idea and artwork inside a computer game. This will be accredited at NVQ Level 1 or with a Silver Arts Award.

This project would consist two days a week – Mondays and Tuesdays, at Discovery Community Learning Center. Onteca has experience of working with young people from challenging backgrounds.

Register interested young people with Lynn Struve on 0151 346 6734. Contact Max Zadow from Onteca on 0151 709 0028 or see www.onteca.com for details.

• Onteca has deliverd a range of animation workshops to young people from a range of communities.
  These include:
• Capital of Culture Youth and Migration project featuring John Arne Riise
• young people from Toxteth Community Animation workshops from 2004 to the present
• young people from Toxteth and surrounding areas
• Wargrave School for children on the autistic spectrum
• Over 500 young people who attended the Wallace and Gromnit exhibition at World Museum Liverpool.

These involved teaching the young people a variety of techniques, such as stop motion animation involving ‘claymation’ and paper cut-outs, as well as digital animation techniques using applications such as Flash and Premiere.

Examples

An exciting new course is being launched in the Wirral that provides training in the very latest techniques in website and New Media production.

During 2004 media commentators started talking about something called ‘Web 2.0′: a new, different Internet that is already here, already evolving in front of our eyes. Taking advantage of the fact that Broadband Internet connections allow video, images and built in games as standard for websites, a whole new generation of exciting web-sites have conquered the online world. This course gives Wirral residents the skills to take advantage of this new wave of Internet expansion.

Onteca, a professional New Media Company based in Liverpool, has been given some European Social Fund support to deliver top-of-the-range training for people in areas of the Wirral. This training is for the Pathways Areas of Wirral, which includes a large proportion of the Wirral’s residents. Check with Onteca to confirm you are eligible. Onteca are interested in all sorts of people for the course. Obviously this would suit people with an interest in computers, New Media and games, but those with an ability in art, photography or writing will also be provided with a practical outlet for their talent.

The course is free, doesn’t effect benefits and there will be a solid qualification at the end. Even those who have to leave early (for instance, for work reasons) will get credits for elements of the course taken. Some financial support for travel and childcare is also available. It will be two days a week at venues across the area and Discovery Community Learning Centre, a state-of-the-art facility on the Wirral.

As well as teaching people how to make their own websites, this course will give a condensed guide to the new ‘Rich Media’ sites, and how to achieve the same results. Elements of the course will outfit people on how to make basic video games, animations and films for the Internet, with room for further specialisation later. Onteca has a breadth of knowledge of the local media and New Media scene and can guide people towards appropriate career choices based on what they have most enjoyed in the Web Learning 2.0 course.

At time of writing (June 2007), the first intake are just approaching the end of their course. It seems likely all will get a level 3 NVQ, and some already have been offered paid work in a relevant area. We are proud of what they have achieved, and look forward to following their careers as they go from strength to stength. We are recruiting now for the next run, to be delivered both in Noctorum and Birkenhead. Contact max@onteca.com for more details.

Onteca is an independent games development studio based in Liverpool that was established in 2001. We produce innovative top-tier Casual games and applications for Nintendo Wii, iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, Android, Facebook and IPTV.

Our latest ground-breaking 3D strategy-puzzle game Monsteca Corral is now available on Nintendo WiiWare service from August 2010.

Monsteca Corral

Onteca’s rapidly expanding portfolio of iPhone games includes the massively successful Big Quiz range, which has racked up over 100,000 downloads on Apple’s App Store. With a large number of other exciting iPhone/iPod touch and iPad games in the pipeline, Onteca are surely the developer to watch out for in 2010!

Airhorn Composer	Big Football Quiz	Big Pub Quiz	Star Quiz	African Horn (Vuvuzela)
World Cup Party Pack	World Cup Quiz	3B Bumper Bot’s Box	Boing Bunny Boing	Power Tools

The company has unparalleled experience and expertise in innovative technologies and have also produced interactive content for a wide range of clients, including the BBC, AMD and Intel.

Currently developing for the next generation in television (IPTV), we are working on two of the five prototype development projects for the Vision+Media and BBC partnership initiative.

Indie wiiware™ game ‘Monsteca Corral’ encounters Pikmin comparisons

Liverpool, November 25, 2009 – The much anticipated Wiiware™ title, Monsteca Corral will soon make its gaming debut this coming January 2010 after almost 18 months of development. The British indie game developer Onteca, only recently announced the launch of their first game this month which sparked off debates as to whether or not an indie company could bet all the odds and become another ‘World of Goo’ story.

The casual game that could only best be categorised as being in the same genre as Pikmin and Flower, has fought the immediate comparisons made when such prominent titles were mentioned. The developers at Onteca have taken everything with a pinch of salt, and are confident that once players delve into the surreal ambient levels of Monsteca Corral that previous misconceptions will be amiss.

Monsteca Corral is an independently developed title focusing on fast paced fun-puzzle gameplay, targeted at anyone and everyone who enjoys pick up and play games with no hidden agenda to subliminally take over their life. You play on your terms and you the player control a herd of peculiar named orange creators, formally known as Sdompes’. The cute and not so bright Monsters, who once activated, need help to avoid being dismembered by invading robots. So instead of watching the poor creators run dim-witted riot, it is your job to accumulate and guide them successfully through each level.

You take the role of a Monster Herder, flying above them and saving them from the dangers of their changing environment and the ever growing ominous robot population. As your Sdompes’ run through each level, you guide them towards ‘Energy orb’ bonuses that are scattered throughout the habitat; these will increase the communal power of the herd.
As Herder, you can:

• Use Wiimote to create deviation paths that block off dangerous routes for Sdompes’.

• Use Wiimote to allow Sdompes’ to follow a route.

• Use Wiimote to allow Sdompes’ to split and form a sub group.

• Use Wiimote to help Sdompes’ damage the robot environment.

• Use Wiimote to make your Sdompes’ jump and shake and sing.

As additional levels arise, the game emerges as a cross-country running game with Sdompe migrating through the different and ever changing environments of the Monsteca World: Stomping through Desert, Open Plains, Wooded Highlands, Forest, Wetlands and City in their bid to make it home safely.

Monsteca Corral is set to be released through the Wii Shop Channel in 2010, venturing into a new family of games for the Wii™ console. Monsteca Corral will invite people to experience a totally new and innovative method of gameplay with a fresh perspective on a classic genre.

Hello all apologies for my lack bloggage, things have been terribly busy here at Onteca on my part and the development team with the preparation for the Monsteca Corral release.

For todays blogging insert i just wanted to talk about the Internet and the effects of using it to promote ones products or services. This method of using the internet for self promotion relates to Social Media.

For those unaware what exactly Social Media is, it is a media designed to be disseminated through social interaction. It is created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques e.g. Blogging, News Feeds, Forums.

Social Media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). That is basically the wiki version of what Social Media is.

I am sure those who have followed my blogs you will be aware that i have come to Onteca to help promote their new Wiiware game ‘Monsteca Corral’. Whilst keeping in mind the mass amount of online interaction going down on the web, Social Media engagement is the best promotional tool (and lets not forget its FREE) to use when promoting the game.

Even though the Internet opens up numerous portals when communicating with your audience, it also allows the company to be susceptible to negativity. So rule one (and this one is important), before you chose to publicise your company and their product/s  within the all mighty powerful tech channel you must be aware and prepare yourself for the likelihood of negative response.

When you release information/images or even footage about your product what you are doing is displaying a nice big sign post saying “Free for all, come and pass judgement”. And what this means is, you are inviting everyone to display to all their own personal opinion.

A huge gamble you might say but there is nothing wrong with laying some of your cards out on the table.

I have included in the post a small section something i wrote about Social Media and PR, reeking the rewards the Internet can bring whilst baring in mind that lack of control you will have once you message is out there. Enjoy

Social Media – Losing Control of the message

The emergence of Social Media first materialised after the introduction of Web 1.0. The difficulty the PR industry faces today is the adaptation to Social Media practices, this is demonstrated through practitioners’ unawareness that the media and networking have always been social, however the internet has not.

Hence, the internet is catching up with reality, through new capabilities which has come to be recognised as Web 2.0.

In today’s online society the internet plays a primary role in accommodating PR professionals with a market place of conversations, this however interrupts traditional PR Communication models. Cathy Ace, of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, discusses the problematic affects Social Media has on the original communication model,

“Faced with new communication models today, it now has to adapt to new ways of reaching new groups of people. One of the most complicated problems faced by the PR practitioner today is not to get the message out there – but to monitor what messages are appearing where, and what their impact might be”. (Ace, 2002)
 

The approach PR practitioners take with digital media relations is somewhat different from the approach used in traditional PR; the digital channel is to some extent, eliminating the middleman with online spheres of influence.

The best PR efforts are not only two-way but also symmetrical, allowing the company and the strategic audience equal opportunities to participate in the discussion. (Holtz, 2002)

The Web offers the perfect place of solace for audiences to access and engage with a company directly, this can be done through the means of web sites, blogs, discussion rooms and web forums. However with the beneficial means an online society can provide for a client, it can also present the problematic matters of losing control of the fundamental objectives the company’s PR campaign originally set out to achieve.
 

Simon Collister (In Green, 2009), leading experts in Social Media, feels professional communicators are facing a loss of control over brand and messages:

“They are no longer the only voice articulating the company/clients message. In fact, passive consumers no longer exist. Individuals are proactively involved in reading or watching media; creating their own content; sharing and criticising your brand or product.”
 

Millions of network subsets contain relationship webs built from communities in which largely anonymous individuals have shared interests. Within these subsets, individuals and organisations have one or more reputations – some isolated and others exposed, some helpful and some harmful.

Reputations of large companies and well-known individuals transfer from other environments to online because of longevity and branding communications. Reputations of smaller known firms or individuals are built on the internet by what others say about them online.

As the internet moves toward the centre of communication, risks to reputation are greater, even for well established individuals and organizations. Hence, Social Media outlets do not hold the guarantee of a safer reputational haven that the print industry can offer.

Jim Horton, internet and online PR practitioner, considers that reliability over audience impairment cannot overcome human behaviour. “Humans defeat any process when it is in their interest to do so. As a result, reputation systems are never perfect: they work more or less well.” (Horton, 2008: 1)
 

A recent case study that demonstrates the possible side effects that the internet can have on an organisations reputation, when Social Media tools are not used effectively and monitored is that of British Airways.

The company British Airways learned why online reputation management should be a top priority to their company’s infrastructure, when it appeared a group of employees in London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 create a chat forum protesting their annoyance with the company on the social networking site Facebook.

“Thanks to the power of social networking, the workers’ rude comments about passengers caught the attention of the press.” (O’Hern, 2008) Watson (2009) discusses his experience with regards to the management of online facilities within Rainier PR.

“There is always a risk that people might make negative comments or remarks, but this risk is lessened if the company is offering a good product or service. The internet simply takes the conversations that customers have always been having and broadcasts. If the company had a bad product or service, then those conversations will be negative. Therefore the conversations will be negative online too.”
 

Social Media tools present organisations with a transparent analysis of their brand, therefore facilitating them with immeasurable exposure through conversations generated by the public on social networking sites. Rather than a company having only one voice, Social Media incorporates the traditional method of publicity through word of mouth, however working via Social Media means.

Further comprehension of the PR industry adapting to the changing towards the Social Media phenomenon was established throughout my placement with PR and Social Media Company, GREEN Communications.

The company demonstrated a clear understanding of the changing communicative market structure and embraced new forms of technological Social Media tools. GREEN interrelated with their clients’ active audiences by association of online conversations – through blogs and social networks. The company showed a clear understand of the problematic areas involved in Web 2.0 technologies, however took the stance of engaging with them and shaping them to accurately reflect their clients brands.