Happinated was one of the biggest illustrative and animation based flash projects I had taken on in quite some time.And the project itself wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if it wasn’t for a factors. ONE. The timeline for this project was cut DRAMATICALLY shorter than originally scoped. TWO. I had never drawn nor animated in an isometric inspired style.

Something else that ended up taking a little bit more time than expected was the actual character design. We had originally had something a little different in mind in terms of style, but then we realized that once the graphics were shrunken down to a size that would allow the user to actually 1)navigate the game and 2)navigate the site itself, we realized that design cuts were going to have to be made.

If you look at the sketches below, you can see how we went back to emphasize certain characteristics of the character, particularly in the face. The face was going to display several different “statuses” that the gamer was in (“Happinated”, “ok”, and “sad”).For the user to be able to quickly glance and recognize this, we went back and enlarged the Head to a much more disproportionate relation to the body.

What also had to be considered was how this style was going to translate into other characters, and this had to be a “future-proofed” style, in the event that this could get expanded to the point where others could make their own custom character and implant them into the game.

We also needed an art style where we could quickly illustrate people that we found on Twitter, and offer illustrations of them as incentives for them to participate with us online.

As for the process itself, there was actually very little sketching done on paper with pencil. I would have loved to have created a fully hand drawn look and animation, and then retraced it into illustrator and animate it with Flash, but the timeline, budget, and possible future uses of the artwork prohibited that.

It’s surprising just how much you can do when you’re forced to.

Happinated.com Project

So I’ve been working on H&L Trim, and this is the third (or is it forth) web design I’ve gone through. I’m not a big fan of having to split the Call to Actions so far apart, but the client is determined to have the business separated visually (the original request was to have a staircase), so I think we’ve made a good compromise.

There’s a lot I would have like to do different with this mockup, from the way it displays the features of each section, to how there isn’t an inclusion of current members of the site. But still, I’m happy with it. What do you think? I’m open to criticism.

by Ryan Paul Thompson, Social Media Strategist/ Web Designer

My mom was a small business owner when I was growing up. She had a fashion design company that she really enjoyed and which was profitable. We would attend the big trade shows, hold small “Tupperware” parties within neighborhoods, host lunches and cocktail parties with other industry people and prospective buyers, the whole deal. Many of her peers and the buyers were surprised at how successful she was and would often remark how impressed they were with her ability to “predict” the next trend, and how well she was able to connect and understand her customer. They often thought that it was that because my mom WAS her own customer, and that’s what enabled her to be so dialed in. And that was partly true. She was her own customer in the sense that she was a part of her customer’s community. She understood her audience because she was in communication and was engaged with her audience, she was social with her audience.

And that brings us up to today.

There’s a stigma that Twitter is about people stating “what they had for lunch today”. But what if you thought about it as something else. What if you had the power of Google, but instead of being able to search web pages, you could search what people are saying and thinking. Now imagine having those small Tupperware parties where you would try to get to know people quickly and get the word out about your product in small circles and having a little bit of a good time while doing it.

Twitter can be your new venue to have those Tupperware parties. Instead of having enough people to fill a room or two from the local neighborhoods, your “circle” can have hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people attend your Twitter party and tweet together. You can almost instantly see what the trends are in what they are talking about, discover what they’re true interests are, and opinions of your product. And when everyone is talking at your Twitter party, it only gets bigger, as the word spreads very quickly. Do you remember how quickly word spread on the Hudson River plane crash last year, where the first word of it was on Twitter?

There actually more tweets than there are people in the world, over 6.8 BILLION tweets. That’s a big Tupperware party, with a lot of people tweeting about topics that are relevant to YOU.

Trade shows are great for finding out what the rest of the industry is doing, and for meeting people whom are already looking for your product. Of course you could also go on LinkedIn, and do that exact same thing. Imagine automakers being able to be involved in industry discussions with auto dealers and the insight that would provide both parties. You have the change to network outside and above your normal circles.

Let’s say you wanted to work with a particular social media strategist *AHEM* , but you wanted to check if you had any mutual friends with him first. Check my LinkedIn profile and see if you have any friends or associates there. Did you know that all 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented on LinkedIn? Chances are you’re only one or two connections away from one of them.

Cocktail parties are great for connecting with peers, maintaining relationships, and starting new ones. But how would you like to be able to host a “cocktail party”, where afterward you could find out the demographics, interests, and hobbies of every person that attended? What if you could find out what drinks everybody liked, what was discussed, what the opinions were of the people who attended, and who got along with whom. You could do that with Facebook, and you’d have a potential audience of over 350 million people a day.

Looking back, we now realize what my mom was doing when she attended all of these events. She was listening to her community, she was talking to her community, and she was being a vital part of her community. And being a part of that community created long lasting relationships, and gave insight into the behavior and wishes of those communities, and the value of that hasn’t changed.

What’s changing is where these relationships and communities are happening. They are no longer happening solely at dinner, over drinks, and at conventions. They are happening online on these digital spaces everyday. What’s left now, is for us to change, and adapt to these new spaces, and to continue to venture forward and grow.

Take the first step and leave a comment below and tell me about your experiences meeting people, networking, and doing business via social media. Or just leave your Twitter or Facebook address. I’d love to hear from you either way. Let’s be social.

A few months back, Swisher was look for new and creative ideas to connect to their customers. One of the ideas we pitched to them was creating a game online, where we would not only provide an entertainment value, but also provide opportunities for product placement, data mining, and coupon distribution. They loved the idea!

One of the concepts that they wanted fleshed out was a modern Leisure Suit Larry style web game. Not only would this be appealing to gamers, but also there’s a throwback/retro love for some of the older demographic. Tons of pop culture references woiuld help keep the game fresh (the main character was inspired by Seth Rogan, the club would have been styled to be more like the one from Knocked Up, and one of the bouncers might look a little familiar to you, too.;)

Also there would have been opportunities to pull in data from facebook to populate certain areas with your friends, send gifts from the game, see what the characters of the game were tweeting….tons of social marketing opportunities with trackable goals.

So here are some of the early concepts. Take a look, let me know what you think, if it would have been a great idea, a horrible idea, etc. And yes, one character was in homage to Patrick Swayze from Road House. Cuz that movie is awesome.

A “coming soon” page? People still do those? Why yes, of course! One reason is to age your url for Google. The older your url, the more points google gives it, so why would you wait until the day your site is going like to purchase it?

Secondly, this company already has already been around, and people do currently look for it online. The alternative option is to do nothing, and let potential customers to either find somebody ELSE to work with, or allow them to see that H & L does have a web presence, and at least have a lead generation opportunity.

OK, now that all of that is done with, let’s look at the design. Does it say “Construction”? Yup. Does it say “professional”? I think so. Does it say, “under construction”? Nope, I should probably put that in there.;) Anyways, feel free to critique it or input your own ideas on it. Hopefully, it’ll only hep to make a better design.:)

G4 is currently holding a “Booth Babe” contest for this year’s E3 in LA. Users on g4tv.com are being asked to rate which “babe” they think should win this honor, which really is a great idea, for both the company (G4) as they get a “booth babe” with a guaranteed built in fan base, a great news story, and a FREE booth babe.

Enter Kasey Poteet from North Hollywood, CA. She is currently a finalist in G4′s E3 2010 Booth Babe Search. She’s a true, hardcore gaming and comic book geek, with miles and miles of street cred. On top of that, she has one other thing that truly sets her apart from all the other contestants. Kacey Poteet (no potweet, although that would be awesome) has been banned from E3.

Why is that you ask? Nobody is quite sure why. Last year, she was hosting a segment on E3, where her viewers had voted on her attire, to which they chose Wonder Woman. Her attire was in line with the E3 Dress code, she was covering a Justice League game, and she was actually wearing more clothes than many others. But for some reason, Kacey was still kicked out, and BANNED from E3.

She made the best of it, and still managed to have a good time with the surrounding events, but can you imagine being kicked out of an event like that, after FOLLOWING the rules? Now imagine being kicked out of a lifelong dream like E3, and actually being a gamer. Yeah, I’d be crying (and cursing) the rest of the year. Actually, i would try to break in first, and then curse after getting kicked out again.

So before all of us gamers, and really, all of us social media citizens, is the chance to right a wrong. We have the opportunity to show that there is justice in this world, and that the citizens of the internet care about one another. We constantly talk about social good, and we all kick in when there’s a big natural disaster, but how often do we help, when all a person needs is a click? All it takes is one click, and a rating of 5 stars, and you can make one gamer’s dream come true, and actually get back at everybody who has ever wrongly held us down.

So go here and vote for Kasey Poteet soon (the contest ends firday, June 4th!). Share this on facebook, on Twitter, myspace, your message boards, forums, anywhere and get your friends to vote, too! And tell her on twitter at Twitter.com/kaseypoteet that you voted for her. She’ll actually reply back, and she’ll be grateful. And then she might end up beating you on a game online.

This industry report is a collection of data regarding social media and the gaming industry, and the behaviors of the gaming community. Prepare for more information on social media and gaming then you could have ever dreamed!

Here’s a quick look at some of the numbers:
1,078, 758 mentions of PS3/Playstation3
843, 149 mentions of Xbox 360/360
567, 483 mentions of Wii
348, 126 mentions of psp
154, 379 mentions od the DS
135, 235 mentions of the Iphone in regards to gaming
51, 932 mentions of the IPad in regards to gaming

The question is, does this line up with how you THOUGHT your console was doing, and do YOU consider Apple’s devices gaming devices?

So on May 18, I was honored with the opportunity to be a speaker at the Top Shelf Social Media Conference aka PRVille 2010. I spoke about my involvement with Touchdown Jacksonville, and our social media strategy and tactics (with a sprinkling of video game industry talk of course ).

I was humbled to be in the presence of Social Media industry speakers Mary Henige (Social Media & Digital Communications at General Motors) and Shonali Burke (Social Media Consultant Extraordinaire). Which, needless to say, didn’t do much to ease my nerves in doing something that I’ve NEVER done before. PRESENT without a PRESENTATION TOOL.

This was my first time speaking WITHOUT using a “formal” presentation behind me. We’ve all grown used to using powerpoint or some other presentation tool to assist our presentations, but I’m finding it very liberating to speak without it. Without having to worry about timing myself with the actual slides, everything seemed to flow much more naturally, and I felt like I was able to connect with the audience much more easily (at least I hope!).

Does this mean that I’ll never use a presentation tool at a speaking engagement again? No. There’s definitely times where it’s necessary. But I will continue to try to use those tools less and less, and concentrate on giving the audience more of what they want, actual speaking and interaction. Also, I feel that it keeps with the whole spirit of “social media” a little bit more.

Plus I can probably just post everything online and get them to visit my site if they really want the good stuff. jk

Check out Shonali’s flickrstream of the conference

I just got an article published earlier this week briefly describing how social media has impacted gaming, both in terms of the developer/publisher business model, and the audience. Thank you Gamesugar.net (and Jamie Love) for publishing me. Here’s the link, and I’ll write a much longer in depth version early next week for here.

I wrapped up designing this for a Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Fan Page on Facebook. I tried to keep the comic book style of funky panels and word boxes, as a nod to the audience it;s intended for. Also important to note 1) telling users to become a fan 2)directing them to the trailer 3) engaging them with voting and participation early on 4) Creating credibility by having free downloads and it also creates hype 5)Preorders, Duh!

Now the hard part is making something this “nontraditional” work in facebook…hmmmmm….