In-app screenshot of your own virtual cinema foyer!

Overview

In co-operation with my247, the My Movies iPhone app caters for three distinct psychographic groups. These are: spontaneous cinema goer; pre-meditated patrons and those who are organised to already know what they want to see and where.

We focus user experiences that were simple, intuitive and quick to display concise information whilst maintaining an aspect of “suggestion” for possibilities they may have not considered.

Flick through the latest hot moves, read the synopsis, watch the trailer on youTube and then find where and when it’s on.

Process

Following user-testing we concluded our three psychographic groups and with this started to tailor specific methods of obtaining information.

My 247 had at their disposal an extensive and exhaustive database of all the cinemas and screenings throughout Australia. Leveraging this through custom-built web services, the iPhone app downloads specific information to reduce loading times, serving up useful content as quickly as possible.

The graphical treatment of the app was inspired by a cinema foyer. Posters featured on the ‘wall’ on the landing page can be swiped through – or ‘walked through’ – to peruse offerings.

The rest of the app reflects this treatment by placing all the content in poster holders to maintain this look and feel throughout.

Combined with the sheer volume of content and it’s an appealing aesthetic, really sets this app apart.

In the App Store

My Movies enjoyed a Number One ranking in the lifestyle category for at least 12 consecutive weeks – making it the most popular movies app nationally!

Cover art was used to skin the app

Overview

The Powderfinger app is the best way for users to keep up-to-date with one of Australia’s most exciting rock bands. Get up-to-date news, information on tours, wallpapers, photos and music as well as exclusive content.

The app incorporated a unique feature specifically designed for iPhone: the Powderfinger Player. Setlists can be downloaded onto the app and live concerts could be recreated using studio versions of tracks from the user’s iPod library.

Process

After researching a number of competitor apps (I had nearly 25 band apps on my iPhone!) a few things were obvious – users expect a certain level of ‘standard’ content such as: tour information, photos, news, etc.

This tended to ‘break’ the Apple philosophy of ‘one app, one purpose’ but when you’re dealing with this much content, you have to bend sound of the rules.

I decided on five sections for the app:

1. Cover art
2. Tour info
3. Media
4. News
5. Music

Cover Art

We worked with gorgeous album artwork created by legendary artist Storm Thorgerson – who also created covers for Pink Floyd, 10cc & Led Zeppelin (to name a few).

For Powderfinger, there were a number of alternative versions of the album artwork created so, I thought a lovely way to show the progression of the art would be to have a feature users could slide through to see that.

Tour Info

Find out the when and the where of Powderfinger concerts – pinpoint the location on the map and get directions (via Maps).

Media

Get exclusive fan only content like photos, wallpapers, and videos – all free.

News

Check out the blog, website news, and Twitter all in the one place so you never miss a thing.

Music

Peruse Powderfinger’s extensive discography and buy tracks straight through app and use the Powderfinger Player to recreate concerts using tracks from your library.

Cover Art section

Tour Info

Media - photos + videos

Discography + Powderfinger Player

Fig 1. Blood splattered title card - first of more splattering to come.

Jeff Lindsey’s inspired Showtime series DEXTER is an absolute favourite of mine.

For those not familiar with Dexter, he fills his day as a forensic analyst with Miami Police Department, focusing on blood-splatter. In his spare-time, Dexter satisfies his blood-thirsty “Dark Passenger” by performing ritualistic killings of victims who themselves are guilty of murder.

Dexter meticulously orchestrates his kills and leaves no forensic evidence – following the “Code” of his father with a strong focus on remaining un-caught.

I admire the writing, production and actor performances – all of which are subtle, deliberate and significant. Having watched Season One a number of times through, I am intimate with the finer details on which the iPhone game is based.

Narrative is fundamental to Dexter; it is a truly an art to encourage such audience sympathy and compassion while ‘rationalising’ what Dexter does as different from any other psycho killer.

It’s nice to see this intelligent writing carries through to the game – right down to the instructional journal text, revealing Dexter’s macabre internal monologue.

The game narrative also fills in gaps where the television version skips over or isn’t able to show a deeper level of detail to the player in a meaningful way – such as investigating victims homes.

Fig 2. Low-poly girlfriend Rita

Face to face interaction is THE most compelling feature of this game.  As Dexter, you gather vital information to advance the narrative – whether discussing a work-related topic with a colleague or conducting brutal victim interrogation. Conversations can be held in three ways: dark, neutral or light in order to get the answers Dexter is looking for (please see Fig 2.).

The way you conduct these conversations directly influence Dexter’s Mask and Dark Passenger balance -a constantly visible meter indicating Dexter’s psyche. When he loses control of his Dark Passenger and his Mask slips, he’s become no better than the people he hunts.

Balancing these two halves of Dexter is the cleverest mechanic in the game.

Here, as a player, you are able to think like Dexter and embody scenes featured in the television series with gameplay consequences.

I was deeply disappointed with execution of the game, though it is an interest piquing mix of puzzles and abstracted action sequences.
In this delivery of Dexter, the interface and its icons are rough and unpolished.

The journal loosely leverages the thematic I associate with the case files he receives from Camilla, at the Station.

I couldn’t help questioning why I have a picture of myself, shushing myself while holding a knife, in my own journal.

Mission objectives are sadly pre-baked. Highly regimented and fixed, players can reach a victims guilty conclusion by walking around until something happens and tapping the appropriate icon when it appears.

Of the puzzles, lock picking is fairly interestingly implemented – though it is beyond me why the inner workings of the lock are blood splattered.

The largely customisable control scheme does little to prevent clumsy clod-hopping; Dexter runs practically everywhere.

Also, considering the (lack of) stability of the iPhone platform, providing the option to save at any point during the game would have been greatly appreciated.

Some of the full motion videos are quite good. Transitioning gameplay, they leverage a near film-like quality in the story-telling.

The lighting and the animation strike me as very effective; especially the sequence when Dexter is surveying the cling-film cocooned Donovan.

This is nearly always dashed by pregnant load times between the full motion video and gameplay with no indicator of whether the game is hanging in limbo or still loading.

Though some of the voice acting is not original, it doesn’t hurt the game too much – considering the sheer amount of voice-acting on Michael C Hall’s part.

With such seemingly massive production values, this game is a very interesting addition to the Dexter universe and the iPhone platform in the terms of content and execution.

Judging by the quality of some the actor’s 3d models and the closeness of the storyline, the development process was not hindered by Showtime or other property owners – if it was, it is not apparent and I applaud the game’s producers.

I do hope there is a console / pc release to be had in the future as this offering barely whet my whistle.