Tuesday was a big day for me. About a year ago I doodled a concept on a notepad and took it into Digital Outlook. For those that don’t know, the agency I work for is also passionate about developing new characters and concepts from the ground up.

My scribbled idea started with the notion of “where do computer viruses eat and drink in such a harsh digital world?”. A quick look around the room later… bubblejet printer ink! I loved the idea that these devices act as savana-style watering holes for online lifeforms. What if you could tell when a critter was visiting your house and could do battle with it? What if you beat it and it fell under the printer’s rollers and out popped a printed sheet complete with squashed critter.

As they say… Zoikz was born (after the usual URL check!)

Then comes the Digital Outlook magic. With the idea whipped into shape with Angus Fletcher, RDF, Miniclip and Egmont all wanted in. For our part, launching it was simple. Zoikz was mainly targetted at 8-12yr old boys so a game on Miniclip would be a fantastic launch strategy to start building awareness. Egmont are the worlds largest publisher and also publish Toxic magazine targetted at 6-12yr old boys. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they ran a full page add on the same day as Miniclip launched a Zoikz game? Wouldn’t it be even more awesome if they ran a full page for the first 6 weeks then published a proper Zoikz cartoon? Well, that’s exactly why Tuesday was a big day… as that’s what happened!

I’m currently away from my PC and only have a restricted iPhone browser (insert rant about Apple / Flash here) so I haven’t actually seen it. Very annoying but very cool at the same time.

PLAY IT on Miniclip here.
Print out your cheat sheet then visit the minisite to see a Zoik in Augmented Reality 3D on Zoikz.com.
VISIT the microsite here.

Check out the article in NMA for a bit of name-checking.

Please DO let me know what you think. It’s really at its initial phase and although we have ideas, I would love to hear where you would like it to go.

Shameless plug alert.

Digital Outlook London have some pretty funky jobs up for grabs. And the best bit is, you get to work with me!If that doesn’t swing it… we also have great benefits, multi-coloured beanbags, a room with fake grass, an indoor bike rack, the full Xbox Rock Band setup, table football, an inflatable moose head, an office in LA and free beer. What’s not to like?

The jobs are…

• Creative Developer
• Senior Designer
• Art Director
• Junior Designer
• Microsoft Xbox Social Media Editor

Creative developer will be Flash based, working on games, funky stuff, Unity 3D, microsites and even iPhone content if you’re up for it. You’ll be sat right in among the designers and other devs so it’ll be a good giggle. So if you’re sparky, want to get lots of training, work on really cool content and are looking for the next step, drop me an email and I’ll do the rest.

Senior designer will be working on all the cool stuff we do at Digital Outlook; Disney, Pixar, Xbox, Mr. Men, iTunes, Universal, Miniclip, games, Facebook and all that. really looking for a bright designer. Someone who isn’t satisfied doing the usual banking, corporate nonsense and wants to roll their sleeves up and make a difference. You’ll be passionate about your craft, games, entertainment, movies and especially the kids and teen audience. Also, if you’re quiet, don’t like a laugh or shy away from karaoke, look away. If you’re still here, contact me!

Art Director is essentially the same as the above but with a fair bit of experience under their belt and someone looking to make Creative Director in a company that will actively help you achieve your dreams. You’ll have been there and done that but will also be sensitive to those that haven’t… including the clients, who will look up to you to hold their hand and inspire them. Yes you can wear a funky shirt. Yes you can lead brainstorms. You can even hang up an inflatable gorilla head to go with the inflatable moose we already have. The role is yours to shape. You guessed it, if it sounds interesting, let me know.

Junior Designer will probably be a year out of Uni… straight out of Uni but has a dose of reality already… or someone who’s never been to Uni but really want to climb the ladder, experience one of the cooler companies in the industry and develop their skills in an area that has soul. If you’re into games, love Photoshop, like Flash, fiddle with After Effects or get off on coming up with bonkers ideas for willing clients… Digital Outlook has a Mac and a nice seat with your name on it. We have PC’s too if you prefer.

Social Media Editor will help deliver and develop Xbox’s social media strategy across loads of social media platforms, as well as doing all the editorial and content updates, user engagement, moderation, and reporting. It’s 3-5 days a week, based in the Microsoft HQ in central London and obviously would be perfect for anyone into social content, gaming, writing and working in a job that would make your mates properly jealous. This one is time sensitive though so if you’re interested, get a shift on and let me know.

Check out the Digital Outlook site for a basic overview of what we do and if you like what you see, just drop me a line (and ideally a CV) and if the planets align, an interview awaits! It may be the best thing you do in the next 5 years. :)

Some of the jobs are here too. http://www.digital-outlook.com/jobs but we’ll hopefully update that in the next few days.

Just noticed that our Mr. Men Pinball game has just re-appeared in the “Hot Games” top 6 on the Miniclip homepage. Considering this game has been around for about 2 years now, that’s fantastic! Not sure of the figures as they’re probably also a little guarded, but I’d expect it to be somewhere up near 40 million game plays by now. Amazing when you consider the population of the UK is about 65 million

That’s the power of a good advergame. Equate that to a traditional media spend on say, Yahoo or the Google Ad Network and the ‘cost per click’ or ‘cost per engavement’ is very impressive on Miniclip or similar gaming sites. People actually spent more time playing the Mr. Men game then the length of an TV episode of the Mr. Men Show! Click through to the Mr. Men Show site was similarly impressive. Double figures where the usual industry average for a click through on a banner is maybe 1.4%.

Obviously, advergames are one of my pet passions and I’ve made a few games before so this is kinda big news yet a big ‘I always told you so!’ moment. I’ll post something more useful in the near future but fo now, enjoy the pinball!

Note the little square bottom right. That’s cool.