Holiday Game of the Year!

OK, maybe that's overselling it, but we did develop a really fun holiday game for clients and friends this year.

You see, every year at this time, we do something really creative by way of a fun gift and greeting card - and these have become very popular with our clients.

This year, we decided to do something digital and save some trees... by getting our customers to burn some down!

We developed an online video game called Mistletoe Command, yeah it's a nod to the 80's arcade game Missle Command. We had a creative meeting and determined that presenting it in retro-styled 8-bit graphics would be best - presenting our customers with a real arcade experience that reminded them of a time long ago when the only real currency was quarters not text messages and status updates.

The game concept was quite simple, you play the part of the Grunch and hate xmas, you try to burn down O Tannenbaum before the Mistletoe can take you out. The mechanics of the video game were not as simple as the concept - which is usually the recipe for a good game. We put some smarts into the backend of the game by way of high score tabulations and even keep track of who finds the easter egg - that's right folks, you need to find that too!

To add to the game, we ordered over 100 Colorado Spruce Tree grow kits and will award a number of them to the players that have entered their contact information along with their high-scores. So far, we've had over 600 players play the game and have had entries from as far away as New Jersey. Not bad considering we only sent it out to about 150 clients.

To complete the game, we did nearly everything in house, with the exception of some of the illustrations, in which we hired Jennifer Llewellyn, a famous character illustrator. Our very talented Francomedia team contributed the designs, the copy and the development of the game - the result was a very playable and enjoyable online video game, in time for xmas.

In total, we spent over 170 hours in the development of this game - so, you'd better play it and enjoy it! A big thank you to the Francomedia team for their efforts in 2009 - 5 international creative awards and a very cool xmas gift for clients with Mistletoe Command.

So, to friends and clients of Francomedia, we thank you for your support in 2009. We truly appreciate your business and friendships and look forward to what 2010 brings - all the best this holiday season!

PS - go play the game now!