Indie Collaboration Through In-Game Ads
by Weston Tracy · 09/15/2009 (2:58 pm) · 7 comments
At GDC this year in San Francisco, I met up with a bunch of Indie game developers at the Kongregate building down town. The event was put together by Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler of 2DBoy. It turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know a bunch of top indies and discuss the adventurous non-stop glamor that is indie game development.
Around this same time, Brian and I were trying to figure out how to flesh out the Metal Drift world with a little more life. We wanted to push the sports angle by adding arena ads, but didn't want to invest a ton of time making up and designing logos for fictitious companies. So it seemed like a natural fit to advertise for our fellow indies instead.
So at the Kongregate meet up I made the offer; free advertising to anyone who wanted it. All we needed in return was the use of a logo. The idea got plenty of interest from the room...so we were off and rolling and ended up with some great companies. The final line up includes:
HotHead - Makers of the ever popular Penny Arcade Adventures.
Klei Entertainment - Makers of the hot titles Shank, Sugar Rush and Eets.
Games Faction - Makers of the beautiful Project Aftermath.
Garage Games - Our illustrious benefactors.
Nimblebit - iPhone domination machine and creators of the super polished Zero Gear.
Fully Illustrated - Our web designers, and just incredible people all around. There are none better.
Torpex Games - Creators of the award winning Schizoid.
Firehose Games - Working on top secret games involving Super Heroes and Love (?)
Ronimo - Maker of the fantastic Swords and Soldiers for the Wii.
It was our job to animate the logos once we got them. So I did some research to hunt down the best looking animated ads I could find. Not surprisingly Japan had the best stuff. I broke down the dominant styles and came up with some basic animations.
After a bunch of trial and error, I managed to throw together animated ads for each contributor. It was a little more work than I had anticipated, but I think it was worth it. Each ad ended up being between 30 to 60 frames, some with overlapping animations. Take a look at the final product:
I think they turned out pretty well. Thanks in large part to the great initial logos and all the folks who participated. We look forward to collaborating with the indie community again soon.
We are Black Jacket Studios, and the game is Metal Drift (set to release very soon).
Find more regular updates from me on Twitter.
Weston
Around this same time, Brian and I were trying to figure out how to flesh out the Metal Drift world with a little more life. We wanted to push the sports angle by adding arena ads, but didn't want to invest a ton of time making up and designing logos for fictitious companies. So it seemed like a natural fit to advertise for our fellow indies instead.
So at the Kongregate meet up I made the offer; free advertising to anyone who wanted it. All we needed in return was the use of a logo. The idea got plenty of interest from the room...so we were off and rolling and ended up with some great companies. The final line up includes:
HotHead - Makers of the ever popular Penny Arcade Adventures.
Klei Entertainment - Makers of the hot titles Shank, Sugar Rush and Eets.
Games Faction - Makers of the beautiful Project Aftermath.
Garage Games - Our illustrious benefactors.
Nimblebit - iPhone domination machine and creators of the super polished Zero Gear.
Fully Illustrated - Our web designers, and just incredible people all around. There are none better.
Torpex Games - Creators of the award winning Schizoid.
Firehose Games - Working on top secret games involving Super Heroes and Love (?)
Ronimo - Maker of the fantastic Swords and Soldiers for the Wii.
It was our job to animate the logos once we got them. So I did some research to hunt down the best looking animated ads I could find. Not surprisingly Japan had the best stuff. I broke down the dominant styles and came up with some basic animations.
After a bunch of trial and error, I managed to throw together animated ads for each contributor. It was a little more work than I had anticipated, but I think it was worth it. Each ad ended up being between 30 to 60 frames, some with overlapping animations. Take a look at the final product:
I think they turned out pretty well. Thanks in large part to the great initial logos and all the folks who participated. We look forward to collaborating with the indie community again soon.
We are Black Jacket Studios, and the game is Metal Drift (set to release very soon).
Find more regular updates from me on Twitter.
Weston
About the author
Game artist. Lover of pixels. Co-Owner and Artist for www.blackjacketgames.com
#2
09/15/2009 (5:17 pm)
This is a great idea! I'm sure there are many indies willing to trade in-game ad space with other indie companies. It could work really well in the form of a broader indie game dev network of some sort. 
#3
09/15/2009 (7:35 pm)
this is like banner exchange? 
#4
09/15/2009 (8:34 pm)
I like the concept, I agree with konrad! 
#5
I have never understood the logic of people be against in-game ads. Especially ones that have no effect on gameplay. The panels would otherwise be filled with fictional content so what's the difference?
I remember when BF 2142 came out and it had the in-game ads and all they were for the most part were trashed billboard in the environment that had mostly intel ads on them. When if they had sold the space to intel they would have had to just make something up so there would have been something thing there. I don't understand why a real product is more offensive to people that a fictional one. Especially if it helps the developer of your favorite game stay afloat to make more games for you to play.
I think in-game ads are one of the best things to happen since 3dfx brought 3d acceleration to the masses.
09/16/2009 (10:29 am)
Quote:Wow, I'm not a fan of ads but I have to say those look really good and they go good as well.
I have never understood the logic of people be against in-game ads. Especially ones that have no effect on gameplay. The panels would otherwise be filled with fictional content so what's the difference?
I remember when BF 2142 came out and it had the in-game ads and all they were for the most part were trashed billboard in the environment that had mostly intel ads on them. When if they had sold the space to intel they would have had to just make something up so there would have been something thing there. I don't understand why a real product is more offensive to people that a fictional one. Especially if it helps the developer of your favorite game stay afloat to make more games for you to play.
I think in-game ads are one of the best things to happen since 3dfx brought 3d acceleration to the masses.
#6
www.openx.org
for stats?
09/16/2009 (8:12 pm)
my 2cents, what do you thing about implementing a system where the ads is downloaded from internet, and then you can use a system like this:www.openx.org
for stats?
#7
09/16/2009 (9:44 pm)
Thanks for the comments guys. It would be cool if there was a more automated system for ad exchange that still allowed for customization. I'd be worried about bringing outside content into the game if it didn't fit the world or style. If you have a modern world without any stylization, then it could work. 
Torque Owner Stephen
GearedMind Studio