Crimbo zombies

It turns out that using Pledge as air freshener is a bad idea. Not only does it almost certainly cause irreversible damage to your lungs, it turns the floor into a skating rink. Now inside is as slippery as outside. Thanks for that Ollie.

Aside from this misdemeanour, Ollie and JP have been beavering away on Focus Pocus; 2 more games, Find the Spell and Potion Making, are starting to take shape nicely. Another thing that is taking shape nicely is the quivering lumps of Killing Floor Twisted Christmas Undead being left twitching on the floor. Christmas is a time for blowing apart, not coming together.

John has been working on some pitches as well as supervising the recording of the audio for Focus Pocus, which is now all done, the brilliant Tom Parkinson giving the Grand Wizard a rather spiffing voice, think John is happy to get away from admin and spreadsheets and get back to doing something creative!

Outside the office, Zoe Fox and Hannah have almost completed the youth consultations in Hackney, meaning the new game Hackney Sprint will soon be finished. You will then be able to run and jump over the buildings of Hackney in an adrenalin fuelled race against your facebook friends. Huge thank-you to Zoe and Hannah – they’ve been all over the borough meeting loads of young people (some friendlier than others), and the project wouldn’t have been possible without them. Thanks ladies.

Rob has created our geeky but fun Christmas quiz, which you can play here. Name all the computer games for the chance to win a fun prize

Roll7 wishes all of you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. We’re all taking a well-deserved week off until the new year. Peace.

Wall of Justice

This week Ollie and John Parsons have created a Wall of Justice (justifying their work, see above); they have also started working on 3 awesome new games for Focus Pocus - Goblin Bashing, Broomstick Racing and Hex Practice. All three are looking great, but the men themselves look like pallid and wan Gollum-like creatures, their lamp-like eyes staring at the screen, and their grasping hands clutching forlornly at the mouse.

Danny has been fleshing out the rather spiffing world of Victorian Explorator and adventurist, Bertram Fiddle, and has so far created the scenery and movement, a puzzle and a shooting game which pits Bertram's faithful man-servant Cyclops against swarms of bats (blasting them in true Victorian style).

John Ribbins has been working on a pitch (there is a clue about what it's for within the sentence). John also has a new favourite flash game. Fishing has always been thought of as peaceful and meditative; a gentlemen’s sport affording plenty of time for quiet reflection...Times have changed. With the addition of chainsaws, rocket launchers and a variety of guns, fishing just got radical. Play it here: http://bit.ly/gDNEpB

I have finished another pitch and am connecting our social media (join us above), all the while hoping for more snow, in order to take my board to Greenwich Park and get, erm...'radical' *tongue firmly lodged in cheek*.

All systems go!

Things in the roll7 office have been very busy, with our exciting new project Focus Pocus kicking off in fine style.

John Ribbins has been compiling huge lists of spells, rewards and magic, as well as planning the whole thing in (wonderful new software) MS Project. Also, we think John may have a problem. He has been playing Super Meat Boy far too much, and can barely differentiate between the real world and the 'meat' one.

John Parsons and Ollie have been working closely together, developing server applications. They work in a darkened room like squirrels burying nuts, and only come out for lunch time zombie annihilation. Lots of games coming up soon! Sometimes we briefly chat to them over a cup of tea, but they pretty much only converse in PHP and machine code these days.

Danny has sourced all the sound effects for Focus Pocus, with an ostrich noise being particularly troublesome (anyone else having issues getting ostrich noises should try pitching a squirrel noise down by 50% - apparently very accurate). Danny has also designed the demo level and started to program the Bertrum Fiddle game for inky fingered animation duo Seb and Joe. You can watch the genius animation of Bertrum here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3k_UWoAH50

I have been working on a pitch all week, and also helping John R with some wizard upgragdes. 'Jimothy's wand of utter negativity', anyone? Didn't think so....but then, neither did Jimothy.

Musical fun

Feeling musical? Check out these very cool sites to sate your appetite:

Make your own musical creation in this brilliant and hypnotic site. There are 20 Youtube videos of people playing various instruments in the key of B flat. You can start as many or as few of the clips as you like at any time and you end up with a beautiful ensemble piece.

http://www.inbflat.net/

Contribute art to a living, moving and ever evolving video of Johnny Cash. You will be provided with one frame from the video, onto which you overlay your art using their custom built drawing tool. Each frame is integrated into the video to form a truly stunning collective whole.

http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/#

This is fun. Simple soundboard from Daft Punk's Harder Better Faster Stronger.

http://www.dothedaft.com/idaft/

We're back!

Hey, it has been a long, long time coming - but we have finally sorted our online presence...

New Website - www.roll7.co.uk - New Twitter @roll_7 - New FacebookPage http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roll7/166512376711596

We have been busy in the lab here, working on various digital delights, our agency has taken on a number of exciting digital projects - some out and about, others in the pipeline...
Our Software and Research side has grown substantially too, with new partnerships with Goldsmith's University and UCL. We are working on a number of projects using NeuroSky (see the showreel on our website for more info).


The team has grown too, from the stable 3 to a more sturdy 9. We welcome Zoe, Danny, Charlie, Jon, Seb and Tom to the fray...
Looking forward to using this page to update you with the odd tid-bit about our work and the 'digital third sector' - but mainly fun news from the world of Digital Innovation and Geekery...
Hope all is well with you and yours,

Roll7 Team - Nov 2010

Guerrilla Marketing

This week I 'ave been mostly looking at some cool examples of Guerrilla Marketing and clever advertising campaigns. I may be slightly behind the times, but these are worth checking out if you missed them first time around.

The best campaigns are often the most thought provoking. This example about feeding the hungry of South Africa is such a simple and cheap idea, but the message really gets through.

This next one demonstrates how a simple yet funny idea can really draw attention. You would definitely be telling your mates about this if you walked past it.

Another example of injecting a fun element into an advertising campaign is this clever one by Volkswagen, who installed a slide down the stairs of a train station to encourage people to try the 'fast lane'. This would really add a bit of fun to your daily commute!

http://bit.ly/aB6N5T

Inventiveness is firmly stamped on this record player made out of cardboard which fits into an envelope. It was sent in the post to creative directors all across America.

Massively creative, quirky and an effective technical demonstration, this is genius.

http://bit.ly/94dWSN

The guys in this next video thought they were going to get more than they bargained for from a girl on Chatroullette. They did, but not in the way they expected at all. The results are hilarious, and a great example of inventive marketing.

http://bit.ly/cCCfDn

Welcome new Roll7ers!

This week we say hello to Charlie and John!

Charlie will be working on research and development for both the agency and software side of the business. Coming from a Web Consultancy background, Charlie will be delivering strategy both for roll7 and for our client's projects. Watch out web!

John, a most splendid programmer, will be working on our Neurocog project 'Focus Pocus'. He will be working alongside Senior Programmer Ollie Edgington to develop the application's infrastructure.

Looks like we are going to need a bigger boat!

New Studio!

After a slightly nomadic start to 2010, we've finally moved into our new studio, right next door to sister company RollingSound.
The branding is on the wall, the sound system is sweet, the LAN is setup, and Ollie has about 15 screens. So everyone is happy.

In other news the new website is on the way... infact if you bust to roll7.co.uk you can see it right now... only it's not got alot of content right now. Just a courtesy-of-rob delicious layout. ;-)

New NeuroSky Games

To accompany the launch of the new NeuroSky Wave headset, roll7 have developed 2 new NeuroSky Games!

Man.up and Zombie Pop! Both make use of the new "Blink" detection on the mindset, as well as featuring addictive gameplay and online high scores!

Check out the YOUTUBE channel for video trailers!

TEST TEST TEST