So what does a Chairman do?

I've been a bit busy of recent with many things I can't put online, yet. Sorry blog. However, here is one item that has gone out as a press release so I guess this is therefore public knowledge...

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, has today announced a drive to raise the profile and to support casual games creators in the UK. Central to this is the creation of a Casual Games Committee designed to support companies creating games of all formats with production budgets between £10,000 and £300,000.

Mike Hawkyard has been appointed acting Chairman of the Committee. He is co-founder of 4T2, an award digital winning agency specialising in creating online games for children. The move from TIGA comes in response to exponential growth in casual gaming platforms, development software and methods of monetising content.

The Committee has been set up to ensure UK games producers can take full advantage of these commercial opportunities through advising on best practice, identifying new trends, organising discounts on software, developing strategic partnerships, providing networking events and offering marketing support.Membership of the Casual Games Committee is open to all TIGA members who develop casual games.

Mike Hawkyard commented: “The UK has a tremendous amount of skill in the casual games market. Our goal is to utilise this collective talent, helping all of our members deliver the highest quality of gaming experience, at a lower cost, to a larger audience.”

Dr Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said:
“TIGA’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. The UK has successful and dynamic casual game developers, including Kempt, 4T2 Multimedia, Neon Play, Kerb Digital, Playniac, Koko digital, Stick Sports and Matmi. TIGA, through our new Casual Games Committee, will work to advance the interests and to promote commercial opportunities for casual game developers.”

If you work in a UK company looking to join this group, create software / services that would benefit our members or organise any event where this subject is relevant please email mike@TIGA.org for more information.

So please do email me and let me know how I can help!

Lewis Hamilton playing our new race game

4T2 have been using lots of different celebs to promote and play our new games of recent. All of the BBC Radio 1 DJ's and their guests have played FTW live on the radio. Now we've got F1 drivers playing our new campaign for Mobil 1.

Guest Racer Concept Finally Under Starters Orders

A new flash game designed and created by 4T2 Multimedia for a well known Radio Station is due to launch next week. This campaign allows competitors to race against recordings created by guests and DJs from the station, helping listeners engage with the show. But for me personally, Monday is the end of a story, not the beginning...

4T2 built a racing game that featured keystroke recording technology for Exchange & Mart in 2003. We really liked Xchase (which, in 4T2’s eyes was ISC Racer v3) and saw the opportunity this technology combined with a Flash game offered to media companies. Therefore the ‘guest racing’ concept was proposed to MTV for their Total Requests Live Show later that year. Unfortunately, 4T2’s contacts there moved on before the project was fully commissioned.

The correct opportunity for this idea never arose again till now, so the key press recording software we originally designed was relegated to a security backup role spotting people who had hacked into game based competitions trying to win prizes. For example check out Rob Fell's lap from a Vauxhall promotion. If you’re wondering why 4T2 were so paranoid about cheats check out this great story

The 2009 campaign obviously looks much better than if 4T2 built this in 2003, as we don’t need to be quite so stringent on file size and the capabilities of Flash has moved on, but the basic principle is still the same. So therefore, next week, I finally get to see if this concept is a winner or not. Fingers crossed.

PS. Come on Top Gear – Surely it’s time for a “Star in a Reasonable Price Car” online game using GPS data fed from the real laps? You can then input the performance stats from all of the other cars being test driven as well, allowing the audience to experience the difference being in the latest Ferrari really makes.

Expansion pack released for Mars Mission

4T2 have just released four more CrystAlien Conflict levels featuring the 2008 Mars Mission products. If players find themselves struggling with the new levels they may not be too pleased to hear that completing them really should be child’s play.

A competition was run in November 2007 by LEGO Club Magazine for their readers to design the new levels by sending in sketches and stories explaining what is happening in the game.



First prizewinner was eight-year-old Jack Hardy who imagined the LEGO Mars Astronauts locating the Alien main base and being faced with their evil Commander. His ideas have been incorporated into levels 2 and 3 of the new game up-date with the title ‘Jack Attack!’ in his honour. Standards were so high that Thomas Lea, 11, was added as runner up for his excellent proposed level guide that consisted of a large map with tracing paper overlays giving opposition locations.



Both boys came to the 4T2 offices to play test the level they devised on Friday 4th April. Jack and Thomas are now part of LEGO history as the first ever fans to officially create content for their online games.

By watching many children play the existing game 4T2 already had several concepts on what we could do to make it even better. This competition was specifically designed to allow us to go a stage further – to understand how children perceived the game in their imagination. I wanted to know what kids expected to find waiting around the next corner? What would the next challenge be and how would they conquer it? Jack’s beautiful illustration and story gave us that answer.

4T2 have now taken this concept even further with the new BIONICLE Mistika game (due to be released this month) containing a level designing system.