Monumental developed “Honey Defender – The Case of the Honey Heist”, the new 3D web game based on the Honey Nut Cheerios brand and characters. Working with Primal Screen for world-class creative and client Saatchi & Saatchi, we built a digital premium that excites young players, provides contemporary entertainment value and deeply promotes the brand. In the online age where games are gaining on TV, it’s the new toy in the box.

The game finds our hero Buzz arriving in Hive City to aid Mayor Bumble. Assuming the role of Buzz, players visit 5 large and expansive island areas that have both linear and non-linear activities. The storyline advances by having Buzz perform quests and interact with other in-game characters. Collection quests, boss encounters and exploration are all part of the fun.

context

For years the holy-grail of branded web-games has always been to make them as compelling as their console counterparts. In the past, when we created flash games, we were always aware that these experiences strained to meet the expectations of gamers. Games could enhance the “stickiness” of a site but not reach the entertainment and branding potential of Xboxes and Playstations in the living room. Flash games just don’t cut it.

Bringing console quality games to the web browser was inevitable and we decided to commit ourselves to being a part of making it happen. Barriers such as bandwidth, computer power, budget and plug-in technology all presented challenges. Additionally, 3D branded games of that caliber needed to be priced appropriately and utilize a production process compatible with the way ad agencies and marketing organizations operate.

Three elements needed to come together to create a game like Honey Defender – cost, process and technology. We were positive we could build console quality short-form web games that created real marketing and entertainment value at a rate comparable to broadcast spot production. Having worked with ad agencies and marketing groups for years developing unique applications, it was not difficult to adapt our process so that scope was easy to define and deliver. Finally, with the maturation of Unity 3D technology, we no longer had to rely on Flash or Director 3D for sub-par browser games or use Unreal or Garage Games engines for the desktop.

Having these elements in place for the Honey Defender Game allowed everyone involved to focus more fully on branding, character design and game-play.

creation

We combined Monumental’s best-practices for working with ad agencies with those of the commercial video game industry to innovate a production process that ensured an on-time and in-budget game. This empowered both Primal Screen’s top-notch project management and creative teams and allowed us to sync seamlessly with them before and during production. Additionally, our game-design documentation was created specifically to be understood by all constituents and to to allow contribution from everyone involved no matter what degree of experience they may have creating games.

Branding, of course, plays a very important role in the game. Characters associated with current and historical campaigns populate the world creating even more character equity. The entire game-world is informed by recent advertising campaigns. Great attention was paid to the organic integration of branding elements into the game-play. Buzz collects Honey Nut Cheerios to regain health and uses health stations where Honey Nut Cheerios are part of a complete breakfast. Branding attributes are cleverly woven into the story-lines but never come across as “beeing” heavy-handed.

From a technical perspective, we had to optimize the graphics so they would be easy to download through a web-browser. As a new innovation, we integrated 3rd party analytics right into the quest system of the game. Additionally, our approach included a unique interstitial flying game that is played while content areas are loading, taking into account the bandwidth constraints of a large 3D world played through a web-browser.

We created a sophisticated 3D web game on-time and on-budget that achieved desired branding objectives and, most importantly, is a blast for kids to play. With people looking for more entertainment online and brands looking for more effective outlets to reach audiences – high-quality online games make a great deal of sense for brands that want to bee out in front.