Canadian Geographic magazine, published six times a year, celebrates all things Canadian. The magazine began more than 75 years ago, and is dedicated to uncovering and communicating the stories about Canadian people, places, frontiers and issues – past and present. It is owned by The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and features the latest science, environment, travel and human / cultural stories from across Canada. It has 4.5 million readers in the country and abroad.
Despite the short timeline, RealDecoy produced a game that exceeded our expectations, on time and on budget. RealDecoy’s strategy and process for anticipating and delivering what the client really wants is exceptional. We look forward to working with the RealDecoy team again in the future.
Gilles Gagnier
New Media Manager
Canadian Geographic
Canadian Geographic approached RealDecoy and Axionic, our creative partner, to develop an interactive trivia game focusing on the province of British Columbia.
THE CHALLENGE
A touch-screen game
When Canadian Geographic was looking to develop an interactive trivia game, it turned to Axionic and RealDecoy. The game needed to be developed on a short timeline and within a tight budget. It needed to be installed on two 42-inch touch screen monitors at B.C. Experience, an experiential attraction located in the Crystal Garden in Victoria, B.C. The game also needed to reach as wide an audience as possible, children and adults alike.
The game had to be built from the ground up. We provided Canadian Geographic with the initial concepts and editorial support as well as a scalable and interactive gaming platform.OUR SOLUTION
Interactive Trivia
The trivia game was a huge success. We delivered on time and on budget. And it turned out to be one of the most popular exhibits at B.C. Experience.
We developed a game system that could be delivered on multiple platforms, from touch-screen Kiosks to CD-ROMs and through the Internet.
The entire trivia engine is easily modifiable and updatable. New content, images, video and audio could be added through an external XML file. This made making additions and edits to the game’s questions by Canadian Geographic staff easy.
Structure of the online game
The game itself consisted of four categories: history, nature, geography and people. Players could select any one of the four categories at which point a series of multiple choice questions would be served up from a database of questions. Because the questions were pulled randomly, no two gaming experiences were exactly the same. There was also a ‘Surprise Me’ category that randomly pulled questions from one of the first four categories.
Interactive mini games
In each round of questions there was one random ‘Zinger’. Zingers consisted of a special interest piece that contained extra information in a full-screen presentation with video and animation. Zinger topics included: Sasquatch, Orca whales, Alexander Mackenzie, Earthquakes, the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Biodiversity of Haida Gwaii.
We have since worked on similar projects, including an interactive game for B.C. Ferries.
Timeline: March 2006
