SilverBirch set to blast off for Ice Planet

When the sci-fi show Ice Planet lands on CHUM Ltd.’s Space: The Imagination Station, viewers will be able to do a little exploring of their own on their cell phones and other mobile devices. An Ice Planet mobile game is scheduled to launch simultaneously with the show in Canada as part of a convergence project that will eventually also involve a console game as well. The creators are trumpeting it as the first time that an intertwined mobile game and TV series will launch simultaneously. "The mobile game will actually feed right from the TV series," says Jason Azevedo, VP of creative at SilverBirch Studios, the Toronto-based company developing the mobile game. " will be a kind of top-down, exploratory, role-playing adventure game with hints being given through the TV show. For example, if one of the crew members is at a panel and there is a little code there, you can use that code to get a secret weapon and unlock it in the game." For CHUM Web producer Darko Milivojevic, who is spearheading the gaming side for the broadcaster, it is important to bring more interactive elements to TV viewing. "We need to engage the audience on various levels, and we think this is the next step in the evolution of TV," he states. "Watching a TV show right now is partly complemented by going to a Web site, where there are behind-the-scene descriptions, interviews and ring tones. But we want to take it a step further...we understand gaming is here and it’s huge." CHUM initially planned to begin broadcasting Ice Planet in November, but the date could be delayed until early next year, according to Milivojevic. The 22-episode, hour-long TV series is also being broadcast in the United Kingdom on the Sci-Fi Channel and in the United States on GamePlay, a high-definition satellite TV channel. SilverBirch hopes to release the game at the same time as the TV show in these territories as well, and plans to sell the mobile game worldwide through the Internet and through mobile carriers backed by a marketing plan that includes cross-promotion between the television and game. The mobile game, with a $200,000 development budget, will be sold for a one-time download fee, but there will also be extended game experience "extras" for additional charges. SilverBirch plans to produce the game in multiple languages and port it to different cell phone platforms and multiple other wireless devices. Players can choose between short arcade-style challenges and full-story games. There will also be a companion web site, where other Ice Planet mobile content can be purchased, such as ring tones. The mobile game is in its early design stage, according to Azevedo, with the writers of the TV series working closely with the mobile game writers. "We will get the concepts and TV scripts from them. Games are obviously very different from a TV show, and you can’t have as much text or storyline in the game. So our writers will compact in a way that brings it across to the mobile game." Noting that the development of a mobile game is much quicker than that of a console game, he adds it could be ready in anywhere from two to six months. Mark Terry, director of marketing and brand manager for Ice Planet at SpaceWorks Entertainment Inc., says, "There will be a bit of everything – all the elements that make mobile games popular at the moment will be incorporated into our game." Toronto-based SpaceWorks is one of the partners creating the TV series. SpaceWorks principals Daniel D’Or and G. Philip Jackson produced the Starhunter sci-fi TV series under Danforth Studios, which has since been rolled into SpaceWorks. The Ice Planet TV show begins with Trager, played by Canadian actor Michael Ironside, escaping from Earth after it is destroyed only to end up marooned on a mysterious ice planet. Terry likens Ice Planet to the popular Lost television series. "The characters don’t know who brought them there , but now they have to learn to survive in an alien environment," he states. SilverBirch announced at Cannes in April that it had been awarded the exclusive licensing rights to the development of a new mobile game based on Ice Planet from PlayG, a division of P&P Multimedia (France) and SpaceWorks Game Co., a division of SpaceWorks Entertainment. SilverBirch has the right to distribute the finished game worldwide, subject to a cross-licensing arrangement with CHUM. PlayG is developing the console game, which has a development budget of between $10 million and $15 million. The mobile game is being developed with the help of a grant from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. Executive director Andrea Sheffer tells Canadian New Media that the exact figure hasn’t been agreed to yet because there are a few budgetary questions, but that the final grant will be close to $150,000, or about 75% of the overall budget. "We look for something that makes us go ‘Wow!’ and was that was going to be international, in all these different languages and for multiple systems," adds Sheffer. "And the budget for doing this was very reasonable, has a good track record, there was actually a marketing plan and the revenue model looked very feasible." With a console game that will be available on Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 system and possibly other consoles also in development, a lot of coordination has been ongoing between SilverBirch, the console developers and the team working on the TV show to ensure continuity and a consistent brand. Azevedo says SilverBirch will likely share some of the same assets, such as conceptual and creative work, with PlayG. "We really are of the belief that any sort of game experience that applies to a specific franchise should feel the same," he says. The console game will likely come out at the same time as the show launches on DVD, or near the end of the first season. Terry notes that Microsoft would probably oversee sales of the console game, while Milivojevic says the console game will tie in even more closely with the storyline of the TV series than the mobile game, and will also include regularly released downloadable content that will expand the game as the TV storyline advances. The plan to launch the TV series in conjunction with the games also influenced the show’s casting. Ironside is already known in the gaming world as the voice for Sam Fisher, the main character in the popular Splinter Cell series of games. Ironside’s voice will be used extensively in the console game, but less so in the mobile game due to file size limitations. Revenues from the sale of the mobile game will be split between CHUM and SilverBirch. Azevedo notes that most of SilverBirch’s previous game development experience has been on a pay-for-development, one-time fee for such companies as Warner Brothers. With cross-promotion from the TV series, Azevedo is hoping for big numbers for the Ice Planet mobile game. Terry says "push technology" will be incorporated into the mobile game, so that when people buy it, promotional content for the TV show will be sent directly to their mobile devices. As well, advertising for the game will be aired during the TV broadcasts. "Not many TV shows lend themselves to the game format, but ours does because it is science fiction-based and there will be aliens and foreign terrain. You can’t really do a game for Seinfeld, for example, but you can for an action-packed, sci-fi show like ours," notes Terry. "Sci-fi is the perfect arena or playground for us to be in. If it were a cooking show or something like that, it might not lend as well," echoes Azevedo.

SilverBirch set to blast off for Ice Planet

News | 07/25/2006 4:00 am EDT

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