Madagascar raises the level of DVD trivia

Post, May, 2005 by Marc Loftus

PALO ALTO, CA -- The b Equal Company (www.bequal.com), a publisher of DVD games designed for family play, recently wrapped up work on its latest and most challenging release to date, The Madagascar Animal Trivia DVD Game for DreamWorks. Featuring footage from the animated feature Madagascar, the game was authored using Zootech's DVD-Extra Studio tool and offers "dynamic leveling," allowing players of all ages to compete on a level playing field.

Peter Sauers, executive producer at b Equal, says the game was designed and developed in-house, and was authored in an incredibly short time frame--about three months--just half the time it normally takes.

"DVD-Extra provided us a much more elaborate toolset to accomplish everything that we'd spent months and months on in our last games."

DVD-Extra Studio, says Sauers, helps automate much of the production process involved in DVD game development. "Our games are a tall order, with 1,700 questions and answers. There are six types of questions and each has its own template. The game allows up to four players and keeps track of scores on screen."

The game also watches players' score outcomes and dynamically levels their play, making the game easier or more challenging. Algorhythms, says Sauers, help keep the game close regardless of players' ages.

Graphic design for the game was done on a Mac at b Equal. Comchoice in Los Angeles is a Zootech DVD-Extra Studio site and handled the authoring of the project. The tool, now in Version 1.6 release, runs on the NT or XP platform.

"Because of tight schedule," Sauers recalls, "we did not have a chance to create original animation." Instead, the team worked closely with PDI, extracting foreground character animation layers from the film, five minutes of which is peppered throughout the game. Comchoice animators also created accompanying backgrounds and graphics.

Comchoice also served as the recording facility for the game's questions and answers, which were read by celebrity soundalikes who impersonated stars Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The game is being released on a DVD-9 disc and experimentation with compression algorhythms was performed to maximize the space of the dual-layer, single-side disc.

At press time, the game was in replication for availability just prior to the release of the DreamWorks film. A "light" promotional version was also going to be authored for distribution to Loews movie theaters.