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You better watch out
Kewlbox creates Santa Balls, other games to play on the sly 12/12/2002
Just before Christmas each year, a group of Internet-connected nuns
joins millions of cubicle-chained office workers in an online invitation
to "Log in and goof off!"
The nuns have come to anticipate their seasonal battles with Oliver
Slide, the taunting elf of the puzzle games created by
Kewlbox.com, a Dallas-based company whose founders are known for Santa
Balls and Elf Bowling.
Even the nuns find joy in Oliver's slightly risqué repartee, say Dan
Ferguson and Mike Bielinski, the forces behind Kewlbox.
"They've told us, 'Just wanted to let you guys know we're having a lot
of fun playing your games,' " says Mr. Bielinski. "They've told us to
keep 'em coming."
That's exactly what the Kewlbox team, with five full-timers and three
part-timers, intends to do. The company's yuletide creations have become
a tradition in a medium too young to have many.
Demand for this year's release, Santa Balls 2, ran at 120,000 downloads
a day in October. So far, the game, which also has an online version at
the Kewlbox site, has been played more than 3.5 million times, the
site's online counter shows.
'Advergaming'
Kewlbox's founders operate the games site as an adjunct to their
Blockdot "advergaming" corporation, which sells games designed around
products and corporate messages. They estimate more than 60 million
copies of their games are floating around on hard drives and the Web.
Elf Bowling, originally released in 1999, was the first game to crack
the Media Metrix Top 10 list that didn't come packaged with a Windows
PC, such as Solitaire or Mine Sweeper. That December, Media Metrix
estimated more than 7.6 million people downloaded Elf Bowling or played
it online, easily outdistancing mass-market PC games such as Myst, Doom
and Quake.
Bruce Ryon, senior vice president and general manager of the Media
Metrix New Media group, called the 1999 accomplishment a phenomenon.
And, many analysts say, it heralded the emergence of a viral gaming
medium that uses e-mail, word of mouth and clever interactivity to
spread messages.
Although the Kewlbox games can be played online, most people download
them, then ship copies to friends via e-mail. Because of that, the files
can turn up in surprising places.
For example, Good Willie Hunting – a whack-a-mole game that poked fun at
President Clinton's extramarital activity – became a favorite of White
House interns during 1998.
That April Fool's Day release also drew the ire of some Clinton
supporters.
"They said, 'I can't believe you're doing that with the president,
making him belch and all,' " says Mr. Ferguson. Conservative
organizations, meanwhile, sent in kudos.
And the Kewlbox team was pleasantly surprised to learn that therapists
who work with the disabled have adopted their titles for hand-eye
coordination exercises.
Players come from all over the world to record their high scores on
Kewlbox.com, where they can also form private communities for running
their own competitions.
The taunts from Oliver Slide, star of Santa Balls 2, are geared for a
more mainstream audience than, say, Spank the Frank ("alone or with
friends"), another Kewlbox title.
If you wait too long to move like-colored Christmas balls into a row,
Oliver Slide mutters, "Are you awake out there? ... Close your mouth.
You're drooling. ... Dear Diary, I waited all day for him to make a
move."
In a new wrinkle, Kewlbox uses the lure of extra features to entice
players to pay $5 in exchange for game codes that unlock more features.
Big-name customers
But the primary Blockdot targets are corporations. Some, such as
American Airlines, have commissioned games that help employees learn the
history of their firms with interactive contests run on their intranets.
Others, such as M&M Mars, have hired Blockdot to create special games
for visitors to their Web sites.
Blockdot has produced games for Nokia, the NFL, Motorola and Mrs.
Field's Cookies. And the market is growing.
Forrester Research has predicted that advergaming firms will generate $1
billion in sales by 2005. Overall, Jupiter Media Metrix says online
gaming will reach $5.6 billion by 2005.
"This was considered guerrilla marketing back in 1998 or 1999," says Mr.
Bielinski. "It was quite an exception when you found a company that
would take risks on creating games."
In fact, Kewlbox itself has been swept up in the wild swings of the
dot-com era. First known as NVision, it quickly gained notice for Elf
Bowling and Frogapult.
Vectrix Business Solutions acquired Nvision in late 1999 but filed for
Chapter 11 shortly afterward. Elf Bowling and Frogapult were auctioned
to another company (Elf Bowling 3 was recently released by the Dallas
firm NStorm), and Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Bielinski regrouped to form
Blockdot.
Now the future looks merry and bright as companies recognize their work.
Says Mr. Ferguson: "They used to be like, 'I don't understand.' " Now,
it's the complete and total opposite. We go in and say, 'Ever play
Sketchy or Elf Balls? That's what we're talking about.' And people will
go, 'Oh, yeah. Now I get it.' "
E-mail dbedell@dallasnews.com
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Furious George
