I caught up with Kieran Hannon the other day. He was in the Bay Area for a meeting with the Irish prime minister (he's on the board of Enterprise Ireland) and I realized it had been a good few years since I had last seen him.

He used to be co-managing director of Grey Advertising, then had gone off to Texas to work as VP of Marketing for Radio Shack, and then moved to Santa Monica, in Southern California. He's now working as COO at a promising startup called Sidebar, which has an interesting mobile technology that recommends content based on what people like, very useful for online retailers and others.

Kieran and his family had spent 18 years living in San Francisco, and I was curious what life in Southern California (SoCal) was like.

He said life was good, and that the startup scene was healthy and that there are a lot of media/technology centers there. I often write about how Silicon Valley has become Media Valley, because of all the media companies here (Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, etc) so it makes sense that SoCal, with its rich media history, would be a fertile breeding ground for media technology startups.

Earlier this week, Mark Suster, a VC based in SoCal, wrote an excellent post about startups in LA. Want to Start a Technology Company in LA?

He makes some great points:

...LA [is] the second largest city in the country with a population if 16 million. We have universities like Caltech, UCLA, USC and many more. We have many seasoned entrepreneurs who have built successful companies here and made a lot of money for investors and themselves. But LA is not Silicon Valley and we don't need to aspire to be so. We will never be Silicon Valley in the way that Toronto will never be Hollywood. But we have a great city for building technology companies.

He goes into details about how LA is not like Silicon Valley.

- Funding is different, there are smaller "A" rounds of around $3m rather than $10m here.

- Recruiting is different. There aren't huge pools of engineers, but it is possible to build 100+ sized teams.

- Commuting isn't as bad as people think it is, most people live close to where they work. And hey, commuting isn't that easy here.

- Lots of content creation skills. This is an interesting point to make because software engineers can be found almost anywhere in the world today, but content creation skills are very culture specific, you can't outsource this work.

- There are now larger numbers of successful entrepreneurs, many are on the their second and third successful company.

Here are a few success stories:

There is a lot of innovation happening in LA from places like Eqal, Deca.TV, DemandMedia's studios, Clicker, Filmaka and other initiatives.
. . .
The whole category of "sponsored search" came from a successful LA company, Overture. (my firm, GRP Partners, was an investor). LA produced Applied Semantics that created AdSense and was bought by Google. We were also an investor in the early local listing company, CitySearch - an LA company. LA was a leader in lead generation (LowerMyBills), comparison shopping (PriceGrabber, Shopzilla), social networking (MySpace ... I know, I know - Facebook won - but it was still a big business). If we extend a bit North up the coast line we have many affiliate marketing innovators including ValueClick, Commission Junction and FastClick. They also produced GoToMeeting and CallWave.
. . .
A great team from MySpace has created Gravity. Gil Elbaz from Applied Semantics has now created Factual. Zorik Gordon is tearing it up at ReachLocal. TechCoast Angels backed GreenDot should be a major IPO this year. Frank Addante has created Rubicon Project. Douglas Merrill, the former CIO of Google, is building his next company in LA. Scott Painter, founder of CarsDirect has created two new generation LA startups (Zag and TrueCar, both backed by GRP Partners). Brett Brewer (ex MySpace) has AdKnowledge, there is Adconian, Legal Zoom and many more. Hautelook, Gogii, Magento - all very high potential companies building in LA.

Mr Suster is one of the organizers of Launchpad LA V2, which was announced today. This is a project aimed at helping first-time entrepreneurs and helping to educate them and guide them in building successful companies.

We will be selecting 10 startup companies to participate. There is no cost but you must physically be based in or move to Los Angeles for the 6 months of the program. Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is@launchpadlad

A West Coast corridor of innovation...

It won't be long before we have a West Coast corridor of innovation stretching from Silicon Valley to Southern California, and beyond.

In fact, if you fly from San Diego heading north along the coast you pass over tons of innovation centers:

- The communications and biotech industries of San Diego;

- The electronics industries of Orange County;

- The media centers of Hollywood and Santa Monica;

- Then you reach San Francisco/Silicon Valley with its electronics, software, media tech, biotech, cleantech industries;

- Then Portland with its thriving startup scene plus Intel's big presence there;

- Seattle with a thriving tech scene mostly spun out of Microsoft, and Amazon;

- Vancouver and its software industry.

Wow. 1400 miles of innovation. There's no other region like it, hundreds of miles of world-class, industry leading, innovation and creativity.

Interestingly, it's all built on top of one of the most unstable fault lines in the world. A disruptive reality. Is there a connection?

I've always said that innovation has to be disruptive otherwise it's not innovation.

As SXSW Interactive comes to a close and SXSW Music kicks off, it's worth taking a look at the ideas, trends, discussions, and issues that dominated the four-day technology summit. Here are the five areas that stood out the most to me.

Every year there is a product or two that monopolizes most of the buzz -- for example, you couldn't go ten feet in 2008 without hearing a discussion about Twitter. For 2010, the buzzed-about phrase was without a doubt location-based services. Although the start of this discussion was in 2009, these mash-ups of geography and social technology really hit their stride this year.

Foursquare and Gowalla are the clear leaders in this space, as evidenced by the major presence enjoyed by both at the conference. Foursquare had a record 347,000 check-ins in one day this week, and the use of the service will certainly continue as the music crowd floods Austin.

The discussion I had with most people centered around the question, "What next?" As in: Now that these services are gaining momentum and adoption, where is the business model? Other than high-level brand partnerships and individual locations offering incentives for customers to check-in, few other monetization and call-to-action results have been seen. I see plenty of value in getting 10 percent off my order if I am the Foursquare mayor of a restaurant, or in allocating a big ad spend for a custom promotion, but where is the middle ground for everyone else?

But apart from that, you know you're hitting some level of critical mass when CNN chimes in on how to use Foursquare to be cool (or at least not uncool).

In my 2009 wrap-up piece, I stated that 2010 would be the year of analytics. The data has been available for ages, but the tools to turn raw data into information -- and better yet, knowledge -- have finally found a strong value proposition. More and more products are emerging to monitor and analyze Twitter activity, social media trends, community management results, and overall impact and impressions.

Google Analytics is still a strong contender in the space, with almost everyone mentioning this as a core piece of the puzzle. Platform-specific tools such as Twitter Counter and bigger-picture services such as Radian6 were discussed at great length and examples were provided of their functionality.

The current Holy Grail of analytics (and I bet a buzz-topic at SXSW in 2011) is sentiment analysis -- not only knowing who is saying what how often, but getting a feel for the tone and meaning of what they are saying. Be on the lookout for more discussion and tools as time goes on. (MediaShift's Nick Mendoza looked at sentiment analysis related to the Oscars recently.)

There is no lack of articles on the multiple disappointments around this year's panels and keynotes (start here and here). Spotify's Daniel Ek and Twitter's Evan Williams both brought in packed houses, but by the end of their talks the attendance was sparse and the content was thin.

As someone who speaks at and attends many tech and music conferences, I've seen my fair share of highly informative panels, and have had plenty of my time wasted. I wish I could report that SXSWi had a non-stop stream of amazing takeaways, but unfortunately it didn't go that way.

It's not for lack of relevant, forward-thinking topics. And it's certainly not for lack of amazing speakers who are getting big things done. In my experience, it comes down to two things: Having to cater to a very wide audience with varying skill levels, and only having a short time to address a long list of topics. The solution? Keep the panels focused on the core topic -- I'm talking to you, moderators -- and keep in mind that the audience can read theory on any blog; what they need are actionable takeaways.

The reason I left most panels disappointed was that I felt it was a missed opportunity. With such brilliant and accomplished panelists, I should have walked out of the room with a few action items I could implement immediately. This was very rare.

The attendance at this year's conference says something positive about the state of the tech industry. Last year's attendance was approximately 10,000; this year, there were over 15,000 badge holders. The feeling is very reminiscent of the mid-'90s in Seattle, when a new wave of technology and investment quickly expanded the marketplace.

What seems great for the industry -- a glut of big thinkers and tech geniuses -- is not as ideal for the conference itself. Getting into panels meant waiting in long lines and, often, only getting in when someone else left. The same thing happened at most industry parties, where the RSVPs far exceeded room capacity. It was a constant feeling up "hurry up and wait."

Fortunately, AT&T thought ahead and brought in an extra cell tower, providing massive bandwidth for what seemed to be the biggest concentration of iPhones on the planet. I can honestly say it was the best 3G coverage I've ever had.

Something I noticed this year that I hadn't seen near as much in prior years was a number of parallel conferences, both perceived and actual. Depending on your interests and network, the conference experience tends to vary widely. In a single night you can find yourself in the middle of a raging party with young (and wealthy) tech entrepreneurs, a serious business dinner with corporate executives, and in a development workshop with programmers (that's their own unique type of party).

In addition, there were a number of side conferences, including fully off-site panels that almost felt like secret societies. Celebrity bloggers hosted workshops, independent organizations hosted roundtable discussions, and trade organizations fostered discussions focused on their interests. There was certainly something for everyone.

SXSW Music has now begun, and the tone of the conference has dramatically changed. Stay tuned for a report back on that experience...

Photo of Foursquare app by dpstyles via Flickr. Photo of attendee with Mr. Spam by Randy Stewart via Flickr. Photo of SXSW closing party logo by Fellowship of the Rich via Flickr

Jason Feinberg is Vice President, Direct To Consumer Marketing for Concord Music Group. He is responsible for digital and physical direct-to-fan solutions for CMG's frontline and massive catalog including the Fantasy and Stax labels.

This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

Palm shares plunged in late trading Thursday after the company posted yet another dismal quarter and warned that revenue for the current one will fall far short of Wall Street expectations. The company will have to take substantial charges to help its carrier partners eat through excess inventory, and whatever luster once existed for its flagship Pre is long gone. The question now is, who’s going to pick up Palm?

Palm’s last-ditch gamble on webOS has been a disaster. The operating system — which debuted last summer on the Pre — has received solid reviews, but an utter lack of effective marketing from Sprint — and more recently, Verizon Wireless — shackled handset sales. And an upcoming partnership with AT&T — which looked to be Palm’s last chance at redemption — is reportedly fizzling already after the carrier delayed the launch of webOS handsets, slashed its order and cut its marketing budget.

So what are Palm’s options? CEO Jon Rubinstein is projecting a “stay the course” attitude, saying better training of Verizon Wireless sales staffers will begin to pay off — a questionable theory given the flat-line demand for the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus so far. Producing a tablet would be an interesting strategy, as James over at jkOnTheRun suggested yesterday. But the market for tablets is still very uncertain, and there’s little reason to believe Palm can move a different kind of hardware when it can’t sell phones. So a suitor will likely sweep in and pick up Palm, snatching up webOS — the company’s most valuable asset — and a sizable patent portfolio. Here’s a quick rundown of the most likely (or most highly speculated) candidates for acquiring Palm — including their odds of doing so:

• Google : The most intriguing play on the board, Google might be compelled by Palm’s patent portfolio, as Gizmodo noted yesterday. What’s more, Google and Palm both operate Linux-based mobile operating systems, which would make it easy for Google to cherry-pick the best features from webOS and add them to Android. Google could easily afford Palm, and as a bonus would keep it from falling into the hands of a competitor. Odds: 7-1
• Dell : The Texas computer vendor joined the smartphone space a few months ago, launching handsets in Brazil and China, and will soon launch an Android-based device through AT&T. But its late entry means Dell will have a hard time differentiating its hardware, and coming to market with its own mobile operating system, app store and developer community could be a great way to stand out from the crowd. Odds: 7-1
• Hewlett-Packard: HP’s tiny smartphone business is dissolving in the superphone era. Picking up what amounts to a turnkey mobile OS would be a huge — if costly — move to attract attention and breathe life into its mobile business. Odds: 11-1.
• Nokia : Nokia has long been mentioned as a potential buyer for Palm, but successfully marrying the two has become an increasingly difficult proposition. Nokia already claims the world’s most popular smartphone OS in Symbian, and its Maemo — um, sorry, I mean MeeGo – operating system appears to be its long-term strategy. What’s more, Ovi has gained impressive traction in recent months. Adding another platform to the mix would only serve to distract Nokia just as it finally appears to be regaining its focus. Odds: 25-1
• Motorola : Another hardware maker that might be compelled by the idea of owning its own OS, Motorola’s $8 billion in cash ensures plenty of capital to pocket Palm. Yet despite what Om suggested earlier this year, taking on a mobile operating system would likely be more than Motorola could handle, given its difficulty in regaining its once-dominant market share in smartphones. Marriages of two weak players from different spaces rarely end up happy. Odds: 30-1
• Microsoft : Palm and Microsoft seemed like a great fit just a few months ago. But that was before the gang from Redmond went public with its plans to scrap Windows Mobile in favor of Windows Phone, an impressive, consumer-targeted platform set to debut late this year. Windows Phone may fail gloriously, but there’s no reason to bring another OS into the fold — and webOS is largely considered to be Palm’s most valuable asset. Odds: 35-1
• Cisco : An acquisition of Palm would enable Cisco to immediately expand beyond infrastructure into the mobile consumer market. Such a move wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented for Cisco, which last year bought the maker of Flip Video camcorders for $590 million, but maintaining a mobile operating system is a far more sophisticated endeavor than simply churning out camcorders. Odds: 40-1.

This is only a partial list, of course, and new potential suitors are sure to emerge as Palm begins to circle the drain. The clock is ticking, and there’s almost no hope Palm can reverse course at this point. So someone in the mobile space might be able to do very well by picking up a dying company at a cut-rate price.

Related content from GigOM Pro (sub req’d):

Could Games Redeem Windows Mobile and Palm’s webOS?

Image courtesy Flickr user nathangibbs.

Leyl Master Black is a Managing Director at Sparkpr, one of the world’s top independent PR agencies. Leyl has more than 15 years experience driving high-impact communications programs for emerging technology companies.

While more than three million businesses, brands and celebrities have created Facebook Pages, many are struggling to figure out how best to use them. Companies are finding that even when they keep their pages updated with fresh content, they still aren’t seeing steady growth in their fan base.

And yet there are many brands who’ve surpassed the one million fan mark, while their peers have languished in the thousands. What’s their secret? These companies have figured out how to move from “broadcast” mode into engagement. They have engaged people so well that their fans even invite others along for the ride.

Here are four ways that savvy Facebook marketers are using the medium to engage with their fans.

If you post something on your Facebook Page, you might generate a good number of comments. But if you post your content in the context of a question, you provide an easy call to action. With a question, you engage people’s egos and provoke viral distribution of your content — everyone loves to share their opinion!

At the DigiDay: Social conference this month, social media marketing application developer Fan Appz highlighted an example of how a simple question can boost engagement. One of their customers — a leading video content provider with over 300,000 Facebook fans — routinely posts videos on their Facebook Page. The company found that when they paired videos with a question, video plays jumped by a whopping factor of 7 to 10. This simple yet effective strategy also generated 100 times more Facebook media impressions, as people posted videos to their walls in the context of their response to the question.

The NBA has also adopted this approach, issuing a steady stream of “Top Five” polls and other engaging content that has propelled the organization to top the two million fan mark, an unprecedented number for a sports league on the social networking site. The NBA routinely invites fans to rank their top five shooters, point guards and more. During the 2009-10 NBA season, their Fan Page generated nearly 500 million status update impressions and more than six million video views.

Consider testing people’s knowledge with a fun, relevant quiz, and even tying the results to a giveaway or promotion (more on that later). A clever quiz is not only entertaining, but also lengthens the time a user spends engaged with your brand.

One company embracing this approach is Molotov, a digital marketing agency whose clients include comedians such as George Lopez, David Spade and Jamie Kennedy. Molotov worked with George Lopez to create quizzes such as How Well Do You Know George Lopez? to push his fan base over the one million mark and drive viewership for his TV show.

In another Molotov program to promote a client’s new TV show, the company ran a series of quizzes about the celebrity in conjunction with a sweepstakes for signed merchandise. The quizzes were tests of knowledge about the comedian, his comedy, his routines, even about what happened on last week’s show. Giving people the opportunity to test their knowledge got them into a competitive mode and provided an additional incentive to share their results with friends. In the span of a little over a week, the campaign drove over 12 million brand impressions — and the premiere of the show was the highest rated show on the cable network for the year.

While a contest or sweepstakes may get you some e-mail addresses, simply posting these on your page provides limited incentive to share with friends or even to participate. The way to boost participation is by tying the offer to content. People taking a brand-related quiz are great targets for your message. They may already have an affinity for the brand, so this is the best time to make them an offer.

In the example mentioned above, Molotov gave fans a chance to enter a sweepstakes to win signed merchandise — but the offer was made within the flow of the quiz. This strategy resulted in a 50% conversion rate. For every ten fans who tested their knowledge, five signed up to participate in the promotion, generating over 30,000 sign-ups for the weekly e-mail blast to promote the show.

The offer doesn’t even have to be big. Before the Super Bowl, the NFL ran a How Well Do You Know the NFL? quiz, with one lucky participant selected to receive a $50 gift card to NFLshop.com. Over 10,000 people took the quiz. If you estimate that each participant has 200 friends, that’s a possible two million impressions in the news feed with a relatively small giveaway.

Giving your fans something of value — whether it’s as simple as a coupon, or as flashy as tickets to the Tonight Show — is a great way to show that you appreciate their continued support.

But what about picking one fan at random to get something really special?

The NBA again shows that they are on the leading edge. This brilliant strategy taps some of their biggest stars to record personalized video clips thanking select fans. Here’s a picture of Shaq thanking fan #385. If you’re an NBA fan, you could be next!

You don’t have to be a major brand like the NBA to turn your Facebook Page into an engaging destination. Any business can take these ideas and get creative. A restaurant could pair a quiz about famous restaurant movie scenes with a $100 gift certificate sweepstakes, or a Ford dealership could run a poll gauging people’s reactions to the Toyota recall news and give away interest-free financing to one lucky winner. The trick is to think about what your users would be interested in, what’s trendy or fun, then try it out.

In what ways are you engaging with your Facebook fans?

- 5 Fantastic Facebook Fan Page Ideas to Learn From
- HOW TO: Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business
- HOW TO: Block FarmVille on Facebook
- How Facebook Can Become a Money Making Machine
- 10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook

Tags: business, celebrities, engagement, facebook, facebook fan page, facebook fan pages, Facebook Lists, List, Lists, NBA, quiz, small business

Cette semaine est particulièrement chargée pour mes services de conférencière. Je vous ai écrit ce billet du cégep de Jonquière puisqu’avant-hier après-midi, je passais quelques heures avec les étudiants du fameux programme ATM (Art et Technologie des médias – Techniques de communication dans les médias et Techniques de production et de postproduction télévisuelles –pour les candidats en journalisme, en radio, en publicité ou en télévision sont invités à visiter les installations), pour une période de questions-réponse à propos des médias sociaux et de leurs risques et opportunités pour ces jeunes qui justement se spécialisent en journalisme et production télévisuelle. Hier, je donnais une conférence à Chicoutimi, pour les futurs patrons de ces étudiants, qui se regroupent à la conférence des professionnels de la communication Saguenay Lac St-Jean, pour leur congrès Devenez Cybercommunicateur –Joignez le réseau. Comme c’est mon habitude, ma présentation Les médias sociaux : comment les intégrer efficacement dans une stratégie de communication? est déjà en ligne sur Slideshare.

Aujourd’hui, je suis de retour à Montréal pour donner une conférence sur le thème de la Santé 2.0 à l’Association Québécoise d’établissements de santé et de services sociaux, pour le Colloque des communications 2010, Malades de com 2.0 : pour des interventions stratégiques. Ma présentation est évidemment disponible aussi.

 

Finalement, demain je m’adresse aux étudiants membres de la Société Québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques. J’y donnerais une conférence somme toute semblable à celle que j’ai donné aux étudiants du 2 e cycle de l’Université Sherbrooke et qui est disponible dan mon billet Conférencière : Les médias sociaux, une perspective socio-démo-marketing.

Cette semaine, dans le cadre de la conférence Social Media Aces, où j'intervenais en ouverture et clôture et qui se voulait un après-midi de partage et de retours d'expérience de la part d'entreprises sur leurs démarches actuelles autour des médias sociaux (qu'ils soient pris dans une dimension communication, marketing voire interne). Intervenaient ainsi SNCF, MMA, Veolia entre autres auprès de près de 200 personnes présentes.

Je vous propose la synthèse de mes deux présentations (il s'agit d'une synthèse et non des supports complets utilisés lors de la session... j'aurai l'occasion de revenir sur le "pourquoi" d'une synthèse prochainement)

Les medias sociaux en 2010
View more presentations from CedricDeniaud.com.

Autre présentation que je voulais absolument partager avec vous est celle de Dan Shust, réalisée dans le cadre de SXSW. (événement mélangeant conférence et festivals avec notamment la participation de Muse cette année).

Cette présentation recoupe également les tendances en 2010. Autant, je me suis focalisé sur 5 tendances qui parlent a priori aujourd'hui à des annonceurs français, autant il est également intéressant de voir ce qu'il en est sur le marché US qui, on le sait, a une maturité plus grande. A ce titre, cela ne sert alors pas à grand chose de sans cesse donner que des cas d'usages américains ou ne diffuser que des supports américains puisqu'ils s'adressent à un marché plus vaste et avec un autre niveau de maturité.

SXSW Convergence 2010 Dan Shust
View more presentations from Resource Interactive.

Pour aller plus loin :

• Bilan 2009, réflexions et top billets
• Quelques chiffres méconnus sur Twitter
• Petit rappel : être présent sur les médias sociaux n'est pas un objectif
• Les buzzwords sont à la mode : community manager, social media, communauté...
• Best et worst practices des marques sur Twitter en France
  

Chief Counsel of Google-owned YouTube, Zahavah Levine, in a blog post relating to the Viacom vs. YouTube lawsuit writes:

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

[Via Reddit.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: YouTube: "For years, Viacom continuously and ... | Comments]

New fantasy hack and slasher looks promising

Dungeon crawler games have fallen way out of fashion in the last 10-15 years, so the genuine excitement shown by the developers of new title Hunted: The Demon's Forge at the recent press launch was understandable. Clearly the standard marketing and focus group considerations would have been taking into consideration when green lighting the game but you definitely got the feeling that Hunted is a labour of love for the team. Not surprising, perhaps, when you consider that the project lead is Bard's Tale veteran Brian Fargo.

Hunted is a third-person, co-op based, action RPG with a standard fantasy setting that felt very familiar. The decent enough visuals won't win any awards either but this doesn't look like a game where you'll be gawping at the scenery. The demo showed a lot of hack and slash action and even more of the female protagonist – yes, this isn't a good example to use in any "games have grown up, honest!" style argument - but it does look like it could be fun to play, especially in co-op. The dynamic between the male melee character and the female archer was an obvious co-op design decision and the demo showed what could be a common sight – the archer picking off enemies from range while the melee character hacks away up close. This all sounds very MMO-like but while customisation is available you will not be able to create your own character from scratch. I spoke to game director Maxx Kaufman about design, influences and how co-op will work.

What is the background to the game?

Being huge fans of fantasy and Dungeon & Dragons, we were inspired to create a game that would allow us to get lost in a dungeon, fight AND explore a really cool fantasy world. As a kid I always dreamed of fighting monsters with a sword and a bow as well as exploring for magic and treasure. Now in Hunted I can do that. It is an exhilarating experience to see this world come to life.

Why is now the time to relaunch the dungeon crawler genre?

In the past these games have always been very successful but I think that they've gotten lost with the MMO craze. We really felt that it was time to bring the dungeon crawl back – but in a way that made sense to today's gamer.

Hunted is a cover action game at its core but it also allows the player the opportunity to explore the game's vast environments. At certain times in the game the player will be fighting waves of enemies while at other times they'll be searching through dark, eerie dungeons.

Do you think the linear dungeon crawl experience will appeal to gamers used to the wide open worlds of Fallout and World of Warcraft?

The world in which Hunted takes place is really rich and exciting. We like to think of it as getting on a roller coaster whether you are alone or with a friend – it's just a really engaging experience either way. Players will be on an adventure that takes them through numerous locales – they'll go deep into underground dungeons, make their way through really awe-inspiring outdoor environments and wind their way through these old towns. Our goal is to create a compelling experience that gives players the sensation of being in a Lord of the Rings-esque movie.

How important is the co-op to the game?

Co-op is vital to our game. It was planned from the very beginning that this would be a co-op game and our design and story is based around that. In the past co-op games have had a tendency to tether players together. We have implemented the opposite philosophy that we call co-op at a distance. We encourage the players to separate and support one another from a distance.

All of our spells and skills are based around the idea of players being apart but able to help each other. For example you can heal a downed player by throwing a re-gen vial at a distance. This avoids the tedious task of running to your partner and slapping them back to life. Ice arrows will allow Elara, our ranged character, to shoot and freeze enemies from a distance. Caddoc will then simply smash them into pieces. Caddoc has a levitation skill that will allow him to create a radius of levitation around his sword that will cause enemies in the area to float harmlessly around him. Elara is then able to shoot them from a distance.

Co-op at a distance is threaded through every aspect of Hunted's design, from enemies to spells, and in the level design. It even carries over to the single-player mode. A player can play the game with an AI partner and still get a similar experience.

How important is the story to the game?

For us, the story sets the mood and it gives us an important frame work from which to create the game.

For players, as with most games, the story unfolds as they make their way through the game. Those who want to delve deeper in the story can find clues and information to the game's 500 year plus lore. Alternatively, if you are the type of player who is only interested in action, you can play through the game and still have a rich experience.

How does online play work - do you get XP etc in someone else's game?

Players that play online will gain crystals, which are the currency used to gain spells and skills. For example, if you play online and you are further ahead in the game than I am, I can play with you, and the crystals I gain can be transferred back to my single player campaign.

What customization options are available?

There are various weapons and items the player can pick up that will boost certain abilities, but the real customization comes in with our skills and spells system. The players trade in crystals they find throughout the world for various skills. Because the characters have unique abilities there is a lot of variation in the types of customization that can be achieved.

E'lara will gain spells and skills that are related to her bow while Caddoc's skills are based around his melee combat. Some of these skills are common to both characters, but there are many skills that are unique to each character based on their strengths, such as Levitation for Caddoc and Ice Arrow for E'lara. Ultimately playing Hunted will be a very different experience based on the customizations you choose.

Do you think co-op is more important than competitive play in online gaming generally?

It's not a case of one being more important than the other. In the case of Hunted, it was about what made the most sense and what people would want, and that's to experience this alongside a friend or someone else, not fighting head-to-head.

Can you explain how the levelling up and RPG elements work?

The leveling occurs when you meet up with an ethereal spirit named Seraphine. She tasks the player with collecting crystals and in return she will grant you spells and skills. By finding better weapons that are throughout the world, players can also upgrade their weapons. If you are the type of player that enjoys exploration we have tons of secrets. The more challenging secrets will yield better items and loot.

What sort of audience do you think Hunted will attract?

Because fantasy games have such a large fan base I think Hunted has broad appeal. We are melding two popular game genres – fantasy and action - into one game which makes its appeal even wider.

While the MMO fans will enjoy the ability to just pick up and play, they will also be taken on a cinematic adventure in the genre they love.

The metal soundtrack and scantily clad ladies suggest a traditional gamer but do you think a wider audience may be interested?

We're going for a soundtrack similar to the movie "300". And who doesn't like scantily clad ladies? Both of these elements will appeal to a large audience and fit within the context on the game.

Is Hunted a reaction to more complex RPGs that have sprung up over the last 10 years?

Hunted is a reimagining of the forgotten dungeon crawl category using today's technology and gameplay styles, for today's gamer.

Hunted: Demon's Forge is released on PC, 360 and PS3 later this year

• Games

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Unified communications systems integrator iVision has appointed Eva Shafer as marketing manager.