Ok so we got a call from a Japanese game company called GENM. Apparently, they're about to launch one of their augmented reality game, Kamen Rider Chronicles, in the West and are looking for American cartoon studios to produce a series of short animated commercials to promote their game to the American market. The ads would air on prime time on all major networks and GENM are sparing no expenses, giving us basically carte blanche budget-wise to make the best ads possible.
Problem is, not only is the game sickeningly Japanese in all aspects (apparently it features NPCs from a bunch of previous GENM franchises that never saw release in the West, including shit like an idol rhythm game), but it was also banned by the Japanese health ministry for causing player death and spreading diseases (apparently not a bug, but a feature). So the question is, how appeal to an American market and diminish or spin the dangerous aspects of the game into something that'd give players incentive to play?
Here are a bunch of pointers the GENM PR team sent us:
>Kamen Rider Chronicles® is the latest and most advanced augmented reality game on the planet!
>Heroes of the world! Now is the time to Transform! Using the Kamen Rider Chronicles® Gashat™, Ride Players® will be able to Transform into masked heroes, Kamen Rider!
>Team up and compete with fellow Riders to defeat the mighty Bugster Army™ and climb the ranks to the Final Boss! Each Bugster you defeat will give you a new Gashat™ (limit of one Gashat™ per Bugster)
>The first player to collect all Gashats™ will unlock the Final Boss!
>Have fun and play safe! Defeat in the game means defeat in real life as the boundaries between game and reality are blurred!
>Be the hero to clear the game! All players defeated while playing Kamen Rider Chronicles® will be revived upon defeat of the Final Boss!
So, I'm awaiting your ideas on my desk within the week. We'll start production at the end of June, GENM wants the ads for September.
