Spy Kids 4D launches promotional Facebook game

Aware of the built-in fan base as a result of its previous three movies,director Robert Rodriguez has launched a Facebook..

Aware of the built-in fan base as a result of its previous three movies,director Robert Rodriguez has launched a Facebook game for the latest version of the Spy Kids franchise that released last Friday. The game version of Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D was released worldwide two weeks ago,marking a new trend of Hollywood films promoting their films through social networking sites. Avinaash Jumani,who is distributing the film in India through Pictureworks,said that the initiative came entirely from Rodriguez. Rodriguez,through his production house Troublemaker Studio and co-producers Dimension Films decided to come up with some innovative marketing strategies. The Facebook game is a direct result of that, he said.

The game itself is quite simple to play. A user has to choose an agent between Agent dad,Agent mom,Agent girl or Agent boy while the goal of the game is to outsmart the Timekeeper and his henchmen through a series of puzzles and missions. The game play is built around a simple energy-based social mechanic system. Players progress through the game by completing various missions,each of which requires a certain amount of energy. Once a mission is completed,the required energy will be depleted from the players inventory. Players have a limited amount of energy at any given time and must regularly replenish it in order to continue.

Commenting on the reasons for turning the franchise into a game,Jumani said,Apart from the huge number of fans that the franchise has,the latest film also has a lot of gadgetry that lent itself perfectly to a game. There could not be a better way of luring in established as well as first-time audiences to theatres.

However,the movie is selling itself based on Aromascope,the sensation of smell at different points in the film that adds the fourth element. That feature is not present in the game,which could put off certain players who would like to have sampled the feature in some way. Jumani,however,is unperturbed. The last Spy Kids movie was in 3D. The production team decided to do something innovative this time round,especially since 3D has lost its novelty value. Aromascope is a new feature that will definitely impact audiences who come to watch the film, he said. And if Jumani is to be believed,the team has already worked on what will be the worlds first 5D movie for the next film in the Spy Kids franchise.

Asked why Hollywood took so long to figure out the power of social networking sites to market itself,Jumani said the genres that the industry dished out majorly consisted of romantic comedies that are difficult to replicate as a game. However,when questioned about action films,he said,We have started the trend so I am sure very soon there will be more Hollywood films that will look at websites like Facebook to promote themselves.

While Jumani declined to give out numbers of people who had accessed the game since its launch,he said the figures were impressive. We have received a lot of good feedback, was his only comment on the total number of players. Spy Kids: All The Time In The World stars Jessica Alba,Jeremy Piven, Antonio Banderas,Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. The game can be played on http://apps.facebook.com/spykids-game