Position:

Milky Tea is looking for a driven and independent programmer to join our exciting team here in Liverpool. The ideal applicant will have experience in multi-platform mobile development and must be used to a fast-paced creative environment. We’re looking for an individual with previous professional experience who is confident working collaboratively within a multi-disciplined team.

Report to:  Digital Design Manger

Role:  Full Time permanent staff  (Part time also considered) – 3 month trial period working from Milky Tea’s Liverpool studio. (NW based)

Salary: TBC ( Depending upon experience)

Hours: 37 hrs per week

Key attributes and technical requirements:

We expect a passion for developing new skills on top of those you already have in your arsenal. While we want a self-starter, we need a team player to assist senior members of staff in achieving project goals.

• At least two years of C/C++ professional experience required. Working knowledge of Objective-C is a plus.
• Deep understanding of either iOS or Android platforms is essential. Applicants who have worked on multiple mobile platforms are preferred.
• Must be confident in end-to-end development, from managing project and compiler setup right through to packaging and shipping the final bundle.
• Web (HTML 5, Javascript) or server (PHP, ASP) experience is a bonus.

Personal requirements:

• Passionate about games, technology and the digital space as a whole.
• Experience working to a brief and meeting client demands on schedule.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Ability to write and work within technical documentation.

Responsibilities:

You may be a fantastic developer, but are you collaborative and client facing? Can you apply your first-rate time management skills in a professional and reassuring manner? It’s all part of the Milky Tea service and we want it to be a part of you.

• Work to clear and defined milestones and flag up any impediments or issues to senior staff
• Maintain very high standards and create work that exceeds client expectations and positively represents the Milky Tea brand
• Research new software and industry techniques and share with the studio teams
• Participate in idea generation sessions and workshops
• Have a disciplined and professional work ethic
• Adopt all company policies and procedures.
• Adhere to strict company and client confidentiality both inside and outside of working hours.
• Work additional hours when required in order to meet project deadlines.

Interested?

If you are interested please send a CV, a cover letter stating salary expectations and availability. In addition we’d like to see demos of your work that showcase your main skills along with any completed apps, please send to jobs@milkytea.com

Position: 3D Artist/Visualiser (Middleweight) – Liverpool City Centre

So, what are we looking for?

As a middleweight member of the Milky Tea team your objective will be to produce a wide range highly polished 3D images for print and digital media for the advertising and automotive industry. Working from our Liverpool headquarters you must have exceptional skills in 3D Studio Max and Vray and at Least 2 years experience working in a similar role.

Report to:  Digital Design Manger/ Production Manager

Role: Staff- Full Time permanent staff/ 3 month trial period. (Freelance position also available, must be based in NW)

Salary: £18- £22k Depending upon experience.

Hrs: 37 hrs per week.

Key Attributes and experience:

We expect an eagerness to learn and a passion for developing new skills on top of those you already have in your arsenal. You will be expected to be a team player and assist senior members of staff in achieving project goals.

• Excellent 3D modeling, lighting, texturing, and rendering skills.
• Excellent knowledge of 3Ds Max, Vray, Photoshop.
• Be proactive and posses a positive attitude.
• Have excellent attention to detail and experience of retouching rendered images in Photoshop or alternative 2D packages.
• Experience of working with Photography and composting 2D and 3D outputs together.
• Knowledge and experience of HDRI lighting and its applications.
• Able to handle shifting schedules, priorities, and multiple projects.
• Passion for digital artwork.
• A self starter who is willing to learn and evolve their skill set.
• A  team player with excellent communication skills.
• Excellent understanding of digital art and creative production processes.
• Able to create unique and  highly polished 3D and 2D artwork for advertising purposes.
• Able to produce concept sketches and scamp layouts.

 Responsibilities:

You may be a fantastic artist, but can you interact in a team situation and apply your first-rate time management in a professional and reassuring manner? It’s all part of the Milky Tea service and we want it to be a part of you.

• Input into the design phase of projects and create conceptual artwork
• Source suitable reference materials  in line with the client briefs
• Produce a wide range of 3D and 2D illustrations ready for print and digital media
• Work to clear and defined milestones and flag up any impediments or issues to senior staff
• Maintain very high standards and create artwork that exceeds client expectations and positively represents the Milky Tea brand
• Research new software and industry techniques and share with the studio teams
• Participate in idea generation sessions and workshops
• Have a disciplined and professional work ethic
• Adopt all company policies and procedures.
• Adhere to strict company and client confidentiality both inside and outside of working hours.
• When required work additional hours in order to meet project deadlines

Interested?

If you are interested please send a CV, a cover letter stating salary expectations and availability, with samples of your work no bigger than 3mb to jobs@milkytea.com before Friday 13th April.

Position: Office Manager- Liverpool City Centre.

Report to: Managing Director

Role: Staff- Full Time permanent staff/ 3 month trial period. ( Part Time option available)

Salary: £17- £23k Depending upon experience.

Hrs: 37 hrs per week.  ( PT option available)

Overview of Role:

As Office Manager it is your duty to support the MD and ensure Milky Tea Limited functions behind the scenes day to day.  This means that it is your responsibility to ensure that company processes, and its environment is working appropriately, maintained, safe, replenished and adheres to government and company policy.

Desired Attributes:

• Microsoft Office experience. (Experience of Excel, At least 2 Years experience)
• Financial administration or bookkeeping experience (At least 1 year)
• Experience of organising creative team members and managing complicated schedules.
• Excellent communication skills and experience of liaising with business clients.
• Be pro-active and have an outgoing personality with the self-confidence to manage other people.

 Tasks:

As part of this you role will be required to undertake the following tasks:

Admin

• Staff travel planning and liaison.
• Organise and run company events, workshops, meetings etc.
• Analyse and suggest where necessary new processes and methods to improve documentation and speed up the company production pipeline.
• Ensure staff clean, tidy and maintain the studio environment and equipment when required and introduce a scheduled rota to ensure this is done and signed off by you
• Organise and maintain company client information and data and ensure company and it’s employees abide by data protection laws and restrictions.
• Ensure all office and kitchen sundries are replenished and up to date.
• Build, organise and maintain company filing structure both digital and hard copy and take all management through the methodology and whereabouts on a regular basis.
• When required support the team with administrative tasks (under the instruction of the MD or Studio Manager only).

Accounts Admin

• Creating invoices and chasing payments.
• Chasing and processing purchase orders from MT staff.
• Ordering and making company purchases at request of company Director and Studio Manager while also maintaining levels of office supplies.
• Assisting the company accountant in the processing of financial documentation.
• Document all R+D work by project in accordance with Inland Revenue claim criteria. 
• Assist the company Managing Director with client and business paperwork, contractual docs and communications.

Operations-Legal

• Maintain company insurance documentation. (Calendar info and negotiate costs)
• Ensure all staff/freelancers and visitors comply with confidentiality by signing NDA’s.
• Ensure all new business is managed correctly and contracts are agreed and co-ordinated between legal representations where necessary.
• Co-ordinate communication with company legal representation.
• Ensure that all staff follows an appropriate sales order process and paper work is documented

Operations- IT

• Logging IT support calls and auditing hardware/software
• Equipment auditing. 
• Ensure all staff look after all IT equipment and follow an IT Policy.
• Ensure the company’s data is backed up and maintained regularly through an external IT consultancy and that this is functioning correctly.

HR

• Ensure all staff continue to comply with Health & Safety requirements and maintain Health & Safety standards in the workplace (Provide a check list to survey the environment, equipment and facilities once a week to be signed by yourself and Studio Manager).  
• Human resources documentation and auditing.
• Logging/ Auditing staff time sheets/ Overtime and holidays.
• Monitor a timesheet policy and document data, including overtime etc.
• Report to the managing director on company operational performance indicators, such as staff attendance, purchases, volume of work etc.

Additional:

As part of this role you will report to the Managing director directly and work at the studio in Liverpool.

From time to time this role may require you to travel worldwide or work remotely from home.

Due to the nature of the clients Milky Tea Limited work with and the projects with which we are involved you will also be required to sign a strict confidentiality agreement that you must adhere to inside and outside of working hours.

Interested?

If you are interested please send a CV and cover letter stating salary expectations and availability to jobs@milkytea.com before Friday 20th April. 

In 2009, Compare the Market managed the impossible, they made insurance lovable. But it wasn’t the brand’s pricing, quality of service or latest offer that enamoured the British public to the price comparison site, it was in fact a family of talking meerkats.

The first ad, the brainchild of agency VCCP, took the brand from fourth to first place in spontaneous awareness over rival companies in just eight weeks. Skip to 2012 and the award-winning Meerkats are still firmly in the British public’s consciousness. Instantly recognisable, the central character Alexander has his own Facebook page with almost 800,000 fans. New character Sergei already has over 20,000. Each of Sergei’s Facebook posts sees hundreds of members of the British public respond and engage as if he were real, sympathising with his overworked and underpaid plight. And the secret to the Meerkats longevity and success? A fully-formed set of characters, each with their own personality and quirks.

While celebrities may come with a personality as standard (you’d hope!), they also come with a hefty price-tag and a lifetime of personal baggage. Though brand endorsement from the right celebrity can be a boost like no other for your brand or campaign, should said celeb decide to promote something that reflects badly on your brand, the damage is already done as the association has already been made, the only solution being to cut your losses and ties. Characters, however, are celebrities you build from the ground up. Here at Milky Tea, our characters only have vices if you ask us to draw them in them in!

Lawrence Hamilton, marketing general manager for KiaUKand the face behind the successful ‘Joyride’ character campaign, told New Media Age that using characters and stories in video ads is the most effective way to increase engagement and ultimately boost sales. “Videos can come in very flat presentation-type formats, which people are used to, so they’re more likely to go unnoticed,” he said. “But if there’s a story and characters people can interact with, that’s more compelling.”

The recession saw an increase in the use of characters in advertising, both new and old, with companies such as Tetley bringing back vintage successes in the form of the ‘Tea Folk’. The increase can be put down to the greater need for consumers to engage with brands on a multitude of levels, from the more traditional mediums of print and television through to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. “Paradoxically, characters tend to be more real than real people,” Bryan Urbick, director of research consultancy the Consumer Knowledge Centre, explained to Media Week. “This is why people love soap opera stories, and characters can play right into that. It makes sense that a character can represent what people are looking for.”

Today’s customer is demanding more and more often. Characters offer brands and agencies the means to reach out to the public and engage 24/7, either by replicating the public’s own lives and experiences, by entertaining in an endless list of fantasy scenarios, or even via the brand’s Facebook page. Retro characters bring nostalgia as well as engagement to the table, both valuable commodities in the advertising industry. Today’s characters can live beyond their TV slot and give brands an ‘in’ to the full potential of social media.

Insurance isn’t usually an industry which would generate consumer excitement on Facebook, but the Meerkat characters give the public a reason to visit the Facebook page and in turn the website. The brand doesn’t use the Facebook page as another sales platform, but instead use it to keep brand awareness high and positive through amusing and entertaining updates. Creating a voice and a world for your character is essential for its success. Our work with Fairy took the form of an interactive game to celebrate the launch of their Fairy Platinum product. The eye-catching character and fun interaction saw over 16,000 people enter the competition in a two week period, with many returning to the site to play over and over again. Our character and game helped the brand to engage the public without the hard-sell, increasing awareness of their new product while positively affirming the brand in the eyes of the public.

Like mini soap operas, character-based adverts can hold interest for years, with viewers celebrating character decisions and milestones as well as receiving the brand’s message and information. They are an ongoing representation of your brand’s core beliefs and values whilst simultaneously representing what your target audience is looking for in a friendly form. We’ve been working on the world-renowned Lloyds TSB advertising campaign for over 4 years creating characters which the public recognise instantly as belonging to the Lloyds TSB world. This familiarity has led to an increase in spontaneous brand recall, depth of favourability and likelihood to consider Lloyds TSB for products.

Narrative advertising campaigns build a connection with consumers and are infinitely more visible than a logo. Memorable campaigns can amass fan bases for the fictitious characters which are as real as that of an X-Factor finalists but much longer-lasting. “In such a crowded, competitive market a character can create pure brand salience,” Churchill head of brand, Peter Deane explained to Media Week. “The character becomes a shortcut reference to the brand, and can be more interesting than the brand itself”

Here at Milky Tea, we don’t just make characters, we also make worlds for the characters to play in. With experience in fields from gaming to directing, we have the vision as well as the expertise to aid you in your character development. From illustrations and animations through to games and interactives, our characters are all set to engage with your public from the minute they’re fully rendered. From our instantly recognisable work with Lloyds TSB through to our recent interactive work for the launch of Fairy Platinum and SSE’s Christmas campaign, some of the world’s biggest brands and agencies look to us to create memorable and engaging characters to take their campaign to the next level.

Milky Tea‘s managing director, Jon Holmes jetted over to the SXSW Festival in Austin last week, an exciting event in the Milky Tea calendar. The interactive festival, now in its 19th year, is an incubator of cutting-edge technologies and features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and a line-up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. We couldn’t let Jon get away with having all the fun, so he’s been writing a daily update on what he’s been up to. Here’s what happened on the first 3 days…

Day 1: 

Getting the flight I realised that I really don’t know what to expect from SXSW. All I’ve heard are great things and that Chinwag (the community of digital media and marketing professionals) are the best at these kind of trade missions. I know what I need to get out of it; some great new business contacts in the States, fresh insights and digital inspiration.

A week away from the studio will do me the world of good, though I’m already finding it difficult to unwind. I’m actually feeling a bit daunted by the prospect of the intense amount of networking that lays ahead. I hear it’s a party networking atmosphere,  though I haven’t done much of that since the early days of Milky Tea!

I arrive in Austin after a nightmare journey, though the flight from London was a who’s who of the digital industry. I bumped into Tom from Unit 9 who I know through Podge. I also met lots of other agencies on the flight which turned into a bit of a networking opportunity. I made friends with amazing team at the IPA; Dwain, Nigel and Zoe, who gave me a real insight into what I can expect from the event.

Day 2 

The weather inAustin was terrible, all downpours and storms. Seems like we brought the British weather with us! My second day saw the first formal event of the program; a really good informative session on working in the US featuring legal info, and advice on obtaining visas and best practices. Companies who have been working here for a while explained the do’s and don’ts, it was a great insight into the industry. I made some great initial contacts and ended up networking in a few local bars.

Being here, the enormity and the volume of people at the event becomes apparent. It’s also amazing as you meet incredibly high-profile brands and companies in the weirdest of places! In one day I’ve met some of the most insightful and key people working in digital today and I’m starting to make some good friends at the same time.

Later, we met up with a Berlin trade mission. By this time my voice and ability to hold conversation were waning due to the amount of drinks pushed under my nose. Again, I made some amazing new contacts and also got a great insight into the Berlin digital scene. I’ll definitely have to go and visit Berlin soon.

Day 3.

It becomes apparent that the scale of this event, with all the lectures and keynotes workshops, is incredible and completely unmanageable for one! Even if we had a team of 10 here from Milky Tea, we still couldn’t cover this thing! Anyway I went to my first game company meet up. (well, I thought it was just game companies, but it turned out to be more game fans than developers!) Sitting in a circle, talking about the future of games it didn’t look dissimilar to an alcoholics anonymous meeting,  not that I have become one during my time here by any means! It was really informative, I got to meet a new contact at Blizzard Entertainment and few more really interesting people.  Hero Academy was pointed out as the latest iPhone game to watch and seems to be trending like anything. I need to check this out.

In the afternoon I was booked onto a BBQ and tour of Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriott’s house. Richard is multi-millionaire who made his fortune in games and has became known as a bit of an eccentric! He has been into space and archived lots of other incredible things.

His house was an amazing experience that I’m struggling to put into words. He has created a labyrinth of hidden passages and doors which  lead to secret rooms and dungeons.

Report to: Managing Director

Line management: N/A

Hours: Minimum of 37 hours per week.  Flexible working will be required in order to fulfil the varied demands of the role.

Role purpose: Lead and inspire Milky Tea’s production and project teams to win profitable business and deliver outstanding creative digital solutions.

Salary: On application.

Responsibilities:

Leadership

• Deputise for the MD, in his absence, making confident business decisions within agreed business parameters.

• Provide creative vision and direction for Milky Tea, supporting the MD to develop and resource new propositions for business growth.

• Lead and inspire the Production/Project teams, providing them with both support and challenge for the delivery of outstanding creative work, on time and within budget.

• Encourage communication and the sharing of knowledge, experience and ideas within and between creative teams.

Business growth

• Work with the MD to plan and implement Milky Tea’s annual business strategy to achieve annual sales and profit targets.

• Identify, evaluate and action opportunities to build profitable business relationships.

• Provide regular updates to the PR and Communications Manager on industry trends, opportunities and progress of projects.

• Attend client meeting to excite them about Milky Tea’s propositions and explore creative solutions.

• Work with the production and project teams to provide prompt, accurate and profitable quotes to clients.

Creative proposals and pitches

• Produce and present compelling proposals and pitches to win new projects

• Lead brainstorming sessions with the production and project teams to develop creative ideas for projects and campaigns.

• Follow up on proposals and pitches to secure the business/gain feedback for future learning.

Business excellence and compliance

• Work in the spirit of collaboration with all Milky Tea employees, freelancers, suppliers and clients to meet overall business objectives.

• Identify, create and implement policies, procedures, forms and new ways of working to ensure continuous business improvement.

• Act as a role model the adoption of company policies and procedures including health and safety.

• Adhere to strict company and client confidentiality both inside and outside of working hours.

About Milky Tea:

Milky Tea is a niche creative agency, based in the heart of Liverpool’s creative quarter. We specialise in producing digital content including illustration, animation, video, games and other interactive media for the advertising and entertainment industries.

Visit the gallery on our website: www.milkytea.com to see examples of our portfolio.

Who we are looking for:

The position of Creative Director is a new role and has been created to support the MD at a pivotal period in the development of the company.

The role will offer an excellent opportunity for an ambitious Creative Lead who has boundless creative talent, energy and drive to make the transition to director level. Equally, an experienced Creative Director will relish this chance to make their mark and shape the future of this well-respected agency.

You must have a minimum of 5 years’ experience at a senior level within an agency. Ideally your creative background will be in digital design, new media or game development. You will be up to date with current and future digital trends

Essential skills

It is essential you are technically competent in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

You will have superb communication and presentation skills. Confident and personable, you can build rapport quickly and inspire clients to buy into your creative vision.

You will be well-organized with strong project management skills.

A natural people manager, you will also have a successful track record of leading creative teams to deliver successful projects in a fast-paced environment.

 Desirable skills

Ideally, you have competence in or understanding of some of the following areas and how they can be applied to digital projects: Digital project creation using InDesign, Flash, After Effects, HTML or other programming skills, 3D software, Animation, CGI, Games Technologies and Digital Multimedia/Graphics.

Location

Although you will be based at the Studio in Liverpool, you must be willing to travel for clients meetings. Ideally, you will be a car driver/owner and business mileage will be paid for work related travel.

How to apply

Send your CV, a letter of application including your salary expectations, and a link to your portfolio or samples of your work (max 3mb) to Jon Holmes, Managing Director at jobs@milkytea.com

Closing date: Friday 24th February 2012

Report to: Managing Director

Line management: A team of 2D/3D Designers, Art Workers and Developers

Hours: Minimum of 37 hours per week.  Flexible working will be required in order to fulfil the varied demands of the role.

Role purpose: Manage the production of digital illustration, animation and interactive projects, from concept idea to delivery.

Salary: On application.

Production management

• Be the primary point of contact for clients, communicating regularly about project progress and resolving queries or issues as they arise.

• Produce a detailed production plan for each project, allocating work to team members and identifying additional skills for outsourcing.

• Forecast requirements for additional freelance resource to meet project demand and ensure additional costs are reflected in the project quote.

• Maintain a roster of freelancers covering a wide range of skills to meet skill/resource gaps.

• Brief your team on the project brief and production plan; ensure full understanding of requirements and individual contributions/responsibilities.

• Supervise, support and challenge your team throughout the production process to ensure the brief, deadlines and quality standards are met.

• Manage downtime effectively through the planning and scheduling of in-house production projects eg scamps, gallery images, samples

• Review and optimise production methods and processes to continuously improve quality and efficiency.

• Using your creative skills and expertise, provide hands-on support for projects when required

  Team management

• Take line-management responsibility for your team; record and manage absence, manage performance through regular performance reviews and appraisals.

• Identify training requirements of team members and plan how needs will be met.

• Plan the holiday schedules for your team taking into account the wider needs of the business.

• Encourage communication and the sharing of knowledge, experience and ideas within your team and other teams.

• Provide regular updates to the PR and Communications Manager on industry trends, opportunities and progress of projects.

 Creative proposals and pitches

• Participate in/run brainstorming sessions to develop creative ideas for project and campaign pitches

• Support the Creative Director and Managing Director to produce compelling proposals and pitches to win new projects.

• Support the Creative Director and Managing Director to follow up on proposals and pitches to secure the business/gain feedback for future learning.

Client relationships

• Provide clients with successful & creative solutions to their brief / projects.

• Identify opportunities to build strong relationships with clients and to keep Milky Tea in ‘front of mind’.

• Visit all clients at least once per year to update them on Milky Tea developments and discuss opportunities for future projects.

Business growth

• Contribute to Milky Tea’s annual business strategy to achieve annual sales and profit targets.

• Maintain awareness of industry trends and potential opportunities for Milky Tea

• Build strong relationships and maintain regular contact with the clients served by your team.

• Represent Milky Tea at exhibitions, events and meetings in the UK and overseas when required.

• Attend client meeting to excite them about Milky Tea’s propositions and explore creative solutions.

• Provide prompt, accurate and profitable quotes for projects as directed by the Creative Director or Managing Director.

Business excellence and compliance

• Work in the spirit of collaboration with all Milky Tea employees, freelancers, suppliers and clients to meet overall business objectives.

• Drive continuous business improvement by identifying, creating and implementing policies, procedures, forms and new ways of working.

• Act as a role model for your team in the adoption of company policies and procedures including health and safety.

• Adhere to strict company and client confidentiality both inside and outside of working hours.

Who we are looking for: Milky Tea is a niche creative agency, based in the heart of Liverpool’s creative quarter. We specialise in producing digital content including illustration, animation, video, games and other interactive media for the advertising and entertainment industries. Visit the gallery on our website: www.milkytea.com to see examples of our portfolio.

The role will offer an excellent opportunity for an ambitious graduate with an agency background and a minimum of 4 years’ experience in a creative/ account management/production management role.

You will work well under pressure and can handle stressful situations in a calm, positive and professional manner.

Ideally, you have basic competence in or have a understanding of some of the following areas and how they can be applied to digital projects: Digital project creation using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, After Effects, HTML or other programming skills, 3D software, Animation, CGI, Games Technologies and Digital Multimedia/Graphics.

Also you will have a keen interest in the digital landscape and are up to date with future trends in the industry.

Well-organised with strong production/project management skills, you will have led creative teams to deliver successful projects in a fast-paced environment. You must have had client management exposure and be a confident communicator and negotiator.

Although you will be based at the Studio in Liverpool, you must be willing to travel for clients meetings. Ideally, you will be a car driver/owner and business mileage will be paid for work related travel.

How to apply Send your CV, a letter of application including your salary expectations, and a link to your portfolio or samples of your work (max 3mb) to Jon Holmes, Managing Director at jobs@milkytea.com

Closing date: Friday 24th February 2012  

Concept stage. Each project begins with a colour concept to use as reference for the artist and to visualise how the finished piece will look.

The artist began by blocking out the scene with basic models and no textures. This is to setup the camera view, basic lighting and to create the composition of the piece.

The next step was to create the water splashes in Realflow (an excellent stand alone program that simulates liquids). The meshes where then exported from Realflow and imported into the scene – these can be seen here around the boat and at the base and on the blades of the turbines.

Once all the elements have been modelled the scene was then textured and a photograph of a stormy sky dropped into the background.

This is the same image after colour-correction.

The image was then rendered and taken into Photoshop, where the scene was completed. The lighthouse and cliffs where painted in and the spray of water was enhanced using stock photographs and by hand. The final stage in Photoshop was to colour correct the image, here using dark blues and greys to emphasize the stormy and dangerous environment.

The artist always works in layers in Photoshop, rendering 3D elements out separately and putting the pieces together so any aspect of the image can be altered at any time. In this case the perspective of the wind turbines was incorrect, but due to them being on a separate layer they could be re-rendered and comped back in.  Which leads us back to the final image!

Make sure you check out the upcoming issue of Computer Arts magazine, which features another in-depth tutorial from Milky Tea.

At the start of December we launched an impressively addictive festive-flash game to fire up the UK’s yuletide spirit. The completely free in-house game, which replaced the company’s traditional Christmas card, saw over 1000 new and unique users visit our website in a week.

The utterly-charming ‘Festive Fling’, designed and developed by the Milky Tea team,  saw elves take on the task of delivering presents on Christmas Eve. Users took aim and fired gifts into the chimneys of a quaint and sleeping village before time ran out, picking up points by completing the level in the quickest time possible.

The game took two-weeks to complete, with Milky Tea putting their character credentials to work to create the whimsical elves and engaging backdrop. The game was then programmed by London-firm, Naked Penguin Boy.

As well as providing a fun way to spend your down-time, the game also cut down on the company’s carbon emissions by removing the need for the annual corporate card.

Milky Tea designer, Gren Atherton said:  “Our managing director, Jon (Holmes) suggested we did something a little bit different this year instead of the usual Christmas card. We’ve produced quite a few flash games for clients such as Fairy and SSE over the past 12 months and thought it would be great to finally make one of our own!

“The timescale was pretty tight, but the whole process was really enjoyable. We designed everything from the concept to the characters and 3D game environment; it was a perfect opportunity to show people what we can do, even when we’re short on time. It also creates a level of interaction that you don’t get with a normal card.

“I think we’re all surprised by how addictive we found it, despite the fact we made the game. The addition of company names to the leader-board made people that little bit more competitive as it wasn’t just your name at stake! It was also a greener way to wish our clients ‘Merry Christmas’, and we’re sure the postman wasn’t complaining!”

“The studio was responsible for the entire production, which included creating set pieces, characters and animations using 3DS Max and V-Ray,” explained 3D Artist, Chris Cragg. “We managed to create the majority of the assets using 3DS Max – the beauty of it is that it can handle all aspects of 3D and is a great all rounder.

“Technically the production of the assets was quite straight forward,” Cragg explains. “The biggest challenge of this project was to produce an art style and art assets that maintained the standard that has been set in the current portfolio. I believe we achieved this and we all look forward to working on similar projects in the future.”

The game was featured by the likes of Creative Boom, 3D Artist, 3D World, and How-Do as well as being shared via social networks.

Why not let us add the same magic to your brand or campaign? Email us at info@milkytea.com to find out how we could help you.

The game is still available to play on the Milky Tea website. To play the game, go to: www.milkytea.com/christmas

For more on Milky Tea games, read our Fairy success story here

But though Siri, 3D printers, apps and forward-thinking uses of social media still retain their sparkle, here at Milky Tea, we’re getting excited at the mind-blowing advancements 2012 will bring. As we pulled the last strands of tinsel from our monitors, our first port of call was to pick our top digital tips and trends for the coming year.

“At the beginning of every year the team at Milky Tea get together to reflect on the year before,” explains Director, Jonathan Holmes.  “By analyzing this as a group of creatives, we can determine what will be the next big things in the year to come based on knowledge, research and general industry rumours. We use this info to align our business and ensure we are working in the key areas we expect to be big. Although this information is just our opinion and assumption and will never be 100% accurate, these creative sessions have kept us firmly at the forefront and on our toes for the past seven years.”

The Milky Tea Top Ten:

1. Television: 2012 is the year that television gets a major overhaul. One of the biggest things to hit the masses this year will be IP TV. Though it was touted as a big advance of 2011 and has suffered delay after delay, all we saw last year was lots of TV companies commissioning prototypes.  This space will revolutionize TV, gaming and social interaction over the next five years. Ignore it at your peril. Our ears have also been drawn to the rumours of an Apple TV, not the console already available, we’re talking about the standalone set. Hinted at by Jobs before his demise, wireless capability and cloud storage systems as standard mean you could start watching a programme at home and pick up exactly where you left off with your iPhone on the train. And that’s just for starters. Rumours of 3D TV mean that the hologram no longer needs to be a happy memory from the eighties and instead could become a firm fixture in your living room.

2. Advertising:  In 2011, brands spent vast sums on advertising via games. Be it an embedded flash game on your Facebook site through to Bjork releasing new material via an app game, digital agencies well and truly realised the benefits of games in social networks. Although this space has been growing for the past four years, we expect things to accelerate with the emergence of new game technologies and platforms and innovative new gaming companies now all very aware of the power of analytics and social networks.

3. Gaming: Siri and Microsoft Kinect technology changed the way that we interact with appliances, and 2012 will hold more of the same. Expect a greater emphasis on voice and movement control as gaming breaks new boundaries with the unveiling of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 successors. Mobile games will also take a leap forward with the expected release of the new iPhone and iPad.  We’re expecting 3D stereoscopic gaming to become more widespread this year, with lots of technology platforms looking at 3D screen technology similar to that of the Nintendo 3DS.

4.Mobile:   Expected new iPhone and iPads this year will keep the Apple machine rolling forward and a few steps ahead of the nearest competitors. There’s also major Android advances and quad-core to look forward to. Expect to see more free-to-play mobile apps and games as brands and developers look to get their messages and products to the masses. Mobile TV consumption looks likely to go through the roof this year. 2011 saw the massive success of apps like Sky Go, we feel this will only become more popular.

5.3D:  2012 is the year that businesses involved in 3D software, modeling and animation really could get left behind if they aren’t looking at Stereoscopic 3D and making this available to their clients.  The space is growing and over the next few years, as technology consolidates into a standard, more and more content will be required to produce animation and games. This doesn’t just apply to the consol and television, but also to PC’s and the web. So if you’re not already embracing 3D, make sure this is the year you do.

6. Tech and Hardware: Get ready for a new box in your living room, IP TV will be here in a flash, This platform will have a massive impact on our consumption and interaction with the digital world. The rival SMART TV‘s, manufactured by the likes of Samsung, are slowly creating their own platforms with similar abilities to IP TV. With internet connectability and an increasing amount of standard mainstream apps and social media available, which will be embraced by the public first? Other advances which have sent us reeling include the Lytro Light Field Camera and the introduction of the ‘living picture’, the first camera which lets you continue the focussing process long after the shutter has closed and changing photography as we know it.

7. Social Networks: Every year we think the bubble will burst and one of the big platforms will go into vast decline, and so far we’ve been wrong. Though nobody has fallen prey to the same fate as MySpace as yet, what we have noticed is a massive shift  to Twitter from Facebook users who are getting fed up and bored of the platform and making the leap. We predict this trend will continue to happen as Facebook’s brand and reputation keeps diminishing due to privacy issues, and don’t get us started on the new Timeline! There’s a growing sense of unease that Facebook isn’t protecting its users. It needs to build on the successful gaming empire it’s got and offer radical new and improved gaming experiences. Whether this will happen this year is anyone’s guess, but rumours persist that there will be a few new showcase games this year that will inject new impetus into the platform.

8. The Web: HTML 5 will show the world what it’s got this year. Like the fate which will befall our own website, the Flash site will be coming down and a shiny new, all singing, all dancing  universal platform HTML 5 site will put in its place. Advances in HTML 5 and what you can do with it will grow as the seemingly limitless boundaries are pushed further and further. Average broadband speed also looks set to increase worldwide, with people consuming higher resolution content and demanding a higher quality experience..

9. Apple: It’s common knowledge that Apple is trying to purchase the Premiership Football rights to screen matches. Does this tell us that Apple is making a massive leap into IP TV or just expanding upon Apple TV and its capabilities with interconnected tablets and mobile devices? Watch this space closely as the Apple lounge experience goes full steam ahead.

10. Flash:  As we’ve already mentioned, our Flash site is coming down fairly soon, but this is by no means the end for Flash and its uses. Our friends at Adobe are very smart cookies and think that Flash will re-invent itself this year. Look out for new next-gen style games, online produced and exported into Flash from Unity ( 3D Game engine). Flash action script will be the main programming language used on IP set top boxes. This is space where Flash will come into its own and see a massive resurgence.  We’re expecting a lot of exciting things from the guys at Adobe this year.

What are you most looking forward to this year and how will the technology benefit your life or company? Here at Milky Tea, we can’t wait to get involved with all of it…

To discuss any of the points of areas of interest, email Milky Tea Director, Jon Holmes on: jholmes@milkytea.com