Strategize

MSN Games was working to streamline all of its casual gaming platforms and asked for our assistance with a serious re-thinking, redesigning and development of the MSN Games experience. They also wanted to take on more of a social focus, by integrating Facebook and Live Messenger into the latest iteration of their online gaming experience.

Conceptualize

Working in collaboration with the awesome folks over at the MSN Games team for almost a year, we were responsible for concepting, sketching and designing, social networking consultation, and front-end development for the site.

Execute

We developed the site so users could extend their existing social graphs from both Windows Live and Facebook (via integrated web services) and personalize their gaming experience, in order to connect and challenge friends who are gamers, while keeping other social activity separate. We also set up the site navigation using Ajax to allow for the carousel navigation icons to rotate as pages load.

Using Ajax also allowed us to make animations and transitions on the site cross-platform, with no need for plug-in installation. The customizable site content is pulled from Azure, including the header art; and the sky color changes throughout the day to match the user's time, with sunny days and starry nights. The ability to customize the header designs also allows business teams to seamlessly brand the site for future campaigns.

Measure

The release of the revamped MSN games immediately created a huge buzz among gaming and Microsoft fans alike! Forbes, Wired, and Venture Beat all had positive things to say about the site and the integrated possibilities. We like sharing too!