上次我们探讨了索尼影像为推动安吉丽娜-朱莉主演的新剧《Salt》推出了游戏Day X Exists吸引用户提前关注。

jr伯杰剧照

游戏成为影视市场营销的一个重要环节。娱乐巨头MTV为了预热少年偶像剧The Hard Times of RJ Berger（RJ伯杰的低迷时光，又有译为少年成长记）推出了同名休闲游戏。

游戏主要介绍的是15岁但是看起来和外界格格不入的青少年RJ Berger校园和感情生活。

MTV数字部门副总裁Colin Helm和产品总监Tom Akel在采访时表示，推出该系列的休闲游戏主要是为了提前预热为电视剧吸引更多的观众。

jr伯杰的低迷时光

MTV is using a novel approach to generate buzz for their upcoming new television series The Hard Times of RJ Berger: the company is launching a casual game that will tie into the show via episodic content.

The “Chain of Thought” game centers on the theme that it’s “difficult to talk to one’s crush.” Players get points and level up by completing “conversation challenges” in which objects must be connected in the correct order to produce a sentence that elicits a positive response from the crush character. The game introduces new users to the show about an unpopular 15-year-old boy who deals with a sudden influx of newfound popularity at school and wants to figure out how to talk to his object of affection, Jenny.

The title also features a “build mode” that brings in an aspect of user-generated content. Players are invited to set up their own conversation challenges along with positive or negative responses, and see them played out in a level of their own creation. The idea is to help break the ice with an actual crush or at least have fun with a friend who knows about the situation — and MTV hopes that aspect of the game will encourage players to virally share it with their friends.

We spoke with VP of MTV Digital Colin Helm and Supervising Producer at MTV Digital Tom Akel about the project and wanted to know what led to the idea behind introducing a game before the series launch. Early on the team was looking for a way to “raise awareness outside of what we normally do.” As one of the first scripted shows that MTV has produced in some time, they had the benefit of a longer lead time with available assets including visuals and scripts. Using a viral casual game to promote a television series seemed like a timely play in the context of interactive digital entertainment.

As the TV show progresses, new “episodes” of the game will be unveiled as well, featuring actual dialogue and plot themes from the series. This type of tight integration between a television show and its companion game is a novel approach to episodic content, and we’ll be interested to see how much repeat interest is generated from the series to the game and vice versa.

The game itself is live now, so if you have a chance to check it out on MTV.com be sure to let us know what you think in the comments. The Hard Times of RJ Berger series itself premieres on June 6 at 11 p.m., and you can check out a trailer to get a sense of the show as well.