July 27, 2007

ReBoot ReGenerated















Okay, I can talk about this now. For the last four or five weeks I've been more-or-less holed up in my office re-imagining a new direction for the re-launch of the much beloved, prematurely canceled, computer-animated series ReBoot. And it's been a lot of fun. And it ain't over yet.

The basic idea is that parent company Rainmaker Animation assembled five teams and charged each with coming up with a new direction for the rebranding of the show, which they intend to relaunch with a feature-length trilogy. In the meantime they're attempting to enlist the avid ReBoot fanbase by putting the five pitches up online. Fans can interact with the creators and offer their thoughts/comments/criticisms and eventually vote for their favourite take. And it seems to be, um, working. It's been just over twenty-four hours since the site went live, and it took the fans all of two nano-seconds to weigh in. I think I can safely say the response has been overwhelming, and only time will tell how it all plays out.

The host site is Zeros2Hereos, and even though there are some issues with the the site, it is a beta-test version and I've been assured that the outstanding issues are being dealt with as I type (fingers crossed). At the moment, finding your way to our team's project, ReBoot: ReGenerated, is a little tough. You can start by going to the ReBoot Launcher, and then clicking on any one of the sample art images or "Follow the Team" links except, of course, ours. A Flash window should pop up, and if you then click on ReBoot: ReGenerated you should be on your way.

So, check it out. And let me know what you think because... that's kinda the whole point.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry Joe, I can't give you any sort of fanboy review. I doubt I've ever watched more than 5 minutes of ReBoot in my life; it never looked particularily interesting to me. I can see why it has a cult-like following though, it appears to have a well developed mythology that would appeal to fans of techy sci-fi and anime. I'm thinking Jesse Denby would be a huge fan of this show; I'll ask the next time I see him.

The interactive web review looks like a fascinating and brutal angle. Immediate feedback from the actual fans long before the rubber meets the road. And with any cult-like following, the emotional investment is always high, and some of reviews will be fairly harsh. I know Spiderman probably goes through some market testing, but I can't imagine that Spidey 3 would have been released for another ten years if fans were allowed to disect and critique it like this during the development stage.

I'll check in on this every once in a while to see the latest - this looks like an extremely interesting project to be involved in.

Plett

July 30, 2007 9:38 AM  
Blogger Angelo said...

Fascinating and brutal, indeed. And it will be very interesting to see how this glut of feedback gets incorporated into the final product. Of course you're never gonna be able to please everyone, but on the other hand there a common thread runs through a majority of the comments... new works okay, but not without the old.

This process brings up all sorts of questions about art and story as products and how beholden creators are to their fans. Lots to think about, that's for sure.

July 30, 2007 12:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like the whole idea the show came up with. I mean according to reboot we (the users) are the bad guys and every time we win a game we destroy part of there civilization. But then there is the part where we can save there civilization from total destruction as if it were no problem. To make things better it makes it seemes as if this world full of A.I. is invisable to us (the user)

January 21, 2008 11:25 PM  
Blogger Angelo said...

Yeah Anonymous II, that was one of the things that I didn't like about the show... but my part in the ReBirth is looong over now. You can catch up with what's new and happening in the ReBoot universe here: http://rebootcomic.zeros2heroes.com/

January 22, 2008 9:30 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home