I came across this cool game in the course of my daily Myspace trolling on the page of Chicago area pop-punk band I Fight Dragons. IFD is the self-described 'Only NES-rock band' and this is evident in their music, artistic design and in this cool flash dragon fighting game that is consistent with their overall Nintendo theme. The game, which appears strategically at the top of the myspace layout, is simple: press the space bar to shoot bullets at falling dragons and the arrow keys to move.
Marketing genius? Let's not go crazy. Cool? Very! I love that the game contributes to their thematic material in a way that engages the user beyond music and imagery; even if a first-time visitor only plays the game for a minute, the band has left a unique and memorable impression on that visitor.
I for one would love to see more interactive web content like this from artists in the future. The obvious obstacle toward the creation of this type of content is the expense; a custom designed flash game with even very basic functionality can't be cheap to produce. I was working with Jive Records when a similar concept game called T-Pain's Cocktail Crazy was used to promote his spirit-inspired album Epiphany a couple of years ago; I wasn't told the exact production cost but it was made clear by the new media people that it WASN'T cheap. All the more reason to keep your friends close and your friends with computer programming skills even closer.
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