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Malice Box Quest

Monday 19 Feb 2007

Based on a book, Poke’s Malice Box Quest Web game features an interactive treasure quest, utilizing Google Maps.

border=0 /><BR></div> </p> <p> <i>The Malice Box</i>, published by Penguin, is a book launch with a difference. The thriller, by author Martin Langfield, charts the adventures of the book’s hero as he travels around Manhattan desperately seeking clues that will stop the devastating explosion of the terrorist weapon the Malice Box. </p> <p> And, in a literary twist, publishers Penguin turned to Poke to create a Web game timed with the book’s publication in January 2007 that charges online adventurers with seven tasks that take them around the world. </p> <p> Poke has previous history with Penguin, having worked with the publisher for Jamie Oliver projects and the Penguin Classics Birthday. But the puzzle-based approach proved a new direction in the relationship. </p> <p> When Penguin came to us they were already thinking about a game, but they asked us to think about whether this was the right thing to do,” explains Iain Tait, partner at Poke. </p> <p> “A few of us took the book home to read over a weekend, and we all got properly sucked in and had finished it by Monday morning. When we got together for our first brainstorm it was clear that there was something really involving and engaging that we could do around the book. </p> <p> <div class=inlineimage><img src=@digital_arts on Twitter.


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border=0 /><BR></div> </p> <p> <h2>Creating the book cover</h2> </p> <p> Freelance illustrator and designer Larry Rostant is a 25-year veteran book-jacket designer, having created covers for the likes of Stephen King and Clive Cussler. He was approached by Penguin to create the cover for <i>The Malice Box</i>. </p> <p> <p> “Penguin gave me a brief book description and some cover suggestions,” he says. The ‘Malice Box’ of the books’s title is an intricately carved golden drum, and its side is decorated with Arabic script inlaid with precious metal. The rim needed to emit light and power, according to Rostant’s brief. </p> <p> “I originally did an image of the drum itself with light arching out of it with gold type glinting and a sort of Manhattan background, where the book is set,” he adds. “However, Penguin thought it didn’t look mystical or intriguing enough. So, I ended up pulling right in on the box and losing the background. </p> <p> The revised cover moved it into a different part of the market – it’s not so much a thriller, but is now more literary and appeals to women. </p> <p> Rostant researched Arabic type, and found bits of parchment to give it an old-fashioned look. “I then overlaid the type and the parchment and I added flames over the top of it in Photoshop. I did a lot of drawing on top of it with a tablet and pen, airbrushed it a bit, and created a glowing type layer on the box.” </p> <p> <div class=inlineimage><img src=

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