The Colour of Matmi

Well, it’s been a tough few weeks. We have just released ITV’s new online game-show ‘The Colour of Money’ featuring Chris Tarrant and Millie Cole. ITV asked us to produce this so that contestants watching the show on TV could see if they could do better and take part in the game online.

It has been a great success. As soon as the show finished thousands of people jumped online to have a go, at one point nearly 4000 people were playing the game at the same time.

As we wanted to make the online version as similar as we could to the TV show, we used streaming video / audio of Chris Tarrant and Millie Cole throughout, so that users would feel as if they were on the show. To add to this user involvement we decided to take UGC (User Generated Content) to a new level and allowed users to use web cams so they could see themselves in the show and the winners celebration videos are also recorded and put on the scoreboard. I think this is the first time this has been ever done and it seems that the users are loving it. We have some fantastic video celebrations of worthy contestants. Users can also use a microphone to control the game if they wish.

At the end of the TV show there is a call to action for users to play the online version of the game. The footage of the online game is of our chief designer Hamish winning a game, so finally Hamish has his wish has gets himself on prime-time television every Saturday night. Will viewer figures go up with Hamish at the end of the show?

It has been a great experience producing this game. When I was a kid I loved Tizwaz (showing my age!), I never imagined one day we would be writing a script for Chris Tarrant!

Patricia Wagstaff, Director of ITV Digital Productions, said “We were asked to deliver a game that was as nerve jangling and compelling as the TV show. We are delighted with the game Matmi has created and feel it really captures the atmosphere and tension experienced by the contestants playing for big money.”

I think I agree. If you like the TV show, you’ll love our online game.

March 2009