Kuma Reality's DinoHunters Gets Episodic, Advergame Tie-In

Kuma Reality Games, the Los Angeles-based company previously behind a series of war-themed episodic Kuma\War first-person shooter games, including missions featuring Saddam Hussein, has announced the release of free online PC episodic title DinoHunters. The first in a series of new “advergaming” titles from Kuma, DinoHunters is offered to consumers for free, using advertising to pay the cost of development and distribution. The first episode of DinoHunters is sponsored by Schick, for which Kuma developed an advergame campaign for the Schick Quattro razor. With a script penned by former Maxim Magazine editor-in-chief Keith Blanchard, DinoHunters involves the wanton and bloody destruction of dinosaurs for a fictional sports broadcast style-hunting show, and is developed using Valve's Source engine, as used for Half-Life 2. “Kuma’s ability to marry quality gameplay with engaging storylines, while maintaining focus on the brand’s communication objectives enabled us to make it a centerpiece of the Schick Quattro campaign strategy,“ said Alex Kakoyiannis, whose company Navigame worked with Carat Fusion to develop Schick’s overall integrated game strategy. He continued: “Kuma’s episodic model also allows the brand to continue its relationship with gamers for an indefinite amount of time, which cannot be achieved with other advergames because they are not created with a serial approach.”