BBC New Media Manchester produces a number of web and multimedia projects for the BBC and other television companies. Their developers are primarily designers who have learnt some development skills. When they first contacted Alpha Training in 2002, they were faced with a project that pushed the skills of their in-house developers and they turned to us for help.

The project was an athletics game to be produced for the BBC Commonwealth Games website. The in-house team were designing the product but needed a developer to implement the design. The project was developed using Macromedia Flash. Their staff use Flash a lot, they are good animators but had limited skills in actionscript programming. Having discussed the project with them, our web design trainer and consultant Richard Lord started by providing two days training in actionscript development, covering game-play and motion physics. As a result of this, the in-house development team were able to do much of the development themselves.

The in-house developers did all of the design and some of the basic programming before passing the files over to Richard. He did the programming for the core elements of the game, which allows the user to compete in seven different athletics events including running, jumping and throwing events. When the programming was completed Richard passed the files back to them for delivery to the client. Inevitably, the client requested some last minute changes and Richard assisted in the implementation of these before sign-off and final delivery.

The finished product, the Denise Lewis Heptathlon Game, is online here. On their site of the greatest 100 online games, FHM Magazine describe the game as a "Keyboard wrecking meisterwerk. A flawless tribute to the ancient arcade classic Track and Field".

Following this project, Richard has continued to work with BBC New Media Manchester, training their staff in beginners level Macromedia Director, programming a desktop toy for one of their clients (the Kylie Snowglobe for That Gay Show) and advising on future projects including brainstorming ideas for them to pitch to potential clients.

Most recently, Richard did the programming for a pinball game they were producing for Eastenders. The game is developed in shockwave and incorporates realistic motion physics and accurate collision detection, resulting in an absorbing game which "feels like the real thing". This game, Queen Vic Pinball, is online here.

If you would like to find out more about web design training or consultancy please do not hesitate to contact us. To see a sample of our internet & web design courses click here, and to see a sample of our Macromedia courses click here.

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