Animation studio DreamWorks has released a mobile puzzle game with independent game developer Behaviour Interactive to promote its upcoming 3D animated comedy, Home.

The game, Boov Pop, is a new take on a popular bubble-popping genre. Players pop bubbles by using their finger to connect ones of the same colors.

?For animation studios like DreamWorks, who have spent a lot of time and effort developing likable animated characters for their movies, mobile games are a great way to bring these characters in front of more people and share their personality and story,? said Jimmy Gendron, vice president of mobile at Behaviour Interactive, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ?Releasing a licensed mobile game also offers an unprecedented scale of distribution. 

?Mobile games have become a source of revenue, as well as a strong platform for marketing and brand building for movie studios," he said.

Home run?
Home features the voice of popular sitcom actor Jim Parsons as main character Oh, a lovable alien from another planet. While on the run from his own people, Oh forms an unlikely bond with an earthling girl, Tip, voiced by singer Rihanna.

Boov Pop is now available for download, while the full-length animation will be in theaters March. The game?s release is timed to generate buzz for the movie as well as create extra profits before and after its release.

Tip and Oh make unlikely friends in DreamWorks' Home

In the past, games based on movies were not developed until after the film?s release. This is because games were used solely for extra revenue and not as marketing tools.

Now, these games are core to the marketing and merchandizing strategy.

Changing the game
DreamWorks did something different this time from movies past. It took an already popularized game concept instead of developing one based directly on the film?s storyline and released it before the movie.

The free-download application will essentially serve as another trailer for the film but at the same time generates its own revenue through in-app purchases.

Boov Pop is available exclusively in the iTunes App Store. Players choose a character from Home, each with a special ability, and battle enemies by completing puzzles.

Catch phrases and quotes from the film are featured to help players and urge them on. The musical score and various settings from the film provide the backdrop.

The combination of graphics and characters from the film, easy-to-use features of the game and the soothing of feeling of popping the bubbles means it has potential to become an effective marketing tool.

The collaboration between DreamWorks Animation and Behaviour Interactive is helpful to both companies.

?By partnering with a major studio like DreamWorks, we are able to leverage their awesome characters and universes, as well as their marketing muscle,? Mr. Gendron said. ?Behaviour has had a large focus on licensed properties, and we have developed multiple movie-based games across all platforms. 

?As a result, we have a lot of experience collaborating with the licensing partners, and we benefit greatly from working with their properties,? he said. ?Releasing a mobile game with world-class IPs like DreamWorks is a great way to get a game discovered and enjoyed by players.?

Home follows in the footsteps of similar initiatives.

For example, Fox Digital Entertainment developed a game for marketing with its latest installment of Night at the Museum (see story).

?We expect the game to produce an enormous amount of exposure for the film,? Mr. Gendron said. ?We also have heavily planned our own user acquisition and marketing for the game. We have seen many other licensee partners who rely only on the licensor's brand and marketing and not investing into their own, but we think this is a mistake. 

?At launch, we almost immediately saw social media abuzz with comments from match-3 enthusiasts as well as Rihanna's Navy, a large group of Rihanna fans excited to unlock her character on level 31 of HOME: Boov Pop,? he said. ?This was backed soon after by a ?Best New Games? feature on the homepage of Apple's iTunes App Store.

?We're also planning to run a TV campaign for Home: Boov Pop! in the U.S., as well as an outdoor digital feature on Times Square [in New York].?

FINAL TAKE
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, New York.