Exponential Entertainment
By Reland Tuomi June 21, 2013
This article originally appeared in the July 2013 issue of Seattle magazine.
People love movie-themed games. And they love social networking. So in 2009, David Long cofounded Seattle-based Exponential Entertainment Inc. to take the next logical step: developing movie-themed games for social networks.
Exponentials first product was a game engine called HollywoodPlayer, which powers the games. The company partners with Universal and Sony to feature the studios movie characters and themes in the games. The games, in turn, help promote films while raising revenue through advertising.
HollywoodPlayers Facebook page includes four games: Jigscene, in which players put together a jigsaw puzzle of an iconic scene; Movie Match Up, a matching/memory game; 100 Years of Trivia, which tests players knowledge about films; and Double Exposure, which challenges players to spot the differences between two similar frames from a film.
Games are typically released at the same time a new feature film comes out. When the film Identity Thief premiered earlier this year, Exponential launched a Facebook game called Capture the Con Artist, in which players answered trivia questions about the movie to catch a con artist in the shortest time possible.
In some games, a clip from the featured film will play when the correct answer is given. Seeing a moving picture in game play is more effective than a single-frame ad, says Long, the firms CEO.
The games also raise revenue through the sale of tools that give players a competitive advantage. For example, players can purchase power-ups, such as 50/50 option where two of the four possible answers disappear, increasing the odds of choosing the correct answer. At the end of a movie game on HollywoodPlayers Facebook page, an impulse button appears so players can purchase the film featured online. Exponential partners with Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime to distribute such media.
Exponential plans to release three to four new games this summer for smartphones, tablets and TVs. One is Movie Pong, a one-on-one style trivia game for smartphones. Long was a cofounder of Screenlife, which produced the DVD-based Scene It? video games that Paramount acquired in 2008 and shut down in 2012.