Oprah's 'Bold Moves' mobile game shines light on Salt Lake City and Red Games

The game also rewards players with quotes from some of the most inspirational pop culture icons and thought leaders of our times that have been featured on Oprah’s OWN network over the years.

Red Interactive Agency is not new to working with OWN. Oprah’s network has always looked to expand its digital space, and several years ago, OWN, with Red Interactive’s help, re-launched its digital ecosystem by reformatting Oprah’s Lifeclasses to include more social functionalities, launching O-Courses, a curriculum powered by OWN’s teachers and trailblazers, as well as re-designing Oprah.com to allow users to personalize their own experiences.

This is also not the first foray into the big-time for Red Games — but the partnership with Oprah and OWN certainly shines an even brighter spotlight on the indie agency and studio.

A history in TV, entertainment and brands

Where Red excels is in creating games that connect brands and popular culture. Red Games partnered with A&E Television Networks Mobile, for example, to create the wildly popular Duck Dynasty: Battle of the Beards a game that rewarded players completing Robertson clan-style tasks. Another inspired title is Kwazy Cupcakes, what was a fictional game from the Fox show “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” that Red Games and Universal Partnerships & Licensing made real. The company has also worked with the History Channel, Lego, Disney and Hasbro, which enlisted Red to make its Beyblade Burst product come to life in game form.

Film studios and the entertainment business have also been the beneficiaries of Red’s talent. “The Boxtrolls: Slide ‘n’ Sneak,” “PBR: Raging Bulls” and “San Diego Zoo Living Legends” are games that have made an impact. Additionally,

Though the company counts around a dozen games to its credit so far, two of their more kid-friendly games feature on Apple’s 15 Greatest Kids Games list — an important validation from the tech giant that can make or break a game. “SkyWhale” tops the coveted list and “Frontier Heroes” currently sits at #11.

Never taking the easy route — for good reason

The company focuses on casual mobile games with an attention to visual detail, which is one of the reasons Oprah was interested in working on her game with Red in the first place. Another key aspect the company values is that it dives deeply into the design and engine of their games. The company has a different engine for every one of its games, meaning it doesn’t cheaply reskin an existing game for different clients which lends to the authenticity of the product

“We build our own game engines, which is really important,” said Red Interactive founder and CEO Brian Lovell. “It's part of the craftsmanship that we bring to the product. We have great relationships with clients that come out of our agency experience, and now we've done all kinds of things with new types of clients in this space due to that experience.”

“I think our process might be a little bit unique because we have some roots in advertising. We approach projects similar to the way we would pitch and win and kick-off on creative campaigns,” added Jared Kroff, executive creative director, Red Games “We're big fans of stuff that looks great. We find that that helps when we're working with partners — it helps them get excited, especially since some of our partners have never built a game before,” he said.

Advertising roots is a big deal and Red Interactive has worked with all manner of brands such as ESPN, Nike, Under Armour, Samsung, Disney, AB InBev and more — accumulating a breadth of perspective. Much like the Santa Monica mothership, the crew at Red comes from varied backgrounds and all look to solve the problems and fill the needs of the client first.

“We’re storytellers and we like to think of how the entire experience is communicating the brand and the game, and adding to the fun of the overall experience,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the game comes out and is a product of how we do things,” added Tony Kanell, development director, Red Games. “When we're working on things, we're more concerned about how it feels and how it looks, and we build a formula and a process around the idea, people and creative from scratch and in collaboration. Because we were working with the client all the way through that process, we end up with something that's perfect for the brand and is always fun,” said Knell.

Lovell says that presenting and selling ideas carries over with clients, especially when Red Games is seen as the underdog, which he thinks the company still is compared to the larger game studios.

He recalled meeting with the head of games from A&E. The woman liked the company and when they showed her their Pet Peaves game, which had already done well, she was impressed. Still, RED Games didn’t have the same cache as other studios she had worked with in the past — and Lovell was willing to put down a big bet.

“She said, ‘Look, we typically work with game studios and you guys are an agency.’ I said, ‘No, this is a game studio. This is all they do,’” recalled Lovell. “I said, ‘I'll tell you what, go home, have your son play the Pet Peaves game before he goes to bed. In the morning if he doesn't ask to play the Pet Peaves game then I totally understand.’ I was trying to prove a point and I had nothing to lose. It was on a Friday. On Saturday afternoon she called me and she said, ‘Pet Peaves is my son's favorite game. He told me it's his favorite game and the first thing he asked for in the morning when he woke up was to play the game.’ We ended up winning the business and building a relationship with her.”

Putting on a few hats

The Red Games team utilizes about six to eight employees, plus leadership and support of anywhere from three to eight, working between five to 12 months to develop a game. In comparison, a larger company may use 20-60 people per game. It is a matter of scale, since most Red Games are mobile and geared towards a younger audience. Still, the attention to detail the smaller crews at Red Games can create is astonishing — and is incumbent upon the team to wear a lot of hats.

“We like to call ourselves scrappy, and we really mean it. We come in some days and typically three of us are managing people and overseeing everything, but when it gets dirty, we will program, we'll do art, we'll do whatever,” said Knell.

“Jared and I have been coding, we do sound design, we do all the visuals, and then we dive in and actually code the thing and build it, see through to production, then submit it to the app store,” added Adam DeVincent, executive creative director, Red Games. “This is part of something I feel like we've tried to instill with the group here is that part of wearing multiple hats is not a case of being short-staffed — we’re not and we need people to fill in these roles. It's literally that one part of the game informs another part, and that creativity just flows naturally.”

For those who haven’t been with the company long, they love the collaborative nature of the company, that everyone is accountable and has a voice in the process.

“I think we hire people that have a wide range of skill sets, and particularly we like people that like to get involved in design, said Chris Rawson, senior game engineer, Red Games, who previously worked for a mid-sized production house out of the Bay Area. “It's really neat because when we take on new projects we generally will bring everyone involved in the project, whether it's the engineering, art, design, whatever it is, together to hash out ideas, to brainstorm, and put things together — and I think we come out with some higher quality products because of it,” He added that there is a freedom to create at Red Games, to follow one’s creativity — whereas at larger studios, one person may have one role or task, fulfills it and is not necessarily fully vested in the final product.

Talent on the slopes

Salt Lake City itself informs the work at Red Games. There is a wealth of talent at the base of the Wasatch Range. The University of Utah has an Entertainment Arts & Engineering (EAE) program that is the number one in the country for game design, according to the Princeton Review. Its graduate program is ranked number three, and Brigham Young University is also respected for its art program, which gives Red Games a big pool of talent from which to pick.

Tabbed “The Silicon Slopes,” the city and state has companies like Adobe and Microsoft making big investments, further enriching the talent pool. In the games space EA, Epic Games and Sony all have a Salt Lake City presence either directly or through subsidiaries.

Part of the draw for talent is the obvious opportunity and easier pace of Salt Lake City life. Another big one is affordability. As the entire west coast gets priced out, Utah is still one of the last bastions of affordability west of the Continental Divide.

I moved here six years ago this month from San Francisco,” said Natalie Shahmiri, VP of Marketing for Red Games. “We were looking for places and that was the big debate. Do we go to Austin? It's too saturated. Do we go to Portland? It's getting too expensive for what you get. Where is the opportunity? Everybody is leaving the Bay Area in droves. You don't want to be a part of that scene anymore. Some people went to LA. Tons went to Portland. Austin was just kind of overrated. Where is a place where you can go work somewhere, and actually make a mark, and not just be another cog? There is so much opportunity here for that. The number of people I noticed just in the last five years from LA and San Francisco that are choosing Salt Lake is incredible.”

"Bold Moves" and beyond

For the Red Games team, “Bold Moves” feels like the next step in a profound evolution. Despite the success the company has achieved so far, this particular project has more expectation attached. It’s not every day that a global superstar like Oprah comes knocking to create something as high profile as a game that has her name attached to it. But, like all of Oprah’s own projects, she has been intimately involved with this one as well.

“This game represents a new way for audiences to engage with OWN and Oprah. In order to ensure that we were representing the brand in the right way, it was important to have Oprah’s involvement in the process. Plus, we wanted her and the OWN team to love it,” said Donny Makower, President, Red Interactive Agency.

Early testing in Austraila and New Zealand indicates that “Bold Moves” will be a success, but in the high-stakes world of games, nothing is ever taken for granted.

We've learned to never take success for granted. You do everything you can to set yourself up for success and to minimize risk but you never really know for sure until you press the launch button start seeing the data come in,” said Lovell.

“Bold Moves,” like all games, will evolve, morph and grow. It likely has a big future. As such, the relationship between Oprah and Red Games and Red Interactive Agency could very well have the same trajectory.

We have been collaborating with OWN for the past few years and the partnership has been amazing. Now, with the launch of Bold Moves, OWN is inviting people to have a new kind of experience. We hope that fans love it as much as we do, and that it leads to many more exciting opportunities for us to work together. Our best work may still be in front of us,” concluded Makower.