Today I Die – A game of poetry

'Today I Die' is an intriguing and beautiful little puzzle game from indie games designer Daniel Benmergui.

A nice change from traditional games, Today I Die is a game where you have to gradually change the words of a poem to transform it from being miserable, to being happy.

Exactly how you do that, of course, is where the puzzle lies, and it's been frustrating more than a few people. The ending (of which there are actually several) is worth the puzzlement though.

Alfa Romeo focuses online for MiTo launch

Alfa Romeo has just launched an interesting multi-million-pound integrated campaign for its new MiTo model which uses digital as the lead channel to capture the audience in a prolonged and engaging way.

Positioned as a high-end yet affordable car, and targeting the 20-34-year-old audience, the campaign for the brand's first super-mini model puts an online game at the centre of its marketing drive.

Apparently Alfa Romeo allocated 40% of its budget to online in order to promote the car, creating a rally game which has separate racing levels split across ten sites, including MSN, Top Gear and GQ.

The game, which you can join at a central hub at mymitorally.co.uk, will last until June, and encourages players to visit all the sites on which the game is seeded to beat the scores of other players. Players can win prizes including Nintendo Wiis and iPods, with the overall champion winning an Alfa Romeo MiTo.

The MiTo campaign also includes a mobile site, with gamers able to receive mobile alerts about their progress.

The game is supported by its first ever affiliate marketing activity, a high-profile branding campaign including TV, print and radio spots, which all push consumers online.

Google launches in-game ads

Google is finally making progress into the in-game advertising sector with the beta launch of AdSense for Games.

The technology platform will allow brands to place relevant ads in web-based games, in an extension of Google AdSense, which matches ads to the content of websites.

The in-game ads will take the form of videos that players watch before or after a game, or after completing an individual level.

Google is working with select game developers and publishers including; Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media, games network Mochi Media, as well as advertisers such as Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures.

The program will allow advertisers to reach the growing number of gamers who are engaged in online play, for instance, in anticipation of a sporting event, an advertiser could use the technology to feature its logo within that sports event's accompanying online game and reach its relevant demographic as a result.

According to comScore, over 25 per cent of Web users play online games every week, representing over 200 million global users