The iconic Star Wars brand has a wiki so deep with characters you could spend a decade exploring the worlds and personalities making it the most recognizable movie franchise in history. Perhaps some of the most beloved characters were The Ewoks. Reaching deep into his nostalgia and passion for the brand, our ECD helped recreate the iconic furry friends in the most successful web game to ever live on StarWars.com – Ewok Village. Neptune’s founder Jim Manduca, while at Fuel, helped design the experience end to end from animation, creative, art and game development, and story.

The Happy Meal has been delighting children for decades. The anticipation from children to find out what new and exciting or iconic entertainment brand would end up in their backseat was canon for most childhood memories. As digital games became abundant and iPads replaced board games, the world’s largest burger chain looked to reinvent play within their brand and our members had the opportunity to be part of the massive team that it took to make Happy Studio a reality. By combining characters from Charlie Brown to Pokémon and The Smurfs to Spongebob, a world was created that brought toys and packaging to life. Whether it was catching a dragon in AR or delivering digital books, Happy Studio entertained millions of kids and families with content that extended the life of play beyond the plastic toy. Our co-founder and ECD lead a team that played an integral role at the creative, art and development levels on this Fuel Industries project.

While At Fuel, Jim worked with the with Salesforce and Vive HTC to deliver an incredible VR application for the Connected Cities project. Connected Cities is a perfect use case for VR by helping users manage big-data and help make correlations between events more vivid and apparent by displaying these events and resources in ways we are used to already perceiving the world, opposed to sifting through spreadsheets. The efficiency of being able to predict an event in an instant can not be as easily achieved through traditional/conventional means.

All who experienced Connected Cities VR experienced something they hadn’t before and were inspired to imagine the enormous potential of Connected Cities VR as a real Enterprise tool.

The internet is a daunting place for parents who are not familiar with the dangers of the internet and monitoring their children’s activity all the time is an option most don’t have. Children can find themselves in high risk situations whether making purchases or being social. Our co-founder and Executive Director over saw the film production while at his previous agency Fuel Industries and aided in structuring the narrative engine for the piece. The result was an interactive video experience on digital literacy that would help families navigate the web in a safe and intelligent manner. This digital literacy toolkit allowed Google to assist their audiences to THINKB4U (and they) clicked.

DreamWorks used Shrek and friends to create a Christmas ride constructed in malls across the US. The experience would include multiple digital installations and allow families to schedule a time to arrive and experience their own personal Christmas Shrek event. For children, the magical experience included an interactive experience, games, and a photo-op with Santa with the goal of increasing mall visitor traffic. Neptune co-founder, Jim Manduca, ran overall creative, 3D art and animation direction at Fuel Industries. In the inaugural year they sold out and had waiting lists longer than Santa’s own list. Even the Kardashians visited the display to keep up with the Christmas experience.

Disney Junior Magic Phone allows children to Facetime with Mickey Mouse in real-time. The challenge was to pack the app with as much interaction as possible but also to keep the app at a manageable file size while also making sure the experience felt natural and organic. The Neptune Blue founder and ECD helped define this balance and lead the creative team on this Fuel Industries project. The result was an application Disney felt succeeded in all accounts and lived up to the Disney standard. Apple featured the app for two weeks during the highly-sought-after Christmas period.

When you design a motorcycle with obsessively orchestrated attention to detail as Arch does, you want to show it off with a website that conveys that desire to evoke those raw emotions. Using ambient video set in the Santa Monica mountains users felt what it would be like to ride one of these meticulously crafted motorbikes. Viewers were then treated to a 360-interactive separation of hand-crafted components and a gallery of stunning imagery. Our ECD acted as producer and 3D/VFX director on this high octane project while at Fuel.

YMCA wanted to create a program that would engage and encourage young children and families to have a healthy and safe summer, while at Fuel, Jim and former Fuel team helped define the brand, create the website and directed the TVC. The Gaps in this campaign represented some of the issues many children face regarding health, hunger, learning and access to safe areas to play.

Da Vinci’s Demons was a hit show from the Golden Globe-nominated television network STARZ. This iOS game has 60 different puzzles which will test your problem-solving abilities and creativity. Along your journey as an apprentice, you collect artifacts and achievements which allow you to move on to harder and more challenging levels. While at Fuel Industries, Jim Manduca and members of our network filled roles as Art Director, development and aided with game design and narrative.