SMERC Games

So in fairly awesome news our client SELF got a letter from the White House for SELF Workout in the Quad. The college selected for it was based on a competition in our game SELF Workout in the Park.

Yesterday SELF received a personal letter from Michelle Obama on ‘The White House’ letterhead — which we will be reading on center stage today at American University in Washington at SELF’s first ever ‘Workout on the Quad’.

Mrs. Obama congratulated SELF Magazine on promoting health and wellness across our country — as it dovetails with her defining mission as First Lady. She stated that she was grateful to both the magazine and the social game because   — “by promoting physical fitness through an interactive experience, SELF is changing the way its readers approach what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle, and for that I am incredibly grateful”.

More on this Monday.

It’s SELF Magazine’s 20^th Anniversary, and to celebrate, SELF decided to pair with HerCampus.com to bring the massively successful annual Workout in the Park event to one college campus. With so many great colleges to choose from, picking just one lucky campus to host the first ever Workout on the Quad event was nearly impossible.

So, rather than making the difficult choice, SELF decided to leave the decision in the hands of the students and approached SMERC to figure out a way to use the award winning Workout in the Park Social Game to let students decide which school should host.

And thusly, the SELF Workout in the Park Social Game Challenge was born!

Students chose their school and competed against players from other schools to earn the most points by completing workouts and finishing quests.

Perform workouts to earn points for your school!

A leaderboard tracked top schools and top players so participants could see how their school was doing and how their contributions stacked up to those of the other players.

Check how your school is doing and how many points you've earned for it on the Leaderboard!

Two weeks later, thousands of participants had entered over 100 major American universities to win the chance to host the Workout on the Quad event.

Leading schools boasted scores representing up to 10,000 in-game workouts performed by students hoping for their school to win.

Stay tuned HERE for the official announcement of the winning school.

See what other new features we’ve got going for SELF Workout in the Park HERE!

SELF Workout in the Park Presented by Nike + Kinect Training!

We’ve bragged before about SELF Workout in the Park. It’s our massive Facebook social app, we’ve said. It makes a fun game out of reaching fitness goals and increasing the health and well-being of the player’s avatar, we’ve bragged. We’ve even not-so-humbly pointed out the many steps we’ve taken to fuel progress towards real-world self improvement goals. We are very proud and not at all shy about it. But we aren’t the only ones working at the intersection between gaming and health.

Nike + Kinect Training for XBOX

Nike and XBOX have partnered to create Nike + Kinect Training, which offers XBOX Kinect users the chance to receive personalized Nike training with real-time coaching. All without having to leave the house. Nike + Kinect Training is a valuable workout experience and a great gaming experience at the same time.

So it makes sense that when XBOX wanted to promote their awesome new workout/gaming hybrid, they turned to another workout/gaming hybrid: SELF Workout in the Park.

To fully showcase Nike + Kinect Training we decided to present players with a total park takeover! Banners above and below the game frame advertise Nike +  Kinect Training, while the loading screen proudly displays new ‘Presented By’ animated images with the Nike + Kinect Training logo.

The Loading Screen includes 'Presented By' animations and branded banner advertisements.

An in-game popup lets players know whats going on and points them to a NEW in-game item: the Kinect Yoga Mat.  This new Yoga Mat, branded with a “Kinect for XBOX360″ logo, is available for a limited time only and offers players a special resource boost whenever they work out on it.

Kinect Yoga Mat

We think Nike and XBOX are doing great things with the Kinect and we are glad to be working with them to make exercise less of a chore and more fun!

Get your own Kinect Yoga Mat for a limited time HERE!

We are proud to announce that our recent collaboration with SELF Magazine, the Facebook social game sensation SELF Workout in the Park, has won the Digiday Sammy Award for Best Branded Social Game!

Despite steep competition from some of the biggest movers and shakers in the industry, including Electronic Arts and Samsung, SMERC and partners SELF Magazine, Replayful, and Kontagent received the award for our work on SELF Workout in the Park, the fitness themed Facebook social game with real-world self improvement features.

SELF Workout in the Park

With SELF Workout in the Park, we set out to create a game built from the ground up to represent the three core elements of the SELF Magazine brand: Women’s Fitness, Nutrition, and Wellness. Since Best Branded Social Game is an award which honors the best use of social gaming for ‘entertainment, connection, content or branded content,’ I think it’s safe to say we accomplished what we set out to do.

We have always known that SELF Workout in the Park was a winner, but it was great to have all the hard work recognized with one of the most prestigious awards in our field.

You may cheer our victory and touch our capes if you like. Or you can just check out SELF Workout in the Park for yourself HERE!

When we developed SELF Workout in the Park, our primary task was to create a rewarding game experience centered on reaching fitness goals and increasing the health and well-being of a personal avatar in a fun customizable environment. We achieved that easily enough, but we had another more sinister agenda: to find a way to help players take the inspiration they draw from their Workout in the Park exploits and use it to fuel progress towards real-world self improvement goals.

The Workout in the Park you already know and love.

We decided the best way to do this was to create a way for players to gamify their own real world fitness goals, to chart personal progress, and to apply those goals and that progress towards Workout in the Park.

Essentially, we wanted players to be able to take their Workout in the Park with them into their own real world workout!

 

Our solution is the Workout in the Park Mobile game.

The Workout in the Park you'll come to know and love.

 

 

 

Workout in the Park Mobile, available for FREE on iTunes, allows players to set real world goals, check-in at real world activities and events, and play fun mini-games to earn in-game rewards.

 

 

 

 

Meet your goals and earn in-game rewards!

 

 

 

Set fitness, nutrition, and wellness goals such as Work Out More, Drink More Water, and Get More Sleep. Taking steps to reach these goals not only helps our players be their best selves, it also earns rewards for the player’s avatar!

 

 

 

 

Check In to Fitness, Nutrition, and Wellness activities and events and post your actions to Facebook!

 

 

Check-In at daily fitness, nutrition, or wellness activities. Players receive in-game rewards by checking in when they go for a walk, stop by the health food store, or spend some time relaxing at a café with a friend. Players receive major rewards for checking in at big events like SELF’s massive annual Workout in the Park event!

 

 

 

Play the same Mini-Games you love from the Workout in the Park web app wherever you like on your mobile device and apply the rewards you earn towards your avatar’s park!

Earn Nutrition points playing the Smoothie Challenge, Fitness points with the Fitness Puzzle Challenge, and Wellness points with the Zen Match Challenge.

 

We think Workout in the Park Mobile is the perfect companion to the Workout in the Park web app and completes an unparalleled cross-platform gaming experience that rewards real-world participation and personal fitness growth.

It’s also really fun, and that’s kinda what SMERC is all about.

Download the game here.

Girlgamer took a look at our new Facebook game SELF Workout in the Park and seemed to like what they saw:

Playing SELF Workout in the Park has honestly been a motivating factor in all the real-life exercise I’ve been getting lately. It’s a great mix of instant gratification and short to mid-range goals. A few ladies I know who play the game get really competitive and have fun with it.

We are really glad to hear that people are finding Workout in the Park as motivational as it is fun. We worked hard to create an experience that took the typical social game structure and…ran with it. As GG says,

Rather than invest in a farm, zoo, etc. players invest in themselves (or rather an avatar version of themselves), earning Fitness, Nutrition and Wellness.

It’s awesome that people are picking up what we’re putting down. Click here to read the entire review!