Loïc Rivalain has a dream job! He designs games for the clients of his communication agency, Ma Langue Au Chat. If his activity is mainly related to events, digital tools help him on his projects. Botnation and its chatbot solution is a great asset in the design of games because the platform offers an avatar function that Loïc masters perfectly! Today he tells us about his experience with the platform for unusual programs.
Introduce yourself and your company:
My name is Loïc Rivalain, I am the creative director of Ma Langue Au Chat, a game-based communication agency. We design treasure hunts, murder parties, escape games and other fun adventures for all audiences: companies, communities, brands.
What were your issues before launching your chatbot?
We were looking for flexible, mobile, web-app accessible solutions, without registration to make participants play on smartphones. The need was to punctually accompany players on their adventure: this can go from a simple interaction with a virtual character, to a quiz to a longer course, such as a conversation with a character, a narrator, a series of photo trails, clues to find etc.
How did you come to the conclusion that a chatbot would meet these needs?
We came to this conclusion rather quickly because we liked the conversation model (other solutions existed for quizzes, or more complete playful adventures) but the model seduced us for its simplicity (handling) and its ability to mimic a conversation.
Why did you choose the Botnation solution?
I first worked a lot with one of your competitors : Chatfuel, but Botnation seduced me thanks to three assets: a great reactivity of the team – Made in France! – It’s great to have people who explain things in French – and attractive prices
How did you build the chatbot? What was the creative process?
We created a lot of little chatbots: I quickly trained our pool of authors to the tool and they were able to easily take it in hand and play with the options (carousel, GIF, AI…).
Have you been able to measure the first results?
Our results are not quantitative: the chatbot has an event-based vocation, animation, delivery of clues. Participants are amused by this interface, which is just one game mechanic (among many) in the middle of their adventure, but we often get good feedback. The important thing is not to bet “too much” on a conversation mechanic that can quickly turn sour. It is one tool among others, even though it is a very powerful tool.
Would you have some advice for a company that also wants to launch a chatbot?
Plan short at the beginning : we can get lost quickly in the tree structure and we all want to make a “deep” chatbot. But the simple one is effective!
Give identities to your avatar(s): work on its language, its tone (in the case of a chatbot with a “personality”)
Test the rendering with collaborators / beta testers from the very first steps!
Discover Loïc’s work on this chatbot for Université de Paris.
