“I love this style of ’90s pixel-art games, and it’s a great idea to use it to show [Snapchat’s] latest app features!” —Viacheslav Olianishyn
“When is business made fun? When it is wrapped in a well-designed, awesome, retro-graphic game.” —Boo Wong
Overview: As part of social media company Snap’s annual media roadshow event for partnering media agencies to learn how they can use its messaging app Snapchat, the company collaborated with Portland, Oregon–based creative agency Studio Mega and Brooklyn-based design and technology agency OddCommon to create Agency (Ad)venture, a browser-based video game set in an ad agency. Inspired by ’90s-era 16-bit video games, Agency (Ad)venture lets players select an industry— beauty, CPGs, DTC service, finserv and retail—then collect and deliver on briefs while learning about Snapchat’s new developments as they climb the game’s leaderboard.
Agency (Ad)venture was built in Phaser, a HTML5 game framework for browser-based games, with SvelteKit employed as a UI layer. Firebase powers the back end, with its Firestore database providing real-time data management.
Senior partners at media agencies like Dentsu, IPG, Omnicom and WPP competed for a spot on the leaderboard for the ultimate reward: a donation from Snap to a nonprofit or charity of their choice.
Studio Mega developed the initial concept, and OddCommon designed and developed the experience.
Comments by Taylor Anne Lane; lead of growth, strategy and communications; OddCommon:
How many media assets does Agency (Ad)venture have? “The experience is one of continuous gameplay, so it’s not quite clear how to individually ‘count’ assets. We were very ambitious with the overworld office area and all the objects and NPCs within it. We had about 100 objects and characters, each with their own individual animations. Pixel art has to be drawn by hand, frame by frame, so it was challenging to accomplish all this in the timeline.
“The primary community-based feature would be the leaderboard. Employees of the included media companies can compete for the highest score, which lands them a donation to their charity or nonprofit of choice by Snap.”
What was the thinking behind the navigation design? “A central goal was for each user to feel free and excited to explore the open world but, at the same time, encounter the games in a certain order. The office overworld was designed in a way that would both allow that freedom but also guide you through the game in a sequence that would make sense as a story.
“The UI and tools for navigation were also part of the story. As smartphones are so integral to agency life, each user’s in-game phone became a tool for both receiving important game information and also a way to perform other actions, like fast travel or to check the leaderboard.”
