WEBSITE. TWITCH. EVENT.
Doritos Mix Arcade
Driving product engagement by reimagining the classic arcade experience for the Twitch generation of gamers.
Snacks and gaming are inexorably tied together, so it’s only natural that a snack brand so loved as Doritos would use gaming as a way of engaging users with a new product: Doritos Mix, a combination of four unique chips in one bag. But such brand tie-ins are a dime-a-dozen; how can we use technology to create unforgettable experiences? In partnership with Doritos brand agency The Marketing Arm (TMA), HYFN was tasked with updating classic arcade experiences for the connected age of gaming in channels both digital and physical. To do so, we matched retro gaming experiences with hand-built technology, Twitch group play, analog ingenuity, and an anything-is-possible spirit—all resulting in a series of wide-reaching, first-ever achievements.
The Mix Arcade was created to engage a large amount of users, driving awareness of the new Doritos Mix product and drumming up enthusiasm ahead of the claw machine activation and E3. It featured four reincarnated arcade classics, each embodying a Doritos Mix chip: Chip Defenders, Chip Kwon Do, Dinamita Detonator, and Twist Cannon. By winning (or entering codes from purchased bags), users earned tokens they could use to play a virtual claw game for instant win prizes.
CLIENT
The Marketing Arm, Frito-Lay
Year
2016
AGency
HYFN
Role
Creative Direction, Design, Animation
Twitch is the largest community of gaming enthusiasts on the planet, and we wanted them to have an E3-level experience through a special Twitch functionality called group play. But before Twitch could play the claw machine, we had to build one. And it had to be perfect.
We found a US-based claw machine manufacturer and worked with them to update the firmware for our experiment. We then connected a Raspberry Pi to control the i/o of the claw itself. With several types of prizes, we needed the ability to distinguish and associate prize with user. So we built a ramp to guide won prizes towards a prize gate with an an RFID scanner connected to an Arduino which was also connected to our Raspberry Pi. If a prize ever failed to scan, the gate would kick the prize ball backwards up the ramp every five seconds until it scanned.
We used dual 4K GoPros to stream the feed of the machine to Twitch, where users could use chat to control the machine, casting votes on which way the claw should move with each turn. Twitch gaming influencers rallied users together on their streams, organizing moves and actually succeeding together.
As E3 drew near, Doritos’ agency, TMA, approached us to reimagine our virtual games as physical machines in two separate forms to support the massive Doritos presence at the conference, hosting performances from Steve Aoki, Wiz Khalifa, Big Boi and others.
We began by rescaling our games to live on a 45-foot LED screen, complemented by a six-foot joystick and giant functional buttons fabricated by partners Union Digital, and running on our code—all amounting to the world’s largest arcade cabinet, floating above a 60-foot stage where the musicians were performing.
We also placed our games into physical arcade cabinets to host our original four games, with new levels included for a more robust experience. Players at the event who achieved high scores on the cabinets were then invited to play on the big screen, with the big joystick, for everyone to enjoy.
Cabinets designed and built by Union Digital
CREATIVE DIRECTION
Nick Boes
TECHNICAL LEAD
Aaron Buchanan, Daniel Leavitt
DEVELOPMENT
Tom Krenzke, Jeremy Dowell, Melanie Windh, Owen Masback
Design
Nick Boes, Geoff Roseborough
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Susan Kirksey