Doritos Mix Arcade
Website Design, Animation, EventSnacks 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.
ClientLays (The Marketing Arm)
AgencyHYFN
Year2016
RoleDesign, Motion Design
RecognitionTop 5 Webby Finalist - Advertising, Media, and PR: Game or Application
I
Web ExperienceRemaking Retro
The Mix Arcade was created to engage a large number 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.
Once the tech was there, we decided to inject a bit of the 21st century into the design by adding WebGL shaders, particle effects, pixel processors to add noise and randomness to different textures, and camera shakes to give explosions more of a visceral feel. The sound, however, stayed in the 20th century: 8-bit all the way. The games were fun, addicting, and hunger-inducing. Mission accomplished.
Gameplay
II
TWITCH ACTIVATIONTwitch Plays the Doritos Claw
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.
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.
III
Extending the ArcadeLive at E3
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.
IV
ResultsBeyond Expectations
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.
3.5M
Page Views
20%
of Viewers Registered
926k
Instant Win Entries
350k
Total Games Played
226k
Twitch Commands
12k
Unique Twitch Users
Creative DirectionNick Boes
Nick Boes
Geoff Roseborough
DesignProj.ManagementSusan Kirksey
Aaron Buchanan
Daniel Leavitt
Technical LeadTom Krenzke
Jeremy Dowell
Melanie Windh
Owen Masback
Development