CHALLENGE

Fuel Industries is dedicated to experimenting with new technologies to ensure that our team is moving ahead of the adoption curve in online marketing. We challenged ourselves to create a viral, 3D multiplayer community gaming environment that showcased the talents of our creative and development teams. Cowboys & Engines would become an idea testing ground to share with our clients and the industry.

STRATEGY

With the growing popularity of Massive Multiplayer Online Games, the next logical step in developing successful advergames is to bring the market what it wants: rich, immersive environments with real-time chatting capabilities where users can play and interact with peers around the globe. Experimenting with dual environments, we set out to perfect transitioning from 3D to 2D in order to present more gaming variations in one universe.

CREATIVE & EXECUTION

A 50's style childhood cowboy adventure is combined with the grittier look and feel of the Fuel Industries brand. It incorporates Fuel Industries mascot character"Sparky", who, dressed as a cowboy, goes on an adventure with his friends into the "dangerous" world of Zeke's Junkyard. It allows for up to 20 people to interact within the same "junkyard adventure" environment, and automatically creates new game worlds when capacity in one has been reached.

Visitors to Cowboys & Engines are able to select from 4 customizable characters with which to chat with others, or simply explore the environment. In the world users find entrances to mini-games linked to the main environment, including a blackjack parlour and shooting gallery. This entire experience transitions from 2D to 3D and back again absolutely seamlessly and invisibly to the user.

PERFORMANCE

Several months after launching, hundreds of thousands of visitors had gone to Cowboysandengines.com. Aside from emails sent out to colleges and a landing page that featured a movie-style trailer, Fuel Industries had not marketed the game. Industry leaders recognized the technological progress Cowboys & Engines represented by awarding it Best in Show at FlashintheCan 2004.