CLIENT: WRIGLEY'S CANDYSTAND | RELEASED: OCT 2006
CHALLENGE
With the rise in popularity of online game portals, Wrigley’s Candystand needed to reinforce its position as the hotspot for the coolest games on the web. Wrigley's challenged Fuel to build the most advanced online racing game on the web, incorporating their entire product line of gum and candy as stars of the game.
STRATEGY
Our vision was to take this game a step closer to the holy grail of advergaming: the free-play web-based console experience. As powerful gaming computers become the norm, we felt it was time to introduce a 3D Gran Turismo-style racing game that lets players add performance modifications to their cars over the course of a racing career. Since stickiness is an important part of any web game, the ability to build a car over time is an important factor in bringing players back time and time again.
CREATIVE & EXECUTION
GT Racing is a 3D car racing game where players can compete in practice or career mode to win Candystand points exchangeable for vehicle performance and appearance upgrades. As the game progresses, players can add new features from wheels to spoilers and decals to engines, as well as unlocking new cars and tracks along the way.
The game comes with a custom styling center where players can ‘trick out’ their ideal ride and post it to a gallery, as well as a career stats leader board to help build an online community around the game.
To incorporate branding into gameplay, users collect floating packages of Wrigley products for power-up boosts and garage upgrades/unlocks, as well as sponsorship of track names, safety walls, and the Vehicle Design Center. More subliminally, all vehicle colour choices are based on candy flavors.
This game boasts incredible graphics, physics rendering, and stereo sound, using the full potential of Fuel’s capabilities to push the limit of what is possible for a browser-based video game.
PERFORMANCE
To date, over one million visitors (and counting) have played GT Racing.
