8-bit Tokyo Olympics
View the case- Brand
- Sport New Zealand
- Year
- 2021
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Method Studios
Objective
With Kiwi fans locked out of Tokyo by COVID travel restrictions, Sport New Zealand needed its home fan zone in Auckland to be more than a place to watch the broadcast. The Olympics had put a rare spotlight on sports like surfing, karate and baseball, and Sport NZ wanted to use that moment to get kids actually trying them, not just cheering from the couch — encouraging participation "in an accessible and unexpected way."
Solution
Walk up to one of four big screens in the fan zone and pick a sport — surfing, baseball, karate or hurdles — and there's nothing to hold: a camera reads your own body instead of a controller. Paddle, swing a bat, throw a strike or sprint on the spot, and an 8-bit pixel character mirrors your moves back at you on screen in real time. The gestures are simple enough that any passer-by can jump in cold, no instructions or queueing for a demo required. After a run, a photo spot next to the screens is set up for visitors to grab a shot and post it with the event hashtag.
Results
25,000 people passed through the fan zone over the 16 days of the Games, including 5,000 students bused in from schools across the Auckland region, who tried karate and baseball on Sport New Zealand's digital simulators.
- 1
Players enter the free NZHQ fan zone at The Cloud on Queens Wharf and find a neon-lit activity area, the Tokyo Games Zone, where a queue of kids waits for a turn at the screens.
- 2
Each player picks one of four Olympic sports to play: surfing, baseball, karate, or hurdles.
- 3
No controller is handed out — the player simply stands in front of the screen and plays with their own body.
- 4
A pixel-art 8-bit character appears on screen against a Japanese backdrop and mirrors the player's movements in real time, so a single sport-specific gesture — a bat swing, a karate strike, a run-and-jump over hurdles — drives the on-screen action instead of button presses.
- 5
The attempt closes with a results screen, which in the hurdles game plays out as a final race-result animation.
- 6
Afterward, players are invited to photograph themselves in the zone and post it tagging Sport New Zealand with #TokyoGamesZone, entering a draw for one of two $250 Stirling Sports vouchers.
