Ace Of Mace
- Brand
- WIBERG
- Year
- 2009
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Brandl
- With
- Moser
- With
- Kerschbauer
- With
- Brunner
Objective
Heading into 2007, WIBERG wanted to know whether a real game — not a banner ad — could work as an advertising channel for an established spice brand. The brief to FH Salzburg's Game Development students: keep it on-brand for spices, dead simple to pick up, and sticky enough that people come back on their own, not because a banner interrupted them.
Solution
The game opens on a cluttered kitchen counter: a nutmeg stands in for the beer-pong ball, a drinking glass is the target, and a run of kitchen utensils sits between them as obstacles. Aiming is all mouse — the cursor's position sets the flick direction, holding the button winds up the power, and letting go sends the nutmeg flying down the counter. WIBERG-branded bonus points are scattered along the route for the player to pick up mid-flight. Each round is scored by attempts spent minus bonuses collected, so the best players clear the counter in the fewest flicks while grabbing the most bonuses. Later levels add more utensils and tighter obstacle courses, raising the difficulty run over run.
- 1
The player opens the game in a browser at its own promotional domain, a Flash game built for the spice brand WIBERG.
- 2
The screen shows a kitchen scene: a nutmeg stands in for the ball, a drinking glass is the target, and a row of kitchen utensils forms an obstacle course between them, playing like a game of beer pong with a nutmeg flicked instead of a ball tossed.
- 3
The player aims by moving the mouse relative to the nutmeg, holds the mouse button down to charge the strength of the flick, then releases to send the nutmeg bouncing off the kitchen obstacles along its path.
- 4
Along the way, the player tries to pick up bonus points placed on the course, which subtract from the final score.
- 5
The goal of each turn is to land the nutmeg in the glass; missing means flicking again, with attempts accumulating.
- 6
The level score is the number of attempts used minus the bonus points collected, golf-style, where a lower score is better.
- 7
The player then advances to the next level, where the utensil course is harder than the one before.
