Curiously Strong All Night Long
- Brand
- Altoids
- Year
- 2003
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
Objective
Altoids was launching its new Strips format and wanted a way to introduce the product that stayed true to the brand's cheeky "curiously strong" attitude rather than a straight ad. Building the pitch around a game gave people a reason to spend time on altoids.com and put the new product directly in their hands.
Solution
The player takes Big Bad Al, a self-described first-class loser, on a mission to score a date with local punk star Sheena Gothskull. Clicking through the screens of a nightclub, the player talks to characters, picks up items into an inventory, and combines or trades them to get past one gatekeeper after another. A pack of Altoids Strips sits in the inventory from the start and doubles as currency and a puzzle ingredient, traded away or mixed into a drink to clear each obstacle. The session ends once Al talks his way past the bouncers and into the Gothroom for his date with Sheena, at which point the game offers a wallpaper download as a parting gift.
- 1
The game opens on the street outside Club Nightclub, where Big Bad Al — a self-styled loser trying to score a date with local punk star Sheena Gothskull — cannot get past the door. The player starts with a pack of Altoids Strips already in inventory.
- 2
To get inside, the player talks to the characters loitering outside, trading and combining items: a marker from a homeless man turns the Strips packet into a paper strip, which is then combined with gum (traded from a girl chewing it) into a wristband. Handing the finished wristband to Al gets him past the door.
- 3
Once inside, the player roams the main room talking to patrons, gathering hints about where to go and what to look for next.
- 4
The player picks up a DVD case and a unicorn statuette, then trades the unicorn to a raver girl by a waterfall in exchange for a glow stick.
- 5
A bathroom puzzle yields two more ingredients: baking soda and vinegar from a medicine cabinet, and a mango from releasing a bat trapped behind a window. Mixing the soda and vinegar in the toilet creates a foaming diversion.
- 6
Trading the DVD to a geeky patron opens access to the Gothroom, the club's inner area.
- 7
In the Gothroom, the player collects a pack of cinnamon Altoids Strips from a table, then trades a pack of mint Strips to a pierced metalhead for a bar mixer.
- 8
Combining the cinnamon Strips, the mango, and the glow stick in the mixer produces a finished cocktail.
- 9
The player hands the cocktail off first to a breakdancer and then to Al's date, closing the game on an ending screen that offers a downloadable wallpaper.
