Box Stacker Pro
- Brand
- DHL
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Playerthree
Objective
DHL is the title partner of ESL One and a logistics partner of Formula 1 and Formula E, and needed a reason to pull visitors up to its stand and explain what the company actually does, in a form worth queuing for. That meant a session short enough to move a full day's line through one headset, a leaderboard with daily and weekend prizes to give it a competitive edge, and a loop players would want to run again.
Solution
Player puts on the headset and finds themselves on a cherry-picker platform rising slowly up a shelving unit inside a DHL warehouse. Yellow DHL boxes come in three shapes, one at a time, and the player has to grab each with a controller and slot it into the matching gap on the shelf before that row rises out of reach. Misjudge the slot or miss a row and one of five lives is gone; drop a box and a ParcelCopter drone swoops in to catch it before it hits the ground. The climb keeps speeding up, a run lasts 30 to 90 seconds, and it ends with a score going up against everyone else's on the leaderboard.
- 1
At the DHL stand — set up at esports events such as ESL One and in a branded zone at the Formula E race in Brooklyn — visitors queue for the VR station, where a hostess hands them a headset and two controllers.
- 2
The player stands inside a large DHL warehouse styled in the brand's yellow and red, its shelving hung with posters of DHL technology: the EffiBOT robot, the Sawyer robot, the ParcelCopter drone, and an ESL gaming chair. They ride a cherry-picker platform that slowly moves upward along the shelving.
- 3
Boxes are handed to the player in three different shapes, each grabbed with a controller and placed into the matching slot on the shelf.
- 4
The platform keeps rising, and each row of shelving must be filled before it passes out of reach; boxes arrive at an ever-increasing pace as the run continues.
- 5
The player has five lives, losing one for each row left unfilled or each box placed in the wrong slot.
- 6
If a box is thrown instead of placed, a ParcelCopter drone swoops in and catches it before it hits the floor.
- 7
The pace keeps escalating until the player loses control, ending the run; a session lasts roughly 30 seconds to a minute and a half, suited to a fast-moving stand queue. The final score is submitted to a leaderboard — global Steam and Meta rankings in the store release — and players typically restart at once to try to beat it.
- 8
At the live event, scores carried an offline stake: the top score of the day won ESL merchandise, and the best score of the weekend won a trip to an ESL One tournament.
- 9
After removing the headset, the player is presented with a gift — a pair of DHL sunglasses — handed over in person by the DHL robot Sawyer.
