8-BIT Minigames (Project Laser)
- Brand
- Supercell
- Year
- 2020
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Monks
- With
- Wieden + Kennedy
Objective
Supercell wanted to give 8-BIT — one of Brawl Stars' brawlers — a backstory that went beyond his in-game bio, and to reward the game's most engaged players for paying close attention to him. Rather than promote it through a banner or cutscene, they hid the payoff behind a secret only dedicated fans would stumble onto, making discovery itself part of the experience.
Solution
Players find the game by tapping 8-BIT's portrait in their in-game profile eight times in a row, which starts a countdown and hands them a link to a hidden site that only works on a phone or tablet turned sideways. The link drops them into Project Laser, a side-scrolling space shooter; clearing it opens a portal into Slugfest, a lane-based shooter styled after a later arcade era. Beating that opens one more portal into Starrcade Breakdown, an auto-scrolling platformer, and the run ends with a boss fight against Dark 8-BIT. Each of the three stages looks and plays like a different generation of arcade game, so pushing through them feels like traveling back through 8-BIT's own history to the corruption at its core.
- 1
The experience unlocks as a hidden feature inside the Brawl Stars app: tapping the 8-BIT brawler eight times in his profile reveals a link to a private site, which in turn requires a phone or tablet held in landscape orientation to play.
- 2
The first minigame, Project Laser, is a retro side-scrolling space shooter in which the player pilots a ship through space, firing on robots and enemy craft while dodging their shots and meteors to preserve health.
- 3
Along the way the player collects weapon power-ups, the strongest being a rocket launcher.
- 4
Progress depends on choosing the right onscreen portal among several, since some spawn an endless stream of robots and only one leads onward.
- 5
The level culminates in a boss fight against Colonel Ruffs, fought twice before the stage ends.
- 6
Defeating the boss reveals a black hole that the player shoots until it turns white, then flies into to transition into the next minigame.
- 7
The second minigame, Slugfest, is a lane-based shooter where enemies advance on three lanes at once; the player clears each area of enemies before moving on to the next, repeating through to the end of the level.
- 8
Advancing past the final area requires spotting and tapping a poisonous cloud hidden in the background, a disguised transition point to the next minigame.
- 9
The third minigame, Starrcade Breakdown, is an autoscrolling platformer in the style of classic Mario games, where the player jumps between platforms — using a double jump to reach higher ones — avoids instantly lethal lava below, and must collect at least 100 coins to clear the level.
- 10
The finale pits the player against Dark 8-BIT, a shadow double trailing a plug and cord who mimics the player's jumps and shots after a brief delay; the player exploits that lag to land hits on the double until it is destroyed and the ending plays.
