December
Open the game- Brand
- Neck Deep
- Year
- 2025
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Wayward Creative
Objective
Neck Deep and Hopeless Records used the 10th anniversary of "December" (from Life's Not Out To Get You, 2015) to capture the song's recurring seasonal streaming spike, turning renewed fan attention into pre-saves and artist follows ahead of the band's sold-out UK anniversary tour in December 2025.
Solution
At december.neckdeepuk.com, players are greeted with a sign-in screen offering Spotify or Apple Music login (or a "Skip" link to go straight to the game). Signing in triggers a pre-save of the new release and an artist follow, then drops players into an 8-bit side-scrolling runner starring the hoodie-wearing alien skateboarder from the "December" video. Using the arrow keys and spacebar (or touch controls on phone), players steer him down a snowy street, dodging obstacles and grabbing coins while the song plays as the in-game soundtrack; the backgrounds and collectibles are packed with nods to lyrics and imagery from the band's other tracks. A run ends when the player runs out of lives, with the final score logged to a running leaderboard — landing in the top three by December 31st won a merch bundle.
Results
The campaign coincided with "December" setting a new streaming high of 540,800 plays across its three versions on December 1st, 2025, and generating 48,000 TikTok video creations in a single day (November 30th, 2025).
- 1
The game opens on an 8-bit title screen themed around Neck Deep's "December," then invites the player to sign in with a streaming profile (Spotify or Apple Music); doing so automatically pre-saves the single and follows the artist, while tapping "Skip" bypasses the streaming tie-in entirely.
- 2
Before the run starts, a briefing screen lists every obstacle the player will face — paper airplanes, purple projectiles, traffic cones, sawhorse barriers, and potholes — above a persistent HUD tracking score and three health points.
- 3
Players steer a hoodie-wearing alien on a skateboard with the arrow keys and spacebar, jumping and shifting lanes in a loop that recalls Chrome's offline dinosaur runner; a "READY?" screen holds the action frozen until the player presses start.
- 4
The core loop is an endless sidescrolling run down a snowy suburban street, where players scoop up gold coins that add 250 points each to a running score.
- 5
Obstacles vary in height and pattern — barriers and cones to jump or dodge, airborne purple projectiles and paper airplanes to duck under, and potholes to clear by rising above the road — and any collision costs one of the three health points, flashing the character red.
- 6
The run accelerates and obstacle pacing tightens the longer it continues, raising the odds of a mistake as health runs low.
- 7
Environmental details and collectible items nod to lines and songs from Neck Deep's broader discography.
- 8
Losing all health ends the run on a "GAME OVER" screen showing the final score, with options to submit it to the leaderboard or start a new run immediately.
- 9
A burger menu, available at any time, opens the promo site's navigation, including a ranked leaderboard of player scores plus links to the store, music, and the band's social accounts.
- 10
The leaderboard doubles as a seasonal contest: whoever holds a top-three spot when it closes on December 31 wins a Neck Deep merch bundle.
