GrubRunner
Open the game- Brand
- GrubHub
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Goodboy Digital
Objective
GrubHub's biggest friction point wasn't the food — it was the wait. Goodboy Digital was briefed to turn that dead time into something sticky enough to keep customers engaged past delivery, while bringing the brand's TV campaign characters into something players could actually control.
Solution
The game opens the moment an order goes through: no download, just a browser window with a pixel-art rooftop runner. You pick one of GrubHub's "savoury superheroes" from the TV ads and start sprinting across city rooftops, timing jumps and glides to clear gaps between buildings and chain a double jump when a gap's too wide. Along the way you grab food and coins, scoop up a jetpack or magnet power-up to extend a run, and swerve around trash cans that end it early. Finish a run and you can unlock new characters or try another mode, then share your score before the food even arrives.
- 1
The game surfaces as an easter egg right after a player places an order on GrubHub, offering something to do while a courier is en route; it opens instantly in the browser in pixel-art, retro-arcade style, with a Play button to start.
- 2
The player picks one of the "savoury superhero" characters from GrubHub's TV campaign, such as Pizza Paul or Sushi Sue; part of the roster starts locked and opens up later.
- 3
The chosen hero auto-runs across city rooftops in an endless platformer loop; a tap or click jumps a gap, holding the tap extends the glide, and a second tap in mid-air triggers a double jump to reach higher roofs or airborne bonuses.
- 4
Food scattered along the route is the main scoring target and takes priority over coins, which are collected alongside it for extra points.
- 5
Rooftops are littered with leaking green trash cans; hitting one costs a life, so jumps must be timed around them.
- 6
Two power-ups appear along the way: a jetpack that lifts the hero above the obstacles to sweep up everything on the top line, and a magnet that auto-pulls nearby coins without precise jumps.
- 7
A run ends when the player runs out of lives; the game shows the score reached and lets the player start a new attempt, with route familiarity carrying over between runs.
- 8
Playing repeatedly unlocks additional characters from the roster and extra game modes, giving players a reason to keep coming back after their food has already arrived.
- 9
Players can share their score to social media directly from the game.
