Dork Dodge
View the case- Brand
- JCPenney
- Year
- 2008
- Objective
- Sales
- Industry
- Retail
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- EVB
Objective
JCPenney was launching Dorm Life, its first dorm-goods line, and needed to reach an audience it rarely spoke to directly: teenage girls about to head off to college. The brand needed buzz around the launch, plus a reason for that younger crowd to walk into stores or visit jcp.com, where the line sold exclusively.
Solution
Players start by picking a girl avatar, then guide her out of an isometric dorm room and across campus toward Jason, the cute guy she's trying to reach, under the tagline "Dodge dorks, find true love." Every room is furnished with actual Dorm Life pieces, and the dorks blocking the way aren't drawn — they're live actors who pop into the pixel-art scene as video clips, forcing a quick move before time runs out. A laptop in the room pings with messages from Jason as players advance, and the choose-your-own-path route through the dorks changes with each attempt. Curious players could also click over to Face Place, a fake MySpace-style site with profile pages for every dork, extending the joke beyond the game itself.
- 1
Players open dorkdodge.com to a dorm-room-styled landing page: a purple polka-dot wall, an isometric room scene, the Dork Dodge logo and slogan "Dodge dorks, find true love," links to How to Play and Sound Off, and a disclaimer crediting JCPenney and its Dorm Life furnishings line.
- 2
Players choose one of three avatar characters, each shown in the same striped top, then confirm with a Next button before the game begins.
- 3
Before play starts, a gallery introduces twelve pixel-art dorm neighbors — the "dork mates" — that the avatar will need to avoid, letting players size up the obstacles in advance.
- 4
The core loop is a choose-your-own-adventure-style traversal: players steer their avatar through the dorm room and across campus, maneuvering past a sequence of dorks toward a love interest.
- 5
When a dork catches up, an orange video window opens over the scene showing a live-action actor playing that character (named on-screen, e.g. Dexter or Cliff) pressing into the camera — the game's core obstacle encounter.
- 6
A laptop prop in the room delivers in-character messages from the love interest, Jason, alongside a row of pink hearts that depletes as the session continues, signaling how much chance is left to reach him.
- 7
An on-screen countdown timer with a pause button limits each session, and a Legend panel explains the icons used on the field.
- 8
The room and route are dressed with pieces from the Dorm Life product line — bookshelves, a lamp, a rug, framed photos, cups — that the game surfaces as players progress, alongside a persistent clickable Dorm Life badge.
- 9
The session's goal is to reach Jason, whose framed photo sits on a shelf, fulfilling the game's slogan "Dodge dorks, find true love."
- 10
A companion site, Face Place, parodies a social network in green pixel styling: character profile pages show photos, favorites, friend grids, in-character bios, and a comment wall, and a top banner links back to the game via a Play the Game button, funneling traffic between the two sites.
