Kekubian Assassin
- Brand
- HBO
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Resn
Objective
HBO built the game to carry Random Acts of Flyness's themes past the credits: rather than tell viewers what street harassment and everyday racism toward Black women feel like, the show put them inside it. Nelson Mandela Nance, who wrote the episode the game revisits, wanted players to feel that the barrage never lets up and stays uncomfortable throughout — ranging, in his words, from mere annoyance to something life-threatening. Turning the fictional arcade cabinet from the episode into a real, shareable game also gave the series an easy hook for press and word of mouth.
Solution
Kekubian Assassin opens straight in the phone's browser and plays one-handed. The camera moves forward through lead character Nadja's eyes as she walks down a Brooklyn street, then into a bar, a park, and a corner store. Passersby keep approaching, and when one starts harassing her, a speech bubble with their line appears over their head — the player taps them, Nadja throws them a withering look, and they're knocked out of the scene. Tapping someone with no bubble does nothing, so the player has to read the crowd before reacting rather than tapping on reflex. Five levels raise the pace and crowd size, and each closes with a boss who has to be banished to the fourth dimension by answering three trick questions correctly.
- 1
Kekubian Assassin runs directly in a mobile browser with no install required, built for one-handed play.
- 2
The player takes a first-person view as Naja, walking an endless path through Brooklyn as the camera advances automatically past a recurring cast of nine characters.
- 3
Aggressive passersby who catcall Naja (22 different lines, each with its own gesture) are marked by a speech bubble; tapping them triggers a scowl animation that throws shade and removes them. Tapping a bystander with no bubble, or missing an aggressor in time, costs a life.
- 4
The route passes through four Brooklyn settings — a street, a bar, a park, and a store — changing the backdrop as the run continues.
- 5
Across five levels, the pace and pressure of the harassment escalate.
- 6
The run closes with a boss encounter in which three characters pose pointed questions tied to the show's view of contemporary American life; the session ends once all three have been answered.
