Project Prometheus: Training Center
- Brand
- Microsoft
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Web
Objective
Ahead of the June 2012 release of Ridley Scott's Prometheus, 20th Century Fox wanted to pull sci-fi audiences into the film's world through participation rather than another trailer, casting them as recruits applying to join the fictional Weyland Corporation's mission crew. Microsoft used the same project to prove out Internet Explorer's HTML5 capabilities, running 3D, video and game mechanics natively in-browser with no plugins (best experienced in IE9) — a partnership written directly into the campaign's fiction as a "strategic alliance" between Weyland Industries and Internet Explorer.
Solution
Players land on the Weyland Careers Training Center as job applicants and are greeted by Andrea Bishop, an android supervisor who watches from an adjoining observation room and appears before them as a hologram. She unlocks five tests one at a time: two physical trials — dodging obstacles on an endless treadmill run, then holding balance and aim inside a G-force simulator — and three cognitive ones — a multiple-choice interview on scenarios the crew might face on the mission, rotating 3D shapes to match a target outline, and a numbered-cube puzzle. Using only the mouse and arrow keys, players score points on each test and can retake any of them to post a better result. Clearing all five marks the applicant as accepted onto the Prometheus mission crew.
- 1
Players arrive from the film's fiction: a careers pitch on the Weyland Industries site invites them to apply for Project Prometheus, linking out to the Weyland Careers Training Center.
- 2
A first-person intro combining live video and a 3D lab environment orients the player inside the training center, where the android supervisor Andrea Bishop appears as a holographic projection, watching from an adjoining observation room, assigning tasks and judging results.
- 3
From a central hub, five separate aptitude tests unlock one at a time; completing all five is required to be considered enlisted in Project Prometheus.
- 4
The Agility Test runs the player down an endless first-person treadmill, dodging obstacles left and right with the arrow keys; stringing ten dodges together without a miss awards a 2x score multiplier.
- 5
The G-Force Assessment Test has the player use the mouse cursor to keep a moving target centered, simulating balance under high-G, zero-gravity conditions.
- 6
The Situational Intelligence Test is a twelve-question multiple-choice quiz, presenting hypothetical mission scenarios and asking the player to pick the best response.
- 7
The Spatial Relations Test drops 3D shapes toward the player, who rotates each one with the arrow keys to match a cutout silhouette and pass it through.
- 8
The Prefrontal Cortex Assessment Test is a two-stage number-ordering puzzle: first rotating numbered cubes in a flat 3x3 grid into ascending order, then repeating the task on a 3x3x3 volumetric array of cubes.
- 9
Each test returns a numeric score and can be replayed to improve it; the combined results form the candidate's evaluation and stand in for a Project Prometheus application.
