Showdown
- Brand
- Robin Hood
- Year
- 2008
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Playgroup
- With
- Specialmoves
Objective
BBC wanted a promotional game to sit alongside its "Robin Hood" TV drama and keep viewers coming back to the show's website between episodes. The brief, placed through agency Playgroup, called for a game that was easy to pick up but rewarded repeat play with visible improvement — all tuned to suit BBC's family audience, which meant dialing back the violence from early prototypes.
Solution
Playing as Robin Hood, you're dropped into the Sheriff of Nottingham's castle for a tournament you never agreed to enter. Each two-minute challenge has you fending off waves of guards with a sword (click to swing) or bow (hold to draw, release to fire), moving in eight directions while your torso and aim track independently from your feet. Beaten guards vanish in a puff of smoke and drop bags of coin that boost your score multiplier, and you can smash barrels with your sword or split crates with an arrow along the way. One challenge, Barrel Run, drops the combat entirely and has you dodging a barrage of rolling barrels instead. Clear a challenge's conditions and you earn a trophy, with your score posted to that challenge's leaderboard — register and you can save your best runs and open a private table to compete against friends.
- 1
The game opens as a browser-based 3D arcade title embedded in the BBC Robin Hood show's website, framed by a short setup: the Sheriff of Nottingham has challenged Robin Hood to a gladiatorial tournament.
- 2
Players pick one of several challenges that make up the tournament, each tracked on its own separate leaderboard; before or after a run they can register to save their scores and set up a friends-only leaderboard to invite others to.
- 3
Each challenge is a two-minute timed bout inside the Sheriff's castle: Robin is steered with the arrow keys or WASD, walking in eight directions while his upper body and aim turn independently of his feet.
- 4
Combat mixes a melee sword swing, triggered with the mouse button or space bar, which also deflects incoming arrows, with a bow aimed by the cursor or the I/J/K/L keys, drawn by holding the button and fired on release; defeated guards vanish in a puff of smoke and drop a bag of coins rather than dying on screen.
- 5
Collected gold raises the player's score multiplier, and the arena's breakable barrels and crates each demand a matching weapon to open — barrels give way to sword strikes, crates to arrows.
- 6
Robin's health regenerates automatically after being hit, but three consecutive hits end the run.
- 7
Surviving the two-minute timer brings on a main opponent for that challenge, and beating it is mandatory: losing forfeits the final score and any trophies earned in the run.
- 8
One challenge, the Barrel Run, drops the enemies entirely and instead has the player dodge rolling barrels for a high score.
- 9
Runs can earn trophies for specific feats, such as landing ten straight arrow kills or clearing a challenge without taking a hit, alongside a broader set of tournament awards.
- 10
Finishing a challenge posts the score to that challenge's leaderboard, viewable across all players or narrowed to friends; woven between the action are licensed video and audio clips from the TV series.
