The Game
- Brand
- Occupied
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Femme Fatale Studio
Objective
Arte's political drama "Occupied" imagined a Russian occupation of Norway, and the broadcaster wanted viewers to stay engaged with that story past the credits. A companion site let fans step inside the fiction itself, turning them from spectators into participants shaping the show's political conflict.
Solution
You land on a stark, near-black site and pick which character to play as — the Norwegian prime minister, the Russian ambassador, or a bodyguard. From there the story unfolds as a series of full-screen video and photo moments cut from the show, and at each turning point you choose how your character acts. Each choice branches the plot, so the fictional occupation plays out differently depending on your decisions. You keep clicking through until your character's storyline reaches one of its endings, with the site framing it as you writing the outcome for your country and for Europe.
- 1
The player lands on a companion site for the TV series with an invitation to take control of the show rather than watch it: a game that casts the player as its hero, deciding how a fictional Russian occupation of Norway unfolds.
- 2
The player picks which character to play: Norway's prime minister, the Russian ambassador, or a bodyguard.
- 3
Playing as that character, the player moves through story nodes and makes decisions on their behalf; those choices determine the outcome of the geopolitical conflict, framed as writing the history of the character's country and of Europe.
- 4
Scenes play fullscreen, with footage, video, and animation from the show's world serving as the backdrop to each decision rather than illustration alongside text; the site works on mobile as well as desktop.
