The Joker's Escape
- Brand
- DC
- Year
- 2020
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Digital Kitchen
- With
- Wildlife
- With
- Sid Lee
Objective
DC FanDome 2020 replaced every in-person convention and fan event that year, and Warner Bros./DC needed their 24-hour virtual event to give fans something to do, not just watch — a way to spend real time inside the show rather than clicking through streams and panels. The brief leaned on DC's most recognizable villain, the Joker, to build an interactive centerpiece that reinvented how an online audience could experience event content.
Solution
Players step into a browser-based escape room rendered as a full 360° fun-house maze inside the Joker's head, free to look around and hunt for hidden details before tackling three trials in order. First is a mock audition for the role of the Joker, where the player has to deliver their own maniacal laugh. Next is a fast card duel against a rotating cast of DC heroes and villains, tapping to eliminate foes while sparing allies across three difficulty levels. The finale drops players into a green gas lab guarded by the Joker as Red Hood, racing a five-minute clock to defuse five bombs. Survivors land on the Wall of Villains, those who fail end up on the Wall of Victims, and either result can be shared — all within the single 24-hour window the experience was live.
Results
2.1 million fans completed the experience across 144 countries, spending an average of 7.5 minutes inside it, with 4 million impressions generated in the first 24 hours.
- 1
The experience is hidden inside the MultiVerse map of DC FanDome rather than offered as a standalone attraction, and the whole escape room is only accessible for a single day.
- 2
A cinematic intro pulls the player inside the Joker's head, a warped funhouse rendered in 360 degrees that the player can look around and explore, discovering DC-universe easter eggs hidden in the scenery along the way.
- 3
In the first trap, "Masks of Madness," the player auditions for the role of the Joker by performing a psychopathic laugh that is measured for madness.
- 4
In the second trap, "Joker Friend? Joker Foe?," the player plays a fast card game against the Joker, sorting a cast of DC heroes and villains by rapidly discarding the enemy cards, across three back-to-back rounds that speed up each level.
- 5
The third trap, "The Kabooooom!!! Room," drops the player into a gas-filled lab where the Joker (as Red Hood) sets a five-minute countdown to defuse five bombs before time runs out.
- 6
The outcome branches on survival: players who make it out land on the Joker's "Wall of Villains," while those who don't land on the "Wall of Victims."
- 7
The result is packaged as a shareable card the player can post on social media.
