VCCP's 8-bit Halloween Game Helps You 'Kill It' in the Creative World

Or else, the industry will kill you. No pressure

“You start as a junior creative and see if you can survive and become the boss.”

That’s the premise of an 8-bit Halloween-themed game unleashed today by the creative department at VCCP. It’s also an IRL career trajectory for many Muse readers. So, the game might help prepare you for the workplace horrors that lie in wait. (Lousy break-room coffee is the least of it.)

Dubbed “Kill It (Or Be Killed),” the scenario unfolds at Hollow & Vane Advertising. (A double pun. Well played!)

Challenges in the game include:

• Racing your CD to deliver ideas
• Surviving panic attacks
• Navigating mazes of data to find the right strategy
• Surviving bad campaign PR
• Battling the undead as they prowl through the halls, trying to suck out your brains

Well, not that last one, which is more of a threat in the financial-services sector. Heh.

Here’s a trailer:

Below, VCCP creatives Jose Prieto, Lauralee Harper and Zeke Handelman offer combined responses to queries from Muse. (They shared credit, basking equally in the glory, forging deeper connections among themselves for the corporate battles ahead. True playahs!)

What did you draw on for inspo?

We’re big gamers. Some of us played our first game on an old IBM computer in the late ’80s: Prince of Persia. It was a simple running and jumping game, but it was so killer. Every mini-game in Kill It is inspired by the games and memories we grew up with. We wanted people to instantly recognize what they’re playing, but also connect it to the story and to our industry. Tapper became a bar tab, Missile Command became fighting a PR crisis on social, Pac-Man became hunting for the actual strategy and Arkanoid became, well, smashing through the work.

Players can control their own destiny—for better or worse.

A huge inspiration was also The Oregon Trail. We loved choose-your-own-adventure games and how the ending changed based on your own choices. Kill It works the same way: the decisions you make along the way decide whether you end up running the place, going freelance or getting killed by the industry.

Of course, none of you ever faced any of the game’s nightmares on the job IRL—wink, wink.

Anyone who’s spent enough time in advertising has a story about a creative director who took credit for someone else’s idea, or a project that died a slow death by a thousand rounds of feedback. Thankfully, the industry has come a long way. And we’re happy to report that none of the bad behavior was inspired by anyone inside VCCP’s walls. But we’ve all lived through a “just one more note” moment. Consider the game a little collective therapy for the industry.

Any ups and downs during the development process?

We made the game in about four weeks, which involved a lot of concepting, copywriting, bug fixing and an arguably irresponsible amount of game playing during office hours. The best part was that agency leadership was behind it from day one. It’s not often you get to make something purely for the joy of making it. Ironically, the process was anything but spooky.

What’s the game’s main mission—what do you hope to accomplish?

We wanted to give the industry something to laugh about, a little escape from the daily grind and a reminder that we’re all in on the same joke. And selfishly, we wanted to have some fun making it.

CREDITS

Executive Creative Director: Elena Knox
Creative Director: Jose Prieto
Creative: Lauralee Harper
Creative: Zeke Handelman
Producer: Erika Alexander
Editor: Matt Brushinski
Project Management: Connor Hall
Strategy: Rowan Takats

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