The Robot Chronicles Game

This is taken from a case study so is more formal than articles normally on my blog... (sorry!)

The Robot Chronicles online game is the first time The LEGO Company has used a single digital campaign to promote several distinct product brands. The success of this campaign could have significant implications for the company’s global marketing strategy across all media. This case study examines the techniques used to make the creative execution cohesive. It also challenges received wisdom about how to encourage repeat visits to online games.

The Brief

When children play with LEGO®, they mix and match the models with little regard to what sub-brand the toy belongs to. LEGO was intrigued to find out how they could mirror this behaviour in an online game and promote their brand as a whole. The Robot Chronicles is The LEGO Company’s first ever cross brand campaign and features challenges for the plastic population from LEGO City, Racers and Agents. If this project is successful, it could revolutionise the way LEGO market their products in the future. An online game was the most cost-effective method to conduct this research on a global level.

The campaign therefore presented many challenges. For example, each product line has its own target age group, storyline, style and ethical guidelines. Designing a single gaming experience to satisfy this diverse scope was a complex challenge. 4T2 Multimedia, devised a solution by focusing on an element that unifies a lot of childrens’ play experiences – a strong sense of narrative. The agency presented a cartoon storyboard to illustrate how the ingredients of the three brands could combine and interact to build a compelling storyline.

Once LEGO understood that this campaign could be safely delivered without compromising any individual brand’s narrative integrity they were ready to hear about a very ambitious game proposal.

For the approach to be considered successful, The Robot Chronicles will have to beat the statistics generated by previous LEGO online games created by 4T2. This includes an average playtime of over 16 minutes and a return rate of 66% for one game, and well over fifteen million visits a year for another. When you consider that the industry average playtime for an online game is 5.14 minutes and the return rate is 26.33% (statistics from web game monitoring service Memecounter.com), you start to realise the scale of this challenge.

Strategy

To reflect the primary objective of this campaign, the creative team followed two rules. The first is obvious – ensure the game is fun for children to play. The second is summed up by the ethos “play the way you want, whenever you want to” – in other words a strong departure from the traditions of linear game play.

With the game going live on three different and popular LEGO brand portals, traffic was never going to be an issue. But how do you address the challenge of preventing a fan of one sub brand being bored or confused by another?

The Robot Chronicles online game has three bespoke title screens and music tracks to suit each entrance point. On launching the game, a child plays one of two key missions for that brand. For fans of LEGO Racers this means immediately getting down to burning rubber in a high speed tour around the City Centre. LEGO CITY starts off with a mission to tow various vehicles back to the garage for repairs. This helps to ensure all players are comfortable with their initial exposure to the campaign. No mission lasts for more than a few minutes and yet, whatever actions you take, your progress through the game is always preserved. This allows children to drop in and out of the game as their time restrictions and attention span permits.

All of the missions are introduced in an interactive cartoon format by a brave reporter who is trying to get to the bottom of why all of these events are simultaneously occurring.

Children can complete these initial missions in any order they wish and drive whatever vehicles they have unlocked at a time of their choosing. This campaign is a Persistent World and as close as the designers could get to creating a “Live” City.
The combination of casual exploration whilst solving the larger mystery is critical to the playability of the game. Younger children can spend their time putting out fires, arresting villains and rescuing injured people and be completely entertained. Older children will be searching for the story based elements and looking to solve the larger puzzle.

After completing the first three missions the plotline is fully revealed and a rampaging robot is let loose on the City. From this point on children must figure out the correct order to complete certain missions as the brand narratives become fully integrated.

Execution

Online games have traditionally used high score tables to encourage repeat play. Recently this has evolved into “Achievement” systems. Now you can reward people for performing any action you like inside of a game, creating endless, optional mini-challenges. For example, completing mission one is easy, but can you do it by only driving backwards?

The Robot Chronicles embraces this approach. It replaces traditional scoring systems with task-based rewards. Amongst these is a secret prize in an off-road location that you simply drive through to collect. Some children will now search every single square inch of the map, uncovering many other surprises along the way, so they can tell their friends that they’ve completed every aspect of the campaign. This will lead to higher repeat visits, increased game playtime and very passionate playground advocates.

In order for a reward system to work you need an integrated online social network that allows people to brag about their abilities, or else what was the point of pulling off a ten minute donut in a digger? My LEGO Network (MLN) is at the forefront of social networks for children because it’s extremely safe and yet still great fun. At no stage do children share any personal information and they can only communicate with others via a selection of prewritten messages.

The MLN components for The Robot Chronicles allow children to unlock virtual friends, stickers, badges and blueprints in return for performing in game tasks. Once a child is engaged in the MLN activities, a whole new set of interconnected challenges and mystery await them. This allows both LEGO and 4T2 to add new levels of detail to characters that co-exist and interact in both the web game and social network environment. Efforts in one discipline will influence the other, creating many more ways to progress through the adventure.

A child can complete missions related to the primary storyline in approximately thirty minutes. To complete the entire game and win the ultimate MLN achievement, takes many hours. This significantly expands the lifespan and repeat-visit appeal of the campaign.

The rewards also give children a very clear incentive to complete the main game. Only by defeating the robot will a child get to experience the emotional high of a final victory. Making the connection between a brand and a positive experience is possibly the single most important goal of any marketing-oriented game, yet the one most commonly forgotten. Just like high score tables, trying to prevent someone from completing a game by making it increasingly difficult in sudden spurts is a tactic developed by the makers of arcade machines in the eighties. Their goal was to encourage you to put another slice of your pocket money into their machines. Why would you do this now? Instead you actually want as many people as possible to eventually complete your games, as they are then much more likely to return to your content in order to receive another injection of pure, unadulterated self esteem. The campaign must still be a challenge but, if a user gets stuck, don’t leave them bashing their desk. This is another clear advantage of a non-linear game. Instead of closing the game, the child can simply attempt another task and return to the mission they previously failed when they have unlocked more tools to assist them.

To help children of all ages, the campaign also automatically alters its difficulty, depending on the user’s performance. If you are completing the missions too easily, the game automatically gets harder and vice versa. This allows as many children as possible to experience a challenge that is customised to their abilities.

Results

Watch this space. Huge thanks and massive repect goes to Rob Fell, Nick Galaxy, Edd Fahy, Justin Bryant and the crew at LEGO System A/S (Stefan, Peter, Gabe, Leah, Thomas, Pia, Niels and Brent.)