Pepsi + Pizza Hut Invites Fans to "Score with Pogba"
Exclusive AR Game Starring Soccer Superstar Paul Pogba
Pepsi partnered with Pizza Hut and the UEFA Champions League for their annual club football competition. At the center of the campaign is the Champions Bundle you can get by ordering from Pizza Hut restaurants. This was a global promotion released in over 20 countries.
To promote the partnership and enhance the experience, Tool created SCORE WITH POGBA, a one-of-a-kind web-based Augmented Reality game.
The Experience
SCORE WITH POGBA is an updated take on a classic endless runner game. Tool created the game concept, environment, game logic, and rules from the ground (or grass) up!
To play, a customer can scan a QR code that accompanies their order of Pepsi and Pizza Hut, or they can simply go to scorewithpogba.com on their mobile device.
Pogba remains in the center of the frame on an endless training run, dribbling the ball. The ground beneath him continually scrolls. He can weave left and right, and slide under obstacles in his path. Hit an obstacle, and it’s game over.
Pogba must use his fancy footwork to keep the ball rolling and avoid obstacles, but he can also collect Champions Bundle items in order to fill up his power meter. If Pogba fills the Power Meter up, he unlocks a Power-Up which helps to take him even farther down the pitch.
The goal is to go the distance. The farther you run, and the more Pepsi and pizzas you collect, the higher your score. Each score lands the player a place on the leaderboard, higher scores earn bragging rights, and a custom player card with all of your stats can be created and shared.
Creative Production
The game experience begins and ends with a focus on simple UX to drive the user to the game quickly. Only a homepage and how to play screen stand between entering the website and playing the game - you’re just one click from controlling Pogba on the pitch.
The core of the mobile experience is the game itself and to bring Pogba “into” the game we developed a 3D avatar that looked and dressed exactly as he does in real life.
Other 3D assets created were the entire stadium environment, including branding, signage, lights, and the pitch. We also created collectible items for the gameplay including Pizza Hut pizzas and cans of Pepsi.
Since this was a global game, we designed the gameplay to be simple and universally understood.
The object of the game is to collect as many Pepsi cans and pizza slices that come down the pitch without hitting an obstacle. We developed several animations for the Pogba avatar to execute including running, moving side-to-side to collect items and dodge obstacles, as well as the fancy trick moves like the Maradona Spin and the Rainbow Flick for when you reached the Power-Up mode.
Avatar Creation
We worked with our friends at Augmented Island Studios to create a 3D avatar for Pogba. Based on photo references of Pogba and the approved Outfit the team started working on the model. The first step was sculpting the model, we wanted to get the shape right first before jumping into animation and txturing. Once we got the face approved we moved into the body shape and the outfit. Once the volume and shape was approved, we started rigging and texturing, to end later with the animations. The team used motion capture for some of the animation, using Pogba's videos as reference and then tweaked these animations by hand to get them clean and finalized to be implemented in the game.
Tech Approach
Built on the 8th Wall platform, this web-based augmented reality game allows for extreme versatility enabling users to play on any mobile device within any browser. 3D assets were optimized to deliver fast response times and easy playability. The gameplay logic was built so the game gets progressively more difficult the longer you play, so skill is the name of the game!
A leaderboard was developed for players to record their score, and a custom player card can be easily created which will display your overall score, distance traveled, number of Pepsi cans and pizza slices collected, etc… You can even upload your name and photo to the card making it the perfect sharable asset to send to friends and get them in the game!
View the Experience
