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Case study · Experiments

Keyframe ’95

We built a complete arcade game so brands can play the pitch instead of reading it.

Experiential activation, in-house build · 2026

Keyframe ’95 title art: a hoverboard rider reaching toward the player between floating timeline worlds under a storm sky
Format
Browser, no install
Routes / bosses
3 / 3
Client brief
None
ExperimentsExperiential activation, in-house build2026Case studyThe Social Target

The work

Every agency says it does experiential, but almost none of them can show you one you can try in ten seconds from your phone, so we built our own.

Keyframe ’95: Phase Run is a complete arcade game, not a demo loop. It has a living title screen, three route worlds, rival creatures with their own silhouettes and movement, three bosses, a garage where you spend what you earn, an adaptive score that reacts to danger, and a results screen that grades your run. It runs in a browser, on a phone or a laptop, with keyboard, touch or a gamepad.

The game matters less than what the format does for a brand. A paid ad rents about two seconds of attention. People spend minutes inside a game because they want to, then come back and tell someone else about it. For a product launch, an album or tour, a loyalty mechanic, a trade-show screen or a creator building their own world, that is a fundamentally different asset, and the brand owns it outright instead of renting it back from a platform every month.

It ships as a link, with no app store, download or install, so it can live in an email, a bio link, a QR code on packaging, or a screen at an event, and it can be updated the same afternoon someone asks for a change.

Play it, then tell us what yours would be.

Play Keyframe ’95

The approach

How the growth actually happened.

  1. 01

    The world first

    Art direction before mechanics. A 1995 arcade cabinet as the frame, two broken timeline worlds and a storm squadron as the cast, so every later decision had something to be consistent with.

  2. 02

    One mechanic, learned in a second

    Hold to rise, release to drop, the board handles the shooting. An activation that needs instructions is an activation nobody finishes.

  3. 03

    Built for the browser

    Canvas rendering, interaction-gated audio and full keyboard, touch and gamepad support, so it works on a phone in a queue and on a laptop in an office without an install.

  4. 04

    Made to be embedded

    A dedicated embed build drops the game into any page, ours or a client’s, at any size, so the same asset carries a campaign, a landing page and an event screen.

More work

Three more to chew on.

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Chofa JewelryFrancesca TandoiLokmanVideo

READY WHEN
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Tell us about your business in ninety seconds. If it’s a fit, we reply by email within the working day. If not, we send you something useful instead. We never promise the moon.

The Social Target · Limited · Est. 2017 · London