HexaARChallenge
The game had to make detective training understandable in seconds while still feeling tied to the show world.
Digital & Games
- Challenge
- Translate a TV murder mystery into a mobile-first game that could hold attention between broadcast touchpoints.
- Idea
- A clue-led web experience where players moved through narrative fragments, evidence, and progression states with game-like pacing.
- Role
- Technical Lead
- Tech
- React
- Narrative game UX
- Mobile animation
- Campaign build
- Result
- FWA-recognized mobile game experience for Channel 4.
- Recognition
To celebrate the launch of Channel 4’s new crime-solving reality TV show, Murder Island, we teamed up with 4Creative on a mobile gaming experience that allows users to fine-tune their detective skills.
Provided with clues, tools, and a helping hand from DCI Simon Harding, players needed to crack three different cases to prove they’ve got what it takes to advance through the training and become a detective.
From searching for information on a victim’s phone, to piecing together shredded evidence and testing observation skills whilst watching suspicious CCTV footage, we set a series of interactive challenges for the aspiring sleuths to solve, incorporating audio and video footage of DCI Simon Harding to simulate a real-life briefing call for each case.
A huge number of wannabe detectives visited the microsite, with over 131,000 visits in the first few weeks of launching. We loved crafting these crime-solving challenges, which were tricky enough to test users’ skill sets whilst still being quick enough to enjoy playing on-the-go – the perfect formula for a winning mobile game series.
Idea
Break the investigation into small playable cases, each using a different evidence mechanic to keep the training varied.
Execution
Built mobile interactions for phone searches, shredded evidence, CCTV observation, and briefing media with fast state changes.
Result
The microsite reached a large early audience and earned FWA recognition for turning broadcast promotion into play.
131K+Microsite visits in first weeks
3Cases to crack
- Role
- Technical Lead
- Start
- 01/07/2021
- Launch
- 02/11/2021
- Website
- Murder Island
Project context
Three mobile cases were released sequentially, using phone searches, reconstructed evidence and CCTV observation. UNIT9 reports more than 131,000 microsite visits in the first weeks.
- Studio
- UNIT9
- Archive release
- 2021-11-02
- Source
- UNIT9 case study
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