Doritos: trying another angle
Doritos Triangle studios in Decentraland came to life as part of new Doritos flavor - Sweet & Tangy BBQ campaign released in time for Super Bowl 2023
Premise
Doritos Triangle Studios in Decentraland came to life as part of new Doritos flavor - Sweet & Tangy BBQ campaign released in time for Super Bowl 2023. Activation was direct extension of new commercial starring no other than Sir Elton John himself, Jack Harlow and Missy Elliott as a cherry on the top.
During the commercial a new meaning is given to ‘’try another angle’’ with Jack Harlow taking good old triangle music instrument to its new heights of fame.
Mission
A project like Doritos Triangle Studios had to be as unique as the vision creative team of the commercial had imagined. That’s where our mission came to life - let visitor ‘’taste’’ the flavor and become part of the commercial.
With carefully crafted details from commercial we had to translate it into the 3D world and finally make it into visitor experience through build, interactions, NPCs, wearables and emotes, gamified experience.
Our goal was to ensure that visually and all the user experience is unique, therefore never seen before in Decentraland beat maker was created as players had seriously amazing rewards to win - CloneX, Meebit and custom gaming PC to start with.
Art
For the art development of this project, we had very clear guidelines to fulfill the client’s vision; everything had to be triangles. The building, the furniture, the floor, the instruments… everywhere you look, you will find a triangle. This was a very challenging but also creative and original way of curating our art as it had to feel organic.
First steps
We had some original concept proposals to kick start the project; this way, we allowed the client to guide us toward what they had in mind. Finding balance between enclosed and open space, make sure its a build that you won’t find in the real life.
Modeling
Of course, once developing the 3D art of the building, we had to adapt the shapes and sizes of the original concept to make it fit the available land in Decentraland, while maintaining the main essence of the design.
One cool effect we wanted to add is that, no matter where you look at the building from, you would always see it in triangle shape. This was very challenging because we had to try and use most of the available space while adapting it to the shape, but we made it work in the end.
Texturing
Once we had the modeling done, we had to apply the Doritos branding to the texturing. This was made very clear by the client, indicating patterns, color palettes, gradients, emissive color accents, and providing many visual references and resources to ensure the overall look and feel matched the vibe of the branding. Here are some examples:
Floor pattern
Building walls paint
Color palette and accents
Cool decorative elements
Now that we nailed the aesthetic and vibe of the building, we wanted to take it to the next level. Given that one of the main themes of the project was music instruments, we added some cool elements to our building to spice it up.
Triangle instrument as an NPC and their friend
Our lovely NPC Ting, a cymbal instrument, guided the player through the whole experience with a help of Chip the Tripoodle.
Triangular stage spotlights
Even the lights on our stage were triangular!
The Beatmaker
The famous Doritos Beatmaker: a music-making device integrated into Decentraland. Definitely the masterpiece of the project, where people could create their own songs on the spot and share them with the community. We will talk about this one more in depth.
For the development of the Beatmaker, our business team presented us with a challenge. Our goal was not just to create music for the scene but to enable players to play, create, and develop their own music using specific and amusing sounds derived from Doritos noises and the 'Doritos Triangle Studios' advertisement instruments.
We decided to create a beatmaker featuring various instruments and beats. Players could choose to activate or deactivate each instrument to play or mute the sound. We established a specific music pattern and allowed players to adjust the BPM (Beats Per Minute) as they desired.
In addition, we included new functionalities in the beatmaker, such as the ability to add tracks, mark favorite songs, save personal compositions, and share them on social media through a 16-digit code.
The beatmaker operates with a list of sounds and multiple conditions that determine whether they can be activated. We translated the code and reformatted it to make it more user-friendly for sharing purposes. Following this, we created the beats and assigned sounds based on the rows, implemented the BPM system, and let the music flow.
This game was our main game product in the scene, and we encouraged all users to try it by incorporating a daily mission. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, making it a significant success for our scene and a breakthrough for Decentraland. No one had previously developed such an engaging and enjoyable game that bridged the gap between the scene and our client's advertisement, 'Doritos Triangle Studios'.
Community area
A chill spot where you could find the community creations of the Beatmaker, enjoying a bag of Doritos while listening to the freshest beats inspired by the recording studio of the commercial.
Musical Doritos photo calls
We also added a couple of musically themed photo calls, of course, the characters being the Doritos tortillas playing some instruments.
Doritos BBQ grill
And to promote one of the most popular Doritos flavors: a barbecue lounge, where we added a grill with a giant Doritos being roasted and smoked (that’s how they are actually made by the way… or maybe not).
Conclusion
The recipe of this project was ultimate user journey, which as all great things - seems easy to do yet hard to achieve. Behind the scenes there are endless hours of developers polishing their codes, 3D challenging architectural norms mixed with design details.
And best thing - all the hard worked really paid off during the 3 day activation as visitors were coming back for daily challenges, DJ sets, playing games over and over again. That let us achieve a 32 minute average user visit length.
