Friday Town game launched on Facebook by Cadbury Crunchie

May 21, 2010 - PRLog -- Available at Facebook.com/crunchie the game invites players into a virtual world, called Friday Town, and challenges them to help its inhabitants brighten up their lives with a series of puzzles that will unfold over the coming weeks and months. On arriving in this virtual world the player takes on the role of a Friday Feeling Engineer, whose job is to make everyone feel more Friday-ish, with progress measured on a Friday-o-meter: the more fun and excitement generated, the better the player does.

The aim of the game’s first chapter is to help the Friday Engineers make the town fountain pump out chocolate instead of water, and turn it into a giant sundae!  As each additional chapter is then unlocked, players will face a whole new set of puzzles, meaning the game is constantly evolving to bring new bursts of that Friday Feeling. To add an extra level of competition, the game rewards those who recruit new players, via their own Facebook friend lists, with access to a secret area.

The theme of the game has been developed in parallel with the new Crunchie TV advert , which sees a team of Friday Engineers helping a man singing to himself in a Monday-type way ramp it right up to that Friday Feeling with lights, fireworks and a full-on festival stage.  The TV campaign is in support of the launch of new Cadbury Crunchie Rocks, crispy Crunchie honeycomb pieces and golden cornflakes tumbled in delicious milk chocolate.

The popularity of social gaming has continued to skyrocket in 2010, with Farmville now exceeding 80m active users on Facebook and even smaller games like Pet Society topping the 1m mark. Launching hot on the heels of these success stories, Friday Town offers an immersive gameplay experience within the Facebook platform, and will bring players a long-term engaging experience: with new chapters unlocked regularly there will always be something new to find, solve, or share in Friday Town. Industry experts pointed to 2010 as the year that would see savvy brands making moves into social gaming, and the launch of Friday Town propels Cadbury Crunchie to the forefront of this new wave of digital innovation. Until now brands engaging with this space have tended to focus on in-game advertising, or interaction with existing games or virtual worlds, whereas in creating Friday Town, Cadbury Crunchie is building a brand new and innovative gaming world.

The game has been developed by an expert team, headed up by former Eidos Creative Director Patrick O’Luanaigh, who has worked on twelve worldwide number-one selling games over the last fourteen years. Past successes have included overseeing a return to form for the Lara Croft franchise with Tomb Raider Legend, two Conflict: Desert Storm games that have sold well over 3.5 million copies, and Xi, the first console ‘Alternate Reality Game’, which had over six million visits in the first six months. Patrick moved from Eidos to become CEO of nDreams in 2007, and has brought the same instinctive flair for creating addictive games that led to these hits to the development of Friday Town.

Ross Farquhar, brand manager for Crunchie, comments: “People are going to love this game. We’ve deliberately chosen to work with the experts behind some of the biggest gaming success stories of recent years, as we knew they’d be able help us realise our ambition: a truly immersive game with real fun-factor that brings that Friday Feeling to anyone who plays it, any day of the week.”

Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO of nDreams, adds: “The challenge with Friday Town was creating a genuinely entertaining game that people would want to play, while also delivering an experience that reflected Crunchie’s brand identity. There are so many social games on offer now that having a recognisable name attached isn’t enough to make a game a success on its own. We’re confident that with Friday Town we’ve struck the right balance between exciting gameplay and brand messaging, and we have lots of great things planned as Friday Town grows week by week!”

For more information, please visit:
http://www.getthatfridayfeeling.co.uk