Rottenetter was a ARG game promoting the Norwegian movie Rottenetter. We were hired by Hyperinteraktiv to participate in the making and managing of the game.

ARG with a twist
The movie was quite unknown so we decided that making a pure blooded ARG wasn’t the right move. So we decided to make the game a little bit more pedagogic and aiming to reach players who would not usually play an ARG game.

Start
When you start the game you are faced with a dilemma: If you win 250.000 NOK will you keep it for yourself, or donate it? This divided the players into to two groups the good and the greedy ones. In fact 90% played on the greedy side.

Story
The storyline was equal for both groups. Looking for a stolen computer with sensitive business information and the person behind the theft. But the motivation for the two groups was different. The greedy ones who worked for a finance company called Sagen Finans needed to get the laptop because it contained sensitive data and could crush there company. That’s exactly why the good side wanted to get a hold of the PC because their goal was to crush Sagen Finans. During the storyline the players got to know and interact with characters from the movie. There were countless of hard puzzles on the way to the final.

Gameplay
The game is based on the same principles as an original ARG game, but we made a more pedagogical version. The players had to solve quests and report back to their Headquarters. Your assignments are purely based on  the ARG genre and you have to search the web for information, send mail to people, call people, chat with people, hack mail accounts, hack websites and interact online in all sorts of ways to find the answers in the mystery. Every solutions rewards you with a code. This code is brought back to your HQ and given to your boss for a positive or negative response depending on your performance.

Engagement
For about three weeks 16300 people played the game. There were lots of user generated pages  and forums around the web dedicated to either work together or trade game codes.  Also alot of talk and engagement on Facebook, Twitter and Nettby (a Norwegian social network) and different blogs created lots of buzz.

Read in depth case study (in Norwegian) here.

Pecha Kucha presentation by Hyperinteraktiv and Paradox: