You can play out many dreams and ambitions in video games. Want to explore far away galaxies? You can do that. Want to be a championship winning footballer? You can do that. Want to steal cars, crash them, work in organized crime and go to strip clubs? You can do that. But what about if you want to do grocery shopping? Well now… you can do that too.
As part of a wider marketing campaign, Canadian Grocery Store No Frills have commissioned an 8 Bit game as a brand engagment tool. Players have to avoid a range of obstacles (like diamonds, limousines, and speed boats?) on the way to ‘hauling’ their shopping through the various sections of the store. “Every major sport has a video game franchise, so why should hauling be any different?” said Uwe Stueckmann, Snr Vice President of Marketing. “The best haulers aren’t born – they’re made. This game is designed to let them practice before they head to No Frills for an epic haul.”
The really interesting part, strategy wise, is that player’s aren’t just idly collecting shopping in a virtual world. Success in the game translates to reward points to spend in actual real life stores, meaning that No Frills’ customers have a real incentive to interact with the game. They can earn up to 500 ‘PC Optimum Points’ every day to help with the cost of their shopping. Players are not capped until they reach 50,000,000 lifetime points awarded through the game. At which point, presumably, you would be really bored of the 2D grocery store.
Try the game out for yourself at the No Frills site and let us know in the comments how hard it was to get 500 points?