IU Indy: An Addictive Recruitment Tool

Situation

We did extensive work with the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University. One of the distinct advantages that that campus had over any other was it’s location in Indianapolis. We were looking for an engaging and even addictive way to highlight both the campus and its location in the city, and with the large number of academic schools we knew we could dream big with a concept that would take some technical expertise that, bonus, we could highlight our students with.

Solution

We teamed up with students in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering to develop a simple endless runner game that could be just as addictive as classic Solitaire or Tetris. Since IU Indy doesn’t have a football team, homecoming in the fall centers on a canoe race called Regatta down the Indianapolis Canal Walk. Teams across campus race in canoes, and the whole event is a festive and celebratory atmosphere.

We built a simple game and called it You Gotta Regatta. The player needs only two buttons, up and down, to navigate between lanes as the canal goes flowing by with increasing speed, all the while picking up IU coins, dodging ducks and branches, collecting golden oars for invincibility, and trying not to capsize.

When you select start, the school logo comes up.

Instructions are very simple! The game follows Nintendo's game design philosophy: easy to learn, hard to master.

You play Jazzy and Jaws, the IU Indy mascots. At the very beginning, two swimmers from the swim team, always ready to assist, swim off screen out in front of you... just like in real life!

You move up and down between the three lanes to collect IU coins and dodge logs and branches and ducks.

In the background, the festive atmosphere of campus passes by.

Don't hit something and capsize because you only have three lives! Don't worry though, you can collect more hearts as you get enough coins.

And grab the golden oar whenever you see it--it makes you momentarily invincible!

Indiana landmarks scroll across the background, some of them that are actually on the canal (like the Indiana State Museum), and some of them just Indiana landmarks that aren't necessarily on the canal that we wanted to highlight, adding to the fantastical element of the game.

The game ends when you capsize with your last heart.

And you can see a final screen showing how well you did, as well as high scores for the day!

Success

The game was just as popular as we hoped it would be! We released it as part of our weekly promotional series to improve the yield rate. The week we released You Gotta Regatta, or YGR, it had over 10,000 plays, far outperforming any other week's release including our top giveaway promotionals! There were a few outliers to be sure, including one enthusiastic gamer who played 100 unique sessions. This game contributed directly to an incoming freshman class that was 10% higher than the previous year's class!