Kill for a Pencil is an 8-bit style game about making it to the One Show in time to win. The user plays Jon Scraper, the quintessential adman, who is racing through Madville to the show. Along the way some of advertising’s most famous icons try to distract him. Will he make it? That depends on the user’s skills.

Kill for a Pencil is an HTML5 canvas game, which means it can adapt to most screen sizes and devices. We used Facebook connect for our leaderboard, so users can share their scores and challenge friends. We kept gameplay simple so there was little learning curve for players. The 8-bit style is a nod to 80's arcade games and our cast of characters honor classic icons. There is even a secret way to win a coveted green Eco Pencil—complete the game course without shooting any characters. In addition to the site itself, we created a trailer video, content for the One Show Facebook channel and newsletter, email and postcards, t-shirts, pins and human-sized character cutouts. We gave away free One Show tickets to our top scorer and hosted live demos at One Show events during Creative Week.

Kill for a Pencil was played by 7,700 unique visitors in its first month. A lot of them shared, too, with Facebook driving a large percentage of inbound traffic. The game received press coverage in AdAge, Fast Co.Create, Agency Spy, Adrants and more. During Creative Week, hundreds of people got to play at events and thousands more got to watch the action on oversized TVs. It was an amazing opportunity to celebrate the industry we love in classic arcade game form.