This summer we partnered with Nerd Monkeys and Hatinh Interactive to organise a giveaway tied to the launch of their game, Out of Line. Here’s how it happened and what we learned from it.
Out of Line is an adventure game (entirely hand-drawn!) set in a mysterious world that follows its solo protagonist San in his quest to escape the Factory. We at Powder fell absolutely in love with its unique atmosphere and wanted to share it with our users.
To enter the giveaway, future participants were invited to reshare a promo post on Instagram or Twitter. In exchange, they got free Steam access, which enabled them to play the game and make clips of it for a dedicated Challenge on the Powder app. For two weeks, our team selected a daily winner, each of whom won an exclusive A3 poster from the studio and got their clips featured on our social media.
Powder Challenges — which invite Powder users every week / month to share clips for a specific game and vote for their favourite submission — have been a core feature of our app since its conception. As most of these challenges have been naturally dedicated to the bestselling AAA titles (such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA), we were excited at the opportunity to feature an indie game to help game discovery and enrich content offering for our community. “The quality of a challenge does not actually depend on how popular the game is”, explains our Content Manager, Victor Pilard. “It’s about the creative possibilities of the game itself, how well the creators can express themselves through the gameplay”.
In that sense, Out of Line was a perfect fit. As a game that is intentionally abstract, it leaves plenty of room for creative interpretation, allowing challenge participants to express themselves in strikingly different ways through gaming clips.
Through these examples, we can see the many ways in which user-generated clips - as well as other derivative content like memes - can acquire a new meaning, often quite independent from the original game. In doing so, they become creations in their own right, appealing even to those audiences that never experienced the original game itself.
Taking stock,the Powder x Out of Line collaboration is an exciting case study, illustrating how early adopters equipped with the right editing tools can become true ambassadors of the game. By stimulating the creative process around their games, studios can truly empower players and, in doing so, make the game live on. By nurturing relationships with gaming creators and leveraging their content, gaming brands might then not only consolidate their fan base, but also reach new audiences.
We look forward to more creative collaborations like this one!
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Download Out of Line here.
To learn more about Powder, check out our website.
