Introduction
If there is one human activity that connects us all, it is an indulgent cookie snack. Sitting down to enjoy a tasty, sugary snack with friends and family creates a simple moment of bonding together or registering memories of childhood. When that snack is over a century old, it has a special ability to bridge generations. When it is the most popular cookie in the world, its familiarity crumbles the walls between cultures. The National Biscuit Company (later named Nabisco) debuted the Oreo cookie in 1912 a few years after introducing its popular Barnum’s animal crackers (Rosenberg, 2019). Since then, Oreo has become the best-selling cookie in the world, selling 95 million cookies each day among 100 countries, and with $2 billion in annual sales (Allen, n.d.).
How does a simple cream-filled cookie stay relevant when buyers are faced with hundreds of snack choices each day? The cookie’s owners needed to shed what has been common practice for years and evolve to meet the modern consumer. This is what Oreo’s parent company, Mondelez International, was faced with as the cookie neared its 100-year anniversary. Research showed them that while buyers were standing in line waiting to check out at the market, instead of making an impulse buy or even looking at the snacks at the checkout line, they were staring at their mobile phone - at Facebook or other social media sites, or chatting with their friends (Sacks, 2014). How could they take advantage of a shopper’s limited time and addiction to a mobile phone? The answer was to do away with decades of conventional advertising, take a chance, and invest in an mobile phone advergame for their product.
In November 2012, Oreo’s “Twist, Lick, Dunk” advergame was released by game maker PikPok and it quickly became the best performing, branded app game ever launched. By 2013 it ranked number one in 12 countries, and was top 10 in 36 countries (Allen, n.d.). By 2016 it had over 7 million downloads and dunked over 5 billion cookies into the digital glass of milk (“Mondelez to create,” 2016).
Game Summary
The “Twist, Lick, Dunk” game incorporates just that: Oreo’s legacy of how kids around the world have learned to eat the cookie. Many people believe that the only way to eat an Oreo is to twist one cookie off the top, lick away some or all of the cream center, and then finally dunk it in a glass of milk. This is the simple premise of the game. When the player begins the game on her phone, she finds herself in a colorful digital kitchen with a giant glass of milk to the left. A 60-second timer starts and Oreo cookies begin to fly through the kitchen. The goal is to grab a cookie with her fingers by swiping them across the cookies on the screen. Another swipe twists the cookie, yet another swipe licks the cookie, and then the final swipe dunks it into the glass of milk. All these finger swipes on a cookie add points to her score. Bopping sound effects, colorful graphics, and encouraging words appear whenever there is interaction with the cookie and points are awarded. The cookies begin to fly through the kitchen faster as the timer continues, so the player must quickly learn the motions to twist, lick, and dunk her cookies. A running tally of her points is in the upper left of the screen. At the end of the game, the player is awarded Coins to trade for other game resources and to earn more points while playing.
The player does not need to have an account or log in to play (it uses phone’s system), but to play with friends the player must log in with Facebook. That will also allow the player to compete with other friends for high scores and to see how she ranks among friends, local players, and global players on the leaderboards.
Interface
There is an inviting, graphical interface when the player opens the game. There are two glasses of splashing milk and Oreos being dunked, with the name of the game prominently displayed. The game menu includes:
Play – Before starting the game, the player can pay for a new game background location, or choose boosts (Mini Waves, More Coins, More Time, Big Waves, More Power) if their overall Coin earnings allow.
Leaderboard: The player can see her ranking and also connect with friends on Facebook to get more bonus points and to compete on the leaderboard.
Settings: To control the sound settings, learn how to play, contact the game designers, game credits, privacy policy, and terms of use.
PikPok: Descriptions of the designer’s other video games.
Cookie Guidebook: The important resource guide where the player can see the 25 varieties of Oreos that can be played with, including each cookie’s twist, lick, and dunk value. The player can unlock new types of cookies if she has enough earned coins.
Coin Value Tally: Where the player can buy via in-app purchases more coins (1k coins for 99c to 100k coins for $49.99), watch a video to get 50 Coins, Remove Ads for $2.99, or double the Coins earned for $1.99
It is very simple to begin playing the game and swiping fingers across the cookies. After each interaction with a cookie, the player sees a very quick graphic of how many points each action is awarded and the game’s running score is in the upper left. However, it is difficult to distinguish the types of cookies flying through the air and how much they might be worth.
There are three simple graphics in the game Settings interface to explain how to play, but they do not include an explanation of the point system. Upon digging further on the other six screens, the player will see that there are more complicated rules about trading in Coins or purchasing other resources with the in-store app. Once the player has a grasp of the economy of using the resources for a higher score, she can take advantage of them to increase the game’s score. For a child, they may not need to know about trading Coins or recruiting friends from Facebook for an advantage and can use the basic premise of the game to have fun.
Rule Base and Game Economy
The overall score system depends on the type of Oreo cookie being twisted, licked, and dunked. For example, the basic Original Oreo is 200 points when twisted, licked, or dunked. The Original Double Stuf is 600 points when dunked. The player adds new cookies to her game with the earned Coins. The different types of cookies and points are described in the Cookie Guidebook screen. This Cookie Guidebook ties in well with the Oreo brand because it is the one location on the game that informs the player about the brand, with the variety of cookies available and trivia about each cookie. More points are awarded by doing all three actions: twisting, licking, and dunking. If you are not as dexterous and only dunk the cookie, perhaps the goal of a child, then you only get points for dunking the cookie.
There is a network of game resources to make “Twist, Lick, Dunk” more competitive and to satisfy the more competitive players: currency, power-ups, inventory, and time. The player uses these resources to reach the goal of making a higher score. The game designers followed the design elements of purposely controlling these resources, making them challenging for the player to receive, which gives them more weighted value to the player (Fullerton, 2019).
The currency “Coins” are awarded for a high score and allow the player to trade for new game resources. The inventory includes 25 new types of Oreo cookies in the Cookie Guidebook that the player can trade for Coins, such as Double Stuf or Double Delight Peanut Butter n’ Chocolate Crème. These different cookies will fly through the kitchen and gain more points when swiped and dunked. Along with unlocking the cookies to add to the game, the player can also learn about the history of this type of Oreo cookie. The incentives continue with the offer to trade in Coins for more time or power-up “Boosts” like Mini Waves of Mini Oreo cookies or More Power that will help to increase the player’s points tally. If the player is bored with dunking Oreos in the kitchen, she can buy new screens to dunk in France or China for $1.99 each, or to play in Cookie World for 5,000 Coins. Some of these additions are traded with the Coins earned with the final game score, but using the smartphone’s in-app purchases the player can also buy more Coins from 99 cents to $49.99. Additional resources include unlocking Cookies by inviting friends to play, doubling the amount of Coins if the player likes PikPok on Facebook or Twitter, or getting a friend to follow on Facebook, or rate the game.
The game’s only feedback to the player are graphics with positive words that quickly appear after each twist, lick, or dunk and how many points were awarded. There is no feedback about enhancing the play or ways to improve technique or scores.
Engagement Analysis
Much like other games requiring hand-eye coordination, the game begins with repeating flow of cookies flying through the air so that the player can easily remember the swiping pattern, but then the cookies seem to adapt a more random pattern that requires heightened hand-eye coordination skill from the player. If the player has added more types of cookies or other resources then that seems to mix up the play as well, making it more unpredictable, fun, and challenging.
The 60-second countdown for each session elicits a pattern of play called Vertigo Pressure in the player, creating excitement and tension as the seconds tick down and the cookies fly faster (Bateman, 2009). Gamers of all levels crave the reward of a dopamine response, which is delivered by the brain’s reward center as they successfully swipe and dunk cookies and earn points and high scores. When the player knocks all the cookies into the glass of milk and reaches a high score, even this simple game creates a Fiero response in the player in which they experience a thrill of victory over the difficult task of managing the multitude of flying cookies (Bateman, 2009). Although the Fiero response might not be as high for experienced gamers, this game is a great Fiero gateway experience for children who find a challenge competing against flying Oreo cookies and the reward of obtaining a high score.
The game structure is common for mobile game apps, one of Single Player vs Game Interaction where the player is competing along against the game (Fullerton, 2019). There are no other players required to interact with the game, or to compete against while using the game. Having friends to compete with on the “Twist, Lick, Dunk” leaderboard invites indirect competition.
Since the game debuted in 2012, the two most common complaints by players have been about that ads appear after each game session, and the need to buy certain resources with actual money. Oreo and Mondelez are seen as corporate giants so the intrusion of ads for other games irrelevant to Oreo is seen as something that they don’t need to make money on, and it clouds the player’s experience. This was a common source of frustration that made many users stop using the game (Enriquez, 2015). Perhaps if they had used ads for Oreo or other Mondelez snack products that would have gone over better, or perhaps they bargained on making money on ads for other video games. They were also dinged by players for requiring actual money purchases rather than using the Coin game economy. A game design solution could have been to tie the resources purchases to scanned Oreo package QR codes rather than the player’s actual money.
Regardless, as of 2016 Mondelez made twice as much money through in-app purchases and ads as it had invested in it (“Mondelez to create,” 2016). Despite these detractions, that did not deter millions of users from dunking their virtual cookies.
Audience
Initially when Mondelez was researching who their modern cookie-buyer was, they found the standard food purchaser with all the decision-making and purchasing power to be mothers, as it has been for generations. With this research, Mondelez saw that mothers are the ones standing in the check-out line with a few minutes to spare for a fun, interactive game. It was important to bring this demographic into the game’s fold. After tossing a bag of Oreos into their grocery cart and playing a round of “Twist, Lick, Dunk” in the check-out line, a mom can sit down with the kids at home to compete with this fun game and enjoy Oreos together.
The Oreo creative team and PikPok did an excellent job of deciding who their audience would be and did not isolate the game for a niche audience of hard-core gamers. As described by Bateman (2009), PikPok created a game of Easy Competition rather than Hard Competition. Instead of making the game that centers around a difficult quest and steady beats of frustration and challenges to overcome, the designers made a game of “child-like escapism” and whimsy where the opponent is an onslaught of cookies. These short entertaining sessions of “random chaos” are better suited for a wide audience of many skill levels rather than the dedicated gamer looking for hours of dedicated quest time. On the app store the game’s audience is labeled “Family”. As it plays, the player does not need to be highly skilled at figuring the goal of the game. Even with a little parental direction, any child can figure out how to use their finger to dunk the cookies into the glass of milk. Older children can become more competitive about points and having a high score. For teens and adults, the designers provide more competitive incentive and encourage the addictive nature of game playing.
From this wide audience, the designers are courting the Competitor or Achiever personality type of player (Fullerton, 2019). The Competitor plays a game to constantly win against other players on a leaderboard, and the Achiever enjoys playing to reach new levels of the game, such as high scores and having new resources unlocked. If there is an audience that this game excludes, it could be the big gamers who want a continuous story that challenges them more. They might find this game too simple and boring after a few tries.
Because each game session is only 60 seconds and incites a sense of Vertigo, the player becomes addicted as endorphins flow and their new high score releases dopamine. For those with time to kill waiting to pick up kids from school or standing in line at the market, this is an ideal way to spend a few minutes and also get that hit of dopamine.
Conclusion
The Oreo “Twist, Lick, Dunk” game justifiably earned to be the top branded app game when it launched in 2012. PikPok designed a very fun game for all ages that delivers high-quality, professional graphics and sound effects. Consumers gravitate towards known products, and Oreo has over 100 years of familiarity and nostalgia. This was their huge advantage when people were searching for a new game app. Seeing the Oreo game was an easy choice for them to make because it triggered their curiosity and known trust of the brand. It marries the elements of nostalgia and modern smartphone apps, and takes advantage of the short periods of time that its wide audience has to be distracted and to engage with a game. The game design of Vertigo, basic Fiero, and dopamine releases during and after each 60-second game make it quite addictive without making the player sacrifice hours out of their day. Even for this writer, a high score of 51,500 will never be enough so she will keep returning to add valuable Cookies and keep the swiping fingers nimble.
References
Allen, R. (n.d.). How Oreo Created the Number One App in the App Store. Retrieved from https://www.sailthru.com/marketing-blog/oreo-number-one-app/
Bateman, C. (2009). Understanding Patterns of Play. In, Beyond Game Design: Nine steps toward creating better videogames.(pp. 61-116). Hingham, MA: Charles River Media.
Enriquez, I. (2015). Brand Game of the Month: Oreo: Twist, Lick, Dunk. Retrieved from http://www.pixelkitinc.com/brand-game-of-the-month-oreo-twist-lick-dunk/
Fullerton, T. (2019). Game Design Workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Mondelez to create more apps, online videos in advertising shift. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/31/mondelez-to-create-more-apps-online-videos-in-advertising-shift.html
Rosenberg, J. (2019). A History of the Oreo Cookie. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-oreo-cookie-1779206
Sacks, D. (2014). The Story of Oreo: How An Old Cookie Became A Modern Marketing Personality. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3037068/the-story-of-oreo-how-an-old-cookie-became-a-modern-marketing-personality