For our latest collaboration with Spotify, we created a digital experience for UK Grime artist AJ Tracey’s sophomore album, 'Flu Game' - somewhere fans could have a unique experience, whilst streaming the new record. AJ’s album is heavily (heavily) influenced by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls story from the 90’s - everything from the title through to the visual concept was taken from that iconic period. It’s safe to say, like most of us, The Last Dance on Netflix played a big part in his 2020.
To continue the album’s story, we created a mobile basketball game inspired by the video games of the era. The twist? Our game would take place on a fictitious Revenge Athletic (https://store.ajtracey.co.uk/collegiate) court in AJ’s west London neighbourhood, Ladbroke Grove, and the opponents would be recognisable characters from the city.
Authenticity was front of mind at every stage of game development - so, although the scene itself is fictitious, the buildings, businesses, and even buses are based on the ones you’d find in W10 - even down to graffiti that you can find daubed on the walls there.
Although the fans are in control of the gameplay, we wanted AJ to play a vital role throughout too. So, as well as recreating the West London President in pixel form, he also interjects throughout the game to give players instructions - from introducing the premise of the game to commenting on the balling.
As fans play through the 16 levels of the game (reflecting the 16 tracks on AJ’s album), they’ll notice time passing in the game and the introduction of different Flu Game collaborators to cheer them on on the court, including Mabel, Digga D, T-Pain, MoStack, and Kehlani… but we didn’t make it easy — there were plenty of obstacles and adversaries along the way.
Once their game is done, fans are served up their own AJ Basketball card, depending on how they did. They can then download their card to share on their social channels, with a little message from AJ himself. Jheeze!
The game was played by more than 125,000 unique users in the first week after launch. Ready to get your game on? Then head to Spotify.com/AJTracey to play. 🏀🔥🏀🔥🏀🔥
- FWA of the Day