Players to hunt down mystery new flavour

Web-users hungry for a new challenge can satisfy their appetite with a new Doritos campaign. The digital-heavy campaign supports the release of a limited edition mystery Doritos flavour, iD3. Consumers are invited to take part in an immersive online game to figure out what this secret flavour is - and they could win a grand prize of £20,000.

The game, which launched today (July 21) is a three part, episodic adventure set in London's criminal underworld. As well as competing for a top cash prize, players could stand to win other prizes, courtesy of O2, along the way.

iD3 has been put together by communications agency Initials. They recruited a team from across the industry to bring the game to life. Upset TV and director Lucas Howe developed the scripts and shot the video elements of the game. Meanwhile rehabstudio was responsible for designing and building the experience and AMV BBDO were brought on board for their digital planning expertise.

Of course it's not the first time Doritos has delved into the immersive world of the online game. One of the biggest - not to mention spookiest - campaigns of the past year has been Goodby Silverstein's Hotel626 for Doritos. The online game saw players try to escape from a ghoulish hotel and it scooped a Gold Lion at this year's Cannes.

According to Tim Rodgers, creative director at rehabstudio, the reason that work for Doritos has been so successful may well stem from the client's healthy attitude towards creativity. "Doritos as a client are pretty awesome. They let you take what your given and just run with it."

And this flexible attitude meant the game's makers were free to be inventive and resourceful. rehabstudio were keen on extending the game beyond the confines of the website and video content.

For example, players can, if they wish, log onto the game via Facebook Connect. This means that the game will be able to pull data - such as names, locations, and photos - from the players Facebook account and sprinkle these details throughout the game. And not only will the game extract information from a player's Facebook account - it will also contribute to it, leaving clues and messages as wall posts.

As well as doing their bit to make the game as immersive as possible, Rodgers and his team set themselves high standards about the quality of visuals they wanted achieve. "In terms of challenges, we were pushing to get the video output for the games interactive and dynamic elements to look filmic and have post-production levels of quality, but done on a website in real time," said Rodgers "It was a really good first push out and we really can't wait to take it even further."