100 Day ChallengeDay 11 / 100

Tin Can Messaging - Project Hail Mary

Built by @eric

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Tin Can Messaging - Project Hail Mary
Play time
1 to 3 minutes per round. Quick enough for a single attempt on a break, but the escalating difficulty invites repeated plays.
Learning curve
Easy to pick up, with only left-right movement to learn. Difficulty ramps as messages arrive faster and more debris fills the gap between ships. Three misses is a tight margin that keeps every round tense.
Built for
Sci-fi fans who love the aesthetic of hard science fiction films, casual arcade players looking for a quick reflex challenge, and readers of Project Hail Mary who want to step into the story. Also great for anyone who enjoys simple catch-and-dodge games with atmospheric presentation.

A Movie-Promotion Game for Film Studios

A playable trailer — turn one scene from your film into a 2-minute mechanic fans actually finish.

A playable trailer for film studios. Inspired by the tin-can capsule exchanges between Grace and Rocky in Project Hail Mary: catch xenonite messages launched from the Eridian ship above while dodging space debris. Three missed capsules and the mission ends — the kind of asset a studio can deploy before, during, and after a release.

A trailer plays once. A playable version of the scene runs every time someone opens the share link — and it slots into every phase of a release.

Before release, it warms the audience as a teaser asset on the film site and as a Meta- or TikTok-ad destination. During opening week, it lives on lobby QR codes, theater-chain partner pages, and Comic-Con booths. After the theatrical run, it stays alive on streaming-platform previews, awards-season campaigns, and franchise-anniversary moments — capturing emails and pixel-tagging the audience the whole way.

What it does

  • Mechanic IS a specific scene from the film, not a generic tie-in mini-game
  • Ships in days, not the months a custom dev studio quotes
  • Embeds on the film's landing page, theater-chain partner site, or streaming preview
  • Email gate before the final mission report — converts fans into a CRM list
  • Shareable scorecards push organic social with movie iconography baked in

Why have a game

A trailer plays once and a poster gets a glance, but a playable version of one scene runs every time someone opens the share link — and it ships in days, not the months a custom dev studio quotes. Film studios, streaming platforms, and IP holders need an asset that survives the entire release cadence: pre-launch teaser, opening-week lobby activation, streaming-window preview, awards-season microsite, franchise-anniversary moment. A playable trailer slots into all of them, captures emails at the final mission report, and pixel-tags the audience for Meta, Google, and TikTok retargeting on the next title. Tentpole windows close fast. A two-week turnaround fits inside a P&A schedule; a six-month custom build does not.

Where to deploy this

  • Film landing page and Fandango / Atom Tickets partner tileTrailer drop and pre-sale window — embed the playable scene next to the showtimes widget so ticket-curious visitors play before they bounce, and pixel-fire them into the Meta retargeting pool
  • Theater lobby standee, concession-cup QR, and theater-chain partner page (AMC Stubs, Regal Crown Club)Opening week — kiosk mode runs fullscreen on the standee tablet with idle-reset, and the QR opens the same playable on the phone in the ticket line, with email gate feeding the chain's loyalty CRM
  • Comic-Con / NYCC / CinemaCon booth and press-junket activationConvention floor and junket day — touchscreen kiosk mode lets fans play the scene before the panel, and shareable scorecards with movie iconography seed Variety / Hollywood Reporter coverage and Letterboxd buzz
  • Streaming preview tile on Netflix Tudum, Disney+ landing, Prime Video, Max, Hulu, and Roku / Fire TV channel pagesTheatrical-to-streaming handoff — the same playable becomes the preview asset on the streamer's marketing page, warming subscribers before the title unlocks and capturing watch-list signups behind the email gate
  • Meta, TikTok, and YouTube paid social as the click-through destinationPre-release awareness and opening-weekend push — ad creative drives to the playable instead of a trailer page, lifting time-on-asset and dropping a retargeting pixel on every player for the sequel or back-catalog campaign
  • Awards-season microsite, GoodReads tie-in for the source novel, and franchise-anniversary momentFor-your-consideration window, paperback re-release, or 5- / 10-year anniversary beat — the playable scene re-surfaces as the centerpiece of the microsite, keeping the IP warm between release cycles

Make it yours

  • 01Sci-fi: swap the astronaut + Eridian for your film's lead and antagonist
  • 02Horror: re-skin to a flashlight-survival mechanic with the creature in the dark
  • 03Heist or action: turn the catch-and-dodge loop into a chase or a safe-crack
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Frequently asked questions

How would a studio actually deploy this across a release?
Before release, drop the embed on the film's teaser landing page and run it as a Meta- or TikTok-ad destination — every play is a pixel-tagged retargeting event. During opening week, print the QR on the lobby standee, concession cup, and Comic-Con booth signage and loop it on theater-chain partner pages. After the run, keep it live on the streaming-platform preview, awards-season microsite, and any franchise-anniversary moments — the URL is permanent and the email list keeps growing.
What kinds of films does this format work for?
Any genre with a scene that audiences want to live inside. Sci-fi (catch-and-dodge, spacewalk), horror (flashlight in a dark hallway, hold-your-breath), action (rooftop chase, John-Wick-style room clear), heist (safe-crack, alarm-dodge), animated/family (collect-the-thing platformer), thriller (find-the-clue puzzle), sports biopic (a slimmed-down version of the actual sport). The mechanic should reinforce the story, not decorate it.
Who beyond film studios should look at this format?
Book publishers promoting the source novel (Andy Weir's book is the source here), streaming platforms launching original series, theme parks tied to a franchise, video-on-demand platforms running a tentpole release, and brands paying for product placement who want a piece of the campaign. Anywhere a story has a moment people want to step into.
How do we use the result inside our existing marketing stack?
Drop the embed on the film's landing page, the theater-chain partner page, or the streaming preview. Run it as a Meta-ad creative with the URL as the destination. Print the QR on the lobby standee, the concession cup, or the convention booth. Capture emails behind the win screen and pipe the CSV into Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or Salesforce — same as any newsletter signup.
How fast can we get a film-specific version live?
Prompt-to-playable for a mechanic this simple is typically a day. Brand customization (poster colors, lead character, key prop, the win-screen offer) is another few hours in the visual editor. For a tentpole release we'd budget a week to get the polish right and build A/B variants for paid creative.