For 90+ years, cooks at Kentucky Fried Chicken have hand-prepared original recipe chicken from scratch. My team at Wieden + Kennedy continued this legacy by hand making the worlds very first horror training experience for KFC employees, from scratch...
👁️🍗👁️ The Hard Way VR
How should KFC train a new generation of youths / employees to understand thier commitment to quality food? Lock them in a Saw-like VR kitchen with an obsessive Colonel Sanders looking over & berating them until they learn to make chicken his way. The right way. ‘The Hard Way’...
🗓️ When: 😍 For:
2017 KFC (via W+K)
2017 KFC (via W+K)
Here are some spooky screenshots from the game...
This was my first time crafting a VR game, so I jumped in first by acting out the game as we came up with it, then drawing storyboards that went to concept artists that went to 3D modelers & animators that went to Unity developers, etc., etc...
Of all the options, the stupidest by far was that a painting of Colonel Sanders could have lazer tractor beams in it’s eyes, able to catch mulitple pieces of chicken mid air & return them to the counter without getting them dirty on the floor. Food safety FTW!
So that’s what we made...
Our engineers worked directly in Unity to develop the immersive experience for the Oculus Rift platform, complete with 3D spatial sound design & a dynamic soundtrack that changes depending on a player’s actions or in-game situation.
We promoted the heck out of it...
Overseeing game design, art direction, storyboarding, script development, music supervision, sound design, VO sessions, trailer concept & creation, key-art development, live event supervision, & Oculus store design. I also wrote & sang the KFC jingle.
📈 Result:
Originally, this was an internal tool for KFC, with only 1 event in NYC showcasing it to a limited group of press & industry folks. Facebook (owners of Oculus) got ahold of it & were so impressed that they released it for free & featured it on the Oculus store for Christmas. We also got some buzz in Vice, Engadget, Wired , & Entrepreneur. In the first two months, folks across the world spent almost 3,000 hours getting berated by a virtual Colonel Sanders while learning to make KFC chicken ‘The Hard Way’.
Originally, this was an internal tool for KFC, with only 1 event in NYC showcasing it to a limited group of press & industry folks. Facebook (owners of Oculus) got ahold of it & were so impressed that they released it for free & featured it on the Oculus store for Christmas. We also got some buzz in Vice, Engadget, Wired , & Entrepreneur. In the first two months, folks across the world spent almost 3,000 hours getting berated by a virtual Colonel Sanders while learning to make KFC chicken ‘The Hard Way’.
I’m just gonna let that sink in.
🧑🤝🧑 With:
Freddie Powell, Jason Kreher, Lloyd Winter, Micheal Brandes, Jonathan Minori, Dennis Hanley, Saira Weigel, Micah Gendron, Teresa Lai, Ryan Kee, Nate Horstmann, Michael Latzoni, Roger Braunstein, Jesica Marquez, Nicholas Weigel, Scott Garner, Mark Lundgren, Jeff Ackley, John Van Unen, Daniel Moreno, Natalie Huizenga, & Noah Woodburn
Freddie Powell, Jason Kreher, Lloyd Winter, Micheal Brandes, Jonathan Minori, Dennis Hanley, Saira Weigel, Micah Gendron, Teresa Lai, Ryan Kee, Nate Horstmann, Michael Latzoni, Roger Braunstein, Jesica Marquez, Nicholas Weigel, Scott Garner, Mark Lundgren, Jeff Ackley, John Van Unen, Daniel Moreno, Natalie Huizenga, & Noah Woodburn
💅 Starring:
🎬 Partners:
W+K Motion, W+K Studio Portland, Joint Editorial,
Walker, Butter Music, Heavy Duty Music, Marmoset, & Edelman