Clients

Case study: Adobe

Adobe, the creators of Photoshop and the PDF file format, was founded in 1982 and has been our client since 2006.

It is one of the largest software companies, with more than 90% of the world’s creative professionals using its software products.

The challenge

Adobe wanted to take on the issue of software pirating, but through a different approach. Instead of the usual “We’re going to get you and bring you down!” approach, it wanted to adopt quite a novel approach to the problem.

The solution

DC Interactive, in collaboration with Pixel Project, rose to this unique challenge by conceptualising around the idea of creating an online game that would promote a positive view on why consumers should invest in software. In order to achieve this, a role-playing game entitled Programmeville was created, whose hero, Vic, needed to solve a mystery, namely why the software of the city had gone missing. This virtual world was populated with various “buildings”, each chosen to represent one of Adobe’s software products, such as Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat. Whilst trying to solve the mystery, the player meets other software consumers − some legitimate users, others pirates − and proceeds to interact with them.

Results

Adobe − Lost in Programmeville has been recognised not only in South Africa but also internationally by winning seven awards, by being featured on numerous English, Spanish and Russian blogs and by being featured on popular online community websites. As a result of its success, the game has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and has been released into the Brazilian and European markets. In 2009, the story was continued with the launch of the second episode, entitled Adobe − Cleaning up Programmeville.