Glossary.

A custom-built game that runs on a screen and carries a brand's story, mechanics, and visual system.

A purpose-built interactive experience — not an off-the-shelf template — designed to live on a specific screen surface (kiosk, phone, TV, website) and produce a measurable business outcome for the brand that commissioned it. The mechanic, art, voice, and reward loop are all designed around one company's objective.

See also: Surface, Loop, Outcome

The physical or digital screen where a visitor decides whether to engage with you.

Any screen where a prospect's attention can be converted into action: a website hero, a trade-show kiosk, a venue TV, a mobile subscriber app. Different surfaces have different attention budgets and different success metrics; the game has to be designed for the surface it will live on.

See also: Surface, Loop

The 30–90 second cycle of play, reward, and re-entry that keeps someone coming back.

The repeating action that makes a game sticky. A good engagement loop is short enough to fit a stolen moment of attention, satisfying enough to want to repeat, and structured so each repetition feeds the brand's outcome — a lead, a return visit, a share.

See also: Loop, Second Screen

Borrowing game elements (points, badges, streaks) and bolting them onto a non-game experience.

A design technique, not a deliverable. Gamification adds extrinsic motivators to an existing flow — onboarding, training, a checkout. A branded screen game is the opposite: an actual game built from scratch to carry the brand. The two are often confused; they solve different problems.

See also: Branded Screen Game

A branded game built to run on a freestanding touchscreen, typically at events or in retail.

A short-session game (usually 30–90 seconds) designed for high-throughput environments where many people will play once. Optimized for legibility from 6 feet away, single-finger interaction, and a hand-off moment that captures a lead or hands over a giveaway.

See also: Trade-Show Kiosk, Outcome

Behavioral evidence that a captured lead is actually interested — not just a swiped badge.

A measurable in-game behavior (rounds played, score, answers chosen, return visits) that predicts a lead's likelihood to convert. Replaces the trade-show badge scan and the gated PDF download, both of which capture identity without intent.

See also: Outcome, Trade-Show Kiosk

A recurring branded game show built for bars, breweries, or sportsbooks to run weekly.

A multi-round, host-driven format that turns a slow weeknight into a destination event. Players use their phones as controllers; the venue's existing TVs become the game board. The brand sponsors or owns the format and gets recurring weekly impressions.

See also: Second Screen, Outcome

Shorthand for engagement loop — the repeatable mechanic at the heart of a branded game.

Every concept we pitch names its loop first. If the loop isn't fun in 60 seconds without art, story, or branding, the game won't carry the brand either. Loop, Surface, and Outcome are the three foundations of every project.

See also: Engagement Loop, Surface, Outcome

A very short, single-mechanic game embedded inside a larger experience.

Smaller in scope than a full branded game — typically 15–45 seconds, one mechanic, no progression. Used as an attention hook on a website, an attract sequence on a kiosk, or a pitch artifact (our own Pitch Run is a mini-game).

See also: Pitch Run

The measurable business result a branded game is designed to produce.

Not 'engagement' — engagement is a metric, not an outcome. Outcomes are pipeline-shaped: qualified leads captured, subscribers retained, return visits driven, revenue attributed. Every concept we ship names its outcome before its mechanic.

See also: Loop, Surface, Lead Quality Signal

Our own 60-second mini-game that doubles as the entry point to requesting a custom pitch.

Visitors play the Pitch Run, then submit a brief; we hand-build a per-prospect splash within three business days. The Pitch Run is itself a demonstration of the loop / surface / outcome framework we apply to every client project.

See also: Mini-Game, Loop

The phone in someone's pocket, used as a controller for content on a larger shared screen.

The architecture behind every live venue format: the venue's TV is the game board, every patron's phone is a controller. Second-screen design removes hardware cost (no kiosks, no controllers) and turns existing infrastructure into a game platform.

See also: Live Venue Format, Loop

A per-prospect, hand-crafted pitch page we build inside three business days of a brief.

Lives at an unguessable slug under /pitches/. Noindex'd. Contains a concept, a loop, a surface, an outcome target, and a budget band. Replaces the generic 'thanks for your interest' email with a real artifact a prospect can share internally.

See also: Pitch Run

A daily or weekly game habit built into a media product to lift retention.

A short game (think Wordle, Connections) bundled inside a newsletter or subscriber app. Done well, it lifts open rates 20–40% and gives publishers an attribution surface that doesn't depend on opens or clicks.

See also: Loop, Outcome

The screen the game lives on — kiosk, phone, TV, website. Drives every other design decision.

Surface determines attention budget, input method, viewing distance, and ambient noise. A 90-second kiosk game and a 5-second hero-section mini-game look nothing alike because their surfaces don't. Always design for the surface first.

See also: Conversion Surface, Loop, Outcome

A branded touchscreen game built to attract, qualify, and capture booth visitors.

Replaces the spinning logo and the badge-scan-for-swag transaction with something a prospect actually wants to play. Optimized for crowd legibility, throughput, and a clean lead-capture moment that produces a lead quality signal rather than a raw badge dump.

See also: Kiosk Game, Lead Quality Signal

A short interactive embedded on a marketing site to replace the 'fill out this form' ask.

Diagnostics, calculators, quizzes, and short games embedded in the conversion path of a B2B site. Asks for value before identity, qualifies intent through behavior, and hands sales a richer payload than name + email.

See also: Conversion Surface, Lead Quality Signal