CASE STUDY / PRODUCT DESIGN / 2026
ALL ROADS
An endless elephant runner that turns a four-track album rollout into a playable journey through Kerala.
Concept, art direction, game design & rollout strategy
PLAY THE GAME
01 / A GAME WITH A LOCAL MEMORY
An elephant runner built for a Thrissur-born album.
The simple, instantly legible rhythm of an endless runner gave people an easy way into the GOB Tape. The elephant tied the game to Thrissur—home to the three artists and a city inseparable from its elephants—while each run moved through backwaters, Munnar’s hills, and Kochi’s transit-heavy streets.
02 / KERALA WASN’T A SKIN
The game needed to feel unmistakably like God’s Own Beat.
The first version leaned into a warm, neutral palette and coconuts did most of the obstacle work. It was playable, but too generic. I rebuilt the colour system and expanded the world with KSRTC buses, autos, boats, coconuts, and an incoming Kochi Metro—turning local references into things players had to react to.
03 / THE LONGER YOU RUN, THE MORE YOU HEAR
Every 30 seconds, the scenery shifts—and so does the song. The game was redesigned to encourage longer runs, letting players move through all four tracks instead of hearing only one per session. The artists created 8-bit versions of their songs so the soundtrack belonged to the game’s world.
03.5 / FOR THE ONES WHO’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE
The backgrounds held a few extra stories.
Small easter eggs across the backdrops reference previous work by the GOB artists. They are never required to play, but they reward the people who have been following the collective for longer—giving old fans another way to recognise themselves inside the campaign.
04 / COMPETITIVE, NOT PUNISHING
The first 30 players told me the elephant was too fast.
The early pace made a run feel more like a test of reflexes than a space to stay with the songs.
I reduced the speed intentionally. The goal was never to create the hardest runner—it was to give listeners enough time to discover the music, reach the next scenery, and want to keep the session alive.
05 / A SCORE CAN TRAVEL
A game loop designed to turn a run into a return.
01
Leaderboard
Friends’ scores created a simple reason to come back and beat the run.
02
Shareable score card
A run ended with a score built to travel naturally through Instagram.
03
Release countdown
The leaderboard made the album’s release date impossible to miss.
04
One-minute unlock
Survive past a minute to unlock a QR code and join the artists’ online community.
06 / RANKED IN THRISSUR
Status, dressed for the occasion.
The leaderboard was built as part of the game’s visual world. The number-one player’s elephant wears a special nettipattam, while the top three players each receive a distinct nettipattam treatment beside their name—a culturally grounded reward system instead of a generic medal.
#1
SPECIAL NETTIPATTAM
#2
NETTIPATTAM VARIANT
#3
NETTIPATTAM VARIANT
All Roads turned unreleased music into something people could spend time inside—one run, one score, and one new track at a time.
RUN ALL ROADS