Participants generated on-theme animated characters using Handstand's custom service backed by Gemini. Over 300 unique avatars were created.

Gemini Avatar Creation

A fully custom digital platform brought Townsville to life — from real-time quest tracking and dynamic leaderboards to Gemini-powered avatar creation.

Built for the Experience

Working Week: How Townsville Turned a Campus Into a 4-Day Adventure

A tricked-out 1957 Ford F100 challenged players to unlock secrets through tire-kicks, interactive bumper stickers, and an oddly-placed external battery.

The Puzzle Car

A larger-than-life challenge had participants playing a giant game of 3D Tetris — becoming one of the most talked-about puzzles of the week.

Brenda's Boxes

Townsville residents brought the game to life — welcoming guests, running live quests, and making everyone feel like a VIP with repeated interactions.

Immersive Characters

The Townsville Tattler — printed fresh every night — propelled the narrative forward, featured player-submitted content, and hid nuanced and elegant puzzles.

The Daily Newspaper

The challenges and moments that players couldn't stop talking about.

Fan Favorites

Google wanted to bring their Mountain View campus together during Working Week — but not with another mandatory all-hands or team lunch. They wanted something that felt organic, that people would genuinely choose to participate in, and that would spark cross-team connection across thousands of employees.

The brief: create an experience woven into the fabric of the workday that rewards curiosity, encourages exploration, and gives people a reason to look up from their screens.

The Challenge: Energizing an Entire Campus

We designed and built Townsville — a fully realized fictional town layered on top of Google's Mountain View campus. Across four themed neighborhoods, participants encountered immersive characters, solved 78 unique puzzles, and followed a multi-day narrative delivered through a custom-built web app, printed daily newspapers, and live actor interactions.

From a 1957 Ford F100 rigged with interactive puzzles to a giant 3D Tetris challenge, every detail was designed to pull people in. No sign-up was required — anyone who walked by could start playing. And most did.

Our Handstand Magic: Welcome to Townsville

A 4-day campus-wide scavenger hunt with 78 puzzles, 4 themed neighborhoods, immersive actors, and a custom-built digital platform drove organic participation from over 1,000 employees.

Case Study Coming Soon