SOFTWARE / DARWINBOX
Evolve or Fossilise
A game designed to evolve.
We built Darwinbox a retro infinite runner in one month. A year later, Cortex changed the story — so we rebuilt the mechanic around signals in seven days.
Client
Darwinbox
Year
2025 → 2026
Discipline
Software
Stack
Web game + event
Services
Game design, build, launch
The brief
Make evolution playable.
Darwinbox wanted an event game people could understand in seconds — playful, competitive and unmistakably on-brand.
The constraint
Playable in the time it takes to walk past.
On a noisy show floor, the mechanic had to explain itself instantly and reward another run.
FILM / GAMEPLAY
Add a 20–30 second gameplay loop showing the evolution mechanic, coins, fossils, score and game-over state.
THE MECHANIC
Evolution became the reward.
Players start as a lizard and evolve through ostrich, monkey and human as they collect coins, clear fossils and stay alive.
REPTILE → BIRD → APE → HUMAN
Progress was visible in the character — not buried in a score screen.
Art direction & game system
Built like a game, not a branded microsite.
A 16-bit infinite runner where layered desert parallax, fossils and rocks, coin-driven scoring and survival worked together in a reflex-first loop.
Environment Design
Layered parallax, clean pathing and high-contrast collectibles kept the world readable at speed.
Scoring
Coins, clean jumps and survival built score and reflex bonuses — turning every run into a leaderboard chase.
New Obstacles
Fossils and rocks forced new jump timings and reflex decisions without cluttering the path.
From screen to show floor
We built the whole thing in a month.
Game design, pixel art, character animation, score, leaderboard and the physical arcade interaction came together for launch.
01 / Design
World + sprites.
02 / Build
Gameplay + scoring.
03 / Launch
Arcade + leaderboard.
1 Month
From concept to a live event activation.
CHANGE CONTROL / CORTEX
Then Cortex changed the game.
For Darwinbox’s Cortex launch, coins became signals and the obstacle language shifted around the new AI story. The core game stayed familiar; the meaning changed.
7-DAY TURNAROUND / Evolve or Fossilize
What happened
Built for a conference, rebuilt as a product.
The original shipped in one month. The Cortex version followed in seven days — turning a one-off activation into a reusable Darwinbox brand asset.
2025 / Evolve or Fossilise
2026 / Cortex — Signals
CLIENT WORDS
Unmesh Lamture
Head of Brand & Content · Darwinbox
“Avantari turned a simple event idea into something people genuinely wanted to play. They built Evolve or Fossilise at remarkable speed, then reinvented it around Cortex in just seven days without losing the magic. Fast, thoughtful and completely dependable.”
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