Play2Business on Custom Advergames: Design for the Player, Not the Logo

Play2Business on Custom Advergames: Design for the Player, Not the Logo

When a company commissions a branded game, the conversation often begins with genre and visuals. According to Alexandro Buggero, Creative Director at Play2Business, that is precisely the wrong place to start. In an email interview, he shared how a hospitality background reshaped the studio's approach and why the first few seconds of gameplay matter more than the logo count.

When standard advice does not fit

Buggero points to a hotel entertainment concept where the conventional playbook—a simple branded minigame with a leaderboard and prizes—would have missed the point. "When you're designing entertainment for a hotel, the challenge is completely different," he said. "Guests aren't necessarily looking for an advertisement or another app to download. They're on holiday, they want to have fun, and they have very little patience for complicated experiences."

The team explored a broader experience combining playable games, challenges, rankings, and hotel activities, all accessible from a smartphone. "My background in hospitality helped me understand something important: the technology needs to adapt to the guest experience, not the other way around," Buggero explained. "Rather than starting with a game genre, we started with the people who would actually use it."

That shift—from format-first to audience-first—is a practical takeaway for any brand considering a custom game. The people who will actually play should define the brief, not the other way around.

The gap in most search results

Marketing managers researching custom games will find plenty of material on concept, visual design, and branding. Buggero argues the bigger missing piece is what happens after someone opens the game. "Most discussions focus on the concept, the visual design, and the branding. Those things matter, of course, but they don't automatically make people want to play," he said.

Instead, the studio spends significant time on the opening moments: load speed on mobile, intuitive controls, immediate clarity about what to do, and a reason to keep playing. Distribution is the other overlooked factor. "You can build an incredible game, but if nobody knows how to access it, it doesn't really matter," Buggero noted. That is why Play2Business often favors browser-based experiences accessible through a link or QR code, avoiding the friction of an app download—a pattern consistent with broader mobile web usage trends.

For Buggero, success is not visual impressiveness alone. "It's one that people genuinely enjoy playing and that has a clear purpose within the brand's wider strategy."

The sequencing mistake that costs budget

Asked what companies decide too quickly, Buggero is direct: "One of the most common mistakes is deciding what the game should look like before deciding what the game should actually achieve." A client may request a racing game, a 3D open world, or something visually spectacular before the target audience, campaign objectives, budget, and discovery plan are understood.

"Otherwise, you can end up spending a significant part of the budget on features that look impressive but contribute very little to the actual objective," he said. His recommended order is to start with the player's experience and build something playable as early as possible. "Even a small prototype can reveal problems that would be much more expensive to solve later."

Buggero acknowledges that modern development tools and AI-assisted workflows make rapid testing easier, but he is careful about their limits: "they don't replace good game design." The principle he returns to is simple: "a branded game should be designed as a real game first, with the brand integrated naturally into the experience. If the game isn't enjoyable, adding more logos won't fix it."

Practical takeaways

• Define the audience and objective before choosing a genre or visual style.
• Prototype early; small playable builds surface expensive problems cheaply.
• Optimize the first seconds: load time, controls, clarity, and a reason to continue.
• Plan distribution from the start—browser-based access via link or QR code reduces friction.
• Treat the game as a game first; brand integration should feel natural, not layered on.

For teams weighing a branded game, Buggero's answers suggest a discipline that runs against the usual pitch: resist the spectacular brief until the purpose is clear. As he put it, "the technology needs to adapt to the guest experience, not the other way around." That principle applies well beyond hospitality—and it is a useful filter for any marketing manager comparing studios and proposals.