Andi Smith
Technical Leader • Product Engineer • AI Consultant
Working with Heineken
Working with Heineken gave me a number of opportunities to push the boundaries of what was possible on mobile and the web.
Most notably, I lead development on Heinken Star Player - a real-time football companion that allowed app users to play along with the game. To score points players had to anticipate events unfolding on the pitch and make decisions on what would happen. This kind of experience had not been existed before and the concept of using a second screen whilst watching a live game was still very new to many people. There were a number of complexities we had to account for such as latency between the live game and the TV output, and knowing when an situation in the game would allow enough time for a question to be asked to the user. Heineken Star Player went on to win awards such as the Cannes Golden Cyber Lion, the D&AD Yellow Pencil, FWA and others.
Star Player wasn't the only experience I led the build on for Heineken. We also built a custom bottle designer where users could upload their bottle designs and get their custom printed Heineken bottles ordered to their door. This project involved lots of logistical complications to resolve - such as moderating bottle designs and ensuring what was designed on screen worked as print.
I also led development on Heineken Star Final - a Guitar Hero style keyboard mini game released ahead of the Champions League Final; and Heineken Green Alert - a messaging app to alert your friends when it was time to celebrate.
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