Pop-up games usually get closed, not played. So we're not asking you to fund a big build on faith. We start with a low-cost pilot that answers one question with real numbers: will Aggies actually play this one? Then we add on, only as the numbers earn it.
A few things were clear from our conversation. This proposal is shaped by them.
The pilot's whole job is to prove real engagement — with numbers — before you spend more.
Full-screen, an icon on the home screen, a real name — without forcing anyone through the App Store to start.
Discounts, a game-day $500 gift card, free tees/stickers for a store visit. The game is the hook; the reward is the reason.
Plays, emails captured, codes redeemed, store visits, repeat play, difficulty drop-off — a dashboard, not a guess.
The window that matters is Aug–Nov. The pilot is scoped to be live before the games start.
Prove the concept cheaply first. Native app, Shopify shopping app, and the rest come later, only if the pilot earns them.
The game is already built and mobile-ready. The pilot polishes it, wires one real incentive campaign, captures emails, and instruments everything — then puts it in front of Aggies for one game-day or email push. You decide what's next with numbers in hand.
What we need from you: the promo codes/discount to give away, one email segment or a game-day slot to launch into, and sign-off on the art. We handle the build, hosting, instrumentation, and launch.
The pilot costs $1,500. Set what one opted-in Aggie email is worth to you over a season — even a few dollars — and the pilot pays for itself at a few hundred captured emails. Against ~224,000 visits a month, that's a low bar, and it clears before a single game-day code is redeemed. Everything after that is upside. We set that target with you before launch.
Everything below is independent. Add what the pilot justifies, in the order that makes sense — no big commitment up front. The pilot fee credits toward any of these.
| Add-on | What it does | Indicative |
|---|---|---|
| Leaderboards + game-day tournament | Season/day high-score boards; the $500 gift-card mechanic; keeps players competing. | from $750 |
| Promo-code engine + self-serve dashboard | Rotate your ~25 codes, set the rules yourself (boss-gated, leaderboard-gated, by date). | from $1,000 |
| Shopify content embed | Game lives on your site and pulls your catalog/promos straight from Shopify — you maintain it, nothing new to run. | from $750 |
| App-like PWA polish recommended app path | Icon, name, full-screen, guided home-screen install. ~90% of an app's feel, none of the App Store overhead. | from $500 |
| Native iOS / Android app | Real App Store app with push notifications. A separate build with ongoing store maintenance; App Store review makes a pre-season launch unrealistic, so it can't be part of season one. Scoped and quoted only after the pilot clears its go/no-go number. | after go/no-go |
| Combined shopping + game app | A Shopify-powered storefront app with the game built in. A larger, separate product — quoted on its own. | separate proposal |
| Seasonal & rivalry themes | Swap art for Halloween, rivalry week, opponent colors, sales. Part of managed, or per-swap. | from $300 / swap |
Everyone's instinct is "it has to be an app." The App-Store app is real, but it costs and maintains like one, and App Store review makes a pre-season launch unrealistic. The home-screen (PWA) version gives players an icon and a full-screen, app-like experience today — and hits the season. So the native app is gated behind the pilot: we scope and quote it only after the pilot clears its go/no-go number, as a season-two upgrade. That keeps the deadline safe and your first spend small.
Down the road: the same game can be re-skinned in gray + burnt orange and licensed to other schools' outfitters — a revenue line, not a cost. Worth exploring once Aggieland's is live.
We're not going to hang this on one weekend's sales math — retail margins are too thin for that to be the story. Here's where the real return lives.
Every play-for-a-discount captures a verified email. That list is yours to keep and market to — the most durable asset here, whether the game is a hit or not.
"Beat the boss, pick up a free tee/sticker in-store." A game reason to walk in — where the real conversion happens.
A free, competitive, on-brand game people talk about and share — organic reach you don't pay per-click for.
Real KPIs and a tuning cadence, so you scale what works and cut what doesn't.
Built the usual way, a branded arcade game runs into five figures. The pilot is a small fraction of that — because you're paying to prove it, not to build it from scratch.
Live before kickoff, themed for rivalry weeks, and reusable across schools if you want to license it.
One small number to prove it. Everything else is optional and earns its way in.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 · Pilot | $1,500 one-time | Everything in the Pilot Package above. Credits 100% toward any add-on if you continue. |
| Managed hosting & support | from $150 / mo | Only once you continue past the pilot — hosting, uptime, tuning, seasonal swaps. |
| Add-ons | from the menu | Independent; add as the pilot justifies. Big items (native app, shopping app) scoped after the pilot. |
This is a proving-ground project, and we'll keep it fair: annual prepay on the managed plan saves two months, and after the pilot it's month-to-month — the game stays yours.
Greenlight by Aug 1 → pilot live and instrumented within ~2–3 weeks → one game-day or email push in August → go/no-go review before the season ramps. To hit pre-season, we need the go-ahead by roughly the first week of August.
Give us the go-ahead by early August, we launch before football, and we decide the rest together with real numbers on the table. Play the demo and hand it to your student marketers — see if they'd play it.