// PORTFOLIO

Race To The Sea

Endless Runner

Client: SABATON

An endless runner created for SABATON's album The War to End All Wars, racing players across a WWI-inspired battlefield.

The brief

SABATON's songs are built on real military history, so the game's terrain and obstacles follow that same commitment instead of trading it for generic runner scenery — trenches, barbed wire and battlefield silhouettes drawn straight from the album's own references.

The mechanic goes further than the scenery. On 27 October 1914, on King Albert's orders, the sluice gates at Nieuwpoort were opened and the ground between the Yser and the railway embankment was flooded, stopping the advance — which is the event the song is about. In the game you hit the barrels to flood the field yourself. The player isn't shown the battle: they do the thing that won it.

It gave the band's famously history-literate fanbase something they don't usually get from a marketing tie-in: a detail level worth actually inspecting, not just glancing at.

Results

30 months still taking scores
2,212 players on the leaderboard
322 active in the last 12 months

These are unique people who actively took part in the campaign — finishing a run and entering their score for the contests and promos attached to it. Total plays were far higher: the game runs on the client’s own domain, so this counts engaged participants, not traffic.

▶ Also on itch.io

Race To The Sea logo
Historical character from Race To The Sea
The soldier protagonist of Race To The Sea
Enemy soldier from Race To The Sea
SABATON logo in Race To The Sea