When Joel Tarver noticed workers at Baker Hughes relaxing during breaks playing the hugely popular smartphone game Candy Crush, he figured he could put their play to work.
Tarver, senior manager for digital marketing at Baker Hughes, convinced his bosses to let him build an oilfield version of the game. That way workers could still enjoy their game break, yet also get a little on-the-job training.
The games could also help spread the idea that the oil business has evolved into more of a high-technology industry that requires the kind of computer-savvy workers who might normally head off to Silicon Valley.
“We’re in a serious business, but it’s still OK to have fun,” said Tarver.
Games like Candy Crush, in which players line up matching candies in at least rows of three, have caught on massively as players find themselves hooked on the immediate gratification they provide with instant “rewards” and “bonuses.” Similarly, in Tarver’s app, players need to line up neon-colored boulders that are occasionally obliterated by massive, whirling drill bits.
Tarver named his game Bit-Tacular, available for free downloads at the Apple App Store. The app does not raise copyright issues because it falls into a broad genre called “match 3 games” of which there are many versions.
Though the game has only been downloaded about 20,000 times since its debut, compared to 97million users for Candy Crush, Baker Hughes sees it as a potentially effective way to reach out to younger tech-workers.
Companies in a wide array of industries are discovering that games can be one of the best ways to engage the digital generation, says Gaia Gallotti, a research analyst for technology consultants IDC Energy Insights.
Utilities, for example, are finding games can educate consumers and make them more comfortable using technology such as smart meters.
Games leverage people’s natural affinity for competition, achievement and closure, Gallotti said.
That is especially true for younger tech workers, according to Matt Johnson, executive vice president at the Dallas-based programming shop Bottle Rocket, which helped Baker Hughes develop Bit-Tacular.
“Games and competition are largely what drives them as a generation,” he said.
Baker Hughes’ game project began last year when Tarver’s team, stocked with hires from the gaming industry, was asked to design a smartphone app to help oilfield workers pick from a digital catalog of drill bits. During breaks, Tarver noticed his crew was consumed with playing Candy Crush Saga, then at the peak of its popularity.
He convinced his superiors that designing their own oilfield-themed game would serve as internal marketing for the new “BitGenie” drill bit app while teaching employees some company history through trivia snippets uncovered as players advanced.
Out on the street the game is getting mixed reaction.
Baker Hughes engineer Nathan Meehan, whose online identity is “fracmeister” – after the company’s specialty, hydraulic fracturing – introduced his grandson to Bit-Tacular a couple months ago. The six-year-old boy easily zoomed through the game, unlocking all 100 levels. Meehan, 59, would like to see the games incorporate more technical aspects of the industry.
Darrious Betts, a 30-year-old engineer at oil refiner Phillips 66 in Houston, pronounced the game as “nothing mind blowing,” after playing a few times.
Tarver’s team has also made three additional oilfield game apps designed to entertain while delivering corporate messages.
“Deliver It” is a driving game with frenzied music as gamers race to the oilfield through rough terrain without spilling all their tools. The message, said Tarver: drive safely.
In the “Wildcatter” game users drill wells as fast as they can to find oil. If they do not work fast enough, they are fired by the so-called “company man” that employs them. The message: embrace risk.
“Recall” is a simple matching game pairing up oilfield tools and Baker Hughes’ different service divisions. The message: know your company.
Baker Hughes plans to list the three new games on the App Store by the end of the year.
So far none of Baker Hughes’ direct competitors, including Schlumberger and Halliburton, have ventured into the public gaming arena.
To help keep its tech buzz going, Baker Hughes plans to throw its first ever “Game Jam” next month. Powered on pizza and energy drinks, company programmers and game designers will hole up in the office for 24 hours over the weekend with the goal of creating a brand new game app.
Even at an oil company, “we can be hip,” Tarver noted wryly.