UNPLYABL - Palmer® - Minimal Portfolio & Agency

UNPLYABL /

UNPLYABL /

UNPLYABL /

The world's first controller that saves lives.

We engineered a custom controller that mimics the physical impairment of drink-driving and put the consequences directly into the user’s hands. By simulating delayed reactions and sensory loss, we created a sobering digital experience with a clear message: If you're drinking, never drive.

See it live

Year:

2024

Category:

Digital / Tech / Gaming

Client:

Queensland Government

My role:

Creative Lead

What I did:

Concepting, Art direction, Branding, 3D modelling, Packaging design

problem

Despite drink-driving accounting for over 20% of road fatalities in Queensland, traditional government messaging was failing to resonate with the highest-risk demographic: males aged 18–39. Following the success of our 'Lag Kills' campaign, the objective was to evolve the narrative. We needed to create a meaningful, high-impact experience on a limited budget that demonstrated the compounding cognitive impairment caused by alcohol.

Insight

For this demographic, gaming isn't just a hobby but it’s a primary medium where performance is everything. A gamer would never tolerate a laggy connection or a broken controller, yet many paradoxically risk driving while cognitively impaired. We decided to bridge this gap by mirroring the physical consequences of drink-driving through the lens of faulty hardware. If you wouldn’t play with a "drunk" controller, why would you drive with a "drunk" brain?

Solution

Drawing on my background as a gamer, I helped conceptualise, design and build the world’s first controller engineered to simulate alcohol-induced impairment. In partnership with a specialist Australian modding firm, we developed a custom hardware suite that translated the effects of drink driving into game-breaking mechanics:

Analog Stick Drift: To simulate a total loss of concentration and steering lane-drift.
Randomized Button Mapping: To mirror the breakdown of cognitive control and muscle memory.
High Input Latency: To physically demonstrate the fatal delay in reaction times.