Swipe to Wipe

Unilever Pakistan's "Daag Achhe Hain" philosophy had always lived in ads people watched, not something they did. They wanted a mobile-first game that flipped that: players physically cleaning stains from shirts with their thumbs, feeling the brand promise instead of just hearing it.

Swipe and scrub interactions are deceptively difficult to make satisfying on a touchscreen. Gesture detection needed to be precise enough to register intentional cleaning strokes without triggering on accidental touches, while the stain-erasure system required progressive visual feedback (shirts clearing section by section) to maintain the tactile satisfaction of the core mechanic. Twelve distinct stain types, including tomato sauce, mud, and chocolate, each needed individual texture and erasure behaviour. The timer, star-rating system, and leaderboard had to motivate replayability without the time pressure feeling punitive to casual players.

The core of Swipe to Wipe is a custom swipe-detection layer on top of Unity's touch input system, registering stroke direction, speed, and surface coverage to calculate cleaning progress per shirt zone. Each stain type was rendered with a multi-layer masked texture system, with the clean shirt underneath revealing progressively as swipe coverage crosses thresholds, delivering the sensation of real scrubbing. Bubbly particle effects and a dynamic sound mix tied to stroke speed reinforce the Surf Excel energy throughout each round. A Firebase backend handles the real-time leaderboard and tracks star-rated performance per player session.

Swipe to Wipe shipped on time for the Surf Excel campaign. Playtesters consistently rated the swipe-detection system as responsive and precise, and the progressive shirt-reveal mechanic came up unprompted as the standout moment in the game loop. Star ratings and leaderboard competition kept sessions going well past a single round, extending branded engagement far beyond the first play.

"The swipe mechanic actually makes you feel like you're cleaning. That's not easy to pull off on a touchscreen. It's exactly the kind of experience that makes 'Daag Achhe Hain' land in a digital context."