Tetris, Cards Against Humanity, and a now iconic Project Security Analyst: Massive’s Halloween Costume Contest 2019 was a true highlight on a grey November day. But what went into the creation of the innovative costumes? And who is that Benjamin really?
“Is this the right room?” asks the two women in black suits and sunglasses in the doorway. Between them stands a small alien – or maybe it’s a child in disguise. You can never be sure during Massive’s Halloween Costume Contest.
For the third year in a row, everyone and anyone at Massive is invited to participate in a day filled with creativity and – of course – innovative costumes.
To celebrate the Costume Contest in the best possible way, the Massive communications team has set up a temporary photo studio in one of the studio’s meeting rooms. The Women in Black (and their alien) take a seat on the sofa for the photo shoot.
As they pack up their super-secret gear to leave the room after the photo shoot, faint music reaches our ears. As it gets closer, we start to recognize it: the soundtrack of a legendary game played by generations.
In comes a human sized Tetris game – complete with a console and player.
“We even fit together,” they laugh as they assemble, and their player takes a seat on the floor.
“we even posted some teasers on instagram”
The six-person group is part of the Uplay team, and they tell us that they have been thinking about entering the contest with a group costume for a few years.
“When the Halloween contest first started at Massive, we saw so many cool costumes, and we were especially inspired by a group costume where a team had dressed up as beer bottles. It was so creative,” says Maria Rundqvist, and continues:
“This year we finally decided to enter the contest and do something fun together as a group, and so we decided on Tetris! Most of us grew up with playing NES games, and as we work at a game studio, it just felt right to do an awesome Tetris group costume.”
For weeks people have been asking us why we are gathering cardboard boxes.
The group focused on making the costume building a fun experience. Initially, they were only planning to have the blocks, but ended up adding some cool details – like an extra person carrying a cardboard console which also played the Tetris music. The group has worked on the costume for some time, and the making of it has drawn a lot of interest from others in the studio.
“For weeks people have been asking us why we are gathering cardboard boxes,” says Maria. “It’s been so much fun seeing the progress during the weeks, and how people slowly have started figuring out what we were doing. We even posted some teasers on Instagram, which led to other teams to ask what we were up to, which was really fun!”
As they exit the room – still playing the Tetris soundtrack – another big group with matching costumes are waiting to enter the room. It’s the Massive Finance team, dressed up as Cards Against Humanity.
Asking the difficult questions
With the question card asking: “What does old people smell like?”, the other cards give various answers, ranging from “Exactly what you’d expect” to “A can of whoop-ass”.
“We had so much fun making these,” says Kristoffer Hansson. “Since we are so many people in the group, we found it a bit difficult to find a theme which included everyone. But then we thought of Cards Against Humanity, and we all agreed that it was a great idea.”
We went around to different teams and let them play the game a bit, to see what their favorite cards were.
Kristoffer also tells us that the best part was picking the different cards and which question they should answer.
“We obviously wanted something that would get good reactions, so we went around to different teams and let them play the game a bit, to see what their favorite cards were. It seemed very appreciated,” he says as the team shuffles to get in place for their photo.
In the late afternoon – after some intense voting involving the whole studio – it was finally time to announce which costume has won the prestigious title of “Winner of the Massive Halloween Costume 2019”. In the studio’s kitchen, the participants are gathered for the award ceremony.
Who is the real Benjamin?
And so, the winner is announced: the group called “Will the real Benjamin please stand up”. And there to accept it, the actual Benjamin.
With his now iconic white shirt, black trousers, and a backwards cap, our Project Security Analyst Benjamin Pirie became an office meme for a day.
But who is the real Benjamin?
With his now iconic white shirt, black trousers, and a backwards cap, our Project Security Analyst Benjamin Pirie became an office meme for a day, as several people (intentionally and unintentionally) dressed up as him for the Halloween Costume Contest. It started with Simon Wäreby, who then found some other “Benjamins” in the building, and after a bit of coordination and hat searching, they assembled for a photo shoot together.
For Benjamin, the whole thing came as a complete surprise.
“Frankly, I didn’t believe that people had actually dressed up as me at first, I thought it was a joke! But I think I should be flattered … it is a compliment, right?” he says smiling.
- Want to see what happened during last year’s Halloween Costume Contest? Check out our vlog!
- Want to join our family? Take a look at our open job positions.
