North Kingdom

When we got the request from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners there were as many uncertainties in our heads as there were immediate ideas on how this game could come together. The core idea was having banners on different sites wich would transform the web page to a battlefield with Cheetos fighting over it.

Building a war game with lots of fun shooting and exploding action was of course something we all would love to do. But there were a lot of technical and conceptual exploration ahead of us.

– EXPLORATION

Initially we spent a lot of time exploring the core idea – the web page transformation. By doing comps and simple animation tests we could test the look and feel of it.

Further exploration was on user experience and the start-up flow. The game was supposed to be accessible from both banners and from a direct url link.

– GAMEPLAY

Next step was to develop the gameplay. This was done by extensive wireframing and by creating comps showing how the interface could work. At an early stage we decided to work with a more or less static scene in a small scale. Giving the feeling of a puppet show or something similar.

Prototyping was essential for further development. Although everything looked really crude at this stage, actually being able to play the game gave us the nessesary feedback for refining and tuning the underlying mechanics.

– DESIGN

As gameplay was getting defined it was time to create the visual world of Cheetos warfare. Character and weapons were based on a created storyline with inspiration from both contemporary console games as well as from old cartoon violence.

Some of the early concept art was created by illustrator Therese Larsson.

To find the right look and feel for the weapons references were collected. We looked for something with a realistic but yet imaginative look. As if theese objects actually could exist for real in this small scale.

Characters and weapons were built in 3D Studio Max and Maya and skillfully animated by our own 3D artists.

An animation test showing a battlescene with effects and overlay graphics.

In-game images and intro were storyboarded and discussed before production.

Intro called for extensive work in 3D including added effects in Combustion and Adobe Premiere.

Work in progress on interface screens.

– SCREEN SHOTS

3D-work included several versions of Chester suited-up as military commander.

Screen shots from battle. At an early stage it was decided not to scale screens to different screen resolutions. This to maintain the quality of images and pre-rendered movie clips. This proved to be more difficult than imagined.

Final result of intro sequence. Finally the world of Cheetos warrior really came to life. And with the right balance of cuteness and mischievious violence.