Wizkids created an innovative new game format. It focused on battles with tiny, pirate ship models. The Director of Blue Sky Projects saw licensing opportunities for the game format with Disney and Star Wars. The challenges were building a strong platform for the licenses and explaining the unique game format to mass market audiences.
Players punched out ship pieces form plastic cards and assembled the models to play a 3D game.
The original game was simply called "Pirates." That's not a name that can be trademarked, and it is poor for product web searches. The logo conflicted with Disney's branding of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and it certainly wouldn't work for the Star Wars license.
The huge fan base of the original Pirates game had been clamoring for a Disney Pirates release. We wanted to use that excitement to build equity in a brand name for the game format. This would help the upcoming Star Wars releases. The PocketModel brand name fit perfectly and could be applied to both licenses.
The Disney Pirates license and increased mass market placement introduced the PocketModel game format to millions of new consumers. Bubble displays instantly communicated the unique essence of the PocketModel product experience.
The plan worked. By the time we released the Star Wars product line, consumers in the mass market were buzzing about PocketModels. For Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us we created product packaging that told the brand story visually.
Most kids are allergic to words, and full sentences make their symptoms even worse. The brand team refined packaging and marketing messages to the fewest letters possible. Pictures of the models communicated, "3D." Images of dice communicated the idea of, "game."
With games, rules are unavoidable. With models, build instructions are too. All that information had to fit on a double-sided sheet only 20-inches long and 7-inches tall. The writing and graphics had to be focused and precise. See full size document here.
The brand team thought a lot about visual communication. We used simple pictographs to show how to build the models. Over the life of the brand, we created hundreds of image-based model instructions. Only a handful ever needed a word of clarifying text.
It was a great game. Excellent rules kept consumers engaged and buying more packs. Because teaching the game was so important, the brand team built a learn-to-play demo on the website. The writing, narration, and animation had to be quick, crisp, and clear.
Both PocketModel games were critically acclaimed and financial hits. The Star Wars PocketModel game went on to become the bestselling trading card game in WizKids' history.
Director of Blue Sky Projects