The Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group’s vast film library includes more than 3,500 titles, including 12 Best Picture Academy Award® winners. The globally oriented studio has produced and financed some of the industry’s most notable franchises including Spider-Man, Jumanji, James Bond, Bad Boys, Peter Rabbit, Resident Evil, Men In Black, Hotel Transylvania, Ghostbusters, and Venom. Internationally, the studio operates a robust local-language business, and has distribution offices in 21 countries around the world.

The Project

We were tasked with creating graphics, stories, and a robust online game to boost interest and to help with telling the backstory for After Earth (starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith). This game was to be built specifically for the Facebook platform, and was designed to provide social reach by leveraging invites to help build teams of friends.

We started with getting ourselves acquainted with the lore provided to us by the team behind the comic books (which were produced in parallel with our team) and by M. Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitta. We then began thinking through what kind of mini-games would be necessary to tell the full story of leaving Earth for Nova Prime. This was a massive undertaking by several major agencies including Mekanism, Digital Kitchen, Social Control, and a small team from Ogilvy. Social Control, my agency, lead on game design, navigation, flow, and overall UX/IA.

ROLE

UX Director, Game Designer

SERVICES

Interaction Design, UX Design, Information Architecture, Game Design

INDUSTRY

Film, Creative Services, Gaming

TEAM SIZE

40+ (3 Agencies)

OUTCOME

Increased Awareness for Film & Story, 100,000+ Players Engaged