Elton Consulting approached our Melbourne-based content creation agency with a concept that was a first for us – a game build! Yep, they wanted us to produce a branded interactive game that would house a suite of video content to help introduce employees to their new Sydney-based office building.

Due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the staff were unable to move into said building, but there was still a need to start the process of familiarisation, even while they couldn’t move in. What better way to boost lockdown morale than to produce a game that is fun and informative?

Creatively partnering with Elton to bring both of these elements together in the form of an abstract, uniquely designed game was an adventure we looked forward to. Seeing a plethora of possibilities on where we could push the creative boundaries we’re usually confined to, Monster & Bear transformed from a brand film production company, to an all-rounder creative content agency.

“This was a fun creative process for us, we’d loop things at different times so it didn’t look like a loop, or re-skin characters so even though they were doing the same thing, it looked and felt different.”

– Ryan Bird, Post-Production Supervisor

If there’s one thing we know how to do well, it’s to entertain, and we really wanted to kick off the process by designing two host characters who would take us through the game – enter Tammy and Raegan. Inspired by the brand colours, and a little bit of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Tammy and Raegan would be the ones to jazz up the course material. Our “concierges” who would pop up as we venture through four weekly modules. But what would the game itself entail?

Over the course of three months, Sam Huff , our lead animator and designer, created upwards of 200 assets to fit this brief – a mammoth creative concept and design effort in such a short amount of time. We partnered with e-learning wizards Savv-E to create the functionality and gameplay aspects, but all the physical elements seen on screen were completely designed and animated in-house in our animation studio at Monster & Bear.

“We proposed that the look and feel of the game would be based around some pretty abstract-looking islands that float in the sky. Each level inspired by architecture and features of the new 3PS building, but only loosely. We weren’t sure if the client would go for it, but they were really open to all of our concepts which was great! And we think it turned out so well with that freedom”

When we were in the creative discussions for this project, we collectively agreed that each stage of the game needed to feel fresh and exciting, keeping changes rolling in to keep the staff engaged.

Elton wanted to cover four main modules – The new office building and locations of interest surrounding the building, the fancy new internal features of the office, the spaces – collaborative, meeting rooms, solo spaces, and orientation day/celebration of being back. Having four individual modules meant four unique platforms to design, and allowed our team the (literal) space to play with asset and environment creation.