Client: Kalypso Media/2tainment GmbH
Game: Club Manager-Football Management Simulation Game
A Dynamic Character Animation as a perfect way of grabbing the viewers attention in a highly competitive kickstarter campaign environment
Project Overview
2tainment GmbH is a PC and video games publisher with its own development resources in Germany. The team had an in-house project (classic football manager game) as a hobby. One day, they decided to move forward with their hoby project and bring back its fame with the modern version of the game. They teamed up with Kalypso Media who appear to hold the licensing for it. The main goal was to secure the necessary funds throughout the Kickstarter Campaign. Since the Kickstarter Platform is highly competitive, they needed to create original promotional content and stand out from the crowd with its exceptional Game Teaser. That was the moment when Kalypso Media recognized Spring Onion Studio as a perfect match for the project since creating appealing game commercials is something we enjoy doing the most.
Goal:
A complete concept creation and production of a CGI game teaser planned to be published for the purpose of the Kickstarter campaign. Character development and animation of the main game mascot: Pallino the ball.
Game Overview
Club Manager 2022 is all about modern football, while retaining the popular gameplay of the management classic. It offers depth of play and realism, while focusing on the truly essential tasks of a manager. Club Manager 2022 will combine classic ‘impulse’ gameplay with modern football analysis, offering players a heat map and many other performance tracking tools. Alongside a manager talent tree and player editor, the game will also include multiplayer in the form of a ‘hotseat’ mode, where up to three friends can play together online.
Implementation:
We wanted to create the excitement and the buzz over the new modern football game throughout the dynamic character animation. Our main character, the ball Pallino, was observed in two ways. The first one is through the perspective of a ball as the prop for a game where football players are playing with it showing their extraordinary football skills. The second perspective is when the ball becomes a character that represents the mascot of the game: Pallino. In this role, the ball is playing and interacts with the football players showing his unique personal traits as Pallino.
We have developed a concept called Role-playing” in order to revive the Pallino ball and give him personality so he can become a recognizable character with all his unique attributes while showcasing the game features.
Our character Pallino is having different roles through his interactions. He can be a football player, a football referee, a spectator at the stadium, football manager…
We achieved this through simple animations and textures. In one moment we had Pallino in the role of a football player that makes some extraordinary moves and then with a quick transition (through animation), Pallino became a referee that imposed disciplinary action such as showing the yellow card. By using one character that has the ability to transform quickly through simple yet effective animation, allowed us to tell numerous stories. These stories became effective content, which resulted in building brand awareness around what the Pallino represents and successfully fulfilling the goal of the kickstarter campaign.
