Band of the Wolf

An ambitious new card set and a small marketing budget. So we built a game around the launch, and let the players decide how it ended.

At a glance

Situation: Band of the Wolf was an ambitious step forward for Gods Unchained in gameplay and story, but its marketing budget was small.
Task: Build anticipation for the set in a way that suited a highly engaged, puzzle-loving community, without a big spend.
Action: Pitched an alternate reality game inspired by Halo's I Love Bees and led its scope and direction. A few clues a week went out across social art, website stories, a Discord bot and prizes, ending in a player vote on the set's mythic card and a story choice that stayed in the game.
Result: The best-selling set since the game's launch set, with players collaborating across social channels in the run-up. The approach became how we marketed future sets.

Situation

A big set, a small budget

Band of the Wolf was a very ambitious set for Gods Unchained, a big step forward in both gameplay mechanics and narrative direction. Its marketing budget was small.

What we did have was a very creative team. Talking about the things that had made us love games, someone brought up I Love Bees, the alternate reality game that launched Halo 2, and we saw that we could do something like it. Our players were very active on social channels and loved novelty and puzzles. And a say in the game's direction suited a community that cared about shared ownership.

Band of the Wolf, a Gods Unchained card set.

Task

Make the build-up part of the game

Build anticipation for the set in a way our most engaged players would love, and that cost far less than a conventional campaign.

Action

Clues every week, and a vote at the end

Pitch it, then lead it

I pitched the concept and coordinated the scope and direction. My narrative designer and creative designer, working with a marketing coordinator, developed and distributed the pieces.

Spread the clues across every channel

We released a few clues every week, in different places:

Easter eggs hidden in artwork posted to social media.
Hints inside stories published on the game's website.
An interactive bot in the game's Discord server.
Special clues inside prizes, for the most engaged players and the first to solve each puzzle.

Hand players the ending

It all built to two decisions made by the players: a vote on the set's mythic card, its rarest and most prized, and a narrative choice that stayed in the game's storyline.

Result

A community that played their way to launch day

Best-sellingset since the game's original launch set, Genesis.
Players togetheron social channels, working through puzzles and speculating about the cards tied to them.
Repeatedfor future sets, as the way we built up to a launch.