CLIENT
Gucci & Otherside Meta
PROJECT TYPE
Creative Direction
Game Design
IP development
Legends of the Mara is a web3 strategy game based in the world of Otherside with the Koda as the protagonists. It is also the first truly interoperable game from Yuga Labs. As the creative director of the game, I led a cross-functional team of art, concept, narrative, UI, and external vendors to bring the world of Otherside to life.
YUGA LABS CREATIVE TEAM
Gérman Carmona - Art Direction
Anthony Higuera, Yian Lee - Lead Concept Artist
Santiago Suarez, Tavo Montañez, Lovans Hartes - Character Artists
Adam Levin - Narrative
Long Vu - Creative Director
Lucas Gunn - Game Design Director
Sol Tran - Director of Engineering
Chris Fortier - Product Lead/General Manager
Aaron Norstad - Executive Producer
Saki Branson - Digital Production Director
Roman Shishalov - Content Producer
Liz Mead - VP Marketing
and 30+ team members who contributed along the way
MUSIC BY PLAN8
CINEMATIC ANIMATION BY 2VEINTE
SHATTER GAME DEVELOPED BY iCANDY/ANIMOCA
In this game, players can choose to farm resources from their Otherdeed(s) or to hunt titans called Shattered for loot using their Oda NFT. Those who can optimize their team comps for maximum damage output will climb the leaderboard faster and have higher chance of earning more rewards. Each season introduces a new group of Shattered, as well as additional abilities and special skills for the Oda. Oda can also be catalyzed to transform into a stronger form, and there are a number of ways to obtain the powerful Catalysts depending on which path players choose.
The unique twist here is that a select group of prominent NFT collections outside of Yuga ecosystem can also participate in the hunt. This made Legends of the Mara the first truly interoperable game from Yuga. Participants can earn rewards and loot from all these collections, which greatly expands the player base and brand interest across the shared ecosystem.
While the game is presented as card game visually, it's designed to be closer to a turn-based RPG. The biggest challenge was how to make the animation and vfx consistent across all the characters, given the fact that each character is unique and there are multiple classes of characters. So early on in the development process, we chose to depict the characters in card form, which reduces the amount of animation work needed while allowing us to focus on the polish and details.
In this game, players can choose to farm resources from their Otherdeed(s) or to hunt titans called Shattered for loot using their Oda NFT. Those who can optimize their team comps for maximum damage output will climb the leaderboard faster and have higher chance of earning more rewards. Each season introduces a new group of Shattered, as well as additional abilities and special skills for the Oda. Oda can also be catalyzed to transform into a stronger form, and there are a number of ways to obtain the powerful Catalysts depending on which path players choose.
The unique twist here is that a select group of prominent NFT collections outside of Yuga ecosystem can also participate in the hunt. This made Legends of the Mara the first truly interoperable game from Yuga. Participants can earn rewards and loot from all these collections, which greatly expands the player base and brand interest across the shared ecosystem.
While the game is presented as card game visually, it's designed to be closer to a turn-based RPG. The biggest challenge was how to make the animation and vfx consistent across all the characters, given the fact that each character is unique and there are multiple classes of characters. So early on in the development process, we chose to depict the characters in card form, which reduces the amount of animation work needed while allowing us to focus on the polish and details.
Character design
Players start out with one or multiple generic Mara, only by acquiring and consuming a Catalyst, the Mara can evolve into Kodamara — their superior forms. The Kodamara are part of a NFT collection...meaning each and everyone of the Kodamara is unique compared to one another. Furthermore, the Kodamara can be customized based on the resources spent during catalysis. In order to achieve such requirements, we developed a mix and match system that ensures no 2 combinations are the same even if players choose the same set of materials in the process. Below are small sample out of 5000 possible combinations.
Interface
The UI and visual design are extension of the Otherside UI style, while the art is adapted to fit into the 2D experience. All the VFXs are hand drawn in flipbook style to fit overall art direction.
The UI and visual design are extension of the Otherside UI style, while the art is adapted to fit into the 2D experience. All the VFXs are hand drawn in flipbook style to fit overall art direction.
