Clash Combat: Paying Homage to Retro Gaming
This thing came from some serious nostalgia
In our latest animation for Supercell, we aimed to show how the community has helped Clash of Clans grow over almost a decade of gaming. We thought, what better way to celebrate Video Games Day than to look back at the various styles that games had over the decades? So, we decided to create an animated film that pays homage to retro gaming and shows how far games have come in terms of design and art direction. The video takes a journey through gaming history, evolving from an 8-bit graphics arcade animation to a rich 3D-animated scene. It sees two Clash of Clans characters go head-to-head in a unique one-to-one combat, inviting the Clash community to vote for the winner.
Project
- Animation
Client
- Supercell
- Clash of Clans
Date
2021-10-05
ABOUT THE STYLE
Inspired by classic 8- and 16-bit fighting games, the animation aims to reflect the aesthetic of each era while staying true to the Supercell brand. In order to create the scenes, we partnered with specialist pixel artists and harnessed modern day techniques to create a familiar and nostalgic feel.
Art Director Dolph Souza developed a technique that allowed This Thing of Ours to create all the animation in 3D software and break it down into pixels, a similar process to that used in The Lego Movie. The studio then reduced the frame rates to match the time period and worked over the top of each frame in pixels.
The third scene featuring game styles of 1993 was the most challenging to create, requiring extensive research and development. 3D artist Norik Imami remodelled each character with a low poly count, treating and remapping each texture with pixels, to achieve the retro look.
“Working on a project like this tickled many of our cravings as animators. By far the most exciting part of the project was the level of reverse engineering that was involved to achieve a look and feel that felt familiar to all those hardcore gamers.” - Alex Robinson, Head of Motion Graphics, This Thing of Ours
At the end of the first video, we stopped the fight at the crucial moment: the final blow, deciding which of the characters would win. We asked the community who they thought would reign victorious - and once the results were in, we released a second video giving the fans some much needed closure...
With over 700 k views through Supercell's Clash of Clans YouTube channel and nostalgic comments from the community that kept on pouring, we concluded that this campaign did pretty well.
As the cherry on top, The Drum also awarded us Ad of the Day for this campaign. Safe to say, we were pretty stoked, and Supercell were too.
Credits
- Andrew BenthamCreative Director
- Alex RobinsonMotion Graphics Director
- Fraser NicholasSenior Creative
- Dolph Souza Art Director & Animator
- Yawming Wong Design Director
- Norik Imami3D Artist
- Tom SaloDirector
- Patrick WarrenDesigner Illustration - Animatic
- Jacob Reidy Motion Designer - Pixel Art
- Gareth MatthewsDesigner - Design of Thumbnails
- Harry Crotty Designer - UI Design
- Bethan Rowe Character - 3D character animation
- Jan Zavadil 3D character animation
- Mike WPixel Art Backgrounds
- Dave Chappell Motion Designer - UI Animation
- Heather DeaconAccount Director
- Evelyn IveyAccount Manager
- Jake VarneyProject Manager
- Jo LawOperations Manager
- Jenni SteadmanResource Manager