Cannaverse

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Our client (Youngworld) approached us with the intent of putting marijuana on the blockchain. They sought to release a collectible NFT series that would give customers access to exclusive deals on real-world marijuana products. This access would be granted through the purchase of a collectible NFT that doubles as a character in the Cannaverse capture the flag game.

Youngworld partnered with a handful of Cannabis brands excited by this Web 3.0 venture. Despite having the vision and the technical skills to build the Cannaverse, Youngworld need help breathing life into the design. We were hired to design and model 10,000 unique game-ready spaceships, as well as design the entire brand identity. Additionally we were tasked with Producing 6 High end animated videos and a plethora of other promotional gifs and graphics to market the experience.

Is it a game? Is it an NFT? Is it Cannabis? Yes. The Cannaverse is a digital universe crafted using next gen blockchain and web 3 tech. In order to gain access to the game, users purchase one of the 10,000 unique starships. Users can then navigate the Cannaverse game with their own ship to collect Mega nuggs, defend their grow operation from space mites and save the universe, earning ‘Cannabits’ along the way. These Cannabits can then be redeemed in real life for actual Cannabis products from some of the greatest cultivators and dispensaries in the world, or spent in the game for digital rewards and upgrades.

Marijuana is a recreational and medicinal herb. It's enjoyable. This meant we could deviate away from the traditionally cold, dark, and serious space themes. Designing with the customers in mind, we drew from stoner aesthetics and wild color palettes. We could experiment with colorful paintjobs and add in tongue-in-cheek flair. We opted for a smaller almost toy-like design centered around a trading card to lean into the "collectability" of NFTs. We wanted our spaceships to stand out.

Next came the monumental task of designing, modeling and rendering 10,000 unique, animated, and game ready spaceships. To expedite production, we crafted a library of unique body styles, wing styles, and engine styles as well as paintjobs, flair and jet trails. We then developed a proprietary script that randomly paired each base model with a random set of wings, engine, paintjob etc. so that no two ships were alike. The final output was rendered with Blender’s Evee on AWS.

In addition to the 10,000 ships, we were tasked with creating artwork for online marketing. This meant we needed to create animated videos, a plethora of promotional gifs, and other graphics. These would serve as marketing material and world-building fodder for the universe we were creating. All material we pitched was built on the foundation truth of the brand: This stuff is dope.

PRODUCTION STILLS

In developing the Cannaverse assets, we inadvertently pushed the overall brand. We ultimately handed off a short brand book that contained a fresh logo, font choices, brand colors, textures, NFT design and a brand voice. We crafted art and an experience of rugged individualism: space pioneers on the frontier beyond the edge of space exploration. We needed to stand out in our artwork and our voice in order to appeal to a large audience of cannabis enthusiasts..

The NFT is the face of the project, the ticket for entry, and the collectible digital asset. We were determined to capture the excitement of a fresh toy still in it's attractive packaging. Our designers went through many iterations and experimented with multiple dimensions. Eventually we settled on a ship-focused composition, making sure the unique attributes were immediately recognizable. Our ships were so present, they popped out of the card frame.

EARLY CONCEPTS OF THE NFT DESIGN

In order to set ourselves apart from traditional looking sci-fi design and also appeal to the psychedelic nature of marijuana, we steered away from blocky sans-serif fonts and instead experimented with organic, ‘groovy’ fonts.

The scope of this project was massive, and it went through many iterations. These are some of the early tests, images, design and storyboards that went into creating this project over the 6 month duration.

Originally we were asked to create a few in-game cinematic animations, however that time was later reallocated towards producing marketing and world-building videos. Below are the early storyboards for the promotional videos as well as unused storyboards we created for those in-game cinematic videos.