JW did a Thing

Welcome to cult action paradise

What happens when a talented indie dev mainlines a John Wick x SuperHot 8 ball cocktail directly into a VR headset? I’m not actually sure but VENDETTA FOREVER (all caps is on-brand, thanks) probably comes close. It was a privilege to lead on crafting a brand ID for and producing all the copy.

Crafted by MeatSpace Interactive and published by nDreams, VENDETTA FOREVER is the pure essence of the stylish shooter. It’s a game that’s both defiantly radical and stoically old school - rebelliously taking a samurai sword to the narrative bloat of the contemporary AAA shooter, while pledging loyalty to the ‘feel beats real’ purity of DOOM.

With levels heavily inspired by the greats of action cinema, the key brand challenge was to elevate a mechanics-led, deliberately minimalist shooter into something fundamentally premium, without jettisoning the indie grit that makes the game so special.

Our vision was to lean heavily into the realm of late 90s-00s cult action cinema - capturing that sense of stylish deviance and on-trend early digital era aesthetic, without straying into the realm of the retro video nasty.

We centred in on a tone, messaging and brand ID vision that conjured up the mood of an older sibling sharing their cool DVDs with you on the sly - this isn’t Mission: Impossible at the cinema with a Tango Ice Blast, this is Oldboy at 2am on a 2001 Bravia with a Big Bag of Cans (don’t tell mum). A joy to write for.

Across multiple trailers and an iconic, scanline flecked key visual, it was imperative to keep things gameplay-led. Partly for digital store purposes where for new IP the gameplay has to often be instantly gettable (particularly in the VR space), but largely to centre the unique ‘LO-KILL-MOTION’ mechanic. You shoot to kill and kill to move - we wanted to go directly to players with the message that this is about a game that evokes a feeling of shooter flow state. No fluff, just uncut gunplay.

Releasing on Meta Quest and PlayStation VR2, the game’s been a huge hit with critics and players like - currently sitting as OpenCritic’s best PlayStation VR2 game of 2024.

WORK TL;DR

- Positioning, competitor analysis

- Copywriting (messaging / TOV / blog content / store copy)

- Brand identity (key visual / logo / naming)

- Asset briefing (trailers / screenshots / social)

- Coordinating first party opps (PlayStation / Meta)

- Ownership of GTM

Little Cities was my first brand management responsibility at nDreams. Shortly after its successful launch, I was tasked with evolving the brand identity through four DLC updates and tweaking the positioning as the title came to PlayStation VR2 and Apple Vision Pro. It’s bloody lovely.

The term “cosy game” has become a micro-genre in and of itself, but the vagaries of what that actually means in terms of player-fantasy has…irked me. Anyway. The fascinating brand journey for Little Cities is how that notion of a “cosy” title can be weaponised (lol) as a point of difference; a strength that demonstrates real, tangible player experiences that are VR-first. Or in-short, for the VR market in particular, you can’t survive (or thrive) on vibes alone.

The lure of classic city building nostalgia is always strong, with a loyal fanbase of folks who fuss over tax revenue, zoning and occasional kaiju attacks…but being real, is that fun in a headset? Is it form of expression desirable enough for you to go into VR for? The true player-first innovation of Little Cities is that it doesn’t dump an established ‘flat’ genre in a headset - it (literally) leans into the form factor and crafts a city building game that is elevated by being played in VR.

The elephant in the room was a famous city building competitor coming to the same platforms. Therefore, from a brand ID and positioning perspective, the joy was in establishing how we celebrate Little Cities’ strengths to carve out a confident space for ourselves. If a competitor is selling mayoral spreadsheet fantasy, we’re selling delightful diorama creativity. Complexity and numerical detail may be a strength on KBM, but in a world of 1:1 gesture control, we’ve got bubble poppin’ UI and drag n drop building.

In essence - while competitors sold a city builder, we branded a city creator. We are not the same.

As the title evolved to new platforms and thus, new audiences, I guided the Little Cities brand through sensitive evolutions that dialled up different strengths while maintaining that core cosy DNA. For example, for a more traditionally ‘core’ audience on PlayStation VR2, shifting the focus to escapism, sandbox creativity and headspace to balance the deliberately ‘low stakes’ nature of the gameplay.

Little Cities (Meta Quest)

Little Cities: Diorama (Apple Vision Pro)

Little Cities: Bigger! (PlayStation VR2)

WORK TL;DR

- Positioning, competitor analysis

- Copywriting (messaging / TOV / blog content / store copy)

- Brand identity (key visual / logo / naming)

- Asset briefing (trailers / screenshots / social)

- Coordinating first party opps (PlayStation / Meta / Apple)

- Ownership of GTM

“…come stumble through time to a Blunderdome full of synthetic beats and fluorescent treats.”

I joined the burgeoning marketing team at Mediatonic less than a week before ‘bumble royale’ extraordinaire Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout exploded into global consciousness in a confusing cacophony of rainbow joy. Mere months later, the game became a record-breaker as the most downloaded PS Plus game of all time, snagging five BAFTA nominations and countless other glitzy accoutrements.

Now I’m not saying the two are linked (seriously, behave). But I have been busy.

My role grew to accommodate a wide array of marketing, brand and comms responsibilities for both the Fall Guys beans and Mediatonic as a studio, with copywriting firmly at its heart. Longer form player communications became my domain, crafting everything from seasonal announcements and PlayStation blogs to Steam live event alerts, global press releases for major IP collaborations (how about that 2Bean?!) and consumer product listings.

Working closely with an incredible set of Creative Services folks and (frankly, infamous) Community Managers, my goal was to spread the Blunderdome gospel to all and sundry, while ensuring core players felt nurtured and connected to our bean-based shenanigans.

As Fall Guys grew in ambition, scope and feature-set, I worked closely with our Director of Brand to navigate the tonal and messaging nuances of Fall Guys’ ambitious future vision and retaining Mediatonic’s playful identity in a time of rapid growth.

There were many puns. There were many adventures in the Steam and PlayStation Store backends.

Throw in a full website copy re-fit, a jump to delivering content from one to seven languages and making a fool of myself in an actual ESPN documentary and it’s bean (lol) an incredible journey, serving as an agile and deeply picky defender of our lovingly crafted brand pillars and TOV.

Also, no, I wasn’t the one who did the Fall Guys Twitter, sorry recruiters.

Work examples:

Fall Guys website: Site copy and blogs up to December 2021

PlayStation Blog: Ratchet and Clank blast into Fall Guys for Limited Time Events and unique rewards

Mediatonic website: Fall Guys Season 6 announcement

Steam community alerts: Exclusive Knuckles costume zooms into Fall Guys!

Computer Love was a regular column in MUNDIAL Magazine that explored the often beautiful, frequently bizarre world of football videogames. It made its first appearance in Issue 009 and became a staple - the fulcrum of my efforts to crowbar my love of gaming past Editorial.

Focused on import titles and games less familiar to British audiences, the pieces celebrate the diversity of gaming experiences outside the hegemony of FIFA and PES, mirroring the myriad of hidden pleasures found beyond the prism of top level football.

Featured games included gems such as Captain Tsubasa: Tsukurou Dream Team, J League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou 3 and Tecmo World Cup '98.

In line with Mundial's broader tone of voice, the column revelled in the aspects that make you fall in love with a particular videogame - the connection to youthful memories, the weird idiosyncrasies and recoiling in horror at Virtua Striker's terrifyingly thick polygonal thighs. 

(You can also take a peek at all sorts of weird gaming ephemera over on my hobbyist Computer Love Gaming Instagram page.)

I founded Lost Shrine as a freelance project to combine my experience of marketing, PR and communications with my love of videogames. In collaboration with illustrator Andy Hemming, Lost Shrine offered bespoke support to aspiring independent game developers, letting them focus on the programming while we dealt with generating attention, hype and nurturing a growing community around their latest project.

Case Study: The Cat Machine

The Cat Machine developed by Cranktrain was the culmination of this work. Lost Shrine concocted a full social media strategy for the game's lifecycle with a particular focus on Twitter. I created bespoke press releases and visual asset press packs that targetted a wide range of outlets and carefully selected games journalists, securing coverage in the likes of PC Gamer, Game*Spark Japan and Kotaku - almost unheard for a game launching on the Steam Greenlight platform.

Liaising with Cranktrain on their key development milestones enabled me to devise marketing campaign content that meshed sensitively with their development timeframe, including trailer consultation, Steam store listing optimisation and even monetising the in-game cat characters by enabling fans to get their very own cat into the game.

The Cat Machine stormed through Steam Greenlight, being greenlit in just under a week, leading to creditable sales and triggering interest from major platform holders.

READ: How AR is changing the art world

READ: ZapWorks community meet-up

Zappar are one the most exciting names in the augmented reality (AR) and mobile game development space. One part experiential agency, two parts AR creative platform architects and three parts wild stuff popping out of your phone, I was lucky enough to play a key creative role across all facets of the business.

Taking the lead on all blog and social media content, a good chunk of my day-to-day was crafting copy to engage and excite the ZapWorks community. Thousands-strong and with a healthy hunger for creative inspiration, technical know-how and pushing software to its limits (i.e. sometimes breaking it), it was my role to be a face of the company on our public channels, while keeping a steady supply of inspirational blog and newsletter content.

Behind the scenes, my copywriting skills were applied to showcasing Zappar’s extensive brand partnerships. In collaboration with external PR agencies, I created articles, bylines, social media content and pitch documents, celebrating partnerships with the likes of Detective Pikachu, 7-Eleven, Hey Girls, Sipsmith Gin, PEZ, PlayStation and many more.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

"Just as terrace surges have faded into the gloss of the Champions League, grime’s flirtations with the mainstream have cemented a shift from Rinse FM operating illegally out of Wiley’s mum’s kitchen to Skepta headlining Glastonbury, and you could ask how this complex intersection developed… or we could look back on how our favourite MCs have used football in clever ways in their bars and make a sticker book out of it." 

Grime FC was an eight page feature article that appeared in Mundial Issue 12 that celebrated and explored the intersection of grime lyricism and football culture. This has been seen as a relatively recent phenomenon with North Londoner AJ Tracey being involved in Spurs' 2017/18 kit launch and Stormzy's friendship with Paul Pogba. However this article sought to challenge that assumption, showing how this relationship had far deeper roots, with a rich history of MCs using football analogies in their bars ever since the genre broke aggressively out of the increasingly champagne-soaked 2-step and UKG scene.

Designed in a football sticker book format with illustrations commissioned by the brilliant Dan Evans, I assembled a starting 11 made up of carefully selected MCs from over the years, focusing on a particular football themed lyric from each. I decided on their position on the pitch based on lyrical style, career trajectory and my own weird sense of fan fiction.

No-one ten years younger than me ripped it to bits on Twitter so I count that as alright.

"After capturing the experiences of female supporters at Liverpool, Everton, and Manchester City, her upcoming Prequel publication strives to make visible the stories of women who’ve been following their clubs for decades, integral to a football culture that so often attempts to silence them."

Girlfans - Girls To The Front was a six page feature article that appeared in Issue 12 of Mundial Magazine. As a huge fan of her photography zines, I approached lecturer, photographer and all round superb person Jacqui McCassey for an interview, putting together a photo-narrative article documenting her previous work and previewing her latest output.

The Girlfans photography project was created to document the experience of female football fans, giving visibility to supporters who are present and integral to football fan culture and yet are often airbrushed from any mainstream coverage of football fandom. This particularly hit home for me as someone who has been attending football with their mum for the past 25 years.

King Louie's Beers For The Dads is a regular beer column in Mundial magazine. The editorial team, sick of me inserting expensive craft beers into their blissfully uniform bar orders, allowed me to write this in every issue on the strict condition I stopped boring on about ‘dank New England pales’ in person.

Each column features two beers married to a particular footballing situation. From celebrating a gem of a local brewery’s proximity for an eagerly awaited away trip to beers that match the match the rollercoaster of moods associated with following your (in my case, crap) football team. Deep, dark, boozy stouts to numb the pain, sessionable juicy citrus explosions for that hard fought win in the sunshine - that kind of thing.

"You know that game of 7-a-side you sometimes do? The one where half the people can’t be arsed because they’re hungover. The one where your mate’s ‘amazing’ colleague turns up with Ronaldo’s boots and the tackling, mouth, and arse of Terry Butcher? The one where you’re humiliated by local teenagers and smashed into the hoardings by emasculated City Boys who inexplicably hate you? This is not that."

For Mundial Issue 12 I produced an eight page photo narrative article entitled All Quiet On The Western Avenue in collaboration with award winning film photographer Nicola Bensley.

The piece was focused on the Ladbroke Rovers, a group of older men who had been playing together for the past 25 years on the same pitch near Latimer Road. It was incredible to see such strong bonds of friendship, fairness and consistency in a world of small sided local football so synonymous with toxic bravado. I travelled to meet them all, collectively interviewing them as they relaxed after a match.

The article explores the bonds of mutual respect that have developed across two decades, delving into this positive example of football as a 'release'. 

"The struggle to settle here is a deliberate mess of confusing forms, surveillance, and bureaucracy that make every minute precarious. A failed asylum claim can end in an instant with a boot through a door or can drag on for years with lengthy appeals. The system frequently demands evidence that could put mates or family back home at risk, the goalposts always shifting with geopolitics and news cycles. In such a sea of uncertainty, an informal kickabout can be a dependable island of calm."

In part to raise awareness of Amnesty International's Football Welcomes programme of events to highlight the contribution of refugees and asylum seekers to football and society at large, I travelled to Nottingham to experience the incredible work of the Notts Country Football In The Community trust.

The resulting piece was featured in Mundial Issue 13 across eight pages with photography from the exceptional Milo Belgrove, who accompanied me on the trip.

This article was motivated by a desire to highlight the experiences of young people who entered the UK looking for safety and settlement and how community football was an important tool for integration and wellbeing. I interviewed local refugee support NGOs, staff at Notts County involved in the programmes and participants from across the world who had come to Nottingham.

More broadly, the piece touches on the social characteristics of Nottingham as a 'dispersal' city - a place assigned to settle refugees and asylum seekers that larger cities do not have the will or ability to care for themselves. 
 

"CSC are a rebellious exhalation from the lungs of this community; a dank cloud haunting the Danish lower leagues with values of diversity, freedom and half decent wing interplay. The club are a reflection of Christiania’s principled struggle to exist. As barricades were erected by residents to defend against police incursions, CSC fought Copenhagen’s police team on the pitch with tasty tackles and record crowds"

Issue 10 of Mundial Magazine took me to Copenhagen to meet the incredible volunteers behind Christiania Sports Club. The football team, beloved by the likes of Snoop Dogg and Woody Harrelson, represents the autonomous community of Christiania, extolling their values of freedom, diversity and having a really good time through football.

This article, which was published as a six page feature, explored the delicate balancing act of maintaining principles of collaborative, egalitarian politics in the face of an increasingly professionally-minded football squad and commercial growth off the pitch. The experience of the team mirrored that of the wider struggle for Christiania's residents - engaging with economic compromise via a booming tourist trade while attempting to stay true to the nurturing concepts upon which the community was formed.

The trip took in a visit to a CSC home game and invitation to watch the Champions League Final in the club's private members bar, interviewing fans, players and volunteers while trying to keep my head above the smoke.

Lost Tapes From The Federal Sessions was a long form DIY music zine and cassette tape compilation I created back when I hated my old job and needed an outlet.

The zine featured interviews with 12 bands from the US, Canada and the UK who each contributed tracks to go on to a cassette tape that celebrated the contemporary DIY music scene. I commissioned 12 separate independent illustrators to produce artwork inspired by each of the bands. Each copy was constructed using physical cut n paste, with the outer covers spraypaint stencilled by hand and wax sealed.

It was limited to 100 copies and sold out in just over a week. It garnered some decent reviews from the likes of the legendary Maximum Rock n Roll zine.

I created a live blog to help market the zine and document the production process that's live right here.