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Foulplay Games: Murder Mystery Transported
Transporting a murder mystery game brand to a world fitting of their fantasy-filled narratives, the Gold Sheep team was brought on to rebrand a gaming company with big goals- and these goals involve building a strong community and making a Comic-Con debut.
Through initial customer research, competitive analysis, and brand personality profiling, a new visual identity system was designed to take Foulplay Games from a commonplace murder mystery game brand to a world of their own making- one the geek community will celebrate being a part of. A world of inclusion, acceptance, and imagination. Foulplay Games’s new brand identity connects them with their target audience and celebrates the fantasy worldbuilding their murder mystery game kits are known for.
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THE SCOPE
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity Design
OLD LOGO
NEW LOGO
PROJECT GOALS
Stand out from other murder mystery games on the market and appeal to the geek culture of the target audience.
Create a Comic-Con-worthy visual identity that will fit with the audience yet stand out from the crowd.
Design a flexible foundation for the brand that extends easily to additional game titles set in various settings in both time and space.
Getting to Know the Fandom
There are true crime enthusiasts of all kinds- and the Foulplay kind is heavily involved in geek culture, inclusion, and cosplay. They’re looking for something outside the average murder mystery wine-mom night. We set to work researching various competitors, the target demographic, and uncovered the brand’s personality and differentiators in a one-day brand strategy workshop. With this information we formulated a plan for not just the brand visuals but future merchandise and community-building touchpoints.
Positioning
Foulplay Games is the only inclusive murder mystery game collection that brings geeks together through storytelling.
Brand Archetype
The Storytelling Magicians
Customer Archetype
The Intellectual Child-At-Heart
The Stylescapes: Brand World-building
We knew the concept for the visual identity would revolve around creating an imaginative and inviting world outside of reality to match the transportive narratives of the Foulplay mysteries. But what flavor of fantasy would we be entering? We explored three concepts: clean futurism, whimsical gaming, and comic book noir. The Foulplay team decided upon the whimsical gaming world of Neon Medusa. We revised the initial concept to eliminate any cyberpunk imagery and included more lettering choices so the team could see how different game titles could be stylized to blend with the overall brand identity.
FIRST ROUND OF STYLESCAPES
Stylescape 1: Over the Hills and Far Away
Stylescape 2: Neon Medusa
Stylescape 3: Desert of the Real
FINAL STYLESCAPE
Final Stylescape: Neon Medusa
The Identity System: A Brand Fit for Comic-Con
Maddy and Kristen, the owners of Foulplay, had one major request going into the identity system phase. They didn’t want their visuals to look like any other murder mystery game company out there- and that meant no weapons and no crime-scene imagery. They knew they wanted a strong wordmark, but they also requested an icon to be used for merchandising. Several ideas were thrown around in brainstorming sessions, and the Gold Sheep team said, “What about skulls?” Foulplay just wasn’t sure. So we wrapped that little skull in a geomarker to symbolize the various destinations of their murder mystery games, gave a cute little heart nose to lessen the horror aspect, and covered their icon in the candy colors we had already decided upon. It was a hit- the team loved it. No revisions needed- magic to both a designers’ and a clients’ ears!
Website Consulting: Bringing the Brand to Life
As part of our work together, we provided a conceptual mockup of the new Foulplay Games website for their team to work from. Additional consulting time was dedicated to guiding them through the web creation process and answering any questions they had around copywriting, user experience, and maintaining the brand identity.
OLD WEBSITE
NEW WEBSITE CONCEPT
“All we can say is wow! We absolutely love the designs and have been leaning into our new branding HARD! Each time we make a new design for social media, one of our games, or anything else, we are blown away by how incredible it is. We are so grateful to both of you for working with us and helping us bring our vision to reality!”
Kristen Johnson and Maddy Vonhoff – Owners
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