Claynosaurz announced today that it is partnering with developer Gameloft to create a mobile game based on its signature IP of the same name. The new game stars the titular characters, colorful dino-shaped digital collectibles, and is set in their established world of Claynotopia. According to the creators, this is their latest venture into expanding their franchise, which began in 2022, into other forms of media.
The Claynosaurz are a menagerie of over 10,000 cartoonish dinos that look like clay models. They began life first as digital collectibles but have, according to their creators, taken on a life of their own through the brand’s growing social media community. The company maintains a large, steady social media presence with several hundred thousand followers across several platforms.
GamesBeat spoke with several of the higher-ups in Claynosaurz about their brand’s journey, and their intentions to expand into transmedia. Nicholas Cabana, Claynosaurz’s co-chief creative officer, said, “We’re an animated character brand, and we want to redefine storytelling and transmedia experiences through innovative products, through digital and community collaboration. We leverage a lot of community feedback, a lot of UGC, and it’s a big part of our ethos.”
According to Cabana, Claynosaurz represents a new creation opportunity where multiple demographics can discover the IP from different sources, and it also “de-risks” the IP by building a community around it. “We see a new paradigm in the way that you can incubate fresh content in an ecosystem where fresh content is about to be extremely valuable because nobody wants to take a risk on it. And we’re saying community driven franchising is the future, because you pre package a brand with culture from the ground up before you have to make a big fuss of it, or invest crazy amounts of money into it. You get to test it as you build it in the open.”
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Bringing the Claynosaurz to life
Jacques Letesson, Claynosaurz’s head of marketing/strategy, told GamesBeat the gameplay would be something like the action of Brawl Stars and the creature collecting in Pokemon Go. “The players are embarking into the world of Claynotopia. They are questing, crafting and building the collection of adventurers to go into the world and discover its secrets… We want people to start collecting every dyno, to customize them. And the beauty of it is as the game is geared toward collectability, it allows people to create content around their character and allow every player to have his own adventure within the game.”
At present, the Gameloft Claynosaurz title is still early in production. According to Letesson, it’s going to be a free-to-play casual RPG that may not launch for at least another year. But they plan to take inspiration from the community’s ideas. “We have a lot of information regarding world building, and now their team and ours are working in tandem in order to make that world, while respecting the original lore that Claynosaurz has.”
Cabana added that the game is another way for users to discover Claynosaurz: “I think it’s very powerful when you, especially in this day and age, when you allow the fans to customize their own fandom experiences and find their pockets of niche and interact or discover a brand in a way that actually is very intimate with the ways that they interact with different digital playgrounds… [The Gameloft game] is also an aggregator for us to leverage more lore based content, and get people to really fall in love with the characters.”
Guilherme Lachaut, Gameloft’s chief sales officer, said in a statement, “Partnering with Claynosaurz represents an exciting moment for Gameloft, combining our gaming expertise with a brand that has rapidly built an engaged and passionate community. Claynosaurz’s approach to leveraging emerging technologies to create a deeply connected fanbase aligns perfectly with our vision for developing interactive experiences that resonate on a global scale.”
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