As more and more people worldwide are getting concerned with their digital presence, some of the world’s biggest brands are taking the opportunity to heighten their own online persona. The latest of these is renowned fashion house Coach, who launched its first gaming collaboration as part of the ongoing Find Your Courage campaign. Recently we got a look at the Coach’s collaborations, Fashion Klossette and Fashion Famous 2, as well as its collaboration with social media platform Zepeto.
Virtual Runways
Both games have similar mechanics and gameplay loops. In each game, players are tasked with creating a look for the runway, before they walk a virtual runway. In each round, players rate each other’s looks, with the winner being whichever player has created the best look.
The difference between the two games is the art style and presentation. Fashion Klossette is a game created in participation with supermodel Karlie Kloss, and has a larger focus on realism. Players select a style not for their established avatars but a model within the game, and the player can control various aspects of the character design such as skin tone and body type.
Fashion Famous 2 puts a greater emphasis on unusual and “fun” outfits. Players can accessorize their looks with things like elephant trunks, and their actual in-game models walk the virtual runway.
While both games are already established within Roblox, Coach’s collaboration sees many of the brand’s iconic designs brought into the game. Players can create entire looks using only Coach items, or use them to accessorize their looks.
Virtual Worlds
Each game is inspired by Coach’s ongoing Find Your Courage campaign. The campaign sees Imma, a virtual character, interacting with a variety of different real-world celebrities such as Lil Nas X and Youngji Lee, each of whom helps her develop her unique sense of self. The celebrities each inhabit their own world, which showcases the creativity possible with self-expression.
Each experience was based on a different one of the worlds included in the campaign. Fashion Klossette’s crossover is inspired by the campaign’s Flower World, while Fashion Famous 2’s Coach shop was based on Summer World. Additionally, Fashion Famous 2 has implemented a Coach-designed runway inspired by New York’s subway, befitting Coach’s origin in the city.
Crossovers Within Crossovers
In addition to Coach crossing over into each game individually, Fashion Klossette and Fashion Famous 2 are crossing over with each other in a variety of ways.
The most obvious is a portal between the two experiences, letting users seamlessly travel from one to the other. This allows players to explore everything the collaboration has to offer, even if they generally prefer to play only one of the games.
Further encouraging players to explore both games is a scavenger hunt, which will see players travel through both games to collect tokens. Successfully completing the scavenger hunt will reward players with digital items from the Coach collection. Additionally, players can collect a pair of angel wings designed by Coach, which can be used in both games.
Outside Roblox
As part of the collaboration, Coach is also crossing over with the social media platform Zepeto. The platform allows users to create and style digital avatars, with which they can chat or play a variety of games. As with Roblox, Zepeto puts a strong emphasis on the idea of self-expression, allowing users to take part in virtual photoshoots.
As this is on a separate platform, there’s no crossover between Zepeto and either Fashion Famous 2 or Fashion Klossette. Players can purchase Coach items for their avatars within the Zepeto Store, which they can wear while taking part in the variety of activities the platform offers. Additionally, Coach has created an in-app photo booth, once again based on one of the worlds featured in the Find Your Courage campaign, namely the Colourful World.
Interview with a Creator
As part of the event, we had a chance to speak to Elisha Trice, studio director at Fashion Famous 2 studio Sandbox Studios, about the development of the game and the collaboration with Coach. Here’s what he had to say.
Twinfinite: A lot of laymen have trouble differentiating between different fashion brands. How have you found the nuances between the aesthetics of different brands to give each one a distinct identity?
Elisha Trice: We really focus on what makes the brand unique, and it’s not just about the logo or the way a bag looks. We studied their materials and the patterns, the designs, and everything to construct the bags. We created those details pretty one-to-one. For example, we implemented Coach’s distinctive letter texture into one of the bags. When you move the bag around the screen, you can see the individual leather patterns and the logo update and change with the lighting to be golden and reflective. It’s really cool to bring that to life and have to meet Coach’s expectations.
Twinfinite: What were the biggest challenges you faced bringing Coach’s aesthetic to Roblox?
Trice: The biggest challenge was definitely authenticity and playability. We want the Coach items to look and feel as luxurious in the game as they do in real life, but they also need to work within Roblox’s limitations and mechanics, and Roblox’s new lighting technology allowed us to do that. They allowed us to take these High Fidelity models and make them work within Roblox, and capture the lighting in the material and graphics in a way that Coach said “Wow, this looks just really good. This looks like a real handbag,” and being able to capture that and deliver on that was really important for us.
Twinfinite: Part of what’s made Roblox so popular is the idea of self-expression and user-generated content. How can established real-world brands leverage this for their own success?
Trice: I think that the key is embracing the creativity of the Roblox community with Coach. We’re not just dropping a game. We’re giving players tools to interact with fashion in brand-new ways. With the Coach bags, for example, you can position them exactly and scale them exactly on your avatar as you would want to in real life. if you want to wear a bag a certain way or if you just want to shorten the strap a little bit to make a little difference you’re able to do all these things. It’s about finding a sweet spot between maintaining brand identity and allowing for player creativity. Brands that can strike that balance and offer an aesthetic as a starting point for players and self-expression are those that I think truly resonate on Roblox. I think those are the most powerful ones, so doing initial brand studies is incredibly important.
Twinfinite: What makes Gen Z unique in how they interact with the digital world?
Trice: Gen Z is the first generation that grew up in the information age. I think gaming is a further amplifier of the information that we process. I think with fashion brands such as Coach coming to things like Roblox, they’re able to see what Gen Z likes nowadays. What do they resonate with? Why do they wear our bags? Like they’re able to gather all these data points and then in a controlled environment. Users played this Gucci World on Roblox and they really liked it, and it wasn’t just because it was just a brand. It was because they’re able to resonate with the world and I think brands that capture that are successful in Roblox.
Twinfinite: So how important is it for brands to have a metaverse presence?
Trice: it’s becoming increasingly crucial. I think what we’re seeing is a paradigm shift. What if you wanted to walk down on Mars in a space suit, you couldn’t do that in real life, but you can in a metaverse. I think it’s important for brands to execute the artist’s vision and be able to play their message exactly how they want. If you want to be on an underwater stage you can do that. If your story is on Pluto, you can do that. I think that the metaverse enables all these things, and I think brands are starting to recognize that. You’re gonna have to get involved in what’s hot today and I’d say that metaverse is the next hot thing off the press.
Twinfinite: As part of the campaign, there’s a scavenger hunt that takes players from Fashion Famous 2 to Fashion Klossette. How do the scavenger hunt elements fit into the goals of the collaboration?
Trice: Yeah, so, I think it’s about self-expression and finding your courage and I think these games have different aesthetics. You can find different styles that you might have never thought you liked by finding the courage to go try something else. The point of the hunt is you collect something in one game and you get rewarded for that, but then you go to the other game and you collect something you’re also rewarded for that. So you’re trying something new but you’re also rewarded for it. You’re not just gonna try something new, but you also getting rewarded for going out and trying something new. I think the scavenger hunt is a great way of connecting that message.
Twinfinite: How do you mean competitive balance in Fashion Famous?
Trice: [Balance] for us is crucial. Fashion Famous 2 is a competitive game and the Coach items, they’re really high fidelity. But we offered them for free in the game because we want everyone to express themselves. Not everyone can have a Coach bag in real life, but you can go in the game and suddenly you can have your dream Coach bag, I think I think that in itself just making Freedom everyone kind of gives everyone that same advantage.
Twinfinite: How involved were Coach’s designers in the making of the collaboration?
Trice: Very. I’d say working with Coach and their design team was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. They gave everything to us right away, and we worked with them trying to find a blend of what works with Fashion Famous and what works with Coach. It wasn’t like this brand telling us “Hey you need to do this, this is what we want,” it was “Hey, what works on Roblox? What works best for you? And how can we make this vision come to life in a way that works best for both of us?” We were responsive and we were able to recreate their stage one-to-one without any sort of design feedback because it was just what they were able to give us was so great to work with that. We were able to capture exactly what they wanted.
Twinfinite: Do you think this is a blueprint for how other brands can get into gaming?
Trice: Yeah, I do think so, and I think that it shows a good example of what works, and brands will integrate into games and do well if that brand resonates with that game. I don’t think you should be trying to integrate a skateboard company into an ice cream game on Roblox, I think just finding your audience and finding the courage to work with something new is the most important thing.
Want to find out more? Check out our interview with Coach’s Kimberly Wallengren and Gio Zaccariello.
Published: Aug 5, 2024 10:42 am