Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days has been one of the more demanding undertakings in my career to date, and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve produced so far. As PikPok’s first premium PC title, and prequel to the incredibly popular mobile games Into the Dead and Into the Dead 2, there’s a lot riding on the success of the marketing materials for this game. It has been my responsibility over the last two and a half years to lead the creative team producing this content, ensuring that tension, terror & thoughtfulness are highlighted in this strategic survival experience unlike any other. To date, Our Darkest Days’ marketing content has the highest production value of anything to come out of PikPok by far, and as a result has boasted the highest metrics of audience engagement and support the studio has ever seen.
INTO THE DEAD: OUR DARKEST DAyS
ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER
The announcement trailer is arguably the most important piece of content we’ve produced for this entire campaign, because it really needed to create a splash. PikPok historically has been a mobile developer, so it was important to show off our chops with a really stunning trailer that set the scene for our stunning world and unique take on a genre that has been done to death (pardon the pun). With a cumulative view-count of over 1 million (on IGN and PikPok’s channels) I’d say we certainly managed to make a bit of a splash.
My role in this project:
Concept, Direction, Pre-Production, Strategy, Copywriting
DEV DIARIES
The dev diaries are a series of 6 videos that dive into the details of making Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days with the developers themselves. The goal here was to help bridge the gap between players and devs, creating a sense of trust and understanding between two worlds. Half the challenge of this series was getting game developers to feel comfortable talking on camera, but once we figured out how to settle each of them into it, they thrived and gave us some juicy insight into the intricacies of making a game.
Make sure to check out the entire series here.
My role in this project:
Concept, Direction, Pre-Production, Production, Strategy
Gameplay Teaser
The gameplay teaser’s primary goal was to give audiences who had enjoyed our content so far a better look into what they’d be doing in the game. At the time we’d been getting a lot of positive feedback, but some concerns around not having seen some real gameplay. In response we delivered a tense trailer featuring all new characters, gameplay and even some hints for future plans. This beat scored us a cumulative view-count of half a million (on IGN & PikPok’s channels, as well as the Spring Showcase itself), and set us up a placement for our next trailer.
My role in this project:
Concept, Direction, Pre-Production, Strategy
DEMO REACTIONS
In 2023 part of the development team was sent to PAX Australia to show off the very first demo for Our Darkest Days. I helmed the effort to send members of our own team, so that we could record content, interview players and get a proper sense for how they felt about the game. Despite some fierce competition for attention, with a pudgy plumber and blue hedgehog right next to our booth, our response was overwhelmingly positive. Our line stretched around the booth at some points, but every person we spoke to said it was worth the wait.
My role in this project:
Concept, Direction, Pre-Production, Production, Strategy
Key contributors:
Robin Wilson-Davey, Renee Cotton, Harriet Prebble, Jayde Marter, Jason Erskine, Broghan Blackshaw, Elle Wootton & the Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days dev team.
