When Ubisoft Bet Big On Toys

When our friends at Ubisoft were lauching a new game, "Starlink: Battle for Atlas", they were taking a big gamble. It was a toy-to-game concept entering a market that was still largely unfamiliar to most people. New IP. Physical toys. High stakes.

Starlink's physical starships featured interchangeable parts that snapped together magnetically - wings, weapons, ship bodies, and pilots - changing players' loadouts in-game. Starlink wasn't just another game - it was a unique family experience. Parents who grew up with Star Fox instantly recognized the sharp-angled Arwing, while kids discovered something entirely new.

One Bold Solution

Ubisoft came to use because they needed something as unique as the game itself to generate online excitement. We created an immersive WebGL 3D ship builder experience to compliment the more traditional marketing site. Not just a showcase, but an actual playground where players could personalize their starship directly in their browser, create a wishlist and purchase the toys from various retailers.

And it was optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.

From Prototype to Pixel Perfect

We were brought in early on while Ubisoft was still working on the toys. They shared early prototypes to help us understand size, weight, and detail. After seeing their initial models in person, we immediately knew the challenge was going to be how to capture their details, textures, and wide array of parts, weapons, ships, and characters from the game.

We collaborated closely with the game designers to convert over 30 ships from game engine assets to web-ready GLTF files and PBR textured maps that would load smoothly on a website.

Our workflow involved routing the geometry and textures through a host of systems - Autodesk 3DS Max, Substance Painter, Maxon Cinema 4D, Blender, Photoshop, and ThreeJS - to achieve the same look and level of polish that went into the console game while simplifying the models.

Naturally, we wanted to push it further, so we created an animated environment with clouds, planets, stars, and even heat haze from the exhaust of the ships hull.

Mission Accomplished

The ship builder was an immersive experience that guided visitors to the right combination of parts that were compiled into a shareable wishlist of purchaseable toys for mom or dad to buy.

The ship builder delivered a seamless journey from digital customization to physical toy purchase. And it didn't just look good—it performed. The numbers spoke for themselves: