Paramount+ was looking to promote the new season of South Park after acquiring the whole series. They were trying to create a feature that encouraged both new and long-time fans to watch the show while preparing for the launch of a new season on the platform.
I helped our Product Owner discover various features and systems where we could accomplish this, finally arriving at a solution based on engagement, completion, and collection.
After in-depth research of available options, we opted for a collectible card feature that would allow users to collect Moment and Character cards, open tiered card packs, complete sets, and even swap cards for extra experience points.
Following the Paramount+ brief, we organized a timed brainstorming session with various routes and experiences that we thought aligned with the client’s goals and that new and old-time fans could also enjoy.
Later, our team organized a review of various episodes from different seasons within the team to extract how many “Moments” and “Characters“ (key events and characters during the episode) were happening, how long they were, and how many there were, to add data to the collecting hypothesis we were pursuing.
We then fused the moment and character ideas and came back to Paramount stakeholders with a feasible but ambitious idea about using the user’s mobile device as a companion for a collecting cards and moments game, while watching an episode. In this first iteration, Characters were the only collectible type, featuring moment Clips and a Bio living within them.
I designed various flows to illustrate the different entry points and scenarios that could occur, depending on whether the user has the Paramount+ app on their phone or still has cards left to collect.
Iterations mostly happened on the main Collections screen, where we started giving more prominence to incomplete Collection sets, card collections, and new features like a Leaderboard. This last one was removed in the final version, since the scope was already ambitious and we felt that the collectible piece would be enough for the MVP. A button to collect forgotten cards was also added for asynchronous collection.
Buttons, fonts, and colors were designed to replicate the current Paramount+ UI, while a tone closer to the funky papercraft style of the series was added for the actual Collection Space.
An instructional screen will appear the first time the user starts watching an episode.
If a card pack remains unopened, a Collection progress screen appears instead.
A QR code also appears at the end of an episode to collect the cards the user just gained.
Apart from gaining a Card Pack when watching an episode, we iterated on different low-hanging fruit ideas to keep the users engaged, starting with Card Collections, Bounty Clues, and even an exploration into Swapping Cards for extra XP.
Apart from the packs the user gains when watching a single episode, the user can obtain extra ones by simply watching or gaining extra experience points.
A banner inside the Collections area will show a hint to watch memorable episodes to unlock epic-level cards.
Specific character or thematic sets can also be completed after obtaining all corresponding cards.
Repeated cards or a combination of various ones can be exchanged for extra XP.
To get a clearer sense of what the collecting experience would feel like, our team created a full prototype demo of the collecting flow in Next.js, featuring custom animations created in After Effects and exported using Lottie, as well as sound effects. We drew inspiration from other digital card games like NBA and Pokémon to replicate the thrill and excitement of opening a real pack.
Turn on Audio for sound effects.
Paramount+ was eager to launch the feature, but the show’s satirical nature and the company’s financial runway worked against it. After some back and forth with Paramount+ in the next few months after the development of the web prototype, the project was completely frozen.
This was due to existing financial constraints that were aggravated after the channel’s feud with Donald Trump, followed by a controversial parody that the creators aired on one of the episodes when the deal was still open, and the forthcoming acquisition of Warner Bros. Moreover, there were a lot of open accusations between the channel and the show creators, which altogether provoked a severe cut in marketing and innovation.
Conversations were still going on about using the same feature for other IP’s like Star Trek or Dora, but no decisions have been made to progress it further for the moment.