Aerthlings: From a handful of characters to a world worth trading for.
Mystery box toys are built for one moment: the unbox. Once the box is open, most end up on a shelf. Aerthlings set out to change that, a toys-to-life universe where physical toys unlock digital characters, gameplay, and a community built around crafting, collecting, and trading in the real world.
The Miniverse Prototype
Prior to Aerthlings, Modern Games partnered with MGA Toys to launch a mobile game based on their $100M Miniverse brand. I designed the mobile game and the NFC-enabled recipe cards that scan into it, letting fans collect digital ingredients and decorations, a sandbox for creating miniature rooms with design challenges and head-to-head voting.
Building Aerthlings
Soon after the launch of Miniverse, I began branding and developing gameplay for the commercialization of the Aerthlings IP: collectible, tradable, and digitally playable mystery box toys.
Aerthlings began as a few disparate characters and a shallow gameplay demo. From that foundation, I helped drive the product vision, with all-new gameplay mechanics, systems, and progression. This formed a design language unique to Aerthlings, which eventually became a fully realized design system for interfaces, user experiences, marketing materials, and retail packaging.
Soft-launching in Australia gave us access to early adopters and super users. Through human-centered design, moderated user testing, and active participation in our Discord community, I was able to synthesize real-time feedback into meaningful, results-driven product updates.
“I was able to synthesize real-time feedback into meaningful, results-driven product updates.”
After launching in the US earlier this year, the Aerthlings universe has grown to include an e-commerce website, graphic novel, and animated YouTube series.
Aerthlings proved that mystery box toys can offer more than the thrill of the unbox. Taking it from a handful of characters to a fully launched brand, game, and community was a true 0→1 build, and one of the most rewarding projects I've led at Modern Games.