It was an ambitious brief that demanded some big thinking, so we took the theme-park idea and blew up the size and scope, deciding to set it across an archipelago of fantastical islands. We pitched it as a sort of holiday destination that Nick characters would retreat to during their summer break, all mixing together and having fun in a kind of wacky never-never land. We thought it would be fun to see all the different characters in a surprising context, away from their regular environment, and from Pirates of the Caribbean to Jurassic Park, mystical islands have always held a strong allure!
Drilling down into the actual content, we planned to build a large stable of super-fun games that are spread across a huge variety of brand new gameplay styles (including lots of real physics for surprising emergent gameplay) that fit with the various island types and climates, from ice-dodgems to beach buggy racing!
We also thought it was important to make the player feel like they were part of the action as much as possible, and to foster a community outside of the actual gameplay that would encourage players to share their experiences with each other and enjoy a bit of light hearted competition.
On top of that, we wanted to give players a solid multi-session experience with the ability and loads of incentives to keep coming back and building on what they’d unlocked so far.