Look North World was founded by a team of industry veterans, including Patrick Moran and Alex Seropian, the visionary behind Bungie (Halo, Marathon) and Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie). They’ve quickly emerged as a trailblazer in accelerated development of experimental games for creator platforms like Fortnite’s Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and Curseforge.
In doing so, Look North World has established itself as a trailblazing entertainment company focused on creating unique experiences, developing new intellectual properties, revitalizing brand IP and embracing the fast pace of UGC platforms – contrasting with the years-long development cycles typical of traditional studios. In 2024, Look North World collaborated with Bandai Namco on Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance Red vs Blue, with Hasbro on Murder Mystery: Clue, and many more.
Look North World was founded to look to the future. Key to that is not only connecting with a vibrant community of players but also including them in the testing and iteration process. The aim is to reduce development time and go straight to what resonates with players, cutting out the worst parts of the game development process: years of hard work that’s shrouded in uncertainty around success.
Here’s how Discord – and Levellr – have been key parts of this innovative approach.
The challenge
Developing experimental games poses a unique challenge compared to traditional processes. Working efficiently is crucial for every studio, but the development process for games like these is especially fast-paced. At the same time, Look North World needed to be plugged directly into their audience.
The team needed a direct line to their audience to:
- Playtest new and current games on a weekly basis.
- Gather actionable feedback so they could refine gameplay.
- Monitor community engagement and track sentiment.
Traditional methods of gathering player insights can’t keep up with this innovative and fast-paced development cycle. A truly direct connection to audiences is required – and the tools to turn that connection into actionable insights.
That’s where Discord – and Levellr – come in.
How Look North World uses Levellr
With an ever-growing global audience of millions, Discord has emerged as the primary social hub for gamers. Here, gaming studios can interact directly with fans in a way social media can’t match. In return, brands have access to in-depth data that help inform strategy.
Levellr’s real time tools add an extra layer of information for brands like Look North World, streamlining workflows and capturing even more powerful data insights.
“Levellr allowed us to get our Discord community on a growth trajectory,” explains Look North World founder Patrick Moran, “by providing visibility on what activities actually drive growth, better understanding of overall sentiment, alongside support from Levellr that has been responsive and helpful every single step. We leveled up our game with Levellr!”
Real-time playtesting and feedback
Levellr’s Discord insight tools enable Look North World to regularly connect with their community for live playtesting sessions. Players directly share their experiences, report bugs and suggest improvements in real time.
This instant access to members not only gives the development team invaluable insights directly from the target audience, it also cuts months off traditional feedback loops.
Cutting through the noise
Discord is a powerful platform for enabling interaction, but that ease of chat can be overwhelming due to the sheer number of conversations. Community managers could spend a huge amount of time manually monitoring the many channels and could still miss something important. Instead, Levellr’s tools, including unique social listening features and automated notifications, immediately surface the most important and relevant feedback.
By identifying key trends and actionable insights, the product and player experience teams make efficient use of time and focus on what matters most to players.
