CANADA CREATES

Camaraderie and Creativity

Canadian studio Kabam works with some of the biggest names in games.

Names: Nick Tay and Ryan Boulanger
Company: Kabam Games, Inc.
Creative medium: Games
App highlights: Procreate, Miro, Clash Royale, League of Legends

The team at Kabam have been bringing exciting and immersive experiences to players’ fingertips for years. From fierce fighting match-ups like Marvel Contest of Champions and Transformers: Forged to Fight to enchanting fantasy role-playing games such as Shop Titans and Disney Mirrorverse, Kabam strives to push the envelope with every release.

A whole new world of fast-paced action awaits in Disney Mirrorverse.

We spoke to Kabam’s senior art director Nick Tay and creative and role-playing game design lead Ryan Boulanger about what inspires them to make magic for players around the globe—and the apps that help them do it.

Doodles and Inspiration

For Tay, not a day goes by without opening up sketching and drawing powerhouse app Procreate. “It’s so powerful, so easy, and fun to grab my Apple Pencil and just go for it,” he says. The app is perfect for those who love to doodle as Tay does, and it enables him to quickly mock up his character designs.

When it comes to trends and inspiration, Tay frequently peruses other artists’ work. “I get a lot of inspiration from Instagram and Pinterest—for example, when I’m mocking up characters for Disney Mirrorverse, sometimes I see other artists’ work and I really like the colour palette they’ve used,” he says. “I think ‘What if I did something different with the character’s palette?’ I mock it up on an image layer above the character in Procreate—that helps create actionable notes that I can discuss with the concept artists.”

Tay follows lots of concept artists on social media to find people he’d like to work with. “For example, I see an artist’s work and think ‘Oh wow, they’d be awesome for this character, for this environment.’ And I reach out to them from there,” he explains.

The Art of Collaboration

Group collaboration is paramount at Kabam, and over the past two years the team has adapted to remote work. “Our teams have leaned on Zoom, Slack, Trello, and Miro to help us get our ideas out in fun, visual, and interactive ways,” Boulanger says.

The team uses Miro’s easy-to-use whiteboards and Trello’s project management tools to plan and explore a creative vision together, while Box is their go-to for uploading live content updates. For them, a collaborative environment isn’t just about working on something and moving on to the next thing: “On Slack, we love to post each other’s work and celebrate people’s achievements for everyone to see,” Boulanger says with a smile. “We take a step back, showcase our stuff, and get excited about it together. It’s really rewarding.”

Time to Play

Unsurprisingly, Tay and Boulanger love playing games—but when they step into a new world, it’s not only a chance to unwind and have fun, but to also learn from other creators and find inspiration. Tay plays almost exclusively on iPhone and is a big fan of Marvel Contest of Champions and Clash Royale, as well as something that’s close to his heart: “Of course I’ve spent a ton of time playing Disney Mirrorverse!”

Boulanger’s creative and backstory inspiration comes from games like League of Legends, his design inspiration from Lego® Star Wars™, and he often studies console games such as Horizon Forbidden West. “Both Nick and I came from a console background, and it’s amazing to us what we can now do on a mobile device,” Tay remarks.

We see just how meaningful these characters are to the fans.

–Nick Tay, senior art director, Kabam

For Tay, Boulanger and the rest of the team at Kabam, working on games like Disney Mirrorverse is incredibly satisfying, not just because they’re passionate about making games, but also because of the positive response they receive from fans of their work.

“Something that’s so important to me, particularly with the characters we work with,” says Tay, “is we see just how meaningful these characters are to the fans.”

Kabam’s teams in Vancouver, Montréal, Charlottetown, San Francisco, Austin, and Los Angeles make immersive games based on some of the biggest franchises, including Disney Mirrorverse, which unites beloved Disney and Pixar characters in combat in a dark, divergent world. The Kabam team are passionate about creating delightfully new, engaging ways to interact with fan-favourite characters, and camaraderie is proudly one of their hallmarks.