Gamercraft
Empowering every day gamers to make money playing gaming tournaments.
In eSports, 99% of gamers miss out on organized, motivating tournaments. Pros hog the spotlight, leaving amateurs stuck in chaotic, mismatched games with lackluster prize pools.
We were on a mission to create a platform that allows fair, organized, and skill-focused tournament experience for amateur gamers. Through thoughtful design, we've shaped a flexible experience that directly addresses the issues of mismatched skills, uninspiring prizes, and limited reward opportunities. We had to redefine visual pillars in a way that it consistently portrays brand culture and fosters deeper connections with gaming community.
We set-up a team of top-tier designers experienced within the eSport market.
Gamercraft and Koncepted team aligned expectations with close back and forth feedback. We then created a streamlined workflow that enabled us to become a consistent creative partner and a true extension to Gamercraft's internal team.
Over time Gamercaft brand has evolved, and with that, we deployed additional talents to efficiently cover the evolving design needs.
What's the backstory of Gamercraft? How did you come up with the idea, and what issues are you solving?
When looking at the eSport landscape as a gamer, I figured out that the 1% of the players, the pros, received the most attention while the majority of the game population will never get the same access to tournaments and prize pools. The ease of the tournaments as service was not there because it was always organized by the community. That was something I wanted to tackle with Gamercraft.
We mastered that process of tournaments and brought high-quality experiences to average players. Adding the gamification component made it engaging and fun. Our main goal was to become a part of the broader esports community, always focusing more on the amateurs.
What was your strategy for handling design at that time? Was this something you planned to do internally by building a design team or were you looking to work with freelancers?
We went very lean in design for the first few months. Internally, we had a good sense of design, and our initial strategy was to work with freelancers, and we did work with them, but the results were mediocre. Then we went to do it ourselves, but the project came to a certain point where things got complex. That's when we decided to search for a partner.
We were looking for someone with broad knowledge in eSport, who can bounce ideas back and forth with us and has fast dynamic. We got all those pieces with Koncepted.
How did our agile approach affect your business?
I think our relationship evolved, and it really adapted to the lifecycle of the product. After thinking through the ideas and bringing them down to the wireframing, we got to a faster dynamic with daily back and forth iterations. Koncepted brought additional 3D and motion designers to the project, which added a lot of value at that stage.
Koncepted allowed us to have less dependency on design and no blockers in development sprints. We relied on you a lot, obviously, for high-quality designs but also for predictability and reliability. It allowed us to take risks and promise something, knowing Koncepted will deliver it with a fast turnaround. That was an amazing feature to have.
We have done more than 1000 designs together. What do you think were the biggest challenges that Koncepted helped you overcome?
At the very beginning, I think you really helped us add a sense of uniqueness to the app and pointing out the design elements we want to.
Then after covid hit, many sites were not applicable anymore. So, diving into details and expand the features of a small part of an app that we wanted to make more significant was a challenge. With Koncepted, we adapted the app and completely changed the scope in a week or two.
There were many other challenges along the road. As you said, we did more than 1000 designs together, and each of them has a specific user story and goal in mind.
When you reflect on your decision to work with Koncepted, how do you see that partnership today?
It was the right decision to partner with you for so many reasons. You allowed us to be lean, faster, and gave us the know-how and the foundations of our brand, which is priceless. When we look back, five key decisions have shaped Gamercraft, and Koncepted was definitely one of them.
How would you describe our services in three words?
Adaptive, Fast, Responsive.
Thank you for your time Jose! It a pleasure to have you with us. Where can our readers learn more about Gamercraft?
Thank you for being the right design partner Koncepted! You are welcomed to check out gamercraft.com tournaments and prize pools.
"Deciding to partner with Koncepted has been one of the best decisions we've made. Their platform is amazing, the work dynamic is seamless, and their flexibility is remarkable. They have allowed us to increase our development speed and to create amazing aesthetically pleasing products."
