In an age where children are growing up with the Internet’s limitless diversions as a fact of life, perennial access to information, and more television and distribution channels than ever before, it could take a lot for a franchise to grab the attention of this generation of overstimulated children.
Yokai Watch is a successful game franchise in Japan created by Level-5 Inc., which launched in America recently. In the game for the Nintendo 3DS, users play as a kid who gets the titular timepiece, which lets him or her see and befriend spirits called Yokai—and with their aid, take on evil spirits and help people with problems. But Yokai Watch isn’t just a game. It’s a cartoon, recently launched on Disney XD, a mobile app for iPhone and Android, a series of books and comics, and a line of toys and collectibles.
When creating the new franchise, Level-5 had this robust approach from the beginning. It’s what drove them to create the franchise in the first place.
Akihiro Hino, founder and CEO of Level-5, tells Co.Create through a translator, “As a cross-media project, we intended for it to succeed in all media simultaneously. Level-5’s motto is always to try new things. I personally feel that I don’t get motivated unless I’m always challenging myself to do new things. That’s why I wanted the challenge.”
Read the full article at Co.Create.