In a Galaxy not so very far, far away...
The client
Blast Galaxy is an experiential destination for retro gaming fanatics. Based in Noord-Amsterdam, the business brings the soul and spirit of 80s arcade culture to a modern club environment, giving businesses and groups a chance to try their hand at Pac Man, Space Invaders, and more than 100 other on-period games.
With a loyal and growing digital fan base, Blast Galaxy realised it had a new online opportunity on their hands. The team decided they needed a new web presence to meet a different kind of gaming demand.
The objective
To grow digital revenues and extend its online presence, Blast galaxy wanted a website with the spirit of an 80s arcade. It had to offer a credible retro vibe, era-relevant games, plus the laser-zap sounds and angular visuals that defined the decade.
We advised them on how to extend the club’s physical gaming experience online, and also how to position it against competing offers.
Tech Stack
Wordpress - Canvas - GSAP
We used WordPress as the CMS, making updates and site management easy for the client. The interactive galaxy background and hyper-space travel graphics were built with Canvas.
Sprite animations combined with Highway.js were used to smooth the transitions between pages, with additional animations built using the the GSAP animation library.
To enable seamless page loads, we used Google's Quicklink and established pre-fetching of pages to make everything fast and responsive
Traveling to the
blast galaxy
The big idea
We began by asking ‘what if Blast Galaxy was a video game? What would it look, feel, and sound like?
We proposed a site that mimicked a traditional old school arcade game, using the same sounds, gaudy colours, and gritty animations. Then we filled it with pop culture references to 80s comic books, soda brands, and ‘rad’ language.
The idea was to make users feel like they were hanging out in an arcade, with everything reinforcing a back-in-the-day nostalgia vibe.
The planetary system
To bring the Blast Galaxy game to life, each page was designed to represent a different part of the solar system. We built a series of chunky graphics with an old-school 8-bit feel and created planet-themed pages that were visually distinct.
Explore Echo, all about Blast Galaxy
Weekly highscores
We also added functions like gaming tournaments for groups and business accounts to promote and sustain engagement and participation, plus recognised weekly individual high-scorers.
from galaxy to arcade
We wanted to render screen graphics with 80s-era monitor frames, embedded elements like scanlines, and even built-in standard game glitches that would have been common at the time.
Old Skool assets
A lot of arcade game UI elements were borrowed and updated using gif-like animations. Everything we rendered had a pixelated, green-screen feel.
Together we create
“The Pack is a group of experts with great passion for their profession and an inexhaustible commitment to our digital needs. They use a targeted, no-nonsense and structured approach and that has resulted in an award-winning website. Because of The Pack we can focus on our core tasks with the support of them.”
Chris - Founder - Blast Galaxy
