For more than two decades, Cult Of Luna has forged a sound that has grown incomparable to that of others. Ambitious, epic, visceral, drenched in emotion, and long regarded as one of Sweden’s premiere metal acts, Cult of Luna has a storied career with nine studio albums to their name, countless tours spanning the globe, and a win for “Best Metal Band of the Year” in Sweden, the band returned in 2022 with ‘The Long Road North’. Now, they’re releasing an interactive gaming experience for the music video “Cold Burn”.
Instead of a traditional music video, Cult of Luna creates an immersive audiovisual experience in collaboration with creative agency North Kingdom / NoA, where innovation and storytelling stand at their core.
The player’s mission is to help a “lost light” to escape the darkness, and to find its way home through a dystopian maze. The player can also gather other lights and bring them to The Mother Light, at the center of the maze.
The single has been rebuilt in the real-time tool Unreal Engine, to dynamically adapt to how the player navigates the gaming experience’s world. This makes each experience unique in the dynamic version.
The gaming experience can be found on Steam and is created by Swedish creative agency North Kingdom / NoA, with long-running experience of collaborating with gaming and tech companies such as EA, Riot Games, and Google.
“For as long as we have known Linus Johansson of North Kingdom, which spans from the Leave me here video in 2004, he’s always tried to push interactivity and blur the line between the artist and the art. So it came as no surprise to us when he suggested making a video game out of the Cold burn video. “Go right ahead,” we said and now we are as intrigued by the result as we hope you are,” Johannes Persson of Cult of Luna comments.
The future of music marketing: how this music video stands at the innovative intersection between gaming, tech, and music
North Kingdom was founded in 2003 and has since worked with international brands such as LEGO, Supercell, EA, Google, and Riot Games. In September of 2021, they released their innovation hub ‘Greenhouse’ to explore the future of real-time technology, digital art, and gaming. The innovation hub aims to inspire clients to a deepened brand experience through interactive storytelling and community engagement. Now, the latest collaboration is released together with Cult of Luna.
To promote the band’s new album North Kingdom has created an audiovisual gaming experience instead of a traditional music video for the single “Cold Burn” – with innovative storytelling, design, and real-time technology. North Kingdom has also rebuilt the song’s dynamic that adapts to how the player navigates the music video game experience, making every experience unique.
“For as long as we have known Linus Johansson, which spans from the ‘Leave me Here’ video in 2004, he’s always tried to push interactivity and blur the line between the artist and the art. So, it came as no surprise to us when he suggested making a video game out of the Cold burn video. “Go right ahead,” we said and now we are as intrigued by the result as we hope you are,” Johannes Persson of Cult of Luna comments.
Linus Johansson, Creative Experience Director at North Kingdom, is leading the project and has a lot of experience in pushing the innovation of music videos forward.
“We’ve done many projects within music videos throughout the years with a unique vision. With the brief from Cult of Luna, we saw an interesting creative opportunity to explore what the future holds within music video production – to combine music with real-time technology and interactive storytelling. When we create projects in the intersection between music and gaming, we reach a new audience,” Linus Johansson at North Kingdom comments.
Explore the gaming experience HERE.
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