Celebrating #Boomiversary With An Edible Cake Diorama

Supercell partnered with us looking to mark ten years of their hit game ‘Boom Beach’. The result was a 60-second animation that showcases a miniature diorama of an in-game scene brought to life through a one-metre birthday cake. Here's how we did it. 👇

Brief & Solution

Game anniversaries are a dime a dozen. 10-year anniversaries aren’t. Our challenge? Celebrating this milestone uniquely to do loyal fans justice. Tapping into the audience’s self-aware humour, we wanted to make a mostly Baby Boomer player base proud to be Boom Beach ‘boomers’ as well. Engaging existing and lapsed players, we tapped into nostalgia and tribalism simultaneously. At first, the cake looks like a memento for 10 years of achievements, but it turns out that the ‘baddie’ created it to celebrate 10 years of player failures. What better time to get back in the game and prove him wrong?

The Craft

We turned the dynamic scene into edible reality using gelatine for the sea, sugar for the sand, and chocolate for the landscape. Each figure and prop was designed in 3D, 3D printed, and hand-painted to match the game faithfully. Yes, even the mechanic crab. We then placed the cake on a six-metre sunset gradient set. Sand textures? Carved out of polystyrene. The sea? Cling film-covered Perspex.

To create the cake, we teamed up with Emma Jayne Cake Design, who turned who turned the in-game scene into an edible reality. The cake creation was placed on a four-metre beach set. To shoot the film, we collaborated with Clapham Road Studios, and used a motion control rig with a variety of lenses to capture every angle.

Alex Robinson, Director, Waste Creative, added: “At Waste, one of our favourite things to do is to create things authentically and in-camera. This was the perfect opportunity to do just that, and it presented us with a plethora of exciting challenges and hurdles. Working alongside so many talented artists and witnessing everything come together on the day of the shoot was truly awesome.”

Louie Wood, Midweight Creative, Waste Creative, adds: “For ten years, players have tried and failed to depose Dr. T from the Boom Beach archipelago. We at Waste felt there was only one way the charismatic villain would celebrate such a delicious victory: an enormous cake topped with an epic diorama showcasing his continued strategic superiority!"

Results

The campaign came out to a roaring response from the Boom Beach community and beyond, achieving our goal of making waves!