OVERKILL Software is a game-development company founded by industry veterans that joined forces with Starbreeze Studios to create PAYDAY 2, the adrenaline fuelled bank robbing co-op game. This is one of their most popular games. They have a community of 4,5 million members that they have gained through building a strong relationship with the gamers themselves.

A big challenge in this case was how to create paper figures for gamers without prior papercrafting knowledge or specialist tools. A lot of time was spent designing figures that looked cool, and still keeping them as simple as possible. We kept the construction simple, minimised the number of pieces and created easy to follow instructions for each model. Glue was eliminated and in most cases the figures could be completed with only paper, a printer and a pair of scissors.

Payday 2 is a first-person shooter game with realistic effects to make it as life-like as possible. We knew from previous experience that taking graphics straight from the digital would give a poor result, so we picked out the most important details and started adapting those to paper. 

Payday 2 is truly an action-packed game with a fast pace and surprises at every turn. We wanted to recreate this by creating folds and locks that move, pop, turn, flip and twist. By carefully adding motion to certain selected attributes and details, we were able to bring the paper gang to life. These paper creations reached a higher level which falls in line with Overkills goal to over-deliver and surprise their community.

During the campaign, members of the community were encouraged to download a blank heister that they themselves could design. To submit their character to the competition, all they had to do was to post it to Twitter or Instagram with #myheister. The winner would get their own personal heister as a real playable character in the game, a dream for any true gamer!