Game Stack is collection of services that help in the process of developing, hosting, and publishing new games across PC, console, and mobile platforms. For the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Microsoft was introducing Game Stack and asked us to create a handout for the new service.

For Microsoft to Be Magnetic we needed to create something developers would love, and we suspected a boring product brochure wasn’t going to create any fans.

We knew from our research that developers love tabletop games and that they were nearly as popular with this audience as digital gaming, so we developed a card game about the process of developing and publishing a game. The card game was filled with insider developer and gaming jokes which hit right at the heart of this audience.

Developers actually gathered at tables to play during the conference. Instead of visiting another booth, they were spending hours playing a branded card game. Buzz for the game spread throughout the event and developers flocked to Microsoft’s booth. Requests even came through Twitter for Microsoft to sell the game after the conference.

Instead of another boring product brochure we created something developers loved.