Hawken Brand & Trailer
A revival of the cult classic Hawken, Hawken Reborn brings back the franchise’s visceral fps gameplay, warring factions and gripping narrative to create a compelling free to play PVE experience. Players are able to become mercenary pilots, pitting their mechs against the dangers of Illal together, gaining fame and fortune along the way. Naturally, and as big fans of the original Hawken game, the team at Fluid were delighted when we were approached to create and develop the logo, logo animation, key art and teaser trailer for this new entry to the mech franchise.
505 wanted the trailer to stay true to what made the original game such a fan favourite, subtly allude to a continuation of previous story elements, and thematically capture the sense of ‘rising from the ashes’ - with the series evolving and rebuilding to become better than ever before. In essence, they wanted to show that both the iconic mechs and the franchise as a whole has been reborn.
It was a real pleasure to work on the full visual revival of such a cult classic franchise, and we were proud to develop an epic teaser trailer, key art and logo that all effortlessly combined to create a visually striking brand identity for Hawken Reborn.
All the CG and effects for the teaser were done in house by the Fluid team, with the shots rising upwards to again emphasise this feeling of rising up and being reborn - a theme similarly incorporated into the game’s key art, which features a strong, imposing mech climbing up from wreckage and reentering the fight.
We also wanted to incorporate elements of Hawken Reborn’s logo into the trailer. The first half of the logo, Hawken, has a metallic and gritty feel, relating to the game’s mechs, battles and industrial nature, whilst the second half, ‘reborn’, is stylised to represent the technology and dystopia of Illal. We utilised the style of ‘reborn’ to create a damaged tech interference animation, used effectively throughout the trailer before finally revealing the title of the game.
