Secret Level
2024
No strangers to the gaming world, BUCK teamed up with Blur Studio to create the opening title sequence and episode titles for "Secret Level," an animated Amazon Prime anthology series from the creators of Netflix’s LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS. "Secret Level" follows a gamer’s journey to find secret levels over 15 short episodes — each based on a different video game spanning the past, present, and future of gaming.
The Thematic E
"Secret Level" is a celebration of gaming across every era and genre. The show title refers to the secret levels only accessed by the players willing to take risks, dig deeper, and work to unlock all the rewards a game has to offer.
When developing a brand logotype for the show, we wanted to create something impactful and unifying. The “E” became a central part of the show’s branding, with its three horizontal lines separated out to represent the levels. This subtly encapsulates the show's central theme and becomes an anchoring conceptual mechanism within which our titles’ world could be contained.
A Palette Cleanser
Being an anthology series, "Secret Level" features high-end CG that is stylistically and narratively diverse in each episode. We needed the titles to feel like a palette cleanser — a way to unify the show's many universes — yet be as cinematic and complex as the episodes themselves.
The Pixel & Cube
The world we built was inspired by the fundamental building blocks of video games: the humble pixel and cube. They make up the foundation of everything created in the titles package.
We developed a unique look, taking the audience through different eras and genres of games, starting with flat retro games like Pong, through fantasy, to modern-day sci-fi MMORPGs.
Episode Titles
We brought our thematic cube world into the episode openers, creating six genre titles to represent gaming genres: Player Vs. Player, Platformer, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mech Action, and Fighting.
BUCK
Executive Creative Director
Ben Langsfeld
Executive Producer
Luisa Murray
Andrew Chan Gladstone
Group Creative Director
Daniel Oeffinger
Creative Director
Joyce N. Ho
Animation Lead
David Hobizal
3D Supervisor
Hogan Williams
Associate Producer
Cody O'Neill
Storyboard
Yukyung Lee
Hannah Sun
Joyce N. Ho
Daniel Oeffinger
Design
Yukyung Lee
Hannah Sun
Jesseter Wang
Joyce N. Ho
Daniel Oeffinger
2D Animation & Compositing
David Hobizal
Hannah Sun
Joyce N. Ho
3D Animation
David Hobizal
Hannah Sun
Jesseter Wang
Hogan Williams
Daniel Oeffinger
Additional 2D Animation
Ricardo Mendes
Design Exploratory
Dayday
Gunnar Pettersson