Supersocial partners with NARS Cosmetics to push the boundaries of self-expression on Roblox

NARS Color Quest is a next-generation immersive virtual world that leverages latest Roblox technology to give players an unprecedented metaverse experience.

Supersocial has been active on the Roblox platform for over two years, with the mission of building insanely engaging games, experiences and brand worlds that break the mold and stand out from the crowd. Their debut experience, Ghostopia, captured the attention of the Roblox community with an unrivaled level of visual fidelity and storytelling-led gameplay that gave players a much more immersive experience than they have previously been able to find on the platform.

NARS Color Quest is Supersocial’s first brand partnership project, and they approached it with the same mentality of raising the quality bar and leveraging the platform’s newest technology to craft an experience that truly stands out.

“In NARS we found a brand partner who's equally committed to pushing the boundaries to ensure that we're delivering a groundbreaking experience,” says Yonatan Raz-Fridman “Yon”, founder and CEO of Supersocial, who stresses the importance of innovation when it comes to brand activations on Roblox. “With a growing adoption of the metaverse by brands, it is essential to build experiences that leverage technology to empower human expression and connection.”

Supersocial’s special sauce is combining creator talent who grew up on the Roblox platform with creatives and operators with decades of experience building consumer brands and telling brand stories in creative ways. The Supersocial team combines deep Roblox platform expertise with AAA experience and creative storytellers who, together, are uniquely qualified to design cutting edge experiences for partners that bring their brand and products to life in a way that feels authentic for the Roblox community.

“When working with partners, the most important thing is to truly translate their vision and brand promise into a highly engaging world,” says Luiza Justus, co-founder and Creative Director at Supersocial, who originated the NARS Color Quest concept and oversaw development of the project. “With so many brands entering the space, it’s becoming more and more important to discover how you can set yourself apart and bring players an experience they haven’t had before.”

The launch of the NARS Color Quest experience on the Roblox platform cements Supersocial’s position as a premiere metaverse company, with numerous platform-defining experiences in development through partnerships that the company signed with iconic brands.

“Our customer-centric operating blueprint enables us to rapidly develop new, innovative experiences that help world-class brands enter the metaverse.” says Tatiana Wlasek, co-founder and VP Marketing & Partnerships at Supersocial.

A HIGHLY ENGAGING EXPERIENCE WITH ASTONISHING VISUAL FIDELITY

NARS Color Quest is a multiplayer experience on Roblox where players explore breathtaking tropical islands on a quest to collect iconic NARS shades to complete their virtual makeup palette. As they explore these deeply immersive worlds, players acquire special abilities that help them complete environment puzzles on their quest to unlock the full spectrum of NARS colors.

When you enter the NARS Color Quest experience, it is immediately clear how much time was spent developing a unique visual language for each of these islands. All the textures in the world were designed to look like they are made of makeup, and were created to match the look of the actual textures of NARS makeup products. Think: cliffs made of blush, sand made of bronzer, and rocks made of lipstick. All surrounded by exciting obstacle courses such as thorny brambles, venus fly traps that eat you if you fall into them, pools of lava, and bubbling geysers that allow you to shoot up into the air to collect floating shades.

The look and feel of each island was inspired by one of NARS’ bestselling collections. Laguna Island is a volcanic paradise where players can find shades that pack the heat, and acquire abilities like Molten (to melt away obstacles) and Structure (to piece structures back together and be able to get across), which each symbolize a product benefit of the Laguna collection — the molten heat of bronze shades and the structure-granting power of Laguna bronzers. Blush Island is a bright and colorful lush tropical paradise inspired by NARS’ iconic Blush collection, granting players abilities like Updraft (to fly up into the air) and Nurture (to grow plant leaves they can jump onto), symbolizing the weightless and uplifting effect of NARS blush.

NEXT-GENERATION AVATAR CUSTOMIZATION

For the first time on Roblox, players are able to fully customize their faces within NARS Color Quest. With a freeform makeup customization tool called Lookbook, players now have what they need to unleash their artistry and play around for hours crafting looks that express who they are, with endless combinations and possibilities.

When players open Lookbook, they are able to select designs and apply them to their avatar’s face, and use the tool to move, scale, rotate, add depth, and change the color of their design using the shades they collected in the world. While other beauty experiences on the platform only allow players to select pre-made looks and apply them to their avatar’s face, NARS Color Quest gives players endless freedom to create whatever they want.

The Lookbook feature was designed and built from scratch by Supersocial in an effort to bring to life NARS’ brand DNA and heritage in artistry. The freedom this feature gives players allows them to get creative and express themselves in ways they previously could not.

A NEW WAY TO SHOWCASE PLAYER CREATIONS

In addition to exploring the world, collecting shades, and designing their looks, players are able to photograph their creations and post them to an in-game social media feature called Snapshot. This simulated social media experience allows players to give and receive likes on their posts in an effort to have their photo featured on the Trending Feed, where the most-liked photos are showcased. But the ultimate goal is getting enough likes to be featured in François Nars’ 3D gallery space, where top-tier photos are displayed on the walls for all to see.

The Snapshot feature was also created from scratch and does not currently exist in any other Roblox experience, serving as yet another example of how Supersocial and NARS found a way to innovate and give players something brand new to engage with.

UNIQUE CHARACTERS THAT PERSONIFY NARS COLLECTIONS

In order to deepen the connection between players and the brand, Supersocial crafted a cast of non-player characters based on NARS’ bestselling collections. The first character players will encounter is none other than a virtual version of François Nars himself, NARS’ Founder and Creative Director, who players can chat with at any time if they wish to learn more about the world and how to play the game.

When they visit the otherworldly islands of Blush and Laguna, players will meet some more fantastical characters, the personification of Blush and Laguna franchises. Players can interact with Blush and Laguna to acquire special abilities on each island.

ELEVATING THE ROBLOX UGC CREATOR COMMUNITY WITH AN ALL-NEW NARS AVATAR ITEM COLLECTION

In addition to the game experience, Supersocial created an entire NARS collection of avatar items for the Roblox marketplace, exploring Roblox’s latest layered clothing technology. They worked with renowned UGC creators that have made a name for themselves on the platform to craft unique items for players to wear on their avatars not just within the NARS Color Quest experience, but all throughout Roblox.

Players can acquire these items on the Roblox marketplace or by purchasing from the NARS shop inside the game. They can also earn some of them through daily rewards by logging into the game each day during the live period.

Roblox creators who brought the designs to life include 0929Lego, Archi_tecture, and Lovespun.

HOW TO PLAY NARS COLOR QUEST

NARS Color Quest is live on the Roblox platform. To access the experience, create a Roblox account and play here.

ABOUT SUPERSOCIAL

Supersocial is a metaverse company. We operate a cutting-edge studio and a next-generation agency, developing, producing and publishing world-class games, experiences and brand worlds on Roblox and other emerging platforms. Our mission is to create and empower digital communities to play, explore, socialize and meaningfully express themselves in the next era of the Internet.

For more information: visit our site, follow us on Twitter and Linkedin.

SUPERSOCIAL TEAM CREDITS

Luiza Justus, Creative Director
Tatiana Wlasek Burstin, VP Marketing & Partnerships
Sarah Dwora, Project Management Lead
Ethan Koester, Principal Engineer
Brandon Wilcox, Systems Engineer
Garret Carmouche, Software Engineer
Isaac Morris, Software Engineer
Josh Dampman, Senior 3D Artist
Gabriella Ballista, Senior Character Artist
Caleb Lackey, Level and Environment Designer
Marisa Smailes, Director of Product Performance
Lin Harvey, Gameplay Programmer
Nate Spell, Community Manager
Jonathan Mangagil, Animator
Rodrigo Bonomo, Concept Artist
Ash Lawrence, Architecture Concept
Nate Spell, Community Management
Yonatan Raz-Fridman “Yon”, CEO
Pedro Romi, CFO