Blending Worlds: How to Integrate External IPs Without Losing Your Game’s DNA

How cool is it sometimes when you see different IPs collaborate with each other? Two distinctly different styles and narratives combine to bring something new or share the experience with different audiences.

Let’s see Fortnite - the game got huge attention and a big chunk of success when it started with the right collaborations at the right time. Now they have become an advertising platform to some extent and can collaborate with absolutely out-of-the-game-world things like petrol brands and stuff, because why not?

\n Another example is Wargaming - you probably saw at least one of those big celebrity collaborations, for example, with Jason Statham. I was one of those people working on making things happen on World of Warships for console titles. \n \n As a project manager, I helped collaboration projects like World of Warships: Legends with Star Trek, Popeye, famous YouTubers, and Megadeth see the world, and had the opportunity to work on things I’m personally a fan of. \n \n I would never exchange this experience I got for anything in the world - working with such creative talents on something so meaningful - that even my parents were waiting for that collaboration to happen, like the one with the Megadeth music band.

\n But sometimes it’s not just all about having fun - making the right collaboration is not an easy task. Think about spending the whole team's efforts and release windows, preparing marketing campaigns, and paying for business agreements and stuff just to receive mixed or worse feedback from your players because you decided to mix medieval and sci-fi narratives? \n \n Or vice versa - animated characters from another IP were so well executed and the idea seemed great, but since the art style was so different, it breaks the immersion into your game and its original atmosphere. \n We have some examples of that on the market, and you are probably already thinking about that one collab which makes no sense to you.

Let’s say you avoided all those problems. You’ve looked at current trends, found a proper IP, managed to get the contract signed, and added the notorious trending character to your game - oops, it feels overpowered and makes him imbalanced because you added John Wick into, let’s say, the Mario Kart universe. It’s not an actual example - just imagine that. Or wait… it’s probably hard to imagine. \n \n So how do you manage projects that add new IP content into your game while keeping both identities loyal to themselves, especially when the game and IP content are absolutely from different worlds? Imagine historically accurate military ships… and anime girls!

\n First of all, you develop a structured approach - even when working on such creative projects, it is still a job and you are still a project manager. Working in creative chaos is good for about a week, but having a plan, timelines, and deliverables from each iteration is much better. It also decreases the chances of people burning out. \n \n Second thing is: in order for you to save your game's unique DNA, you need to know what its core pillars are - from design, art style, and gameplay perspectives (not limited to these). Once you know what makes your game “your game” - you can start thinking about how you can fit another IP’s narratives and styles.

How to identify these pillars and the core game.

You can find an answer by answering the following questions: \n \n If you miss one of these things, you might either break trust between you and your players, lose game immersion, and rage core players - or alternatively, if you carry things properly, elevate your game to the next level and increase player engagement. You can also use this list as a matrix to see how another IP might fit into your game. You are welcome!

And that’s where you start collaborating with another creative team from a different IP. Each IP has its own emotional narrative and experience, which sometimes makes it difficult to position everything in a way that satisfies both core players and loyal fans of both IPs, who are sometimes the most nitpicky critics - because they care about it in the most loyal and pure way. \n \n But that makes working on this even more memorable and exciting, because the moment you satisfy those critics is precious and unforgettable - when you see people having a good time and being proud of the work you have done.

What helps you achieve it? \n \n Non-ironically - communication and collaboration: apart from having in place art style guidelines, moodboards, and documentation, which are also crucial - you have to be in constant contact.

It doesn’t matter if you are in different time zones or speak different IP team languages - you have to make both artist teams collaborate, whether through licensor managers or in person. Because the approval process is one of the hardest parts of the collaboration.

The approval process helps achieve and elevate content to the level of perfection and player satisfaction. But also, the approval process can be a deal breaker if you don’t manage it properly: \n \n 1. Build a clear and understandable submission flow process - including allocation of the content for each submission to make it “digestible” to review, and build the timeline and roadmap in a way that makes it in time, including contingency time.

2. Prepare documentation and a presentation for the IP holders to explain what and why we are doing things in this particular way.

3. Be ready to be flexible incorporating another IP’s content, even if it’s only about one character - you still have to think about everything this character touches: gameplay mechanics, story, skills, how it looks on the map and how it corresponds to interactions with your game - does it feel off or anything else. These small tweaks have to be carried throughout the whole time of collaboration. Even a small hand gesture can be animated different ways, and not all of them could be approved by the licensor.

4. Communication - even though you are working with creative developing teams, you are still doing business - you have to have the ability to translate creative and business languages into each other and vice versa.

5. Knowing when is the right time to escalate things - sometimes feedback is negotiable, sometimes it’s not - you need to know when and who is your backup person when things slip from your hands.

6. Learn your lessons - these types of projects are not bureaucracy work - it’s creative collaboration, and it’s different from one another. Your work as a project manager is to keep at least roughly the same flow structure of the processes and unblock your creative teams to allow them to create things.

My personal advice is not to be afraid of mistakes - they are inevitable when you work in such an environment - embrace them and transform those into experience and a driving force which will elevate you. A good project manager is not the one who doesn’t make mistakes - it’s the one who doesn't repeat them.

A good part of working on collaborations is that you will remember this, whether it's a good or bad experience, but it's in your power to make this experience good.My guide doesn’t cover lots of things, and frankly speaking, it shouldn’t - working on collaborations is different from project to project. And I know how valuable your time is, so I wanted to give you something of equal value in exchange - my experience, instead of a wall of text. You can easily find those on the internet. And from my experience, I can make some predictions about the overall direction for collaborations which you might use as well.

The trend is becoming more visible: ongoing content drops are likely to be the main thing - instead of creating one-time drops. And businesses will likely lean more toward shorter collaboration cycles - like, for example, seasonal events rather than heavy production cycles. The reason is simple - it’s less pricey and faster to implement.

Since games are becoming a part of broader entertainment content - on the same level as movies - you have to think about multiplatform releases of collaboration content. Treat collaborations not just as marketing, but as a retention tool that can be personalized for each player base via bundles in stores on each platform.

Also, try to think about digitalizing approval processes using specialized approval tools. Don’t cut this trying to save some spending - it’s worth it. It might sound like a small pipeline improvement, but it’s not - it will not only make managing projects easier, it will elevate the quality of what you’re doing.

Managing integrations across multiple international IPs taught me how to lead teams, negotiate with global stakeholders, and maintain a consistent product vision under pressure. It helped me push my boundaries and forced me to be better in a way that any other management project would never do. These experiences shaped my approach to game development and remain core to the way I build, manage, and deliver creative projects today.

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