Meet Aimee!
Role
As the creator of Aimee, I:
-
Created her concept, design, and lore
-
Wrote narrative for her in-game universe
-
Oversaw her use in the brand, giving creative direction and guidelines to exterior parties working with her
-
Created art & merchandise to promote Aimee through cosmetics, events, etc.
Timeline
Released in 2021
Overview
Aimee is a vibrant robot mascot who enriched the worldbuilding of Aimlabs. Her bubbly and snarky personality became beloved by the community.
Since her debut, Aimee has helped strengthen our brand identity and paved the way for new revenue streams and opportunities.
Our current mascot, Mr. Aimlabs, had limitations due to his lack of facial features and his rigid, serious personality.
We lacked worldbuilding, but strived to create a narrative.
Mr. Aimlabs, a character featured across our social media platforms, served as our brand mascot. Despite his recognition in the community, he lacked backstory and worldbuilding.
His lack of a face, and his "serious" personality limited the type of cosmetics and appearances he could create. As an interest in cosmetics grew, these constraints restricted the potential scope of these items.
Rather than change who he was, I created someone to complement him and fill the gaps. By creating an additional character, we could double our opportunities and create an interesting dynamic between them. Ultimately, we could increase user loyalty and interest, particularly in our merchandising efforts, by leaning into another type of character our audience could resonate with.
Meet Aimee, the bubbly and energetic robot - the perfect complement to Mr. Aimlabs' calm and composed demeanor.
With a name like Aimee, a clever play on "Aim," you can tell she's got a great sense of humor. She's helpful and will guide the user on how their aim can get better, but she's not afraid to throw in a quick jab or two. Think of it like banter between your friends while gaming!
In contrast to Mr. Aimlabs, she is very expressive - and it's not just because she has a face! She has a wide range of emotions and can fit in any situation.
Aimee first made her debut on the Aimlabs Discord through a set of emotes for the community. Thanks to her popularity and a new weapon skin posed to feature her, she revealed her ability to turn into a human through the use of her antennas. With this flexibility, she could fit into multiple scenarios.
Allows her to float and glide
Her antennas turn her from robot to human form (like a hologram)
Robot form - she can glide and fly around!
Aimee has 2 versions - robot and human.
Aimee's origin story
During the development of a new training robot prototype, Mr. Aimlabs accidentally inserted the wrong personality software into the bot.
In place of the standard training robot personality software that maintains a docile demeanor, he mistakenly used a comedy movie file. As a result, a knowledgable and helpful yet humorous Aimee was born.
Aimee had access to an extensive database of the facilities and how users could improve themselves. She was assigned the role of guiding players through their training. Now he just needed to teach her to be a little nicer about pestering the players about their left-side weakness.
Some initial iterations and doodles of Aimee to get a feel for her personality and design
From emotes & cosmetics to merchandise; Aimee has went on a journey!
Emotes & stickers
Social media emotes used on Slack, Discord, and Twitch. Aimee made her debut through these!
Cosmetics (profile pictures, banners, weapon skins)
Aimee's human form debut - this pack became our best-selling weapon skin on its release!
Error States
Error states incorporated robot Aimee into the trainer to bring a bit of lightheartedness to an otherwise frustrating experience.
Gamesense x Aimlabs mousepads
Character sheet iterations used for animation
*Art by Gamesense
Animatic promotional trailer featuring Aimee
* Animation created by Gamesense
Cosmetics including Aimee emerged as best-sellers, compared to Mr. Aimlabs and other themes.
📈
Increased revenue streams. Cosmetics featuring Aimee were very popular, with her cosmetics being purchased more frequently compared to non-Aimee cosmetics.
Created avenue for merchandise sales. With 2 mascots, we were able to double the opportunities for creating cosmetics, merchandise, and events. With Aimee's flexibility, she could be put into scenarios that Mr. Aimlabs just wouldn't quite fit in thematically, such as more silly, feminine, or anime themes.
👥
🔎
🫶
Stronger brand identity & loyalty. Not only did Aimee add a new energy to the brand, but she also allowed Mr. Aimlabs to shine by giving him a partner. The Aimlabs community had multiple characters to enjoy, and when profile cosmetics were launched, many users requested Aimee-specific cosmetics.
🏗️
Opened up opportunties for partnerships and events.
For example, our collaboration with Gamesense was possible because of their existing anime aesthetic. With Aimee now on board, we were able to collaborate to create merchandise, and even had an anime promotional trailer made!
The introduction of our battlepass system was through an anime-themed event with themed rewards, with Aimee as the main character.
Fanart from the Aimlabs community!
