Hi! I’m Mihai Preda, studio head here at Fun Labs, and we’re the studio behind Nerf Legends. GameMill Entertainment, our editor, had discussed the desirability of a potential Nerf game with Hasbro and when they presented the pitch to us, we really liked the idea of bringing the toys to life in a video game and creating a universe. unique to accompany with them. From the start, everyone was very supportive of the creative freedom to create a unique set of characters, levels and stories and to create a universe never seen before in any Nerf game before.
Nerf Doomlands The Judge – real toy on the left, in-game model on the right.
As for my personal history with the Nerf brand, my son loves Nerf blasters – it’s one of his favorite toys and he’s been a source of inspiration and creativity throughout the project. There is something about his adventurous spirit and his wonder that brings me joy. I see it when we chase each other with blasters or challenge each other to shoot targets across the room. Most of the time, though, I think he likes to pretend I’m an alien so he can shoot darts at his old man.
It was a lot of fun taking these Nerf blasters that my son and I play with and translating them into the game. We were lucky enough to receive the 3D CAD models used to make the plastic molds for the toys. This was a great place to start for us as they were basically blueprints that allowed us to quickly create high-quality, game-ready blasters that we knew to be genuine compared to the actual counterpart.
Nerf Elite 2.0 Shock Wave – real toy on the left, in-game model on the right.
For the game, we wanted to take it a step further and bring the blasters to life to match the new universe we were creating. To do this, we took inspiration from the shape and appearance of blasters and imaged them with sci-fi skins, animated lights, and other effects without changing the identity of the blaster. This was important to us because we wanted to make sure the blasters always looked recognizable with what people played with as kids (or as adults who still enjoy Nerf blasters).
Nerf Elite Titan CS – real toy on the left, in-game model on the right.
Making the blasters feel good was just as important as making them look good and we wanted to make sure they all feel different. We took inspiration from many other shooting games and grouped blasters into classes. Some, like the Judge, are excellent close range blasters that do a lot of damage up close. Others, like the Nerf Mega Centurion, specialize in long-range sniper actions. Then there’s the Nerf Ultra One which is a well-balanced midrange blaster. Plus, each is specially balanced with a wide range of settings like range, accuracy, spread, drop, reload speed, cooldown, and more. Beyond that, we put a lot of energy into the visual and sound identity of each blaster. We hand-designed the visuals, animations and audio to further differentiate what they feel. For example, the Nerf Elite Titan is a huge blaster that looks powerful but slows you down because it’s bulkier. It’s a much different experience than the fast-firing Nerf Ultra Two.
Nerf Mega Sniper – real toy on the left, in-game model on the right.
Nerf Legends takes place in the near future where blasters are upgraded and used for a Nerf tournament. In this context, the sound of blasters is inspired by toys, but improved and taken to a whole new level. We’ve looked at some sci-fi sound effects that vary widely from blaster to blaster, but these aren’t the pew-pew sounds you might hear in the movies. We looked into the idea of improving the toy’s mechanical inner workings and giving them subtle electromagnetic sounds, like blasters propelling darts forward with magnetic forces.
Nerf AccuStrike RaptorStrike – real toy on the left, in-game model on the right.
We’ve worked closely with Hasbro to offer a diverse roster of blasters in several different series like the Ultra, Mega, and Elite, including older and newer models. Most of the game’s blasters have been released in the past five years, but we also have some that have been released as recently as this year. We hope you find a Nerf blaster you like when the game releases on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 19.
