Six Live Characters, One Gaming Studio: Producing the Dead Island 2 Internal Launch Party
SERVICES DELIVERED
CONTEXT
Dambuster Studios came to Stacked Events with a specific brief for the Dead Island 2 internal launch party: put employees inside the game's world. This meant producing living versions of the game's characters to a standard the studio's own team would immediately recognise. Two lead characters and four zombies needed to be cast, costumed, and produced from scratch.
The client was a creative studio that had built Dead Island 2 from the ground up. Every costume, prosthetic, and character performance would be measured against the game itself. The Dambuster team would know immediately what was right and what wasn't.
The zombie work carried a specific technical demand. The brief required prosthetics and special effects make-up to a level that would pass scrutiny at close range, in event lighting, across an entire evening. The performers also had to move and behave in character throughout — the zombies could not just look the part.
Working within a creative client's vision, rather than alongside it, required a different kind of collaboration. Stacked Events needed to understand the characters deeply enough to make production decisions the studio would trust. That meant earning creative confidence early, rather than requesting sign-off on every detail.
Stacked Events began with a detailed session with the Dambuster Studios creative team. The goal was to understand each character from the inside — their look, movement, and the specific qualities that made them recognisable in-game. This groundwork shaped every subsequent production decision.
Casting was matched against the game's character designs rather than general suitability. Actors were selected for their physical likeness and their ability to inhabit a character rather than simply perform one. The two lead characters required performers who could hold a personality across an entire evening of direct guest interaction.
The four zombie performers were produced using professional prosthetics and special effects make-up. The application was worked to a standard that would hold at close range in a live event environment. Make-up artists worked directly from game reference material throughout the process.
Costume production for all six characters was built to match the in-game designs precisely. Every detail — materials, construction, wear, and damage — was referenced against the game's visual assets rather than approximated from memory.
Six characters moved through the event for the full duration of the evening. Guests interacted directly with the lead characters and encountered the zombie performers throughout the venue. The zombie make-up held at close range across the full evening.
The Dambuster Studios team's response confirmed the characters had been produced to the standard the brief required — at an internal event hosted by the people who had designed the originals.
The team from Stacked were great partners to work with in planning and delivering our launch party event to celebrate the release of 'Dead Island 2'. The Stacked team were professional and diligent throughout all stages of planning and when it came to the actual event, the performers and activities they staged were a real highlight of the evening.
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