Nordcurrent turns players into fashion designers with UGC marketplace

Developer and publisher Nordcurrent has released a revolutionary update to its leading mobile fashion game, Pocket Styler, with the launch of a new creator platform, Pocket Styler Studio. The digital platform allows players to work like real-life fashion designers to create clothing, shoes and accessories to their exact specifications. Once finished, digital designers can market their creations under their own ‘designer label’ name and sell them in-game to millions of Pocket Styler’s players in return for in-game currency, which has never been possible in a mobile fashion game before.

The gaming skins market is a multi-billion dollar industry, with almost 50% of players buying skins with in-game currency and around 40% buying skins with real money, according to Newzoo. But, conceptualising, drawing and polishing collections takes time, and even with Nordcurrent artists supplying over 100 items every couple of weeks, Pocket Styler players still had a thirst for more items inspired by current fashion, movies, and celebrity looks, thus limiting the time players were spending in the game and subsequently Nordcurrent’s revenue.

The integration of user-generated content into Pocket Styler has revolutionized the in-game design process. It has provided players with a wider range of options to choose from while also allowing them to earn in-game currency. This feature has also addressed the creative burden faced by game artists and developers who previously struggled to keep up with the demand for fresh content. Designers now upload over 2,000 original items into the game every day, adding nearly 300 times more content than before the launch of Pocket Styler Studio.

Victoria Trofimova, CEO of Nordcurrent, said: “‘With over 100,000 daily active users, Pocket Styler is one of the world’s most popular fashion games, and now one of the most advanced thanks to the introduction of Pocket Styler Studio. It provides a platform for creators to become professional digital fashion designers who can build their brands and promote their designs globally.

“By empowering players and letting them design and sell their clothing, we hope to inspire the next generation of fashion designers while supporting them as active contributors to the game they love, helping us form a community of designers who play a genuine part in making the game even better.“

Pocket Styler Studio has been in beta since February. Currently, over 1,000 designers are creating items for the game, and another 5,000 designers are expected to upload daily in the first year of launch, creating trillions of outfit combinations and millions of new looks submitted weekly. Nordcurrent is also testing the option of designers earning real currency from their designs in the future.

Designs are saved into a designer’s profile until they are ready to be marketed. Once on sale, individual designers can track their brands’ success by ‘Publishing’ items and assessing how many sell. Players can choose a name for their designer label and earn ‘Gems’, the in-game currency, for every item sold to other players. Pocket Styler Studio is available globally; players must have Pocket Styler installed on their phones and have a free Nordcurrent ID to use Pocket Styler Studio, which can be accessed through a browser.

Launched in May 2021, Pocket Styler is based on attending different in-game events, creating looks based on the criteria of the events, submitting those looks, getting scores, and competing with other players to become “trendsetters” and climbing on top of the leaderboard. The game has 21 million downloads, with 100,000 players spending 10,000 hours on the app and giving 10 million votes to outfits daily.