Thinkingbox Produces First Ever Candy Crush All Stars U.S. Tournament Final, Hosted On A Virtual Stage

Los Angeles, CA — Global creative collective Thinkingbox has produced the first ever U.S. Candy Crush All Stars tournament game-show style final for King in collaboration with production partners Absolute Live Productions — staging the show on a custom-designed extended reality (XR) virtual set.

Millions of Candy Crush Saga players across the U.S. joined the 7-week in-game tournament, playing a total of 665 million levels of Candy Crush Saga, making over 13 billion moves and crushing over 100 billion All Stars Candies (the score by which the tournament was judged). The field narrowed to the top 10, who competed in four playoff-style elimination rounds for the title of America’s first Candy Crush All Star and a year’s supply of Candy Crush Gold Bars (the in-game currency).

The Candy Crush All Stars Final went live on the Candy Crush Saga YouTube channel on November 12th at 9AM PST. Thinkingbox and Absolute Live coordinated the remote production of the 10 players from all across the country–sending gameplay devices and live recording equipment to enable them all to stream into the show concurrently.

Using XR technology, the co-hosts appear in live action within a computer-generated virtual game show stage that has been custom-designed for the event itself and embellished with larger-than-life candies from the Candy Crush game. The technology employs a green screen stage, advanced Mo-Sys camera tracking and programmed lighting to immerse the hosts in the visually realistic stage environment. The production team used multiple cameras and also created synchronized visual effects to transform the stage and enhance the viewing experience. Thinkingbox handled multiple project elements, including art and creative direction, script development, set design and tech implementation to bring the show to life. The gameplay and contestants will appear as part of an integrated graphics package, also created by Thinkingbox.

“Candy Crush Saga is such a beloved and visually rich game, we immediately knew this show would be perfect for an extended reality approach,” said Rania Hattar, Managing Director, Thinkingbox. “Our goal for capturing this huge moment in Candy Crush history is to create a studio with all the polish and prestige of a network game show, and all the deliciously irreverent fun of Candy Crush.”