Project overview
Have you tried the greatest hobby in the world?
We have to admit, many of us hadn’t when Games Workshop selected Paradigm to build its Warhammer Japan web hub (though, that lack of knowledge gave us the objectivity to come up with some really good ideas).
At that point, Games Workshop had already opened more than a dozen physical Warhammer stores across Japan and launched a handful of microsites in Japanese featuring different Warhammer worlds and games. With the hobby really beginning to grow in popularity here, the company knew it needed a localized Warhammer website for several reasons. It had to act as a central platform that connects with the existing microsites, give an easy-to-understand overview of the hobby to those interested in learning more, and be a useful information source for those who are already part of the community.
We began our journey into the grim darkness of the 41st millennium and into the magical domains of the Mortal Realms like every good traveller: by doing some careful research.
Entering the worlds of endless war
The first thing we had to learn was that Warhammer is far more than just a tabletop wargame involving strategy and chance. It’s a community-building activity, a means of relaxation, and even an art form. Since it debuted in the UK in 1983, Warhammer continues to evolve, expand, and find new fans around the world. Today, there are two main game worlds. For fans of sci-fi, there’s Warhammer 40,000, and for fans of fantasy, there’s Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
And Japan — with its love of anime, manga, figures, and games — is, of course, the perfect market for Warhammer to find lots of new fans.
We visited some of the Warhammer stores around Tokyo, built and painted our first minis, played our first games, and learned the basic rules. As we dug deeper into the different worlds and products, we found out what information was already available in Japanese and identified content that should be included on the web hub. We also learned about the bourgeoning Warhammer community around Japan, looking into the YouTube and X accounts of local fans who love to collect, build, paint, and play.
Although there is nothing quite like Warhammer, we did extensive research into the websites of (what could possibly be considered) Japanese competitors in the games and hobby spaces, including board game and card game makers, as well as model and figurine manufacturers.
Planning our attack
Once we had done our research, stationed our painted minis around the office, and placed the set of official Warhammer dice on our studio table, we were ready to put together a three-hour workshop for key members of Games Workshop’s Japan team and marketing department.
The workshop was an opportunity for us to present about web design trends in Japan, the Japan market, and special considerations for the web hub based on our research and extensive website design experience.
It was also a chance for us to ask lots of questions to learn more about the hobby, the in-store user journey, pain points, questions commonly asked by prospective customers, best-selling products, marketing activities, and the goals for the web hub.
Then, armed with the comments from the Games Workshop team and all our research, we had what we needed to create an effective sitemap, navigation, user journey, and content flow for the web hub.
How did you get into Warhammer?
As you are experienced Warhammer hobbyists, which websites, online resources, social media accounts, etc. do you visit most often? Why?
What are the most common ways for Japanese customers to get into Warhammer?
Is there a name for a Warhammer player in Japan, even an informal one?
Between 40K and AoS, which is more popular in Japan? And why do you think so?
Which aspect of the Warhammer hobby (collect, build, paint, play, read) most seems to engage Japanese hobbyists?
What are currently the best-selling products in Japan?
What have you found usually tips a potential customer from being interested to making a purchase?
What are the most common questions you hear from prospective customers?
Workshop Question Examples
Following orders
After we agreed on a site map and content flow for the main pages, we moved into the wireframing of the site and made Figma layouts for both mobile and desktop. We were pleased to learn that Games Workshop puts an emphasis on mobile view, so our presentations focused on showing how the site we were designing would look on users’ smartphones (though we also made sure everything looked great on desktop, too).
Our mission was to tailor the design of the site to Japanese expectations and preferences, as much as possible. The company had very clear brand guidelines for us to follow, but there were no Japan-specific guidelines to help us with certain design aspects. So, we suggested what we considered the best options for elements such as typography, font sizes, and line breaks, as well as stylistic choices like the decorative use of English text, as well as watermarks, busier images, and the learners’ mark to show visually where beginners should start — all of which are common on many websites in Japan.
Another order we received was to ensure that those unfamiliar with Warhammer could quickly get a clear understanding of what the hobby is. So, instead of using a lot of illustrations or stills from animations, which is common in other markets with a more established community of fans, we thought it would be best to show the product — the minis — as much as possible. We proposed including an animated 360-degree view of a mini on the homepage. And we edited together a video for the welcome screen of the homepage, from footage we were provided, to show interiors of the physical stores and people involved with the different aspects of the hobby.
For the Community section, we used as much localized imagery as we could so users here would see Japanese people interacting with the products.
Ultimate victory
In the development phase, we built the Warhammer Japan web hub to Games Workshop’s specifications, ensuring fast loading speeds, high bandwidth for large numbers of concurrent site visits, properly working plugins, live analytics, and the highest possible security with the site published as static HTML.
The web hub launched on schedule and on budget. And we continue to add pages and content, expanding the site as the hobby continues to grow in Japan.
“The site looks great,” said Ed Harmer, project manager for Sales & Marketing at Games Workshop.
