Barrier Four has come up with a new kind of Roblox game: An animated show on Netflix that has a playable scene where the show turns into a video game. It’s called “playable media.”
It’s like a TV show or movie that’s playable, and Barrier Four is starting with games based on the Cobra Kai TV show and the Spellbound movie. It’s a form of transmedia that hasn’t really been done before. The Cobra Kai game, for instance, takes place midway through an animated TV episode, when the whole dojo gets into a fight.
It’s a new kind of game from a seasoned Roblox game developer, Barrier Four, based in Pendleton, Indiana, said Jonathan Millar, chief marketing officer of Barrier Four, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“We think of this as a brand new medium,” Millar said. “It’s playable media.”
Barrier Four and Netflix have joined forces to create new experiences on the Roblox platform, bringing players closer than ever to the worlds of Cobra Kai and Spellbound. In a new format, Roblox players will engage in fully interactive, playable scenes directly from both universes.
In these experiences, players will be transported into two distinct worlds within Netflix’s central hub on Roblox, Nextworld. They’ll first step into an enchanting musical scene from Spellbound, reliving an iconic moment from the movie.
A few weeks later, players can immerse themselves in a high-intensity martial arts showdown, embodying Robbie from Cobra Kai as they join Miyagi-do teammates in a recreated scene from the show.
Both experiences showcase a seamless fusion of gaming and media, achieved through advanced animation and proprietary technology crafted entirely within Roblox.
A unique format made for Netflix
There are tons of experiences available on Roblox — six million of them, in fact. But this is a unique opportunity for Netflix to use the novelty of the “playable media” to capitalize on its position in both games and video entertainment.
It also enables Netflix through Nextworld to reach the 88.9 million daily active users on Roblox, which is capturing a generation of young people who are very hard to reach in any other way. Netflix has been creating a lot of mobile game experiences, but Barrier Four’s approach is getting into the territory of enabling Netflix to do something that many other companies can’t do — make quick games out of streaming shows at the moment when they’re really popular.
Cobra Kai experience
In a never-before-seen format, Roblox players will immerse themselves in a fully interactive and playable scene directly from the hit Netflix series, experiencing the action and suspense firsthand. The fight scene lasts just about a minute or so in playable form, but it gets the point across.
In this innovative experience, players will step into the shoes of Robbie and fight alongside Miyagi-do teammates in one of the most adrenaline-pumping scenes from Cobra Kai. This one-to-one recreation mirrors the original Netflix episode, offering fans an authentic, high-intensity martial arts showdown from within Nextworld, Netflix’s central hub within Roblox. Through cutting-edge animation and proprietary
technology, the scene has been adapted and engineered entirely within Roblox, seamlessly blending the boundaries of gaming and media.
It’s a short fight scene, but one you can play repeatedly. And it proves the point of a seamless transition from animated show to game.
“The Cobra Kai scene is like streaming television, fighting a battle that celebrates the IP,” Millar said.
For Barrier Four, collaborating with Netflix on this project has been a dream, Millar said. Together, they’ve been able to take Cobra Kai to a whole new level of fan engagement, making ‘Playable Media’ the future of go-to-market strategy.
In this case, it’s just one moment captured in playable form. But in the future, you can imagine that a whole bunch of scenes could be playable, allowing players to go from scene to scene, either in an animated sequence or in a playable sequence.
It’s an experiment so far, but one that could lead to more if it is successful.
“From a capability standpoint, we could do a whole movie if we wanted to and put 20 gameplay elements throughout it,” said Millar. “But I think the sweet spot for studios is probably going to be in that anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes.”
He added, “I think it’s going to be a balance, depending on the IP. How much do you want people watching? How much do you want people playing? And what is the space between each of those elements? Watch enough, play enough. And then you can kind of keep it going.”
Spellbound
Spellbound is an animated musical adventure movie that stars Rachel Ziegler, John Lithgow, Jennifer Lewis, Nicole Kidman, and Javier Bardem. It debuts on November 22 exclusively on Netflix. It was directed by Vicky Jenson.
The Pixar-like animated film is about a young girl named Ellian from the magic world of Lumbria. She has to break a spell that turned her kingdom into two parts and transformed her parents into monsters.
The work took a few months to do both projects, where the task was to transform one scene into a playable form. In the case of Spellbound, the idea was to take you into the fantasy world of the movie and let you feel what it was like to be there. You can also play a kind of Guitar Hero-like game where you have to click or tap to hit the notes as they scroll by at fast speeds.
“What we did here is we did something very similar to Cobra Kai, but it’s a very different experience,” Millar said. “You start in the Nextworld experience from Netflix on Roblox. And then you move into this scene.”
The game has 100 different characters to animate, making it more complex than the Cobra Kai experience, he said.
“This took the project to a different level,” he said. “We are pushing the line with memory management on Roblox” with the level of realism.
The scene recasts a 30-second moment of the movie, and it yields about five minutes of gameplay for the players who want to relive the experience. You can play it on easy, medium or hard and keep on playing to improve your score. It’s also a form of rewarded gameplay. When you finish it, you get a reward of user-generated content.
“The players are actually rewarded and incentivized through IP-specific UGC. So not only are you
Robloxifying the media, you’re rewarded with IP from the media, and you’re getting getting to kind of sing along and bond with the IP as a whole. So it’s a different vibe than Cobra Kai,” said Millar.
These experiences signal a significant shift in media, blending cinematic storytelling with the hands-on nature of gaming in a way that’s never been done before. While transmedia collaborations have been gaining momentum—through in-game billboards, video integrations, and branded pop-ups—this collaboration is charting new territory.
For the first time, scenes from both a movie and TV show have been translated into a playable 1:1 experience within Roblox.
This goes beyond traditional transmedia, by fusing the immersive aspects of gaming with the narrative depth of streaming media, Barrier Four is coining the term “Playable Media.” This isn’t just about watching the story unfold — this is about playing it.
The future of go-to-market strategy
As brands continue to explore new avenues to engage with their audiences, Barrier Four is setting a new precedent.
Millar said this experience marks the beginning of a new chapter in how audiences interact with media, blending the best of both worlds: gaming and cinematic storytelling, creating deeper connections and unforgettable moments for fans.
“This is exciting because this is a go to market strategy for Netflix for both a streaming TV program and for a new movie. So we’re getting two distinct really cool use cases,” Millar said.
Play now
Celebrate the launch of Spellbound and play this first-of-its-kind experience from within Netflix’s Nextworld.
Barrier Four is a cutting-edge animation studio, born on Roblox, that specializes in creating high-performing campaigns on the Roblox platform. With over 150 brand partners and an impressive 11 billion game visits, the company is revolutionizing the industry through disruptive solutions that drive engagement and growth.
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