Minecraft Dungeons II Launch
from first hints to a global adventure
I led the Dungeons II web experience from early tease to full release. Along the way, I helped direct, design, and ship a musical puzzle in the Minecraft Launcher, and shaped the Creeper Battle site into a shared campaign destination.
role
Product design lead & senior creative manager
contribution
Web direction; Launcher puzzle co-direction, design & delivery; Creeper Battle site design
collaboration
Product design, art, marketing, Launcher, engineering, production, analytics & delivery partners
scope
Early tease → reveal → participation → pre-order → full release
the full page, at a glance
The TGS-phase page connects the reveal, Creeper Battle, gameplay exploration, news, and purchase routes in one continuous experience. The three segments below follow the complete page from top to bottom.
Expand the image to view the full page design.
one campaign, many ways in
The challenge was to build curiosity before revealing the game, then turn discovery into participation and purchase. The experience had to evolve across campaign beats, platforms, editions, account states, and languages while protecting existing Minecraft journeys.
Tease > hidden musical clues > Launcher puzzle > Sift reveal > pre-order > Creeper Battle > full release
turning a hidden melody into a shared discovery
The story began with a tease. QR-code easter eggs hidden in franchise videos rewarded curious players with a sequence of notes, an early clue that would become meaningful later.
I helped direct, design, and ship the next chapter: an interactive noteblock puzzle on the Dungeons II Explore page in the Minecraft Launcher. Released alongside a matching in-person experience around TwitchCon, it gave fans everywhere a chance to play.
Players could experiment with colored noteblocks and discover hidden sound effects. Entering the melody from the earlier clue awakened the portal and revealed a countdown to the new Sift biome reveal trailer.
Discover the clue > play the notes > activate the portal > anticipate the reveal
Playing the noteblock sequence in the Minecraft Launcher. This clip shows note interaction; solving the sequence awakened the portal and revealed the countdown to the Sift trailer.
players stayed to play
15M notes played · 2M easter eggs triggered · 10K+ solvers
Across the first four days, 30% of Dungeons II Explore-page viewers interacted with the puzzle, while page traffic rose approximately 40% over the pre-puzzle baseline.
Solving was not the end of the experience. About 20% of solvers returned on a later day and played again. Returning solvers clicked 114–174 notes per session, compared with 74–89 for players who had never solved it.
3.5× average daily wishlist clicks
The post-puzzle weekend averaged 14,000+ wishlist clicks per day, compared with ~4,000 on the control comparison weekend. This campaign comparison shows stronger intent alongside participation; it does not isolate the puzzle’s causal effect.
designing a multi-phase campaign experience
I structured the site around reusable, authorable modules that could move from a restrained reveal to gameplay, characters, weapons, product editions, and launch content without rebuilding the experience for every beat.
a deeper look at the stats that matter
We wanted to give players more than a glimpse of the gear. The tab showcase paired each weapon with the stats that help players find their play style: power, speed, and range or ammo. Switching tabs brought the weapon, character, description, and stat bars together in one focused view.
We designed the component to be animated, modular, and reusable, with a consistent structure that could support new content across campaign updates. Players could explore at their own pace while the team could build on a shared component instead of starting again for each weapon.
Explore four tab states using the gallery controls.
making participation visible with Creeper Battle
Creeper Battle extended the campaign into a shared community challenge. I shaped the site direction around a simple question: how could every player see where to join, what their contribution meant, and what the community could unlock together?
The experience connected a global damage total, channel contributions, and a reward ladder with clear routes into YouTube AR, Minecraft, and the Tokyo Games Convention in-person experience. Persistent mobile actions kept participation within reach as players explored and shared.
I translated that direction into responsive page designs and a focused partner handoff, helping the team move quickly while keeping the campaign’s visual language and participation paths coherent.
expanding discovery across the Minecraft ecosystem
When pre-orders needed greater visibility, I mapped opportunities across the homepage, account profile, sign-in, redeem, downloads, and game-discovery surfaces. I advocated for measurable treatments and reversible changes that protected existing player journeys.
the outcome
+9.14% product-page visits · +13.14% Deluxe store-page visits
A profile-page experiment increased visits to the Dungeons product page by 9.14% and visits to the Deluxe store page by 13.14%, with no detected negative impact on orders or franchise-value metrics.
Participation carried into commercial intent
The Launcher puzzle generated 15.2M note interactions and a 3.5× increase in average daily wishlist clicks on the comparison weekend. Players continued experimenting after solving, making the experience a destination they chose to revisit.
The earlier announce/wishlist beat coincided with Dungeons I purchases reaching 3× the expected Launcher baseline for a week. During the puzzle weekend, the experience and a concurrent 75%-off Ultimate promotion together accompanied a 6× increase versus baseline, the year’s highest Dungeons unit days in the Launcher at that point.
what I took forward
The strongest campaign moments gave players something meaningful to do: notice a clue, try a melody, contribute to a shared goal, or explore the game in depth.
My role was to connect those moments through a flexible design system and close collaboration across teams. The work reinforced the value of designing for the whole journey. From the first spark of curiosity to the practical details of choosing an edition, purchasing, and returning to play.