Disney’s retro-future animated movie Strange World combines a pulpy, old-school science-fiction motion aesthetic with a plotline that revolves round reconnecting with household and defending the surroundings. As the administrators Don Hall and Qui Nguyen developed this world they knew simply find out how to make the lead character—teenager Ethan Clade (Jaboukie Young-White)—relatable.

“We wanted Ethan to be a gamer because our kids are gamers,” stated Hall in an interview with Polygon. “Every kid, every teenager right now is a gamer.”

Ethan is obsessive about the collectible card sport Primal Outpost. He and his associates get extremely hyped for the sport, and over the course of the movie, Ethan eagerly teaches his grandfather, father, and even his pleasant alien companion find out how to play. While the viewers doesn’t see the ins and outs of the sport, Nguyen stated, “It’s playable. It was obviously based a bit on Catan and Magic: The Gathering, like those elements came hand in hand.” Hall added, “There are actual rules. And there are more cards than what we show.”

According to Nguyen, “The rules of the game [were] actually secretly the theme of the whole film.” As Ethan tries to clarify that gamers in Primal Outpost have to rigorously study and search by way of clues locked within the sport to develop a method, each his grandfather and father are wanting to assault creatures and defend outposts, leading to a sport that doesn’t fairly match as much as the principles.

“It was a nice trick to have Ethan be able to say, ‘Hey, this is what this whole thing is about, living harmoniously with the environment around you’,” defined Nguyen.

Strange World is now streaming on Disney+.

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