Taking an atypical approach to building an audience for its first original series, Lana Longbeard (pictured), Canada’s Copernicus Studios has also made and launched a companion PC video game called Lana Longbeard and the Golden Stacks, which rolled out in a demo phase on Steam at the end of January, following the comedy-adventure show’s December 20 premiere on CBC Gem.

The game is a co-op action platformer that builds on the series’ world, with players in character navigating different levels and fighting enemies including skeletons and a giant spider. If it takes off, Copernicus will invest in building out Lana Longbeard and the Golden Stacks beyond the demo stage, with 15 levels initially planned.

It’s a bold move for the Halifax-based animation service studio, which hadn’t made an original series before, let alone a video game. But its executives knew they needed to think outside the box to give Lana Longbeard a chance of building a big enough fan base to have longevity beyond season one.

“We don’t want this to just get aired, and everyone gets paid and moves on to the next job,” says Dylan Edwards, head of development at Copernicus. “We want to get behind [Lana Longbeard] in a big way and push it, because we really believe in it.”

A 2D-animated co-pro with France’s Zephyr Animation, the 52 x 11-minute series has a budget of US$8.9 million. Its premise revolves around a spirited and curious 12-year-old Viking girl who joins her father and a crew of rogues on an overseas voyage in search of treasure.

EU broadcasters including Super RTL (Germany), Gulli (France) and Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA have acquired Lana Longbeard for their Q2 programming lineups, but first it will broaden its Canadian footprint when it starts airing on Family Channel in Q1.

Even with early buyer support behind it, waiting to see if the show becomes a hit is not a viable business strategy. So when a few friends of Copernicus VP/partner Murray Bain were laid off by computer peripherals and software manufacturer Logitech due to an ongoing gaming industry downturn, he paid out of pocket to get them working on Lana Longbeard and the Golden Stacks.

In roughly six weeks, they made a proof-of-concept that Copernicus used to secure funding from Shaw Rocket Fund, which covered the entire cost of making the game demo. And six people have been working on the build using Unity since March.

The goal is to create something unique that grabs kids’ attention where they’re spending the most time, says Bain. And rather than just dropping Lana into an existing game app, Copernicus wanted to make a more significant entrance into the gaming market. “You can’t just make a show—you have to make a brand. We were inspired by Cuphead, which started out as a small prototype and is now a worldwide brand.”

Bain adds that creating the game for PCs and launching it via Steam (a video game digital distribution service and storefront operated by Valve Corporation) were also intentional strategic moves because that space isn’t as oversaturated as the mobile game market or Roblox.

Now that Copernicus has made its first game, the studio is open to producing indie titles for other companies—a service that Bain anticipates will likely be increasingly in demand as other producers look for ways to help their brands stand out and go the distance.

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen’s Q1 2025 magazine issue.