Release Date 25.06.2026

You could say there are moments in game development that stand out more than others. The release of a cinematic trailer is one of them.

On March 13, 2026, as part of the Future Games Showcase at GDC, Klang premiered SEED: Opening Cinematic. It marked the first official trailer in over five years, offering a glimpse into the world the studio has been building since 2018. Its soundtrack is by Björk.

To understand how this came together, it helps to step back a year.

Björk’s music has rarely been used outside her own work in recent years. After a conversation between SEED’s Game Director, Mundi Vondi, and the artist in Reykjavík last winter, the project’s vision – exploring possible futures of human evolution – sparked a dialogue around her 1993 track Human Behaviour.

SEED centres on simulated future humans known as Seedlings. As an ambitious exploration of life, society, and emergent, relatable stories, the team found a natural resonance with Björk’s classic banger – particularly the sense of curiosity and estrangement that defines Human Behaviour and the song's lyrics.

Art Director Shuruq Tramontini began shaping the trailer through an initial sequence of scenes designed to capture the scale of the game:“SEED is such a vast game that hitting a single note is impossible. I was drawn to the MMO simulation aspect, the idea that the game becomes a kind of story-generating engine, where multiple narratives overlap and intertwine. A single player decision can have consequences for others, entire societies, even ecosystems.”

To express this, the team leaned into aspect-to-aspect transitions, a technique drawn from comics theory, in particular in Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. Rather than focusing on plot-heavy, action-to-action sequencing, this approach would build mood and atmosphere through juxtaposition and smart cuts.

It allows a short cinematic to suggest the much larger world of planet Avesta - without collapsing SEED into any one single storyline. As Tramontini describes it, the aim was to move away from “the action-heavy approach common in many game trailers, and instead create a subtle sense of place and texture.”

This leads directly to the role of environmental storytelling:“Environmental storytelling allows the viewer to piece together meaning on their own terms. In games, this becomes even more powerful because the player has agency. The camera becomes a wandering eye, inviting observation, almost like an archaeologist assembling a narrative from fragments.”

The trailer was produced in collaboration with Chromosphere Studio in Los Angeles, and notably developed in-engine. This allowed the Klang art team not only to create the trailer, but to use it as a testbed for look development and shader work – effectively feeding back into the game’s production. For Chromosphere, it was a chance to experience working with a large content palette. As the studio’s Creative Director Kevin Dart said, ‘We also don't typically work inside of active game projects to create our animations so that was unique!’

With years of development behind it, the project also drew on a broad visual reference library from Klang’s art team, as well as other works such as Life After Bob, and films like Mind Game and the opening of Ghost in the Shell. And again, for Dart and his team in Los Angeles, this allowed working with a big selection of scenes and characters: ‘It was really special to be able to work inside the SEED world which is such a sprawling and inspiring game, and has so much cool art to make our animations look great!’

Bringing all of this together required a close collaboration between teams, Los Angeles, Berlin and the many other locations people were based, across disciplines and locations. From early visual development through to final animation and sound, the trailer reflects the combined work of artists, engineers, and designers working both in-engine and across studios. Here are the people who made it happen:

Production Credits

Chromosphere Studio Director & Editor — Hugo Moreno Art Director — Shuruq Tramontini Music — Björk Story Artist — Angie Wang Prop Design — Nadine Mae Baidan Layout / Animation Lead — Lauren Hammond Animators — Rachel Reid, Jackson Read CG Generalist — Andrew Wilson Modeling — Chris Beausire Creative Compositor — Rob Ward Technical Art Director — Theresa Latzko Editor — Hugo Morales Producer — Sarah Kambara Creative Director — Kevin Dart

Klang Games Sound Design — David Magnusson Technical Art Lead — Jeremias Meister 3D Artists — Muninel Koo, Nick Sukharichev, Helen Mak Animator — João Vasco Leal Graphics Engineer — Artem Dyadichkin Producers — Ola Chwilczynska, Ana Correia Director of Narrative — John Holten CCO / Co-Founder — Ivar Emilsson CEO / Co-Founder — Mundi Vondi