Rob LaZebnik's 12-year-old son introduced him to the mobile strategy game, "Clash of Clans." He was a writer and producer on "The Simpsons" since 1999. He was hooked almost instantly to the game. Like the flu, the game spread amongst the show's writers.
The staff formed a Simpson's clan in the game, and regularly sent each other messages during the workday to initiate battles. It almost became an obsession, one that may have impacted their day job.
Rob LaZebnik, with his co-writer Joel Cohen and fellow longtime Simpson's writer John Frink took on a new side project to turn their obsession into something more productive. The writers pitched the idea to Supercell, the Finnish studio behind the game, and the result is Clash-a-Rama, an ongoing series on YouTube that turns the world of "Clash of Clans" and its follow up "Clash Royale" into an animated show.
Inspired by the game's cartoonish fantasy world, the trio set to work doing what they do best and began writing "Clash-a-Rama." They devised characters based on Clash units like the "barbarian and archer," and created new situations to put them in.
"There's not a ton of backstory to the game and characters, so it was great for us to say 'This is our take on their universe,' and be able to define who some of these characters are. On one hand, you do have character rules about how they fight, how they interact with other troops. But beyond that, we were able to sort of really attack it ourselves creatively," LaZebnik said.
Supercell isn't saying exactly how many episodes will air, but "Clash-a-Rama" is expected to continue for at least a few more weeks. And for these three fans, who still play the game today when they're not writing lines for Homer and Marge, creating the series has somewhat changed how they experience the "Clash of Clans" universe.
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