NBA 2K Royal Court

For NBA All-Star Weekend 2025, the NBA 2K League asked DE-YAN to create a fully interactive playground fusing renaissance opulence with modern streetwear and street culture. At the heart of the experience was a custom-built backend, Hyperion, which generated unique AI “royal avatars” for every guest. Each avatar balanced classical portraiture with contemporary fashion, and evolved as players moved through the space—new outfits and colorways appeared with every game played.

The playground featured multiple touchpoints:

• Baroque Beat – A drum kit rhythm game in TouchDesigner where good performance graffiti-tagged a baroque castle hall with color.
• Court Cutter – An Unreal Engine sword-slashing game (developed primarily by me) where breaking statues revealed modern reimaginings beneath, controlled with a Nintendo Switch controller.
• Winners Library – I built a custom magnetic switch circuit that triggered TouchDesigner animations, unlocked new portraits, and occasionally awarded prizes.
• Tagging Station – Guests used HTC Vive spray cans to graffiti over AI-generated templates, exporting their own tagged portraits.

I was involved in ideation and design across the playground, while leading development of Court Cutter and circuit design for the Winners Library.

By tying all experiences together through Hyperion’s AI portrait system, the installation created a unified narrative: guests left not only having played games but also carrying their own evolving legacy as streetwear royalty. The project drew massive crowds, with lines wrapping around the convention center.