Traditional trading cards often fall short after purchase. While they hold sentimental or speculative value, there’s rarely anything to do with them. Curio set out to solve that. The mission was to create an ecosystem where collecting goes beyond ownership, where each card has utility, each collection unlocks interactions, and players can re-enter the market through gamified mechanics. The challenge lay in merging the emotional thrill of collecting with the programmable nature of blockchain, all while keeping the experience digestible for non-technical users. It wasn’t just about vaulting assets, it was about making collecting addictive again.

We needed to create a digital interaction that brought the delight of pulling a card pack to life—while also making blockchain-based ownership feel effortless and intuitive, even for non-crypto-native users.

We designed a step-by-step Gachapon experience that feels like a physical blind box machine. Users choose a collection, hit play, and reveal cards one by one. The interactions are minimal, but the dopamine hit is high. We paired this mechanic with a looping animation and rules overview to onboard users visually, avoiding heavy instruction modals. The nostalgic, arcade-inspired design reinforces the joy of collecting and transforms passive ownership into an active game of chance and discovery.

Most digital marketplaces for collectibles focus solely on transactions. Buy, sell, done. But the goal here was to build a living, breathing ecosystem—one that keeps users returning not because they have to, but because they want to.

We built out four core modules: Store, Collection, Gachapon, and Redemption. Each module gives users a different way to interact with their cards—whether it’s opening mystery packs, viewing owned collectibles in a grid-based vault, or redeeming high-value cards for tokens. This flexibility gives users a sense of ownership and autonomy while also reinforcing the value of participation.

The collectible space is often defined by nostalgia, but web3 audiences expect innovation and modernity. We needed a visual language that could blend the tactile familiarity of traditional card games with the sleek futurism of decentralized tech.

The visual system for Curio draws heavily from retro arcade design—bold colors, low-res halftones, and tactile UI elements, but reimagined with a modern lens. The layout is grid-based and minimal, with a strong neon-accent color system that feels both playful and premium. Every visual choice, from typography to hover effects, was about balancing emotion and usability, nostalgia and novelty.