Simon Vieira is the CEO/Game Director at MixMob. He's an experienced game designer who worked on FIFA, PokerStars, Disney and Blitzoo games. We've had a moment to speak Simon, see the text of the interview below.
Chris: You are about to launch 5000 masks; the concept is huge and challenging. How did you and your team come up with the idea of MixMob?
Simon: As game designers we try to look for what’s the latest mechanics that are out there. With saw what Axie Infinity did with Play 2 Earn and finally saw something that works for crypto games. From there we went to the lab. Two inspirations for us were the movies Into The Spiderverse and Big Hero 6. The first one showed how a world can be remixed and anyone can wear the mask. The second showed how a group of kids can work together and customise their own robotics to be heroes. We then combined that with the Hip Hop culture we grew up on where everyone wants to flex. That’s MixMob. We call it Axie meets Fortnite.
Chris: There are cards, masks, land sales, racing games, and tournaments. How do all these factors play together? Please elaborate more on the game.
Simon: We have decided to start with a card-strategy battle racing game. This is easy to pick up and have people play over and over. Also it allows us to deliver a product faster and get people used to the characters and game play. The cards help people choose their powers for battle in the race. Think of it like Mario Kart where you use strategy to determine the power ups you can get BEFORE the race. Land sales are part of the over all lore of this new underground we are making. They will play a small role at the start but be bigger in the larger MMO to come later.
Chris: The team is diverse and well experienced in the corporate world. How did you guys come together to form this game project? What is your story?
Simon: Funny enough we’ve all worked with one another in the past 10 years. All of us worked at top companies like EA, Microsoft Games, Valve, Nintendo, Disney, Epic and more. We are all experienced and had great careers. Having done everything from social to mobile to console to even VR/AR, we all saw a new frontier with P2E and crypto based games. Given where we are in our careers, it was time to have our own studio to build how we want and be the pioneers in a new space. Most of our peers think we are nuts.
Chris: How can players create NFTs? What do you mean by remixing NFTs?
Simon: User Generated Content (UGC) is a major part of MixMob. Yes we have Play To Earn, but Create To Earn is next. We want upcoming designers and artists entering the game by creating the fashion pieces or MixBot skins that our players can use. So you purchase your MixBot and then can remix it and make a new derivative. Now imagine someone wearing these new shoes on their avatar and it was designed by some up-comer. All the people see the best player in MixMob wears those shoes and they start grabbing them. That designer is now a star.
Chris: Is there any way to earn passively through MixMob NFTs?
Simon: We want MixMob to be fun. After all it is a game. Passive income could come through staking and lending your game assets. But the big bulk will come from a fun game that has people playing again and again.
Chris: How can one know more about which masks to buy and which ones to combine to gain more power in the game? Do you reveal any strategies?
Simon: Those haven’t been revealed yet. We need to keep some things secret as we release more of the story and game in the coming months.
Chris: MixMob is going to be a P2E game on the Solana blockchain. How does one begin with playing the game?
Simon: Once the game is ready they will have to sign up via a wallet. We are looking at what can be done with Phantom, the leading Solana Wallet; from the player needs to acquire MixBots to get going. With the MixBots they can then customise their avatar, and enter the arena to look for an opponent.
Chris: Finally, as presale is almost there, please tell us how we can mint a MixMob Mask? What is the expected price?
Simon:
Players of MixMob will need to go to our website at 9AM Pacific Time and for 2 SOL they can buy 2 masks. We had already sold 2500 masks in the pre-sale last week to MixMob OGs and the guilds. This was massive support as OGs went through some competitions to get the presale and guilds will be having the masks ready for their players who will enter our game. For people on the 7th they will be going for another 2500 masks.
