6 Questions for Simon Davis of Mighty Bear Games

Simon Davis is the co-founder and CEO of Mighty Bear Video games, a multiplatform recreation developer in Southeast Asia creating accessible multiplayer experiences in Web3.

Davis has spent nearly 20 years working within the gaming trade, however he by no means deliberate to really work on this area.

Earlier than crypto, he was an expert guitarist who made ends meet by enjoying in steel bands and canopy bands and by instructing guitar. However after his cash dried up one summer season, he scored a six-week gig as an expert recreation tester — and he’s by no means regarded again.

Throughout his time within the gaming trade, Davis has held administration and product lead positions at gaming firms together with King Digital Leisure, Ubisoft, Bigpoint, AKQA, Empire Interactive, and Laughing Jackal. 

In 2017, Davis teamed up with some buddies and fellow trade veterans to launch Mighty Bear Video games in Singapore, the place they meant to concentrate on creating conventional video games — earlier than pivoting to blockchain in 2022. And in 2023, the agency launched an open beta for Mighty Motion Heroes, its first Web3 gaming title.

Davis, who additionally goes by “Papa Bear,” stated each Mighty Bear worker receives a “bear title.” A few of Papa Bear’s workers embody “Arty Bear,” “Bear-Abel,” “Excel Bear,” and “Bear McNumbers.”

Why the pivot to blockchain gaming?

I used to be fortunate sufficient to form of get into Bitcoin by chance in 2015, so I’ve been within the area for just a few years. In 2021, I began enjoying with NFTs, and I’m fortunate sufficient to be additionally primarily based in Southeast Asia, so I might see firsthand what was occurring with Axie [Infinity]. I believe, for me, as somebody who lived via the transition to free-to-play, it felt very very like a second, form of like when Farmville got here out on Fb. 

I believe that for reside service titles [games like Fortnite, League of Legends and Apex Legends], a dominant enterprise mannequin goes to emerge to revolve round player-owned and operated economies. As a result of I don’t consider you possibly can have digital worlds with out digital property rights, basically.

And I believe that does allow a variety of new issues that we’re actually beginning to scratch the floor on. So, I believe that actually was the pull issue.

What format do you suppose serves as one of the simplest ways to draw customers to blockchain gaming?

I believe cell gaming goes to be the dominant platform due to geography. You see this should you take a look at the charts for the nations which have an incredible slope of curiosity in crypto or Web3. They are usually nations the place present cost rails should not tremendous developed.

Individuals are largely unbanked in locations like Indonesia and Brazil. These markets are mobile-first. Like, folks within the Philippines and India should not essentially utilizing high-end PCs. 

So, it’s good to go the place the customers are. And it is a little bit of a spicy take, however this is the reason I’m very bearish on folks making tremendous HD high-end Web3 video games as a result of it’s simply not the place the markets are at the moment. So, you see a variety of these groups elevating, like, mega bucks to make console-quality titles, but when nobody can play them, then they aren’t going to do very a lot.

What do you suppose the present hurdles are for large-scale blockchain gaming adoption?

Lots of people discuss it when it comes to silver bullets, proper? Like, “Oh, we’d like one good recreation,” or like, “We have to clear up the pockets downside.” I don’t suppose it’s any a kind of issues. I truly suppose it’s simply a variety of lead bullets, a variety of small issues that have to occur. 

What I’ve skilled at the moment remains to be fairly horrible, and scary, like social restoration. And it’s beginning to change into a factor, however that should change into loads simpler.

I simply suppose, usually, it must be as straightforward and as brainless to make use of as a Web2 expertise. And so I believe there may be an inherent battle at the moment with how folks take into consideration Web3, . They are saying issues like, “Oh, it’s good to educate the customers,” or, “Prepare folks to carry their personal keys.”

However , my mother doesn’t wish to maintain her personal personal keys. She does all her buying and selling on Crypto.com. We have to make it basically idiot-proof so anybody can do it.

I believe we’re nonetheless fairly a great distance away, however I’m seeing significant enhancements, truly. I’m seeing merchandise which can be going to go to market subsequent 12 months that are going to assist loads. 

I don’t understand how outdated you might be, however I’ve simply turned 40 this 12 months. I bear in mind within the 90s establishing a house web connection on dial-up. It took me two days of calling technical assist and somebody telling me like configs. I used to be having to go in and alter manually and stuff. And now, , we solved that, proper? After which, the web grew to become a mass market, after which folks might simply put a CD of their pc, and it simply labored. I believe we have to get to that stage.

Do you suppose the dangerous rap blockchain/NFT gaming will get is a giant challenge? 

It’s humorous as a result of gaming received a fairly dangerous rap within the 90s. You already know, everybody was speaking about how video games have been making youngsters violent. There was a giant ethical panic, similar to there was in music just a few years earlier than.

However I believe that if you begin to get this stuff in folks’s arms and expertise them, perceptions change. I do suppose a variety of the fame that now we have in crypto and Web3 is deserved. There are a variety of dangerous actors exploiting the shortage of regulation, however the issues that excite me: I’ve seen some video games, for instance, that enable gamers to earn small quantities of Bitcoin, And this kind of factor’s retention numbers are very sturdy, just like the preliminary metrics are very promising. And I believe that’s a very nice use case.

Reddit can also be an incredible instance, proper? They put NFTs within the arms of big numbers of individuals. Lots of people didn’t even notice they have been interacting with NFTs. So then they’d their first style, and yeah — there are some stats which have come up, and never an enormous quantity of them have transacted on-chain.

However I truly don’t suppose that’s such a nasty factor. If persons are not dumping the property on day one, I don’t see that as a adverse. So, I believe onboarding via stealth is fairly good.

What sort of adoption metrics are you in search of together with your video games?

So, folks discuss installs and sign-ups — it’s only a vainness metric. For me, I’m occupied with how many individuals are coming in day by day, how recurrently they’re coming again, and what the expansion curve of that appears like initially.

After which as soon as we do the cell launch [of Mighty Action Heroes], which shall be round August/September, how nicely are we doing on attracting non-crypto-native folks into the sport as nicely? That shall be very fascinating, and to see how they play collectively. It’s a unique angle, nevertheless it’s one which I’m fairly bullish on.

What are some concepts or tech upgrades that might assist blockchain gaming?

ERC-6551 tokens. 

Primarily, they offer a wise contract account or a wise contract pockets to a 721 [token]. So, , a standard NFT can be a JPG with some metadata hooked up. However basically, the JPG or the asset, no matter that’s, is then sure to a wise contract. 

And that is fairly cool as a result of it implies that property can talk instantly with one another. So NFT to NFT, with out utilizing MetaMask. And it is also appropriate with different sensible contract wallets. 

I believe the actually cool factor is that, basically, your asset turns into a pockets and may have its personal logic as nicely. So you would have a base character in a recreation because the 6551 token, after which all the garments or the gadgets or all the things that that character has, the form of sub-assets, can change inside, every with its personal logic.

As a recreation developer, you begin pondering of how your characters might evolve and how one can connect new property with out updating the core.

Then as a dev, I believe it’s actually good for fame administration as nicely. Like, should you did a soulbound model, you would have achievements, proof-of-work, proof-of-play, social id. I believe it’s fairly cool. […] It’s safer as a result of it’s not simply an asset inside a pockets like it’s on sensible contracts with its personal personal key.

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Brian Quarmby

Brian Quarmby found crypto in 2013 and immediately fell in love with the concept of decentralization. Brian has since lived and labored Asia and returned to Melbourne in late 2019. Brian is a lover of sport and artwork and is bullish on the potential for NFTs to remodel artists lives within the close to future.