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Discovering Web3 Gaming with Long Do and Laura Cullell
by Slogging (Slack Blogging)August 31st, 2022
Too Long; Didn't Read
In this exciting AMA, we're joined by Long Do, the technopreneur and game director of Anomura, and Laura Cullell, the Communication manager at Anomura. Anomura is an NFT pixel art play-and-earn gaming experience that leverages Aerial’s carbon credit platform to offset the environmental impact from its blockchain transactions, aiming to help restore underwater flora. It goes beyond carbon neutral to become “Ocean Positive” - helping the environment by planting kelp in Southern California and mangrove forests in Indonesia. Anomura players can allocate their in-game rewards toward marine and wildlife preservation efforts through Anomura’s play-to-donate feature.
In this exciting AMA, we're joined by Long Do, the technopreneur and game director of Anomura, and Laura Cullell, the Communication manager at Anomura.
Anomura is an NFT pixel art play-and-earn gaming experience that leverages Aerial’s carbon credit platform to offset the environmental impact from its blockchain transactions, aiming to help restore underwater flora. It goes beyond carbon neutral to become “Ocean Positive” - helping the environment by planting kelp in Southern California and mangrove forests in Indonesia. Anomura players can allocate their in-game rewards toward marine and wildlife preservation efforts through Anomura’s play-to-donate feature.
This Slogging thread by Mónica Freitas, Mark Finnigan, Long Do, Cris Silva, Laura Marissa Cullell, Sara Pinto, Kelley Dane, Jack Boreham, Sonic3625, John T., Limarc Ambalina, SuperSaiyanProgramming, Linh Smooke, Cryptodragon and Steven Allison occurred in slogging's official #amas channel, and has been edited for readability.
Hi @channel, please join me in welcoming the technopreneur and game director of Anomura, Long Do, and Laura Cullell, the Communication manager at Anomura. Anomura is an NFT pixel art play-and-earn gaming experience that leverages Aerial’s carbon credit platform to offset the environmental impact from its blockchain transactions, aiming to help restore underwater flora. It goes beyond carbon neutral to become “Ocean Positive” - helping the environment by planting kelp in Southern California and mangrove forests in Indonesia. Anomura players can allocate their in-game rewards toward marine and wildlife preservation efforts through Anomura’s play-to-donate feature.
Please feel free to ask them anything about:
- What is Anomura and how is it different from a P2E game?
- Building a Web 3 and spreading adoption
- What have we learned from Web3
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Hi Long Do and Laura! It's great to have you with us! Can you start by giving a brief background about yourself and your current work?
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Long Do
Hi everyone!
I am Long Do, aka Whale_drop, I am the Game Director and Founder of Anomura. I have a background as a previous CTO in technologies such as AR and Saas. I also have a big background as a professional gamer for StarCraft and Hearthstone.
Today I get to combine my passion for gaming with Anomura a web3 game.
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Laura Marissa Cullell
Hi Everyone! Excited to be here! I'm Laura, Head of Comms and resident Strawberry 🦀 of Anomura !
I've been in blockchain since about 2017 and completed my Masters Thesis in Blockchain and the Sustainable Development Goals at the UN Mandated University for Peace ✌
I'm in charge of writing the Lore and all Comms/Strategy at Anomura! 📝
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Mark Finnigan
Hello, Long Do! Could you explain what Anomura is?
Long Do
Anomura is a strategy role-playing game featuring innovative blockchain mechanics, beautiful pixel art and contributions to wildlife initiatives.
Anomura first is a true video game. We are building a gaming experience that you are accustomed to. We use pixel art to create the 8-bit game vibes you’re use to playing earlier on with your Nintendo.
We are doing a lot in the blockchain space to prove ourselves as leaders. Whether that is open sourcing web2 tools to be used in conjunction with smart contracts, or writing new and innovative smart contracts to further decentralize NFT concepts.
Lastly we are giving back to preserving wildlife through our gameplay. We believe wildlife inspires so many classic games like Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Animal Crossing yet we know so little about the threats of climate change to animals.
Think about a game like civilization which teaches you so much about human history, or a RPG where you learn about the evolution of medieval weaponry and Greek mythology? Anomura will spend time exploring and educating players to understand the threats and the natural world around us.
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Long Do you were a professional gamer? Now, we need to hear about what that experience was like. I'm sure we have a few gamers out here with that same dream.
Long Do
Haha yes! I knew from an early age that I wanted to get into the gaming industry. I was on a direct path to gaming from the courses I picked in school and my major in Computer Science.
I spent so much time playing video games, more than a full-time job to be able to compete. Gaming wasn't the most profitable or sustainable venture growing up. It required a lot of dedication even while playing over 40 hours per week it wasn't enough to go toe to toe with other pros who played even more.
I learned a lot of skills such as being able to focus and dedicated to my craft, and that led me to my success, to try hard, fail fast, and try again.
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Hey Long Do and Laura! Can you tell us about the challenges of building on Web3?
Long Do
Long time gamers have a problem with the way web3 games are built because they focus so much on earnings and profits. A big part of the game design is taken away, things like narrative, skill, and actual enjoyment from the play. Blockchain games typically feel not like a game, partly because of the limits of blockchain, but also because of the intense rush to build them to make profits.
Games need to take time, and we’ve cut so many corners. Artists were exploited to make games fast, sometimes artwork has even been stolen.
We believe that web3 and blockchain do not need to be all about financial gain, sometimes we want to build technology to improve important concepts like decentralization, asset ownership, interoperability, security, and many others. We have only scratched the surface of how web3 and gaming can work together.
Cris Silva
Hi Laura, what added challenges come with being a communication manager in the gaming sector?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Hi Cris Silva, great question! Web3 gaming is its own beast and I think one of the biggest challenges is how quickly the industry moves and how varied and different the various communities needs are.
It's a double edged ⚔ because on one hand, it's always exciting and dynamic, but on the other, it's a juggling act to develop the right message to target both web3 natives and gamers.
There's certainly still a big component of the messaging that has to educate people from the ground up 😊
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What an incredible achievement! What drove you to blockchain?
Laura, also, could you tell us about Anomura's lore and how it plays a role in the gaming experience?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Thank you! ❤ I think what drove me to Blockchain tech was the potential of it to make the world a better place.
I was always aware of Bitcoin but once I learned about the underlying tech from a friend, I fell down the rabbit hole 😅
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Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas
Anomura's lore is awesome! It's very much a tribute to high fantasy novels, RPGs, and even a little bit of sci-fi. It's been a lot of fun to write.
One of the things we realised is how a lot of play-to-earn games lacked the world-building and depth of mainstream games, so we really focused on creating an immersive experience.
We also wanted to lower the bar to entry for non web3 folx so we incorporated Blockchain mechanics directly into the lore. That way, players won't even realise they're learning about blockchain through the gaming experience 😉
We also really wanted the lore to take inspirations from diverse cultures so from the naming of the NFTs themselves to the aenemies/bosses players battle reflect diverse folktales, and names 😊
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Mark Finnigan
Long Do I hope you don't mind, but I'll have to pick your brain on three particular aspects you've mentioned about Anomura: open sourcing web2 tools, wildlife protection, and history.
- How have you made web2 and web3 gaming compatible?
- How are you aiding wildlife protection? This is such a great initiative btw
- How does history fit into Anomura? Do you focus on the legends too?
Long Do
Mark Finnigan
Not at all!
When I first got into web3 and blockchain, I joined a lot of great project communities, through discord or telegram. I was able to explore and learn through the smart contracts written on the blockchain or through the opensource git repositories to be inspired to create my own version of a web3 game. We believe in the true spirit of decentralization; which means creating transparency - we need to create the platform and share the steps with other developers to inspire greater innovation.
With wildlife protection, I mentioned how many fun and viral games include great wildlife mascots. Yet gamers are not learning so much about what these cute characters are. Blockchain games have a bad rap for becoming all about profits and earning. We have seen such a paradigm shift with people wanting to earn money from p2e games. It doesn't need to all about earning, so we want to create something different. We are motivated to create a shift for how people can be inspired to want to donate. We want to gamify the whole process and make this process truly fun and meaningful and impact the world in a positive way.
Long Do I bet you had a lot of people telling you gaming wasn't going to be the thing that'd make you successful, yet here you are! Great story! You were a CTO and entrepreneur before Anomura. How did your background help reach your current role?
And could you tell us a bit about your journey as a technopreneur?
Long Do
Mónica Freitas
Great questions. It wasn't easy to make it in the gaming industry. Believe it or not I spent a lot of time applying to top game studios since before graduating. Without experience it wasn't easy. I believe my sheer determination is what made me where I was.
I crafted my experience around qualifying for the dream job for myself. I worked as a developer for many start-ups and enterprises, I was a project manager with hands-on experience trying to get my projects to fruition, and I explored a lot into product management to understand the needs of the consumer. When I saw an opportunity in web3, I joined hundreds of groups, and I networked like mad with top developers and entrepreneurs. I quit a high paying job to take a lower paying role in web3 gaming communities, and developer advocate roles for blockchain companies specializing in writing smart contracts.
Lastly, I also never stopped building games. Sometimes I built a game that I have only had my wife play. I wanted to understand what it is like to create a game from start to finish. I think that it is very crucial not to give up and abandon a game somewhere because of something like a technical challenge.
Today I combine all those skills, to create a team as an extension of my vision and I have a mastery of knowing how the team fits together.
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Cris Silva
Laura, do you think it should be on web3 businesses' responsibilities to educate people on web3? I imagine it'd be an added perk for users and would make them more loyal to companies.
Laura Marissa Cullell
Cris Silva
Absolutely! Web3 is still nascent and needs to be demystified. While crypto is slowly adopted by mainstream audiences and institutions, there is so much onboarding and learning required of non web3 natives which is a big ask.
There's also a lot of noise so information is difficult to sort through.
I think web3 games are better positioned to educate because of its vast appeal.
How did you manage to learn so much about web3? I've been in the space for about a year and in many ways I still consider myself a newbie 😅
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas, I am an avid reader and love to consume as much information as possible.
I started learning about the different use cases for blockchain tech (how it can be used to promote indigenous sovereignty, NFTs effects on different modern art movements, etc) and then I wrote about them. This forced me to take complex concepts and make them accessible/easy to understand.
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That's a great tip! It facilitates assimilation.
When you finished your degree, did you already envisioned to work on the communication side of blockchain?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas, I didn't actually! It sort of landed on my lap 😅
I was working for a blockchain dev startup at the same time I was completing my thesis so I had the opportunity to research on the ground and learn from those actually building out the tech and tools!
I naturally gravitated towards comms because I have always enjoyed learning about people's stories. Now I have the chance to tell those stories which is exciting!
Aaaand and added bonus is the fact that web3 comms is so so different. It is the opposite of corporate!
There's memes, clever launches, and strong community building which I love.
I feel that web3 comms are more authentic - no other space has CEOs and execs doing twitter spaces and messaging "wen moon" 😂 I love web3's punk spirit of going against the grain. It forces projects to be more transparent.
Plus it's way more fun.
Kelley Dane
Hey, Long Do and Laura. What's the story behind your part on environmental impact? Why did you decide to act on this?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Kelley Dane
There's a negative stigma associated with web3 and NFTs having negative impacts on the environment.
We wanted to address this head on and show that there are projects that exist in web3 that are focused on Sustainability.
It was important to us as a game focused on marine wildlife to refute that narrative. That's why we became the world's first Ocean Positive game. We wanted to go above and beyond the minimum.
The play-to-donate mechanic was all Long Do and is a social psychological experiment on the studies of charitable and utilitarian exploration.
Theres a long held perception that real games and ethical practices don't usually mix. Our team decided to look at things from a different perspective - we believe gamers are just as charitable as investors and that having the choice to donate to charities is well-deserved 👌
Long Do, you mention artwork in some of the challenges of Web3. How does Anomura create its NFT pixel art? Do you have your own artists or is it through partnerships?
Long Do
Sara Pinto
Our team of artists are all in house! We have also contracted in the past for several important pieces, but our lead Artist Daniele has a lot of experience as a real life painter who also has much experience developing pixel art for games.
Even though Anomura is pixel art, we internally have access to produce great hollywood production quality material. Our company Virtually Human also has acquired Spectre Studios which creates high fidelity films, 3D assets, music and more. They have worked on many great works including the recent Elvis movie, and many other Marvel Studios level films. As well they have created fantastic gaming experiences with Unreal Engine such as http://Humanpark.io
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I love that! I feel that too. Web3 is more relaxed and welcoming. We can have genuine conversations without formality. Are you currently managing communities too? What strategies have you discovered to be more effective in fostering those communities?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas
Our resident blanket 🦀, Bernice, is the amazing marketing, communities, and partnerships lead on our team. We work together on developing key messaging, and marketing campaigns for Anomura.
In order to drive community engagement on Discord, we created the DeepSea Challenger which is our in-house quest tool (named for the submersible used by James Cameron himself)
Anomurans (our community members) can complete quests in our community discord and ger rewarded with off-chain prizes. The more members participate and complete the quests, the more they get rewarded which encourages even more paticipation!
It's been an amazing tool which has definitely helped grow our community.
We also wanted to focus on grassroots initiatives. That's why on Earth Day, we hosted an A-no-mo-garbage pick up where Anomurans were encouraged to go to their community park and pick up garbage. They also had to share a picture of themselves doing so and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Long Do, how will you try and keep gamers engaged with your game for year's to come?
Long Do
Jack Boreham
Something that web3 projects have done very well, is create elaborate communities. We have a vibrant community in our Discord currently 10,000 users. We have something called the Deep Sea Challenger (https://anomuragame.com/challenger) - I attached our lovely bobby the blobfish loading animation to show what this looks like. Users are encouraged to sign up into our socials, and follow along our announcements, participate in trivia to answer questions that pop-up as a challenge. We also did a seefood quest inspired by hit tv show Silicon Valley, where users upload a picture of food in tool and displayed in Discord. Users are rewarded with $SHELL points that can be used to qualify for a lot of events such as being able to mint NFTs.
We also plan to release a lot of game modes, completely different experiences, as well as explore a concept known as NFT Interoperability to transcend IPs even. We'll be listening to our community on what they want to see and build out experiences based on suggestions.
Long Do
The Deep Sea Challenger is named after the real life submersible that roams the Mariana Trench (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger). We feel the challenger is very true to our ethos on adventuring into wildlife and web3.
Long Do, wow you really did it all. To manage all you did out of sheer dedication is incredible. And so is the leap you took from a stable job to something new. Did you ever consider launching your games?
Long Do
Mónica Freitas
I honestly am such a harsh critique of myself that I ended up not launching anything. My wife beside me said I should. We'll see what happens in the future.
One thing I am really excited about web3 was the ability to self publish games. With traditional games you needed to get on the app store, steam, or a game launcher. In web3 we were able to create experiences and drew in the audience just on community building and the actual blockchain. The blockchain allows distribution to be done decentralized. Things like NFT Marketplaces allow entry into these worlds that is permissionless. To me this honestly is one of the most exciting things that web3 games have done. One of the major milestones we want to achieve for true decentralization and web3 innovation is creating less friction for great game developers and blockchain developers to be empowered to create, monetize, and achieve success based on their own talents.
Thanks for explaining Long Do! That's very impressive. What about Anomura's stand on NFT interoperability?
Long Do
Sara Pinto
NFT Interoperability is such a fantastic topic I am passionate about its hard for me to even start.
When most people think of NFTs they think of pictures that can be sold, but NFTs are so much more than that. Our first game we developed at Virtually Human in 2018 is called Zed Run. Zed Run brought to life the NFT through the ability to race your NFT and compete against others. Interoperability makes you think of NFTs that do that and more, picture them as tickets to an even wider experience.
In the past Virtually Human has partnered with great mainstream brands such as Nascar and Atari and have allowed for special skins and races in conjunction with the brands. In Anomura with our game, you can find rare equipment nfts. You can combine this to the Anomura NFT and change the look and even change the gameplay. Now imagine allowing other brands and IPs to participate with our smart contracts in meaningful integrations in our game through their own special rare equipment. Or even allowing our NFTs to participate in other games and projects through the combining mechanism.
NFT Interoperability is a key part of creating what everyone is craving in a Metaverse, we are doing our best to make an impact. We do so by leading by example with our game in building new smart contracts and technologies that others can also use.
Long Do, you should have a name under your name. After so many years in the business, I'm sure you've made some interesting things, and people would want to enjoy them 💪 is there an immediate downside to gaming in web3 that you've noticed? Maybe something that's exclusive to web3?
Long Do
Mónica Freitas
The downside is the same with integrating a brand new software or programming language. A lot of out of the box thinking is integrating web2 tech with web3. For example how do you connect things like email addresses to wallet addresses so that you can onboard users more seamlessly? Or how do you integrate a game engine to save data on the blockchain? What ends up happening is people create, I would say, MVP type games that don't feel complete. Unfortunately it will still feel different to what we are use to in blockbuster games as the tech from web2 to build games catches up with whats available in web3. However we do see a lot of great companies such as Microsoft (https://news.bitcoin.com/microsoft-gives-grant-to-blockchain-based-web3-game-starheroes-as-historic-partnership-gets-underway/) and Google (https://gizmodo.com/google-alphabet-samsung-blockchain-crypto-1849424106) catching onto building tools to make it easier. We are working with so many new vendors, tools, and APIs that I feel we are actually way ahead of schedule in getting the whole mainstream audience playing blockchain games without realizing it in the near future.
There is also a really big bias to create financial models and earn mechanics to web3 games. Instead of creating games for enjoyment, a lot of organizations create a gamified investment platform. I'd love to create a game in blockchain for pure enjoyment. With Anomura we are creating something that is first fun, and then secondly can utilize earning through new acquisition of assets with meaning for those assets that you enjoyed questing after.
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That's amazing, Laura! Could you tell us a bit more about your environmental initiatives? I find your whole approach to sustainability so inspiring.
Kelley Dane
That's admirable! I'm a big advocate for the environment so learning that are Web3 and NFT projects that aim to help sustainability is really great. So how does it work exactly to help and plant kelp?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas, Kelley Dane
So we've partnered with https://aerial.is/ to wipe out the carbon footprint of all the Ethereum transactions for our initial NFT launch with SeaTrees’ top blue carbon REDD+ project
REDD+ stands for countries’ efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Contributing to the REDD+ Project benefits the Cardamom Mountains Rainforest Ecoregion in Cambodia and is known as one of the most important locations for biodiversity conservation on the planet.
As I've mentioned, we've gone above Carbon Neutrality by purchasing additional offsets which help restore kelp (brown algae seaweed) in Southern California, an area in a state of crisis.
In Southern California more than 85% of the giant kelp forests have been devastated, and in Northern California almost 95% of the bull kelp forests have disappeared in the last 10 years. Caused by the proliferation of purple sea urchins, as their predators disappear from human impacts and climate change.
Clearing "urchin barrens" allows rapidly growing kelp to regrow and re-establish into a healthy kelp forest - creating habitat for marine life and sequestering carbon emissions.
Through SeaTrees, we've help to restore mangrove ecosystems and support local livelihoods in West Papua, Indonesia. Located in the center of the Coral Triangle, the reefs around the Biak Island Region have some of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet.
We chose these projects to support because they align with our values of supporting both people + planet ❤ 🌍
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Laura, I just noticed I missed your reply on the lore. How could I?! :woman-facepalming: The way you speak of this really shows your love for what to do, and it's great to be on the receiving end. But enough flattery 😂 Please tell us where we can read all the amazing lore things you write 🙏
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas
Since most of the writing is still in the works, I can't release too much :shushing_face:, but the Mint Day experience that is launching soon will tease some of the lore which is exciting.
What I can dive into is providing a high-level overview of what the game is about and how it works ⬇
Discover Anomura, and the Infinity Circle - an ever-evolving Universe that exists outside the vacuum of space and time.
Travel to one of four unique Realms -- Ocean, Earth, Sky, and Science, once living harmoniously, now in turmoil.
Play as an Anomura, Guardian of all creatures and battle Aenemies and bosses who threaten your chosen realm.
Utilize the Infinity Circle to your advantage by unlocking cards, gearing up, finding loot, and gaining experience.
Uncover the secrets of the Universe and restore balance to the four Realms. 🌟
Cris Silva
Laura, do you have resources for users that want to learn about the space? Or do you do it in a seamless way, mixed in with the experience?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Cris Silva
We're actually working on those resources for non-web3 natives as we speak! Hopefully will have them launched soon 🙂
We're adopting a hybrid approach because we're also integrating blockchain concepts into the game mechanics and lore.
That means players will be performing a complex blockchain concept such as DeFi staking, liquidity pairing, or burning tokens in a way that fits a game narrative 🙂
John T.
Hi, Long Do, it's nice to meet you. What's it like to be a game director? What does that mean exactly?
Long Do
John T.
Being a game director means directing everything from marketing to game concept design. It definitely varies per organization. Some game directors are more hands-on being previously in game design or development. I try to be hands-on with many of the parts of the game as possible because I think that's also important because of how unique our game is going to be. For web3 everything is so new and that requires a different set of requirements in the role of the web3 game director.
I believe what it takes is to have a constant learning mindset. I spend my days following respectable funds, joining communities, and buying into other gaming/NFT projects to see what's new and possible. Working in web3, in my opinion, requires that learning mindset. So much of the traditional side of what was done in web2 is thrown out the window and you need to adapt to how the market is behaving, what new innovations can be leveraged, and as well understand what it means to create an enjoyable long-lasting game experience.
Mark Finnigan
Thank you for your thoughtful answer, Long Do. Transparency needs to be the synonym of web3, otherwise, it'll just be a different web2, with the same mindset. As for having a play and earn model focused on donations... was this always the plan for Anomura or something you introduced over time?
And are there any organizations with who you collaborate in this sustainable dimension?
Long Do
Mark Finnigan
Yes, Anomura is very personal to me. I love wildlife and so we picked the name Anomura because it means Hermit Crab in Latin. The hermit crab is nature's natural RPG game character, they upgrade their shells as they get older, they are sticklers for not having any deformations, and also trade with one another. The creatures you encounter in Anomura are based off a lot of rare and endangered animals, take the Pistol Shrimp and Sea Horses which inhabit coral reefs. It seemed very natural to leverage web3 tech to learn more and give back to them directly.
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Sonic3625
How will your game be interoperable with others?
Long Do
We are working hand in hand with select partnerships in web3 / web2 projects. The tech we are building is made complete with documentation and to scale like a SaaS product. Ultimately we'd love to extend Anomura's technology to Smart Contracts, SDKs and APIs that can be easily digested and integrated truly decentralized.
You will see in the future how our NFTs can port our game characters to go on special missions and promotions when we collaborate with other partners early on with these partners.
Hey, Long Do and Laura Building, a blockchain game is tough and building an active community around that game is tougher.
What advice do you have for game devs trying to get traction around their new/emerging blockchain game?
Long Do
Limarc Ambalina
I advise game devs to get involved in as many web3 communities as possible. Learn there what creators are doing, talk to them and network as much as you can with those communities. The relationships I've built have led me to understand all the aspects of creating a blockchain game project as well as building a lot of connections from things like code advice, to funding, to partnerships.
SuperSaiyanProgramming
Just wanna say I love the art designs! Who is the artist for your project?
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Long Do
SuperSaiyanProgramming
We have a talented team of artists. Daniele Lasalandra is our lead artist, who hails from Italy and is a great painter and pixel artist that has worked on retro-style games. We also have Momo Yang who also quite talented as an artist designing things from fun Blobfish Emojiis to UI/UX.
Laura Marissa Cullell
SuperSaiyanProgramming Just to add to Long Do's comment about our talented team, the art has definitely served to be a treasure trove of inspiration for the lore and writing as well. Glad you like the art! Our team love retro pixel art and Anomura is a love letter to the nostalgic games of our youth 🎮 ❤
Linh Smooke
Hey Long Do and Laura - thanks for joining us! Long - I have a question for you specifically. How has your identity as a Vietnamese affected your career choice and the way you run this team (if at all)?
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Long Do
Linh Smooke
My family immigrated from Vietnam to Canada when I was one. We barely had $100 when we landed in a new country.
I struggled hard to prove to my family that I can make it in a career of gaming, this was especially a struggle while doing a double major degree in computer science and communication culture and information technology. My parents always wanted me to go into health care. They definitely didn't have a great reception of gaming. I also visited Vietnam many times and saw what an impact video games have had. I had been to many net cafes, and met youths with a lot of similar interests in gaming. I knew I wanted to create games that we all grew up loving.
I never gave up in my love for game design and wanted to prove to my family that I can do just as well as my cousins who studied health care or other traditional fields. My passion is what drove me to learn all the sides of developing a great product and put together the all star team. I believe that passion is very infectious. It's important that they see clear my vision and effort. I am not afraid to spend time making sure they understand how special gaming and web3 are to me and see the potential through my eyes. Whether that is through playing a game together, or even just joining a web3 game community together because we think it's cool.
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Long Do
Great question, Linh Smooke!
Linh Smooke
No I didn’t just cry reading this answer Long Do . Thanks for opening up ✨:pleading_face:
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Cryptodragon
Did you take inspiration from other video games? Long Do
Long Do
There are a lot of games that we take inspiration from. There are inspirations from early Nintendo games like Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger and a more obscure one called E.V.O. The Search for Eden. Some PC games such as Diablo, Ragnarok Online and lately the indie game called Loop Hero which is a very highly regarded game that contains Idle RPG/Auto Battler elements. Loop Hero is known as a very different and strategic game. Anomura will be a very strategic game with a lot of depth to make it truly a skillful game to master. We want to encourage users to be working together to find the optimal strategize and later on in our multiplayer modes work with one another.
Long Do, that's a really great answer. And users are always talking about how games in blockchain are less fun. So, it's amazing that you had that care with Anomura. What lessons have you taken from Web3?
Uh Mint Day! Do let us know when you launch! 🙌
That's so inspiring. Thank you for taking care of the planet 🌍
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Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas We're targeting for a Sept 6 Mint Day!
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What are some of the milestones you've achieved with Anomura that you're the proudest of?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas I'm most proud of how far we've come and the community we've built. We're a super small team compared to other large projects and it's been incredible to see what we've been able to achieve this year. Our goal has always been to build a game for gamers by gamers that's fun in Web3 and it's been amazing seeing how that has resonated with people.
Long Do
Mónica Freitas
We learned a lot of lessons in creating Anomura. The web3 community has evolved so much, much faster than any hype cycle I have ever witnessed. We have seen so many changes in the "meta" of NFT mints.
Our team is composed of proud NFT natives, we all took the plunge together and made sure that everyone knew how to mint NFTs, what it was like for a crypto native to research, join in communities, and be an early adopter. I believe it was very important for the whole team to fully get it.
A lot of companies have hired web2 specialists in marketing, product, engineering, etc.. but they haven't spent the time to get these specialists to learn enough about web3. It is important to see the challenges that a early crypto user faces. We are experienced with common problems; things like sites crashing because of hype, contracts deployed wrong by other projects, or what happens when a project isn't going the way they thought of cause of high gas prices. Our team is experienced and knowledgeable about the industry and know how to work on those challenges.
Kelley Dane
Laura, wow, that's impressive! Taking an active role in helping the environment is great. Do you think this is an emerging issue in the game industry? Why aren't other companies are acting on this?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Kelley Dane I honestly think that a lot of the times games haven't had the resources to be able to explore sustainability and its impact in a meaningful matter. Also, until recently, it just hasn't been a priority which is a shame. For a lot of AAA studios, the main goal is to get a game out the door that will sell.
We're very lucky to be backed by Virtually Human Studio - which really allowed Long to execute his vision of creating a game with greater purpose and gave us the space and resources to push the boundaries of what web3 gaming can do.
Our discord educates Anomurans on different animal facts, and we really try to create grassroots initiatives to show that there's genuine value in focusing in the communities around you (physically of course) so we're always putting authenticity to Anomura both through the immersive in-game experience through the play-to-donate feature, and with the community.
Long Do, thank you for the detailed answer about interoperability! Are you looking to explore furthermore in that area? What are the next steps for Anomura?
Picking up on your answer to Kelley Dane , I have to say that's a great initiative, but it's also true that the main goal is to sell. Most people don't think of the cost behind it. Does Anomura work with any other company besides Virtually Human Studio and Aerial? If not, are you looking for other associations to take the gaming experience to next level?
Long Do
Sara Pinto
We actually have a really big mainstream gaming household brand that we will publish a partnership with very soon actually! We have had great success with marketing to crypto natives on our socials by partnerships within the web3 gaming space. We recently partnered in sponsoring a $10,000 eSports gaming tournament with other web3 projects. We also currently have an event going on where users are encouraged to talk about their favorite childhood retro games in our discord. This has led to hundreds of submissions!
Steven Allison
Thanks for the great info! Anomura looks like fun for all, what are good ways to reach potential users outside Web 3?
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Laura Marissa Cullell
Steven Allison Great question! 🌟
We really want to lower the barriers to entry for non-web3 native folx so one ofnthe things we're doing is targeting the mobile market.
We're also making it free to play so that it's accessible to all 😊
Anomura won't require an NFT to access the game but having one unlocks the vast array of web3 features.
We're also working on educating the public about blockchain technology and how it works to demystify the whole process.
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Long Do, I imagine having a team filled with people that already understand the space makes it much easier to develop and launch projects - at least quicker. What would you say is the biggest difference between being in a management role in web2 versus web3?
Long Do
Mónica Freitas
Keeping an open mind, learning from other projects, and experimenting was key. Getting to know the community, knowing that they are many new ways that worked in web2 but may not be as effective in web3. The web3 audience all know and believe in new technology and thus it can be such a rewarding space for creativity instead of focusing on what has worked for dozens of years in web2.
Laura, I ask you the same from your unique perspective: what would your advice be for people trying to make it professionally in the web3 space?
Laura Marissa Cullell
Mónica Freitas Web3 is such a unique ecosystem, my biggest advice would be to actually understand and experience what it is you're getting into.
Do your research 😊
Purchase crypto, understand how the minting process works, interact with other projects, listen to podcasts, understand the good (and the bad) perceptions about crypto, learn about the lingo (and memes!) and really immerse yourself.
This space moves at lightning speeds and does require people to sift through the noise.
I think those who do that will have a better time entering the space professionally.
Long Do oh wow, so cool! Do you have any plans of having a community on the Metaverse and exploring that part?
Long Do
We are very deep in the weeds of web3, we are interested in creating components that can be used for concepts like the Metaverse. We are interested in building out a world of interoperable NFTs, interlocking with project ecosystems, and adding our creativity to further the development of a decentralized gaming universe.
We have launched a mint called Zed Heads recently that allows users to spend tokens known as ZED tokens to mint a skin that can be used in the Human Park Universe (https://www.vhslab.com/?section=zedhead)
Laura Marissa Cullell
Thanks so so much to everyone for your questions! We had a blast answering them 😊
If you want to stay-up-to-date on Anomura, please join our http://discord.gg/anomiragame, and follow us on http://twitter.com/Anomuragame! ❤
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Thank you and Long Do for all the time and thoughtful answers! It was truly a pleasure to chat with you and we look forward to seeing what you do next 💚
L O A D I N G
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