6 Questions for Simon Davis of Mighty Bear Games

Before crypto, helium was a nonrecreational guitarist who made ends conscionable by playing successful metallic bands and screen bands and by teaching guitar. But aft his wealth dried up 1 summer, helium scored a six-week gig arsenic a nonrecreational crippled tester — and he’s ne'er looked back.

Davis’ ever-growing guitar collection. (Simon Davis)

During his clip successful the gaming industry, Davis has held absorption and merchandise pb positions astatine gaming companies including King Digital Entertainment, Ubisoft, Bigpoint, AKQA, Empire Interactive, and Laughing Jackal. 

In 2017, Davis teamed up with immoderate friends and chap manufacture veterans to motorboat Mighty Bear Games successful Singapore, wherever they intended to absorption connected creating accepted games — earlier pivoting to blockchain successful 2022. And successful 2023, the steadfast launched an unfastened beta for Mighty Action Heroes, its archetypal Web3 gaming title.

Davis, who besides goes by “Papa Bear,” said each Mighty Bear worker receives a “bear title.” Some of Papa Bear’s employees see “Arty Bear,” “Bear-Abel,” “Excel Bear,” and “Bear McNumbers.”

Why the pivot to blockchain gaming?

I was fortunate capable to benignant of get into Bitcoin by mishap successful 2015, truthful I’ve been successful the abstraction for a fewer years. In 2021, I started playing with NFTs, and I’m fortunate capable to beryllium besides based successful Southeast Asia, truthful I could spot firsthand what was happening with Axie [Infinity]. I think, for me, arsenic idiosyncratic who lived done the modulation to free-to-play, it felt precise overmuch similar a moment, benignant of similar erstwhile Farmville came retired connected Facebook. 

I deliberation that for unrecorded work titles [games similar Fortnite, League of Legends and Apex Legends], a ascendant concern exemplary is going to look to revolve astir player-owned and operated economies. Because I don’t judge you tin person virtual worlds without integer spot rights, essentially.

And I deliberation that does alteration a batch of caller things that we’re truly starting to scratch the aboveground on. So, I deliberation that truly was the propulsion factor.

What format bash you deliberation serves arsenic the champion mode to pull users to blockchain gaming?

The Mighty Bear Games team. (Simon Davis)

I deliberation mobile gaming is going to beryllium the ascendant level due to the fact that of geography. You spot this if you look astatine the charts for the countries that person a large slope of involvement successful crypto oregon Web3. They thin to beryllium countries wherever existing outgo rails are not ace developed.

People are mostly unbanked successful places similar Indonesia and Brazil. These markets are mobile-first. Like, radical successful the Philippines and India are not needfully utilizing high-end PCs. 

So, you request to spell wherever the users are. And this is simply a spot of a spicy take, but this is wherefore I’m precise bearish connected radical making ace HD high-end Web3 games due to the fact that it’s conscionable not wherever the markets are today. So, you spot a batch of these teams raising, like, mega bucks to marque console-quality titles, but if nary 1 tin play them, past they aren’t going to bash precise much.

What bash you deliberation the existent hurdles are for large-scale blockchain gaming adoption?

A batch of radical speech astir it successful presumption of metallic bullets, right? Like, “Oh, we request 1 bully game,” oregon like, “We request to lick the wallet problem.” I don’t deliberation it’s immoderate 1 of those things. I really deliberation it is conscionable a batch of pb bullets, a batch of tiny things that request to happen. 

I conscionable think, successful general, it needs to beryllium arsenic casual and arsenic brainless to usage arsenic a Web2 experience. And truthful I deliberation determination is an inherent struggle contiguous with however radical deliberation astir Web3, you know. They accidental things like, “Oh, you request to amended the users,” or, “Train radical to clasp their backstage keys.”

But you know, my ma doesn’t privation to clasp her ain backstage keys. She does each her trading connected Crypto.com. We request to marque it fundamentally idiot-proof truthful anyone tin bash it.

I deliberation we’re inactive rather a agelong mode away, but I americium seeing meaningful improvements, actually. I’m seeing products that are going to spell to marketplace adjacent twelvemonth which are going to assistance a lot. 

I don’t cognize however aged you are, but I’ve conscionable turned 40 this year. I retrieve successful the 90s mounting up a location net transportation connected dial-up. It took maine 2 days of calling method enactment and idiosyncratic telling maine similar configs. I was having to spell successful and alteration manually and stuff. And now, you know, we solved that, right? And then, the net became a wide market, and past radical could conscionable enactment a CD successful their computer, and it conscionable worked. I deliberation we request to get to that stage.

Mighty Action Heroes. (Game website)

Do you deliberation the atrocious rap blockchain/NFT gaming gets is simply a large issue? 

It’s comic due to the fact that gaming got a beauteous atrocious rap successful the 90s. You know, everyone was talking astir however games were making children violent. There was a large motivation panic, conscionable similar determination was successful euphony a fewer years before.

But I deliberation that erstwhile you commencement to get these things successful people’s hands and acquisition them, perceptions change. I bash deliberation a batch of the estimation that we person successful crypto and Web3 is deserved. There are a batch of atrocious actors exploiting the deficiency of regulation, but the things that excite me: I’ve seen immoderate games, for example, that let players to gain tiny amounts of Bitcoin, And this benignant of thing’s retention numbers are precise strong, similar the archetypal metrics are precise promising. And I deliberation that’s a truly bully usage case.

Reddit is besides a large example, right? They enactment NFTs successful the hands of immense numbers of people. A batch of radical didn’t adjacent recognize they were interacting with NFTs. So past they had their archetypal taste, and yea — determination are immoderate stats that person travel up, and not a immense magnitude of them person transacted on-chain.

But I really don’t deliberation that’s specified a atrocious thing. If radical are not dumping the assets connected time one, I don’t spot that arsenic a negative. So, I deliberation onboarding done stealth is beauteous good.

What benignant of adoption metrics are you looking for with your games?

So, radical speech astir installs and sign-ups — it’s conscionable a vanity metric. For me, I’m funny successful however galore radical are coming successful each day, however regularly they’re coming back, and what the maturation curve of that looks similar initially.

And past erstwhile we bash the mobile motorboat [of Mighty Action Heroes], which volition beryllium astir August/September, however good are we doing connected attracting non-crypto-native radical into the crippled arsenic well? That volition beryllium precise interesting, and to spot however they play together. It’s a antithetic angle, but it’s 1 that I’m beauteous bullish on.

What are immoderate ideas oregon tech upgrades that could assistance blockchain gaming?

ERC-6551 tokens. 

Essentially, they springiness a astute declaration relationship oregon a astute declaration wallet to a 721 [token]. So, you know, a accepted NFT would beryllium a JPG with immoderate metadata attached. But essentially, the JPG oregon the asset, immoderate that is, is past bound to a astute contract. 

And this is beauteous chill due to the fact that it means that assets tin pass straight with each other. So NFT to NFT, without utilizing MetaMask. And it could besides beryllium compatible with different astute declaration wallets. 

I deliberation the truly chill happening is that, essentially, your plus becomes a wallet and tin person its ain logic arsenic well. So you could person a basal quality successful a crippled arsenic the 6551 token, and past each the apparel oregon the items oregon everything that that quality has, the benignant of sub-assets, tin alteration within, each with its ain logic.

As a crippled developer, you commencement reasoning of however your characters could germinate and however you tin connect caller assets without updating the core.