Can you tell me a little about yourself, your background and how you entered the web3 space?
Pavel: My background is in video games. I’ve worked with Xbox, EA, Activision, Nintendo, Disney and more doing all kinds of things; business development, licensing, mergers and acquisitions – even studio management.
In 2016, I started working full-time in crypto, just like most others at the time. I became enamored with the Bitcoin whitepaper – it combined everything I had been doing since childhood.
It’s math. Okay. I was good at math. It’s money. You always want money. It’s geopolitical. I was into political science. It’s science fiction. I was that child of science fiction. I just dug deeper and deeper and thought, “Okay, this is great.” – and that’s how I ended up in crypto.
How did the idea for MixMob come about?
At the time, I always believed that crypto and gaming could go together, but I didn’t see any real value in it yet. When Axie took off in the summer of 2021 and showed that it was possible, I called Simon [Vieira, MixMob CEO & Game Director] and said, “Hey, look at Axie. Do you think we could do better, with a talented team?” He says, “I think we can do that.”
I said, ‘Okay. Why not put together a core team? Come up with a game concept and pitch it to me as if I were a game publisher,” like we used to do when we worked together at EA and Activision. He says, “Okay.”
It all snowballed from there. Luckily, because I’ve been building Bluzelle (a decentralized storage solution) in Asia since 2016, I was able to reach out to some angels I know and raise the money we needed in two days. So that’s how it came about.
The MixMob team building includes a whole range of AAA talent. Can you tell us more?
With DeFi you can get coders everywhere. Music, video games, movies; they all require talent. It’s not the technology that makes these things good, it’s the people with the talent to create great content.
People forget that. A lot of VCs were fooled by people who had a nice pitch deck, paid someone to make a media trailer and then said, “Oh, we gotta make this game now.” – and the VCs had no idea how these games were even made.
We’ve built a talented team that’s done everything from mobile, social and casual games to titles like Halo, FIFA, Battlefield and hardcore AAA games. Our team knows how to work with others, can build through anything, and can learn new technologies quickly.
The founders of MixMob have been working together for 15 years during their careers at FIFA, Halo, Battlefield, Nintendo, Pokerstars and other major brands.
Collectively, their experience spans every genre from social casual to sports and AAA action adventures.
Let’s go after the Masks ???? pic.twitter.com/yCJ6rwwXXm
— MixMob (@MixMobOrigin) February 15, 2023
A “card strategy racing game” is a unique combination! What is it like to play MixMob? What popular titles can you compare it to?
It’s Mario Kart mixed with Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering. It is a racing game with card strategy, real money gaming, gambling and DeFi features.
In MixMob you obtain MixBots via capsules. They’re your Tamagotchis, your R2D2, your Wall-E. You take them into races, where you don’t focus on mastering wheel-to-wheel racing, like in Gran Turismo or Mario Kart, but the racing elements contribute to the strategy you use with your card game.
Your deck contains a series of offensive and defensive cards. Each MixBot has racing features that make it unique, so you may want to tailor your deck to your MixBot. For example, I love drifting in Mario Kart – and I know Donkey Kong and Bowser are terrible at drifting. I can’t use them, I have to use another character – and that’s similar to what we do with these MixBots. You will need to trade, sell or buy a MixBot and deck combo that suits your racing style.
We have three types of players: gamers, gamblers and swordsmen. Gamers play the game before racing, gamblers place bets on who will come out on top, and épées put tokens into our liquidity pools for a return from each race. Degens will be motivated to bring more players into the racing arenas, and as returns adjust depending on the number of racers, they will have to use a lot of game theory to decide which arenas to bet on for maximum returns.
We’re not just building a game, we’re creating an entire economy that keeps the flywheel turning.
Your Gen0 presale just sold out, with a public sale on January 11th. Why should readers get involved with this upcoming release?
Starting January 11th at 9am PST/5pm GMT we will be dropping our MixBot and MXM token packs. Each package costs $250 USD and includes MixBots, MXM tokens and select bonuses. A total of 5,000 packages are available.
The decline has three phases. Phase 1 is the guaranteed whitelist, with 500 packages reserved for the communities that have supported us so far. 5 packs can be purchased per participant, with a 10% MXM token bonus if you purchase 3 or more.
Phase 2 is the FCFS Whitelist, with 1,000 packs up for grabs, maximum 10 per participant, with a 10% MXM token bonus if you buy 10. This whitelist can be accessed via our Discord.
Phase 3 is the Public Sale, where the remaining 3,500 packages will be opened to the public, maximum 10 per participant.
Imagine going into a toy shop as a child. I see the Optimus Prime robot from Transformers. I’m like, “Cool, I’m going to buy this, convince my parents.” Okay, it costs $50, let’s say – but inside the box is a voucher for $50 worth of tokens. That’s how we position these MixBots. It’s less of a token sale or an NFT sale, it’s more of a token voucher toy sale.
????PUBLIC SALE ANNOUNCEMENT????
????️January 11
???? $MXM Packages
????$250 (USDC, USDT, SOL, BONK)
???? @MagicEdenTwo years of construction have brought us to this point.
It’s time to save our culture. It’s time to #FlipWeb2!Like ????RT ????Comment ????
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— MixMob (@MixMobOrigin) January 4, 2024
Solana is the blockchain that is currently on everyone’s lips. Why did you choose Solana as the chain for MixMob?
Solana is the only blockchain that was fast enough with a usability related to games. As Simon said to me, it can’t be Polygon fast, it can’t be Arbitrum fast, it can only be Solana fast. Even when the FTX explosion happened and everyone got mad about Solana, he was like, no, this is where the product needs to be. This is the best technology for it.
We had a number of calls throughout the year with Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, the founders of Solana, and they came by to see what help we needed.
Solana also has a unique community. Where ETH is more like Silicon Valley – very technical and people like to dive into it – Solana is more like Los Angeles; there are more subcultures, and it’s more about a community having fun.
What can we expect from MixMob in 2024 and beyond?
The MXM token drop (January 11) is the first major milestone. The game has been in alpha and beta long enough and the community says, “I really want to start making money, I want to start making money,” so we get the economy going.
Then mobile. The iOS and Android versions are in beta and have been pre-approved for the app stores. We’re aiming for a full mobile release at the end of January, beginning of February. The game is great on desktop, but so much more fun on mobile.
After that, we acquired a number of top licenses that we will launch as characters in the game that will probably also be released in the first quarter.
The MixMob Esports League is where the governance aspect of the MXM token really comes into effect. If you were a fan of F1 and could participate in the expansion and growth of the sport, that would be great. That’s what we’re going to do with the MXM token for the MXM Esports League.
User-generated content will also come in 2024. Players will be able to build, sell and earn MXM tokens for the game – and there will also be a community program for custom arenas and crews.
We work with many communities, including BONK. We are going to launch BONK MixBots, and ultimately we would like to have a BONK Arena where $BONK holders get special privileges. We would like to do the same with many communities, where they can represent each other and race against each other. Instead of selling land, communities will have arenas, players can vote for new arenas with new game modes, and that’s how big growth will happen.
We will be announcing more partnerships in the coming weeks.
✨️HAPPY NEW YEAR✨️
Tonight we come together and cherish the moments of difficulties and joy we experienced in 2023.
The MixMob army will #FlipWeb2 in 2024.
Repost if you’re going along for the ride. ???? pic.twitter.com/417VudMlEx
— MixMob (@MixMobOrigin) January 1, 2024
Any predictions for web3 gaming and the broader blockchain space in 2024?
It takes a while to build good games. 2024 will be good because other games, not just MixMob, have learned from the games released in recent years. The mistakes they made, their tokenomics, the gameplay, stuff like that. Many of the games that started development in 2022 and 2023 will have playable versions in 2024.
Besides, it’s gaming. On mobile, Angry Birds was the one that really took off, and all the other games came after it. We don’t need five or ten games to be great. All you need is one or two and it powers the rest and makes everyone else better.
Where should the community go to learn more?
Join our Discord and follow our Twitter. To get on the FCFS Whitelist for the January 11th release, there are community tasks you need to complete in our Discord, or you can head over to the website and start playing the game. There are ways to get whitelisted from there.
Even if you don’t participate in the January 11 sale, once the MXM token drops, you’ll need the token to play the game, get the further returns, all that fun. If you like poker and Mario Kart, you will have fun with MixMob.