Q: We are thrilled to have you on the team. Could you introduce yourself to our users and tell them about your work experience and involvement in gaming and blockchain?
A: Thank you! I am extremely excited to come on board with Matrix Labs and help bring the Matrix World vision to reality.
But let me start with my experience. I’m a self-taught game designer and have been making games for over 25 years. There were no universities for game development back then, you just showed up and took on whatever was needed to be done. Back in the 90s, I started out at EA as a tester working on sports games and that’s where I got a lot of my education on how to make games. With such short development cycles, it was a crash course. And a shitload of overtime.
Then I got a chance to join Rockstar Games and build open-world games, which were my passion. This is where I first got my chance to design on a triple A product and was hooked. Unfortunately, Rockstar Games at the time was one of the most challenging studios to work for and I left there and ended up then working for Ubisoft. But it wasn’t until I was recruited by Disney to work on Club Penguin where my skill set really came to light. This was right at the start of mobile which was also the start of game management having data to base our decision making with. So I got to work on a lot of metaverse style features back then and see how they performed. In fact, Club Penguin was one of the first digital worlds to ever leverage user-controlled land with our Igloo feature.
Mobile was the market that was pushing the science of game design forward the most so I diverted my focus to that and over the next few years worked and then built a few mobile studios, one of them for the 3rd largest MCN in the world, BroadbandTV. After that, I eventually returned to work with one of the creators of Club Penguin who now ran his own mobile studio and helped him publish mobile games while we experimented with building new metaverses.
I eventually left to take an opportunity to be the Game Director at Unity on a major world build but in the end I didn’t align with the vision for that product and that’s what led me to finding a metaverse play that had a vision I believe in. That led me to MatrixLabs.
Q: What is an open-world vs a virtual-world?
A: This is coming up a lot in metaverse design discussions. The way to look at it as an open-world is a virtual world with game systems and mechanics. So when you are playing open-world games like Zelda or Horizon Dawn, they’re just using the game systems inside of a virtual world, but without any other users, or the other users are NPC. It’s easier to create experiences when you have those systems and mechanics, whereas, in virtual worlds, they’re just building interactives and allowing users to find ways to interact with them and use them. If you look at the top metaverse experiences right now where you have a group of users altogether playing games, creating content, and socializing, you know it’s Grand Theft Auto online, it’s Fortnite, and it’s because they have the best-catered experiences where you can come there every day, and there’s always a ton of things to do there’s always a lot of progress there are different ways to socialize, and they have their creation models.
Q: You clearly have a lot of experience working with some of the biggest names in the traditional gaming industry. Why did you decide to move from the traditional gaming industry into the Web3 space?
A: While my professional experience isn’t based in blockchain tech I have been around this space for a long time. I mentioned earlier about data and how it’s an important tool in game design. Well, you can read a lot about data in both crypto and NFT markets as well and have found both markets fascinating during their rises. During the ICO phase of crypto I was pretty active filling bags of shitcoins but then Cryptopia happened and soured me from trading at the time.
But what really made me make the move into web3 was in seeing how all the different industries are approaching this race to the metaverse. Web3 allows us to get to there faster than traditional platform protocols. I want to build a metaverse that can scale exponentially. Where the users get to be creative and can define their own spaces, have frictionless transactions and then be able to discover everyone else’s creativity.
Q: In my opinion, to move forward and increase adoption, the blockchain gaming space desperately needs to onboard more experienced professionals from the traditional gaming industry. How can we use this knowledge you bring to take Matrix World to the next level?
A: The traditional gaming industry is still struggling with the why while blockchain-based games struggle with the how. What needs to happen is what has happened with any evolution of monetization in games and apps and that’s the developers learning how to incorporate it and leverage it properly alongside properly built products. That’s why both sides will eventually need to work together.
The most important factor that I’m bringing is that I have the ability to build products that can both engage and retain users which is imperative for these types of experiences. The combination of systems used to keep users on the platform supersedes all other aspects when you’re building a digital platform and that’s what the game industry are masters of.
In the end, for the Owners to prosper we need to ensure we give the right tools to build experiences that any level of user can interact with and enjoy repeatedly. And that’s not an easy feat to pull off. You need a properly designed platform with the right systems all working together to give your users enough to do so that they never want to leave.
Q: So you have finally settled in at Matrix Labs, you are up to speed on the current state of development, and you’ve brought a lot of great ideas to the table. Can you share where the project is at and what the team’s current focus is?
A: Yes, there’s been some time spent onboarding and getting up to speed with the development plan but we are now diving into the details and figuring out how we’re going to build it all. It takes a village to build a product of this nature but we are now actively recruiting so that we can pull it off.
As far as the current focus from the team goes we’ve almost completed an alpha build that can show a bit more of the vision. I know there was expectations that this would be a public build but we decided to keep it an internal version to really gauge the quality level we were able to achieve. I’m really impressed how far they got with this build but I also don’t think it’s ready for public consumption. I’d much rather work towards a build where there’ll be some systems and mechanics to leverage so we can get some quality feedback from you all.
But what I can promise is, we will be showing off elements as we build them so you guys will be the first to see how you can leverage our mechanics to build the best spaces in MatrixWorld.
Kyle discusses the delay with the Alpha launch: Although it might be disappointing hearing that you can’t get into the alpha build at the end of the month, I view this as a really good thing for the project, and in essence, it is like taking one step back so we can make a huge leap forward. I’m excited about these changes; they have come about because of our funding round earlier this year, allowing us to expand the vision, raise the bar on what we build and who we have on the team, bringing in some rock stars like Josh. The other side is that when we bring in these new players and this talent, we raise the bar, which will change some things from the initial plan. This build should be kept internal, and it’s not ready to be released yet, but in the long run, this decision will create the most value for the users. We view all of you landowners like shareholders and trying to deliver the best project for all of you.
Q: I know this news might be disappointing for some users, but I view it as taking one step back so we can make a huge leap forward and this news makes me more bullish than ever. Could you explain how the users will benefit from this?
A: We need to build a lot of stuff. Not only an engaging world but the systems and mechanics to make it all sing. It’s imperative we give the land owners the ability to be able to flourish and we have a robust feature set planned to achieve that. But it’s going to take time. And that’s ok because one of the main mistakes I see in the current crop of metaverses is that they don’t know the difference between a virtual world and an open-world. One’s capable of retaining users on its own, the other isn’t. Almost everyone is building the one that isn’t capable because it’s cheaper and faster. We’re going to build the right one.
But the biggest takeaway should be that Matrix Labs understands what it takes to build a platform of this magnitude and is now bringing in the right people to accomplish this. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this space is to look for teams capable of pulling off their roadmaps.
Q: What is the team’s vision?
A: The vision is to build a platform where anyone with land can leverage it in creative ways.
We’re going to build the ability to have various web2 and web3 functions you can tie to various Structures and then host on your land. Decorate it, brand it, it’s yours to figure out how to create the best experience. We’re going to experiment with a lot of various functionalities and figure out how to bring them properly into 3D space to be leveraged for the Builders. Stay tuned!
Q: Can you share any new ideas or features the team has come up with?
A: We are still in the products design phase so there’s still a lot of moving parts. Once we lock the features in place we can then go full steam ahead in building. What I can say is that we’ve been loyal to the early video you all saw and we’re working towards some fun World systems that the video showed.
Q: What are your plans to reward our users and bring value to them?
A: Much too early to detail that just yet.
But it’s a major design aspect to the overall product.
Q: So, what is the next step? How does the team plan to move forward and make this a reality?
A: Once we’ve locked the design down we’re going to expand our development and set some aggressive timelines. We’ve already started on the core elements and while we get those built we will be recruiting skilled developers to help with the world building aspect.
Ohmarkely Ambrosio: Does Matrix have any plan for incentivizing those land owners with NFTS for OG’s or something like that?
Josh: The reward structure is still being worked out, but we know that obviously, landowners are the core of this experience. I don’t know what it is exactly going to be, and I know you have seen a lot of other models with the other games — don’t hold us to that because we’re trying to make something special right here. We need to lock in a lot of the systems and the mechanics, and then it’ll help determine the type of reward structure we can build into a product like this.
Kopas: When can we expect to play Matrix metaverse?
Josh: That is a tough question when we haven’t finished designing Matrix World yet. Once we finalize the design, we have our development plan, and then we can start to forecast the length it’ll take and how many people we need to accomplish that. From a typical standpoint and looking at other worlds, some of these are probably one to the three-year window, and I think we’re probably looking at about 1.5 for the playable world and editor. We also have a two-pronged approach here, so that’s going to be one of our challenges; we also have to develop an editor on the side of our world development. If we can get that out in 1.5 years, I would be extremely happy because I think that we’d have a really strong team that could bring us there, and that’s going to ensure we have the velocity to get there.
FrankenSense: Can you speak to how you plan to show progress along the way?
Josh: We’re going to have a strategy about how we want to show off what we’re planning to do once it’s all finalized. When we know exactly what we’re building, then we will figure out how to do that and work towards getting you guys early access to Matrix World. The landowners will get the first experience, and make sure you’re in the landowner Discord channel so that we can do polls in there when we start developing the feature sets. We will begin to get your feedback on some of these elements we will be building and prototyping. Because in the end, these will be tools that we want you guys to use to prosper.
Goldn: Was there anything that excited you or surprised you when coming to Matrix World? What really excited you about Matrix?
Josh: I’ll even admit it; I’m the one that reached out to them (Matrix Labs); this role wasn’t a job posting or anything like that. I had been working at Unity on a major metaverse play, and I wasn’t able to realize the vision properly, so that told me, even though it was a great opportunity to work for a 3D middleware like that, I have to believe in the product that I’m designing. So I started looking at the other opportunities in the metaverse field, and I was actually interviewing with one of the other major players when I started to do my homework on land sales and blockchain products; that’s when I came across Matrix World. I started to do the research, and I was like, I believe in this project a lot more, and it had a lot to do with the vision video, how Matrix World approached both the vision of the world and then the mechanics in it; that to me was really important. So rest assured, the same thing that got you guys all hooked got me as well, and now we have to build it and I want to pull that off.
That vision was, and that’s something Alvin and I align very well on. It is like we have the same vision for this and know what it takes to pull it off.
Goldn: How do you think a multi-chain will play a big part in the building of this metaverse?
Josh: I’m looking at it probably right now, purely as how can it be leveraged to be “cool.” How does it work with the users if I’m in one or the other? This is a big part of game design and usability, understanding how different users will approach things. So right now, I see it as we have the two worlds, and I expect that if we build this right, they are the two islands, right? And it doesn’t matter what side you’re on; both sides are striving for their own — That’s super exciting.
I think it’s important that we are multi-chain and that we can potentially add other ones, eventually expanding that way. We’re not going to expand the worlds; they’re set 5k worlds, which is important because we know we want to keep your intrinsic value in place. I think that’s a big mistake that a lot of asset and collection style NFT games make is that they release the first set and then do another release and another release, and that’s not how this should work when you’re trying to create. It’s like giving your most installed and loyal users a kind of kick in the teeth that way, and it’s just not a smart collection design theory to work on.
I think going forward for the technology with the ability to expand using multi-chain and how we can leverage these two sides and the veracity around them. It will be a unique element to this product, and I expect we’ll see many more multi-chain elements as we go and be proud that we’re one of the first.
DJShamrock Q: Do you aim to bring DJ functionality into the world?
Josh: Yeah, I mean absolutely! I don’t know what our limitations will be, but I will say to DJ Shamrock that I have worked on a project where that was at the focal point. So don’t worry, I know a lot about that side and have developed some cool stuff in that space. There are a lot of different ways we can approach this. It’s figuring out the best ways to do it, and that’s where the prototyping comes in and where we take time to try different ways of pulling off these functions, and then you’ll see how we can wrap them and create ways that you can interact with them in a 3D space.
Ohmarkely Ambrosio Q: Can Matrix World publish some specifications where other communities can build their own ready assets?
Josh: That’s definitely on our road map, like figuring out what those restrictions will be and what those initial asset openings are. We’re going to start small, and of course, we’ll probably start with 3D models, avatars, and stuff like that, but we are already in the design. There are already many paths of assets that we need to build for our systems. A lot is planned, and we will eventually open that up, but anytime you build a platform with the user-generated content, it’s really on the developers to build the first set to show those restrictions and constraints around the assets.
Kyle (on behalf of Erick from Party Goobz) Q: Is there a way to have consumables and have effects on the in-world experience?
Josh: This is way too early to think about those types of systems like a consumable because we don’t have a world that can support them yet. But I will say that I am a big fan of consumable systems obviously from a lot of different game genres. The way to do that would actually be to build a generic consumable can and then people could brand it themselves with their own branding.
FrankenSense: What is the reality of the next couple of months?
Josh: The reality is we are trying to lock in the design so our heads are going to be down finalizing a lot of this. Not a lot will be built immediately after the Alpha build is complete. We’ll get into planning a little bit more, but after that, once we do return to development and get that rolling again the goal will be to start to show off some of this stuff. There’s a couple of key positions that we also need to fill to finalize our ability to design this product so you know is it is gonna take a little bit of time, but we are gonna show off when we can that that’s one thing I can promise is we are going to do! Time in crypto moves quickly, investments don’t.
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