I’m Scott Cunningham with Crypto Daily, and today we’re gonna be talking with Jason Brink of Gala Games. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
Scott Cunningham, CryptoDaily (CD):
What has been one of the most rewarding challenges for you being one of the first companies in the space?
Jason Brink (JB):
I think that for me, one of the things that I’ve found most rewarding is finding ways to connect with the community and bring new people into the space. I’ve been in blockchain for a long time, coming up on a decade here pretty soon.
And over that time I’ve seen the entire industry grow from being a very, very small and hyper elite group of people to being much more open. And that is really exciting for me because it’s only when we reach the point of actual mass adoption that all of this actually works. And it’s both a challenge and a joy because you get to teach people when you also get to help people. And, and to see that, that flash of like insight when they really get it, that that’s, that’s a really cool experience.
CD:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. How did Gala Games make its foray and how did you build this audience that you have today?
JB:
So our founder and CEO, Eric Schiermeyer, was one of the co-founders of Zenga, so he’s been in the gaming space forever. A lot of the main people in the company come from gaming companies and ultimately what it boiled down to is that people in the gaming companies, you know, in their previous jobs got very tired of charging players for things that they did not get to actually own.
And, you know, having the idea of actual real verifiable ownership and letting people transfer things around however they see fit is something that we feel is really important. And so it started with that. It started with a small game called Town Star, and now we’ve got a game that’s just launching called Spider Tanks and we have a large, highly engaged community. And it’s growing like crazy and I’m absolutely loving watching this.
CD:
That’s really great to hear. And so you’ve got some games out, you’ve got some games coming. How has Player Adoption been like within the gaming space, and what do you think it’s gonna look like in the next couple of years?
JB:
Well, we’ve got 28 total games in the pipeline right now, and these are all AAA games made by actual AAA developers.
But until now the web3 gaming space has been depressing and it’s incredibly difficult to get actual gamers to come in because they would come in and they’d look at it and they’d be like, “Really, this is a, this is a flash game that I, I should have played in, you know, 2002”. So being able to, to have real awesome, like web2 style gaming content, uh, with web3 interfaces is a very powerful thing.
So as we push these out and as people start to play, we are getting a lot of new people coming in and looking at the games going, “Oh wow, this is really fun. I would play this game no matter what”. And they don’t care about the NFTs necessarily all the time. They don’t always care about the blockchain component.
What they care about is having a really, really awesome game that they can play. And for us, that’s priority number one, have an amazing game with an amazing gaming experience for people and it makes all the difference in the world.
CD:
Yeah, I think, um, the big mistake that gaming companies sometimes make is they try to go from crypto and then build it backwards where it seems like you guys are trying to build the gaming experience and then build off of that. So I think that’s really, really awesome. And, and you’re going to be a keynote speaker at the inaugural Philippine Blockchain Week, can you give us an insight into what that’s gonna be a little bit about and what you might be speaking on?
JB:
Sure. So for me,I’m a big fan of the Philippines. I was in Manila earlier this year, got to hang out with some, some really, really cool people. And for me, what the Philippines represents is this amazing sense of community and family. Uh, it’s an extremely large but also extremely tight knit community. Uh, and, and that’s one of the reasons that I really like them. They are very passionate about games, they’re very passionate about playing, and they’re very passionate about everything that they do. And so what I’m going to be talking about there, is how gaming can influence communities and how you can use gaming as a way, to grow and to interconnect between some of the old like web2 and some of the new web3 elements.
These are scary concepts to most people. Um, but I find that in the Philippines what you have is you have these close knit communities that help introduce one another to things. So you’ll have one person who gets involved and they’ll go get everyone in their town involved and they’ll host events. They have you know, Town Star parties, which is one of the coolest things I’ve ever ever seen. Myrtle from Block Tides who’s a good friend of mine her and her entire family get together and play Town Star together, and I think that that’s absolutely phenomenal.
And, uh, yeah, I’m gonna be talking about a lot of that sort of thing as well as getting together with some of the Gala community there in the Philippines.
CD:
Awesome. Awesome. That’s really great to hear. And lastly, what is happening next for Gala Games? What is the next big thing you guys got in the works and, and what should we be expecting for the next little while?
JB:
One thing that’s important to note about Gala is that it’s not just Gala Games. It is our mandate to be a positive force and the leading company in web3 entertainment across all verticals. So we’re also pushing very, very hard into film, into music and into other areas like that. And so this is what you’re going to see; increased growth and increased interconnectedness across these different entertainment verticals. Lots more games, obviously we’ve got Superior coming to both Steam and Epic.
We’ve got Spider Tanks, and you’re gonna see a lot more launches. We’ve been building really, really hard over the last two and a half years. And what you’re going to see now is the fruits of that finally coming to fruition with these game launches and these new economies and all of that, all rolling out. So it’s going to be an incredibly exciting next couple years.
CD:
Awesome. I’ll be looking forward to it. So thank you so much for joining us today Jason Brink from Gala Games. This has been very, very informative and I’m excited to start checking out some of these games and playing them myself.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
