Ep. 570 w/ Rob Greig CEO Cornucopias Game
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Kevin Horek:Welcome back to the show. Today, we have Rob Greggs, the cofounder and co CEO of Cornucopias. Rob, welcome to the show.
Rob Greig:Yeah. Hello. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I'm excited to have
Kevin Horek:you on the show. I I think what you guys are building is really innovative and cool. But maybe before we get into all that, let's get to know you a little bit better and start off with where you grew up.
Rob Greig:Oh, yeah. Sure. I I grew up in Manchester, which is in, the north of England in the UK. Manchester is famous for music, arts, and football or or soccer, as the Americans would say. Sure.
Rob Greig:It was in in the early years, I I lived quite a poor neighborhood, but I, you know, I didn't I didn't really know exactly. I played a lot of football with, with my brothers, and, was my mom and dad. They were tough, hardworking, working class Northerners, parents, worked a few jobs to provide everything they could for the children. We had, like, a caravan on a holiday camp in the, near near the coast of Wales. So so every weekend, we would we would go to this campsite.
Rob Greig:And I suppose that's where I kind of first discovered the video arcade machines back in the eighties, like Ghost and Goblins and Out Run, Bubble Bobble, Double Dragon, or some some amaze amazing games. And I was absolutely obsessed with games. And and then when home computers came out, you know, I had every single console I I could think of, you know, the Atari 2,600, Amstrad, Commodore 64, Miga ST. And then I had the ZX Spectrum when I was about 12. Sure.
Rob Greig:And that that was probably the computer that eventually had set me on a path to becoming a programmer, although I didn't know that at the time. Do you want me to carry on?
Kevin Horek:Yeah. Sure. No. This is awesome. Keep going.
Rob Greig:Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I suppose from the early eighties, I I I started reading the series of these role playing adventure books
Kevin Horek:written
Rob Greig:by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. I don't know if you've then you've seen the the kind of choose your own adventure. So you'd sit down with a pen and paper, and you'd read the story and be given options. Do you wanna climb the mountain, go to this page, or do you wanna go to the village and and you'd literally open? So, you know, you'd fight mo monsters and roll dice.
Rob Greig:And and what I I was just absolutely fascinated with this, and I would I would kind of write my own little adventures and then try and program them on the spectrum. And I I I was I was just, you know, just a little geek back in those days. I went to a grammar school, which was a bit of a nightmare because I had to take 3 buses and a train, College and university in Manchester. Living at home still. I never I never moved away from home till later on, but I was always working.
Rob Greig:Always were obsessed with with working. And then when I left university
Kevin Horek:So sorry to cut you off. What did you take in university and why?
Rob Greig:Yeah. So at university, I took, information systems. So I I was I just wanted to continue college, I I I I discovered at college programming. Although I I've been a programmer since I was 12, I never actually knew it was a thing. And then I went into college, and I learned about databases, and it was it was an actual proper job.
Rob Greig:It was like, this is this is incredible. So I continued that to university. I did 4 years at university. And one of those years was like a year off. I actually managed to to go down south, and work for IBM for a year.
Rob Greig:You know, IBM back in back in the nineties was was massive, and that that was a real, real eye opener, completely different from anything that I'd I'd been used to before. So I left university, again moved down south, and I began working for this really large, electricity utility company. So I had a few years of corporate experience, And that was that was completely, completely different world from from the one that that I knew up north. And, you know, I enjoy being surrounded by these these older, smartly dressed, clever people, but it frustrated the life out of me that all they wanted to do all day was drink coffee and have meetings. And all I wanted to do was was was just learn learn about databases, write code.
Rob Greig:You know? I I was obsessed. So it it it it was bizarre. But so
Kevin Horek:it Well, I get that. I get that. I don't think that's bizarre at all.
Rob Greig:It it it was it was honestly, it was surrounded by so many contractors because nobody actually lived in kind of Swindon. People moved in. So so so I got a first taste of, you know, what contractors con contractors did. I suppose, you know, they'd earn loads of money, but they didn't do any work, which was I like the idea of earning lots of money, but I didn't like the idea of of not of not not doing any work. But Yeah.
Rob Greig:Through one of these contractors, I actually started writing some software for a baking company in London. So I was working during the day, and then in the evening, you know, I was programming on the weekend. So so that was kind of my first, I I suppose, my aunt where my entrepreneurial kind of kind of life began being surrounded. I'm I'm being in that world. And then then after a few years of that corporate life, I sold my house, moved back up north, lived off the profits for a few years while I set up my own my very first company and went into partnership with my best friend from school who is actually also a a founder of of Conocoapius at the moment.
Rob Greig:And, you know, we built up a company in the real estate industry. I developed the software. He he would be testing it. We wrote everything from 360 degree tours of of houses, CRMs, data mining applications. And then we sold that business actually in 2007 just before the housing crisis, to, one of the largest real estates companies in the UK.
Rob Greig:So so that that was very, very lucky. I suppose from then on, I had a number of long term contracts, developing systems, and eventually moving in into kind of business analysis, which was was really natural because I because I had kinda like the corporate background of working with different diverse people. I was also a programmer. I could I would I would felt really natural talking to developers, but kind of translating their speak in into into the corporate world. So so that that was a really natural transition, later on in my career.
Rob Greig:And, yeah, in the background of kind of contracting, I've always had some kind of a side hustle working on bleeding edge, you know, technology because I always always obsessed with wanting to work for myself. So I was working with SMS, ZigBee Bluetooth, and then that eventually led me to blockchain back in 2017. That kind of brings us up till today to maybe the last 5 years.
Kevin Horek:No. That's cool, man. So what got you kind of passionate about the blockchain and web 3? And then let's dive into what you're building today.
Rob Greig:Yeah. So so so yeah. So 2017 came around. Blockchain was was all brand new. We were coming towards, I suppose, the the the top of of of that that bull cycle.
Rob Greig:So it was everywhere. And, that kind of died off then, but I now I discovered Web 3. I early blockchain was Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano and and a few others, XRP. So so I I stayed kind of in the space, trying to absorb as much as we, as I could. And then in 2020, I think it was summer of 2020, I saw kind of like an advert for for software developers, community software developers to start building open source infrastructure on the Cardano blockchain.
Rob Greig:So I was still working a full time job at the time, but I was one of the original 50 people that was invited to to start project catalyst, which was really, really exciting at the time. And then from then so so project catalyst is like a community funding where you put a submission in and you'd go through various and if you got funds, you then then build your software. And then fund 3, I had one of my projects funded. And at the time, Charles Hoskinson, he was the the CEO of of Cardano. He was reading out all all the the various winners.
Rob Greig:When he got to my project, he goes, oh, oh, yeah. Opensource.net. We we need that. And and so so he just kind of added something different than he did to other projects. And then at the time, Josh Jones, the the other co CEO of Cornucopias, he was running, his his own YouTube channel, and and he saw Charles say we need that.
Rob Greig:And he and he was interested in why why Charles would remark on on my project. He kind of looked me up. We we had a bit of a YouTube interview, And then at the end of it, we just got chatting and said, you know, I've been I've been planning this kind of game, and it just that's that's kind of that's that's the start of of cornucopia, really.
Kevin Horek:Okay. So what made you, though, decide to actually go for it? Was it, like, his acknowledgment of it, or you were gonna do that no matter what? Or or, like, walk us through that, and then let's dive into Konecovis.
Rob Greig:Yeah. I was always I mean, I I was fully invested as in time wise and passion wise in the blockchain. At that time, I was fully convinced. I'd never I'd never discovered really community on until I got into block chain. You know, before I've been working for myself, and I've been working with other people, and you'd go about your own way.
Rob Greig:But until I actually got immersed in block chain, the the community element hit me really, really hard. It was so welcoming, especially being the start of the project. So I really wanted to to go all in. And in fact, it's it's what we did. I gave up my job.
Rob Greig:Josh did as well. We self funded cornucopias from the start, and we just really poured everything we could. There was just 4 cofounders, 2 in America, 2 2 in the UK. We didn't actually meet each other face to face physically for, a good 7 months. And because because Josh was already in the community and I was already embedded with within the community, we we we kind of naturally had a following, and people really liked us and and and they knew about us.
Rob Greig:And and we built a number of prototypes. We only had a team of of about 6 people. And, by the end of the year, we probably had about 7 or 8 people. We built prototypes for the 1st 13 months. So we we we did our white paper.
Rob Greig:We did prototypes to show what we could actually do before we actually did our very first NFT sale, because I think it was it was really important for us to show that we could deliver something rather than just come out the blocks and just say, you know, just just give us loads of money and just just put your trust in those. I think I I think, you know, working with people in the past, people want to see that you are legit in this in the space and and that you can actually deliver what what you're going to. And and, obviously, we you know, everything from there kinda just just took off, and it's just been amazing ever since.
Kevin Horek:Very cool. So what exactly are you building, and let's dive into that.
Rob Greig:Yeah. I'm I'm in, Konakopias is it's an mmorpg, web 3. So so it's blockchain based. And and where the blockchain comes into it is is parts of the games will be decentralized. And with with all with with most games, you know, you within games, you have you have your characters, and those characters have various skins.
Rob Greig:You you can have vehicles. You have all types of games that are all kinds of things that have always been been in games. But the beauty of of being on the blockchain is you can actually own these assets. So over the years, you know, I've I've must have bought 100 of of skins within Fortnite, but I don't own them. Those are owned by Epic Games.
Rob Greig:You know, if if if they turn them off or or they wanna ban me, all all that money is kind of just wasted. So so having, you know, when blockchain came around and you can realize that you actually do own your your own assets, I mean, that that's I mean, that's a major major feature for me. Games have always had some kind of virtual currency in them as well. So that translates absolutely, you know, amazing to blockchain as well because because that could be your your your native coin, your your native token. So but I think what one of the biggest one one of the the most exciting part, you know, he's he's working on working on the very the I suppose the the start being one of the pioneers in the space of of this up and coming industry.
Rob Greig:You know, when we started, there there was very little games that that were on blockchain. Blockchain is it was more seen as kind of like the the future of of DeFi. So having the challenge of having a build you know, building something that could be disruptive in the space where players own their own assets or but also being built differently. So with traditional games, triple a games, you know, you would you wouldn't even know they were being built after the they'd come out. They'd they'd have a, like, a multimillion dollar advertising campaign.
Rob Greig:You'd see Spider Man 2's here on every single poster in the land, and that's how they would build community either on existing IP or or they would just blast it out there. So so this you know, one of the challenges in web 3 is actually building your game really early on and being immersive within the community. And and that for me was was, you know, it was so it's so exciting to to see if we could actually do that. So so there's lots of reasons why we why we wanted community involved game, in a new upcoming exciting space is, yeah, is just too good an opportunity to miss.
Kevin Horek:Okay. So walk us through, like, how does people actually play this thing?
Rob Greig:So so yeah. So it's, so it's an MMORPG. So what we are doing, we're we are set in the law is we're in a parallel universe from from so so it's based on based on the Earth. The Earth has had a calamity. Society has got an advanced technology background, so we've actually transcended to to the sky.
Rob Greig:So so so humans live in these big floating, bubbles, these these massive domes. These are these domes are 8 kilometers by 8 kilometers, so they're absolutely massive spaces. And because we're building them using UE 5 with all the power of of nanites and lumens. They look absolutely incredible from from graphics wise.
Kevin Horek:Sure.
Rob Greig:We we're building 12 different, themed, themed sectors, we call them. Each sector has 3 of these huge worlds. So there'll be 36 of these absolutely massive, domes floating in the sky, and players will actually own land plots on each of these different sectors. So in traditional games, you will go into a server, you'll have a session, and you'll all be going in the same building, and you'll all be on the same well, that that doesn't happen with with within our game. The the space is is persistent.
Rob Greig:So whatever's built on your land or your neighbor's land, that will remain there, and evolve over time. And what we wanted to do is we we wanted to keep, a consistency of the game. So all the artwork, we build ourselves in house. We've got a team, but internal team of of 33 at the moment, and there's Oh, wow. Just over 50, including contractors working on the game.
Rob Greig:We've got 2 new people starting actually next week. So so so we build all all the the the assets, the cells. We we do all our own animations. We have our own developers, our own planning, QA. We we we build a lot.
Rob Greig:So it's an MMORPG. So so you're wandering around the these these big districts. You are doing challenges. You're doing mining, fishing, logging. You're doing crafting, gathering various raw materials, and figuring out recipes, putting things together, and and making tools and and and then going through through through those different game loops.
Rob Greig:And then in and amongst that, you are part of a district as well. So as well as playing as your own on your own, you're actually part of a district, so you're building up your individual districts, and we have district versus district competitions. There's there's various tasks that you'd expect in in kind of like a a a an RPG game, and you have your own character. And then dotted amongst that, we have all these, experiences, kind of minigames. So so one of them is where you go to a a mega dome, and this this mega dome, which is currently, live at the moment, we call it Caleido Valley.
Rob Greig:You wander into into the Megadome. You you work your way over into the into the racing track, and that's where you fly these really high speed vehicles that are actually NFTs. So so the players own their own NFTs. They go into the game. And if you if you own, like, a bubble jet, we we call one of them or a javelin, you will actually be flying your own, your own vehicle.
Rob Greig:And everything you do with that vehicle is now tracked on the blockchain forever. So every race you'll ever do, every championship you win, everything is is tracked there. And via APIs, we'll make that available to the public, and people can build all kinds of services off the back of it. So it's that's one of the experiences. In the future, we'll have fishing competitions.
Rob Greig:We'll turn these into esports. So we have the back the backdrop of an MMORPG, community driven economy, and and all these other experiences that come together. So it's it's an ambitious project, but it's going really, really well.
Kevin Horek:That's really cool, especially that you get to keep this stuff. Right? Cause you're
Rob Greig:to
Kevin Horek:your point, like, especially if you quit something or whatever, like it's, it's gone. Right? Yeah. So walk us through okay. So, like, how for people that maybe don't understand kind of web 3, the NFT space, what does that kind of really mean when you say, like, you know, every race is tracked, they own their vehicles, that kind of thing?
Rob Greig:Yeah. So so in in in web 3, we we we have what what's called NFTs. So you have you have a wallet, a a web 3 wallet, and that's connected to which is is connected to to your computer. So you using cryptocurrency, you well, when various sales are on, you go to the sales and and sales for various vehicles or or various skins. But when you actually purchase them, instead of then going into kind of like a central database, which which happens in in every game, these now actually sit on a blockchain, which is a decentralized network that's hosted on a a copy of of of the blockchain is is is on thousands and thousands of different PCs throughout the world, so it can never go down.
Rob Greig:So so you have your your virtual wallet and your assets, your your your coins or your vehicles, they all sit there. And then when you're playing the game, as you log in to the game, you connect to your wallet. So so you you just log in with your user details, connect your wallet, and now the game knows what actual assets you have. So because it's on the blockchain, and it's awesome, and you own it, this means that you can sell your vehicles whenever you want away from the game, or buy them or or trade them or swap them or do whatever. And the next time you log in to the game, the game will just read your wallet again, and and and it will just know some have appeared or disappeared or or the same the same.
Rob Greig:And then as you're as you're racing, as the game is as the game is saving, whether you came 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, that is held, again, in a database, but that database or or ledger is also saved on on the blockchain through throughout the world. So, again, that is then actually stored forever, which is which is which is crazy. So then when you go and sell your your NFT in the future, you know, that whole history goes with it. So you'll you'll know who's who's owned it in the past, what championship, what cups, the whole history. Just just like in the real world when you buy a car and you have have your whole history of of everything that's ever happened to it.
Rob Greig:It just goes straight with it, which is, you know, really new for gaming and, yeah, one of the, you know, many innovations that blockchain and web 3 gives us.
Kevin Horek:Sure. So I wanna dive a little bit deeper into that because tech's kind of been all doom and gloom, especially kind of NFTs and everything's kind of and web 3 and everything's kind of been getting a bad rap the last couple years. I think companies like what you're doing and and there's a number of other companies are actually building really innovative stuff in the space. But I just don't think it's covered enough right now. Right?
Kevin Horek:Like trying to explain NFTs to even like non techie friends. They're just like, it's just an image. And it's like, no, no, no. It can be so much more than that. Right?
Kevin Horek:And they don't understand. So where are we kind of at and and what are your predictions and thoughts about the space right now? Because seems like the hype died down, but people are starting to actually build really cool innovative stuff in kind of this space. Do you agree with that, or what are your thoughts around that?
Rob Greig:Yeah. No. I I do agree with it. I think what what we've seen on on the previous bull market is there was a lot of hype around about NFTs, but those NFTs didn't have any utility. So they were just a JPEG that that just sat in somebody's wallet.
Rob Greig:But what what we're seeing now, you know, though those or some some of those projects have disappeared, but those that have kept building in the in the bear market, you know, they're now 2 or 3 years old. You know, we're us ourselves, we're we're coming up to, nearly 3 years in in in July. So we've had lots of time now to to continue to build our game, flesh out some of the components, and we and we still launched our game in August in in pre alpha. So so, you know, we're not even we're not even alpha or beta yet. So very, very, extremely, extremely early in terms of of of game releases.
Rob Greig:And now what you can see is the utility of the vehicles. You know, you're you can actually go and drive your vehicle. You can put on these various skins. You you you you can fly around the game as well because because our our vehicles have dual utility. 1 of them is actually racing in in the whole esports.
Rob Greig:But then as you're going from dome to dome doing your crafting, you need to transport your goods where you can put them in the boot or or you can you can fly people from one dome to the other, put on your radio as as you go around. So so having utility, which I think is the natural evolution obviously for for NFTs, that for me is a really great, springboard to show people the actual power of what NFTs can do. They're they're not just the JPEG. They they do actually have utility.
Kevin Horek:No. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense. So how do you or plan on monetizing the platform and the game?
Rob Greig:So it's it's very, very symbiotic. So so we will we obviously will will have vehicles that that we will sell. You know, so that will raise revenue for you for the game. But the whole game is player driven economy. So so as players come into the game and they own the land and they're farming, they're earning, in internal virtual currency, which they will be able to then, craft other items, and those items, then they'll be able to craft into NFTs.
Rob Greig:And then when they craft them into NFTs, and we and we kind of call this, build and earn, they now have something that is worth, you know, a real real world money. So they can play the game, grind the game, and all those hours that they're putting in, they're actually now getting something that they can extract some value out of the game and and then go and sell it on, or they can continue to to play it and just just keep grinding and and and building more and more, NFTs for themselves. So so the so there's lots of there's lots of opportunities that way. There's obviously advertising opportunities with within the game because our game is is kind of like a metaverse as as well. There's metaverse elements where we'll have the real world and and b to b and and web 2, as we call them, the the traditional space.
Rob Greig:They will be able to come into our game, like, Toledo Valley is Toledo Valley is is the space where our racing esports happens. So as you enter into Cluedo Valley and and you fly in the hangar and and you come up, you're you're into this huge, huge space where we have different vehicle showrooms. So you can go in there, look at the NFTs. You can look at at our NFTs have different manufacturers, so you can go into the Bubble Jet store, look at those flying vehicles. You can go into the Valley Raceworks store, look at those.
Rob Greig:You can go into into the there's hotels. There will be, shops where people can go in. So web 2 has an opportunity to come in and get their brand name on on there. We will have, we will have stages where where we will have live music that that happens within the and and it's then the lights come down. All the neon lights come out at night, and and it's very much kind of inspired by the Vegas Strip.
Rob Greig:So you'll go down there with the community. You remember, you're all you're all you're all in there together going to these various experiences. You'll pop off, go and go flying in the esports, and then you'll come back and enjoy some music. And and hidden within that that whole space because we didn't just want to release kind of like a in the early days, just a walking simulator. We we've built in what we call these these little hollow caches.
Rob Greig:It's kind of a find find and seek. So you've got this huge space where you're wandering around, and we've hidden these a 160 at the moment, the different hollow caches where you wander around all the different spaces trying to, find them. There's common ones, uncommon rare legendaries, and mythic. So you have a game within a game. You're you're running to to various areas, and there's escape puzzles in there.
Rob Greig:You go into rooms. You have to figure out first of all, you you get the hollow cache, and then you have to figure out how to get out of these these places and these compasses and running around. So so there's there's lots of those elements that are already in there at the moment. But then when you pair that with you're also running around with community and you're chatting with them with with voice and and chat together, suddenly the game takes on a whole different area. You know?
Rob Greig:Because I was brought with games like Lara Croft, you know, where you go and solve puzzles and you wander around big open world. But when you do that with with 40 or 50 other people with you and you get to know them and you you're chatting to them, that it takes on a whole different, you know, type of type of gameplay. And it's really, really, I I find it really, really addictive. You know, new people come in and then people are obsessed. Come on, and we'll show you where your last one is.
Rob Greig:And and so in the future, what we're currently building at the moment is the whole tasks system as well. So we'll be also be able to drive people around. So, you know, go and collect some hollow caches. Go go and craft this. Go and explore this area and then build something up to together as the as the community as as more and more of of these features expand.
Kevin Horek:Very cool. So at some point, are you gonna let other people kind of build on to the world and expand? Or is that kind of just you guys are gonna control all that?
Rob Greig:Yes. So so at the moment, what we're doing is because because these worlds are bit these these worlds are absolutely huge, and and they're all built, like I say, hand built. They're they're not procedurally generated at all. Our our developers are planning out the land plots and placing all the trees down on the plots and and and building everything up naturally. So the players will go in, and as they're crafting and and and they're building up their land plots and putting the buildings on, you know, that's one element of the game.
Rob Greig:Another element of the game is what we call custom domes. And the custom domes, again, are NFTs where where players can own them, They now actually own their own dome. So these are these are smaller domes. These come in 5 different sizes. And on there, we're giving them building kits where they'll be able to go in from from a blank canvas, build whatever they want in there, and open up their own experiences.
Rob Greig:So if they want to to do a concert in there or if they want to have a shop or if they want to have a PVP game or if they want to do them all, they can do them all in there. We'll give them the tools and the and the framework to do that, and then they'll be able to advertise their their space within the the various Toledo Valley games, and we'll we'll have ways of people to be able to to travel to their different domes and play them, and they'll have a leaderboard. So so so, yeah, the custom side of it, the the custom domes, it really expands the game then in into a whole, you know, other type of of of gameplay.
Kevin Horek:Very cool. And then I'm assuming that if I build a custom dome, at some point, I could turn it into an NFT and potentially sell it to somebody else?
Rob Greig:Your custom dome is an NFT. Yes. So so
Kevin Horek:Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Rob Greig:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so you bought that custom dome and you can you can put all the NFTs within that custom domes. You can build it up into into your own business.
Rob Greig:You know, build a brand name up from scratch.
Kevin Horek:That's cool.
Rob Greig:When people come in, you can sell tickets, experiences to come into your dough, and then you can either continue that as an ongoing, business, or you can then then sell that NFT and everything that comes with it.
Kevin Horek:That's that's very cool. So I'm curious. Is there, like, like, how do like, or how big, I guess, is the the game so far and how many people are playing? Because from my understanding, it's Yep. It's quite big already.
Rob Greig:So so currently live, we have Cluedo Valley, which is kinda like this Vegas strip that backs onto, the racing the the racing game. So in the racing game so this Cluedo Valley itself is 9 kilometers by 9 kilometers. Slightly bigger than a sector. But these vehicles fly at over a 1000 miles per hour, so you need a lot of space to to cover them. We have we have 2 tracks.
Rob Greig:If you own one of our flying vehicles, you can come in now, download the game on onto a PC as long as you've got the qualifying graphics card, which is about 30, 60, you can you can come in and you can test the game. So, again, different to to traditional gameplay, which have kind of like closed testing. Our testing is with any you just own the NFT, and you can come in. You can you can start testing early on.
Kevin Horek:That's cool.
Rob Greig:We have we have over 10,000 NFTs that have the ability to to come in and test. You know, some people have more than 1. But, yeah, anyone can come in at any one point. We we have, over over a 100 people that that are testing the the game daily. We we but we're very early in terms of infrastructure.
Rob Greig:We're we're ready to roll out the next next phase soon. But at the moment, we only have 2 servers. So we have a European server and an American server. We don't currently have a character creator yet. That's coming out in the next month or so.
Rob Greig:So when you load into the game, we have a choice of 29 different prebuilt avatars. So you can go through them. They're some of them are mining kits on some login. You can go in go into the game and wander around. We have a a little mini soccer game in there as well.
Rob Greig:That's very, very early. But the racing game itself is is is really quite advanced. I would say if you come in, it's really, really exhilarating, and we've just done a new update now. I suppose we've added another, flying vehicle in which which we'll we'll be up for sale in, a a few weeks from now. So so that's Cluedo Valley.
Rob Greig:That's that's the test kind of kind of like the first world. Sure. But but players don't own any land in that. So we because we're building agile, we wanted to kind of have a smaller environment, because although the although it's massive for racing, the actual kind of, like, the the Vegas strip is is relatively small. Then we've also built, in the first sector, the the first sector is called Solace.
Rob Greig:Now Solace will be built, will will contain 3 large worlds. So Solace 1, 2, and 3. All three of those will be 8 kilometers by 8 kilometers. Solis 1 is now complete in terms of artwork, land plots, number of passes, and we're just going through the the final QA soon. So pretty soon, we will we will release Solis 1 to our testers.
Rob Greig:Okay. And then thousands of people will be able to really see what we're building because this thing is absolutely enormous. It takes about between well, as the float, the crow flies, probably half an hour to walk from one side of Solis to the other. But there's massive mountains, there's hills, there's thick forests. So there is days and days and hours and hours of exploration just to happen in in in Solace, which is kind of like Colorado.
Rob Greig:It has all these these forests and rivers, and and and, eventually, this year, we will add more and more features into that. So you'll be able to to not only go exploring, you'll be able to do camping in there, build up your land plots. We will have creatures, so there'll be bears running in there. There's definitely elements of danger within the MMO. There'll be fishing spots in there where you'll be able to go in and do fishing.
Rob Greig:So SOLACE 1 is almost ready to release. SOLACE 2 is, I would say, 3 quarters of the way through. We we spent a lot of time on SOLACE 1, making sure all our procedures are correct. We, you know, we spent over a year perfecting everything, how we're gonna build it, how we want the different elements to work so that when we come to sort the other solaces and and the other 2 zones that are coming this year as well, We we now have a pretty fast pipeline. So Solis 2 is almost ready to to to go into test.
Rob Greig:Solis 3, we've broken ground into Solis 3. So I think Solis 1, 2, and 3 will will all 3 will be released, in the next couple of months. We're then working on Esperanza, which is the second the second zone. Again, that's 3 huge world. That's more like a a a western barren kind of artwork.
Rob Greig:Again, players will be able to to own, land in in there. We've sold land in in in all all nine of these sectors that it was incredible that they they all sold with within minutes, which was just absolutely incredible. Just as we were coming into into the bear market that they just they just kind of flew. And then the third one is more like an oriental style, that's called Fortune. So all 9 of these will be these massive worlds will be released, this world, alongside Cluedo Valley, which is already there.
Rob Greig:So we'll have 10 huge domes. We will also have the, the activities and the progression system built in there. We'll have the character creator, which is coming very, very soon. We will have fishing. We we have mining.
Rob Greig:We did a demo last year in Vegas of what mining looks like. So so we had lots of people running around that on a on 2 conferences. So that's exciting when that comes in because people will then be able to go into Solace, go down into the depths, do some mining for some of those raw materials. And and, again, there will be lots of elements of of danger in there as as people found out when they were in Vegas. And that's kind of this year.
Rob Greig:So it's so so there's lots lots to come this year and, lots more to come.
Kevin Horek:Very cool. So you've obviously been in this space a long time. What advice do you give to people that are looking to maybe build in the NFT, Web 3 kind of this new version of the Internet and natural kind of progression?
Rob Greig:Yeah. I mean, I I think one of the one of the one of the the the, I suppose, the the lessons that that we learned and and and helped us is not just to jump straight in. You you need to you need to to learn the the different spaces of of not just from a technology point of view, but from a community. You know, really understand how to build a a a community, get involved with with other projects. If you are kind of on your own, we only started with with 4 of us, you know, don't don't let that the this this page.
Rob Greig:You know? Work with other people. Ask you know, get with like minded people. Start projects together, and and just really, really jump in, kind kind of learn. If you follow the same route that that we did of, you know, building the prototypes first, make sure that you can actually deliver, Then when you go to have your NFT sales, you know, you will have confidence that that you'll do.
Rob Greig:I've seen, you know, so many projects that because they're they're kind of techies, they start off with the techy route, then you you get to the part where, yeah, we're we're gonna build this. We have this really exciting and and then you sell the NFTs. Maybe the NFTs don't sell out or maybe they do sell out. Both of those give you issues, because one one of them now how you don't have enough money to complete your project, and the other one, you do have the money, but how do I actually get the project? Because now you've got a community that's when, when, when, you you know, the web 3 are like.
Kevin Horek:Oh, yeah.
Rob Greig:But one of one of the I suppose going back to what what what we said a while ago, you know, what made me actually pull the trigger and want to jump in and give my job up and and go on this is is because when I met Josh and and Jeff, you know, Ant and myself, you know, we're developers. We're testers. Jeff in America has got a security side to him. He's a he's a developer as well. He's he's built a company and and sold that onto.
Rob Greig:Josh is is is an entrepreneur as well. He's got a huge marketing background, huge business building businesses. So all our skills actually work together. So we weren't just tech, tech people. This has been some of the failings in the past when when I stopped and started various companies.
Rob Greig:I got them so far. I could build the stuff. We could test the stuff. We could have a great project. We've got no idea how to actually get it out and and and sell it to other people and see them.
Rob Greig:So you have all this. You have you have to remember that building an NFT project with the community, when you take money off people, you are now actually a business, and you have to treat that like a business. You know, you don't wanna run out of money. You need to pay your taxes. You need to, have HR, eventually.
Rob Greig:You know, you have to have a plan of how you're gonna build your company up, or if things kind of go sour, what is gonna be your backup plan? So so, yeah, don't just think I'm just gonna go out there, and we're we're gonna sell NFTs. We're all gonna have Lambos, and it's gonna be great, and the community are gonna love us. You you have to actually, you know, have a plan of of how you're gonna deliver, how you're gonna sustain it, and then treat that like a like a business. And and that's, for me, is is an another reason why I really enjoy this space because I I really do enjoy building teams.
Rob Greig:I'm I'm I'm watching kind of young people and and more experienced people kind of work together with and and literally just, you know, just build and build and build, but also build a community within ourselves. You know? So, yeah, NFTs are a serious you can just dabble. If you just wanna dabble and and you don't obviously, I'm talking about building a game. Yeah.
Rob Greig:If if you just wanna dabble and you just want the utility of, a a PFP, for example, then, yeah, you can just you can just sell them as NFTs. But, yeah, if you if you want if you wanna build a game, definitely treat it like a business.
Kevin Horek:No. I I think that's really good advice. So you said you have 4 cofounders. Yes. How like, it's hard enough to find 1, never mind more than 1.
Kevin Horek:So how did you find your cofounders and what advice do you give to people to actually find them? Because that's really, really challenging in my opinion.
Rob Greig:Yeah. Well, I I met Anthony at school. So, you know, so so that is with within business, and I and I found this over the years, you know, you can have the the best product, you can have absolutely everything, But if you don't have solid foundations, if your founders don't know each other or don't get on or or they have ego problems, you know, when you do hit some some success or in in the bad times, you know, things will fall apart. So so having a a solid partner like Anthony, you know, I met him at 12, so I've now known him over 35 years. We've settled previous businesses together.
Rob Greig:So so we we have always started our businesses together. So we knew we, you know, we had a solid foundation. When I met Josh, you know, Josh had known Jeff similar. You know, he'd he'd known him for for decades as well. Definitely a risk because because I'd never met Josh or Jeff before, and they'd never met us before.
Rob Greig:You You know? So so we spent time, but I also knew of Josh's, reputation with within the industry. So so that's important as well. You know, if people do have a have a history in the space, you know, you do need to do your your due diligence, and you need to work with them. Even like I say, we we built our prototype.
Rob Greig:We didn't sell a thing for 13 months. Now that's kind of like a honeymoon period. Are we gonna get on together? Are we gonna be at work together every single day remote? Are we gonna be able to make do we trust each other?
Rob Greig:You know, you can't kind of do that from from day 1. You have to build that up over time. And then only when you know it's gonna work. I mean, we'd already kind of gone in financially. So so so there was already kind of risk.
Rob Greig:But but, yeah, in building up that, my best advice, you know, go with people that that you can trust or have a reputation and that, that reputation they don't want to lose because it is, it is really, really difficult. But, yeah, try not to run out of money and and try not to fall out with your founders. It's it's it's it's a lot harder, you know, easier said than done.
Kevin Horek:Yeah. No. That's fair. We're we're kind of coming to the end but is there any other advice you'd like to pass on to people that maybe you wish you knew earlier on in your career or just any other kind of final thoughts?
Rob Greig:Earlier in my career, you know, as you go as you go through from various jobs to jobs, you you you are working with different people. You you are learning different skills, and, you know, some of them work out, some of them failures. But failures, you know, you can learn a lot from from failing, and that can then lead on to the next one. When you're kind of young, you you know, you've got more to you you you're probably living at home. You can take a little bit more risks.
Rob Greig:You know? But, don't go all in on things. Like I say, as I've been building all my businesses up, eve even, you know, when I was working for, for these other companies, I always had a side hustle. So the side hustle was always something really interesting. You know, don't don't jump in.
Rob Greig:Don't give up your day job until you kind of have a some finances in place. You have that backup plan. And, you know, that that's probably been the the good way for me. I've been able to scratch the itch over the years of working on my own projects while still having, you know, a full time job to help help me support through that. Because when you do go all in, you literally are all in, you know, the the pressure's on yourself.
Rob Greig:You know, at the moment, Alex, we have we have 50 people. So we're responsible now for 50 different families, and that would be a nightmare. But you you can't build that up from day 1. It took us it took us a good 3 years to get to that position. But those first that first year, you know, that's that's the that's one of the hardest parts, starting a company from scratch.
Rob Greig:That's where you're taking a big risk but but you
Kevin Horek:Yeah.
Rob Greig:You need you need to kind of not do too many big risks at the same time. So so so, yeah, figure out who you wanna work with, have a trial period, but at the same time, keep your full time job at the, at the back. But but, eventually, if it does work out and you manage to go kind of all in and start your own company and you and and you get to, you know, 3 years, it's it's such an amazing position. And and we've not even started now. We we, you know, the the game is is really, really early.
Rob Greig:Where we're gonna be in 3, 4, 5 years from now is is just it's just so exciting. And and the space itself, it just seems to be seems to be warming up as well. We're we're rip you know, we are we're disrupting an entire industry.
Kevin Horek:A 100%. That's that's very cool, man. Well, how about we close the show with mentioning where people can get more information about yourself, the game, and any other links you wanna mention?
Rob Greig:Yes. We have, there's there's a couple of of things. Our website is cornucopius.io. So that's cornucopiowithans dot I o. We're on Twitter, cornucopius game.
Rob Greig:We also have, what we built from the start is is we built our own what we call a copy wiki. So So so that's over 400 pages of our history, the lore, the game, the NFTs, everything you you want to know. That's on KopiWiki.conocopius. Io. And, obviously, we have Discord.
Rob Greig:That this our Discord is is the first place to go on to our website, find our Discord, go and say hello, and you will meet the the friendliest people in Discord that will that will help you. They will show you around the game. They'll talk about NFTs. They'll explain everything from you. And then in the future, you know, Conocoapius will be free to play.
Rob Greig:So so you don't actually need to to have an NFT to play the game. You just need an NFT at the moment just just while we're going through through the testing phase.
Kevin Horek:No. Makes a lot of sense. Well, Rob, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to be on the show, and I look to keeping in touch with you and have a good rest of your day.
Rob Greig:Yep. You too. Thank you.
Kevin Horek:Thank you. K. Bye.
Intro / Outro:Thanks for listening. Please visit our website at building the future show dot com to join the free community. Sign up for our newsletter or to sponsor the show. The music is done by Electric Mantra. You can check him out at electricmantra.com and keep building the future.
