Mystic Moose, a new Boston-based game developer, secures $5 million in Seed Funding for its inaugural blockchain gaming metaverse project Planet Mojo.
Planet Mojo Game
Planet Mojo is a player vs. player (PvP) cross-platform auto chess game reinvented for blockchain. The platform will allow players to own their game characters (as NFTs) and play-to-earn in ongoing tournaments. Players will also have the option to use their customized game characters and assets across an upcoming suite of games set inside the Planet Mojo universe.
It will be a browser based suite of interconnected games, beginning with the Auto Chess game. Featuring Player vs. Player (PvP) and Play-to-Earn features, Planet Mojo will also use Augmented Reality (AR) elements and have a charitable eco-friendly component.
Planet Mojo Founders
The Planet Mojo metaverse is being built by gaming industry veterans from LucasArts, EA, Activision, and HappyGiant.
Founder Mike Levine previously produced the XR games “Sam and Max: This Time It’s Virtual,” “QuasAR Arena,” and “Hologrid Monster,” one of a handful of marker based mobile AR games that came out in 2016.
Mystic Moose’s Art Director Eric Campanella, worked on Call of Duty 2 and 3 and Command and Conquer: Generals.
Mike Levine, Mystic Moose CEO, told GamesBeat that the game’s theme is about the meeting of nature and technology.
“I was inspired by nature in many ways… There is so much sci fi and cyberpunk in crypto, but we think there could be a lot more of that in this space. We wanted that to be a theme of this project.”
Mike Levine, Mystic Moose CEO
He also added that Planet Mojo is built on a gas-free solution and will feature an eco-friendly message. He said that the company intends to use the funding to work on building the planet out.
Levine also added that Mystic Moose calls Planet Mojo a “metaverse,” though he acknowledged that there were different definitions of that word. As he put it, “We’re building a large, expansive world that players can socialize in, interact with, and play games in. We decided not to build a world where brands can come in, because that’s what the real world is. We wanted to create a magical place that people could escape to.”
Planet Mojo Seed Funding
The seed funding round was led by Animoca Brands, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Republic Crypto, Alameda, AU21, Sfermion, Polygon Studios, Collab+Currency, Sky Vision Capital, Spartan Capital, HyperEdge, Momentum6, Fourth Revolution Capital, among others.
Yat Siu, executive chairman at Animoca Brands, commented:
“We invested in Mike and Mystic Moose because of the team’s experience in creating, launching, and shipping commercial titles for the gaming industry’s top legacy publishers. On top of that, as a big auto chess fan, I’m very excited about Planet Mojo and its upcoming blockchain-powered metaverse and auto chess game. We look forward to working with the team to push blockchain gaming to the next level.”
Planet Mojo is currently hiring, and plans to drop its first set of Mojos in the first half of 2022.
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