Episode 5
#5 - Torque Drift 2 With Grease Monkey Games
Show Notes - The Web3 Gamer - Episode 5: Torque Drift 2 With Grease Monkey Games
In this episode of The Web3 Gamer, we welcome Billy Sullivan the COO and Arran Potter the, CEO of Grease Monkey Games. Billy and Arran discuss their paths in motorsports, web3 gaming, and their passion to blend the two seamlessly with the
We delve into how Grease Monkey Games is on a mission to reshape the gaming industry, empowering both gamers and developers through the transformative power of Web3.
Join us as we explore:
- The unique features of Grease monkey games and their inner workings with Animoca Brands.
- How Grease monkey games is birding the digital with the physical for their branded motorsport goods.
- The vision Grease monkey games has for modding, future developers, and fans of true to life AAA motorsport games.
Listen in to this insightful conversation and discover the exciting possibilities of Web3 Gaming with Billy Sullivan and Arran Potter.
Links to Grease Monkey Game's Socials:
Stay tuned for more episodes exploring the latest in Web3 Gaming. Game on! 🎮
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Hello Hello friends and gamers. Today I spoke with Billy Sullivan and Aaron Potter from Grease Monkey games. Billy Sullivan is the CEO Oh, and Aaron Potter is the CEO of grease, monkey games, Grease Monkey games has been making traditional web to motorsport games for over 10 years more recently, having dived into web three with their new title torque drift two, which is a part of the torque motorsports series and the rev ecosystem by Animoca brands with a vision to create community driven games that innovates on how motorsport fans connect with their passion. They are striving to create unique experiences that bridge this gap between the digital and physical world through their games, media events and products. You know, I will be completely honest, I'm not the biggest motorsports person. But after talking with Billy and Aaron, it's clear that they have a massive passion for what they're doing. And they're really going breaking down all the walls to bring their passion into the web three gaming sector and I really appreciated that and really enjoy, just talk with them. They're great guys. Their company is amazing. They really care about what they do. And they really think and put a lot of effort into everything they do. So please check them out on all their socials. Everything's in the show notes below. And you'll notice in the beginning, we had some technical difficulties with Billy's microphone, but we were able to get that sorted out for the rest of the episode. So apologies about that. My name is Matthew and this is the web three gamer.
Unknown Speaker 1:44
I'm Matthew Simone. I am the web three gamer and I am here with Billy and Aaron of Grease Monkey games. How's it going, y'all? Hey, good, good, good. Pleasure to be able to speak with you all today. Really glad we were able to connect. I think you have some really interesting stuff. You're working on some really interesting projects. But before that, honestly, we'd love to hear a bit about y'all hear a bit about your company. So I mean, let's just get into it. Where are you from? What's your background? How'd you get into this project? Were you originally a crypto fan? Were your web three fan? Were you NF T fan?
Unknown Speaker 2:50
Your left or right? Yeah. Oh, medical aura.
Unknown Speaker 2:53
Yeah, so my name is Aaron. I'm the CEO and director of Greasemonkey games. I come from a visual effects background. So my my kind of
Unknown Speaker 3:05
history is always been in visual sides of aspects of things. I used to do commercials and movies and stuff like that.
Unknown Speaker 3:13
And, you know, smokey games started coming on 1010 years ago, we were a bootstrap company. Just building up from, you know, getting a few jobs and, and hiring more people, we just kind of built it up to the point, which is the story that you're going to hear about with acquisition from Animoca brands. But, you know, we started initially doing installations for like, car companies at motor shows and things like that. So
Unknown Speaker 3:45
I remember in 2014, we had four installations at the LA Auto Show, very large brands, very large car brands, like like under and master and Nissen and it's pretty exciting stuff. And then we started doing a game on the side. Yeah, and doing our own IP and the minute that kind of was released, we became a games company. And we haven't really looked back from there. So
Unknown Speaker 4:17
um, my aspect is obviously about running the business and, and connecting all the dots. I'm still very much a art director and do all the vision around here kind of thing and contribute to that but all very high high level and making sure their power and you know, we have access to the building kind of thing. So I'm Billy the CEO here at Grease Monkey. been at the company for over eight years. Eight years now one of the well in the group now you were you were one of the first Yeah, yeah. Which is which is wow, that seems to have gone by really fast.
Unknown Speaker 4:59
Kind of
Unknown Speaker 5:00
In that time, one, all of the different hats. As as Aaron knows you're doing a small indie company that's growing stuff needs to be done.
Unknown Speaker 5:10
There's no one else appointed to do it. So you just kind of follow your curiosity and do it and learn and get better as you go. I've personally been making games for like, since I was a kid
Unknown Speaker 5:23
found out you could add automatic slide transitions and Hyperlinks in PowerPoint. And that was my first kind of intro into games making choose your adventure. Choose your own adventure games, when I was quite young,
Unknown Speaker 5:37
and from there, I thought that I wanted to make animation you know, stop motion animation, like walls and grommet and things like that. Then found refound I guess, Game Dev, and pursued that as a career. I've always been a cause have been kind of a big part of my life as well. My dad being a diesel mechanic in the army, kind of pulling apart and renting cars as a kid. And so when it kind of discovered I moved to Melbourne, discovered legal monkeys, which is what the company was called back in the day, and like they're doing stuff, they don't games. And I just managed to find my, my way through the gates as they were back there at the gates. And, yeah, still still here. So I managed to stick around and having a ball. So then is it fair to say before this, where either of you ever have anything to do with like, crypto or web through NF T's? Or was this game really like the first foray into that for you know, the crypto thing came around, obviously, with the acquisition from Animoca brands. So we were already making talks we have to prior to that acquisition, and they really introduced us into into web three and everything blockchain.
Unknown Speaker 6:57
The tech particularly excites Billy and myself. It's not.
Unknown Speaker 7:03
It's really what is what it offers for players in the future, I think is just, it's really exciting stuff, you know, digital ownership in itself. The concept is amazing. I don't really think the industry has
Unknown Speaker 7:18
taken full advantage of what it what it actually offers. And, and like with the stuff that you see what we're working on, we're trying to connect real life brands to the gaming experience. And, and web three, through hooks through the whole thing. And, and for us that is something different, something unique, and pretty cool. Yeah, I think we're aware of the technology well into the development of talked riff one, because we haven't really mentioned the game. So we got to talk to talk burnout, design mobile, had roughly 40 million downloads. We then went on to make a more worldwide global appeal motorsport game, which is drifting, we chose drifting because it's something that's still small growing, but has a really large potential and something as an indie game studio we can really sink our teeth into, in terms of signing up brands, making something that hasn't really been done before. So at that time, we kind of were aware of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, but it was still very hard. This one was this. It's weird, because 2018 2017 Yeah, they're long ago, but it's, it seems like the space has come such a long way. And, and I think the use cases, once we have we kind of changed our thinking to blockchain for games, what does that actually mean? Like a fundamental technology level, and then obviously, being introduced Animoca
Unknown Speaker 8:48
really kind of connected those things. And we got very excited very fast, I think. Also, another point about the drifting angle, it's like it when you relate it to all other motorsports. It is a very young motorsport so
Unknown Speaker 9:04
So basically, what we're able to we're able to sign deals that you could imagine Formula One, and how difficult it would be to break into any kind of licensing or even getting through to managers and all those kinds of things that you have to do. But with drifting, it's growing and, and we're able to sign some awesome deals with some amazing companies, which are kind of similar to us, which is still still growing ourselves and, and looking for opportunities. So a lot of our business happens in America. And, you know, one of our major partners for Formula Drift.
Unknown Speaker 9:43
We were able to sign out, we're a major sponsor of them, and really kind of connects what we're doing virtually with real experience as well, which, you know, kind of also connects to how we're doing
Unknown Speaker 9:56
our real life sales and so then
Unknown Speaker 10:00
I'm, Erin, you were mentioning earlier, you wanted to talk about a good amount of how you guys are bringing kind of the digital and the physical together with your brand. Overall, you want to talk more about that? Well, like initially, we talked riffs, we signed a lot of aftermarket parts, and drivers. And so let these guys they haven't been engaged before, guys and girls. And, and it's like, it's awesome to they, you know, they'd love to get their brand out that some of them have like amazing brands, so we're happy to push it. So for us, it's this endless stream of content, which is cool, you know, like, it's just great to have these brands in the game. But we're also, we're also promoting those brands. And recently, it's in development right now is we're making, we're selling parts, these parts that we've signed in the game, we're selling them in real life. So what and what web three does, it enables, it enables us to connect the dots where if you own this NFT, like have an alloy wheel, you can get a discount of that exact alloy on our store. So it's like, if you're a fan of a brand, which you know, in motorsport,
Unknown Speaker 11:19
passionate people love their brands, you know, they love repping, certain wheel brands or you know, turbos whatever, they put the stickers on the side of their car and stuff, so
Unknown Speaker 11:33
and we're just giving them an extra way to connect to that brand. So yeah, and I think web three definitely does that for us, you know, it enables us to, to do something different and,
Unknown Speaker 11:46
and reward people for their, you know, for for being a fan.
Unknown Speaker 11:51
And, in addition to that the other way around, if you have people coming in, who just want to buy car parts, we can give them access to the digital versions of those car parts for the game. So they kind of have a different way of discovering the utility. And they get something right, they bought the alloys for their car, we can give them digital alloys. And they're like, you can use that in talk burnout and talk to everyone and talk to refer to. And they have this whole new kind of experience outside of the traditional shopping experience, getting what they came for maybe getting a good deal and going through the sales process to having this motorsport experience with this new thing, digital asset, which maybe they're not aware of. So that really excites us as well, going both ways from the game, to the physical, from the physical back to the game, and letting our players you know, build cars alongside their digital cars, which I think is a really exciting proposition. There's no reason why we can't do it. So we're like, let's, let's just do it and, and see what happens. Definitely. And I will say, too, for anyone who hasn't seen the trailer yet, or gotten to look at some of the reveal y'all have, it's a triple eight game, the graphics are amazing lighting, physics, everything from all the reveals I've seen. And the customization is going to be endless. And I appreciate that. As a gamer, I'm not I won't pretend that I'm a massive racing fan. I don't know enough about it, or I don't know enough about motorsport motorsport fan, I should say, but I can appreciate the depth when I see it there. Definitely. And I can tell y'all both have a huge passion for it, and have really gone the extra mile to make sure that people also have a patch for that clearly see it identified in your game. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I think, you know, like we were, we were a mobile developer. So, you know, getting games to work on on mobile has restrictions and barriers that you have to cross.
Unknown Speaker 13:55
At Android, I don't know if anyone knows this. But there's there's over 20,000 devices of Android that potentially might not like your your game. So there's, there's a whole lot of issues in the Android world.
Unknown Speaker 14:09
You have to optimize and stuff. And we've said with, we've talked with two and our future future games, we're really going very high quality. And we are doing triple A one thing you mentioned was customization. And we've really kind of doubled down on that.
Unknown Speaker 14:25
We do full interior customization. This is not this hasn't been seen. I don't believe in any game yet. To date. And we also include the real brand. So all the brands that you see, and you can customize your car in the game. You can go by that part, you know what I mean? And we connect the experience to to real real life, which is a really cool experience for any any motorsport fan. I mean, being able to obviously i don't know I'm not even massively into motorsports, but I know it's very expensive.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
I don't want to call it for some people, it could be a very expensive hobby, but even a career, it's a very expensive career, there's a lot that goes into it. And there's, you know, your team, your vehicles, you know, customization, all that. So for a lot of people who, you know, it's a pipe dream, or maybe it's something where they're like, you know, I would have loved to have done that. But I'm past that this is a great way to really live that life fully, and immersively, I think. And I really liked what you all said earlier about how if people own a specific NFT, that they can get the physical product in your shop for a discount, or let's say, a specific one that may only be available to people who have that NFT if, if that's something you'll do, we're going to do in the future. And I like that you connect the physical and the digital, like you said, because I feel like most people, the NF T's are merely a digital like key or marker for them to either get into the game or do something unique in the game. But you're really bridging this gap. Or you're bringing it back out to your actual brand, your actual company saying like, it's great, like if you just want to play the game be an NF T holder, but like we're offering so much more than that utility wise, and as a brand. And as a company wise, for people who are beyond just the game. Bill, you should really talk about how we kind of try and cater to different gaming experiences. So yeah, I think yeah, yeah, I mean, just before that, I think you may have seen on the webstore, but you might not have you've seen the trailer so you know, the bobblehead at the start on the dash, and the cars dash. So the very first thing that we actually did, you know, venturing into the physical space is actually went through a whole process. We modelled that in 3d, we got that manufactured, we added, you know, many months of r&d, we produce that package that it's available in real life. And our premium keychain holders, which is the first kind of behind the scenes,
Unknown Speaker 16:48
access, NF T that we did they get that for free, that is pay a shipping on the website, you connect your wallet, and you get that sent to your house and you put that it actually comes with a little three M strip, so you can stick it on your dash just like in the trailer. So like those kinds of things really excite us and bring the fun back into,
Unknown Speaker 17:11
not back into but enhances the fun of what we're doing. And yeah, the digital and physical, we're always we're always looking at ways to bring that experience back into the physical world. Yeah, yeah, it's also really important to know, that is, as we, you know, we've been in this industry for 10 years, and we realize quite early on that players don't always enjoy the games, the way you're designed it. So that, you know, as a game designer, you think that
Unknown Speaker 17:44
I'm making a drifting game, let's make it all about drifting, you know, the physical, you know, how does it steer and all that kind of stuff. And then what we found out is that there's a whole bunch of players out there that experienced the game differently. And they might spend all the time on customization. Or they might spend all the time tuning and, or collecting, so there's different. So you know, when we get into web three,
Unknown Speaker 18:10
particularly with talk, drift, two, is we're making different roles, so people can enjoy the game differently.
Unknown Speaker 18:18
And that also extends beyond the game, too. So we're talking about, you know, trying to connect, if you're a fan of that brand, and you can go by that part in real life. So there's different, there's different angles that we're trying to take on this. And that's not traditional kind of game design.
Unknown Speaker 18:38
And, you know, you mentioned earlier, Matt about, you know, we're making a triple A game.
Unknown Speaker 18:44
And you know, is it is it like, how is it going to be a playable experience, and I, you know, I respond with that, where we are releasing experiences as we go along. So traditionally, in mobile gaming, you have a release date, you hit that, or you...
