Interview: Jamie Jackson discusses Mythical Games' upcoming mobile version of social multiplayer game Blankos
Next week, Mythical Games will officially announce that the popular social multiplayer game Blankos is coming to iOS and Android. Ahead of that reveal, we had a chance to chat with Jamie Jackson, the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer over at Mythical Games. Together, we discussed Blankos' journey so far alongside what we can expect from the mobile version.
Could you introduce yourself and your role on Blankos to our readers, please?I’m Jamie Jackson, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mythical Games. I have been in the industry for 20-odd years, and back in the day, I came up with Blankos.
For those who are unfamiliar, what's the elevator pitch for Blankos?Blankos is a game where art and expression exist, with fun and accessible gameplay. Blankos was created with one of Mythical's core values: creativity. I’m a huge vinyl toy fan, and at its inception, my thought was about bringing vinyl toys and collections to life through a really fun and accessible game. And it opened the door for us at Mythical to really lean into art and creative content and bring people into the game from different creative avenues, whether it be Micheal Laue or any of the amazing artists we’ve worked with. Blankos became a place for art and expression through fun gameplay.
How has the game performed since its arrival on PC?We’re proud of it. Blankos launched on PC and accomplished many firsts in the gaming industry as our flagship product. Blankos was the first blockchain game with more than a million users, first on Epic Game Store, first to be ESRB & PEGI rated, first to be featured by Prime Gaming, and the first to partner with major brands like Burberry, Godzilla (Toho), PopTarts and Deadmau5, just to name a few. Blankos paved the path for blockchain tech in the video games industry by bringing the web2 audience to web3 on PC.
As a company, Mythical has seen our audience, and the gaming industry as a whole, embrace mobile in a big way, and with the launch of NFL Rivals and how well it’s performing - with over 2 million downloads - now just felt like the right time to make this shift with Blankos. So we decided to shift our energy and resources on the Blankos front toward Blankos Mobile.
And frankly, in terms of its gameplay, Blankos fits mobile well. We wanted to broaden that audience and make it more accessible, and mobile as a platform, with its reach and audience of more than 2.4B Mobile Gamers worldwide, allows us to tap into that space so more players can enjoy the game and participate in the community. As we move all of our Blankos development focus to mobile, we feel confident that our PC user base will transition and enjoy this amazing experience.
What differences will there be between the PC and mobile versions of the game?I don’t want to give too much away right now, but this isn't a port of the PC game it's an evolution of Blankos Block Party. This is us taking our learnings from everything we’ve done on Blankos since the beginning, making it way more accessible, easier to play, and designed specifically to deliver a best-in-class experience for Mobile devices and Mobile Gamers, with the core identity, spirit, competition and fun of the original Blankos.
Yes, Blankos accounts will be the same across both, and that's kind of what we imagined would always happen here. If you have a Mythical account, you’ll have unlimited access across all of our platforms and products, with all of your assets in tow. So I’m stoked because it feels like we’re now showing everybody what we originally set out to show.
At this stage, do you know which mobile devices the game will run on?The game will be available on Apple and Android devices. We’ve taken that route with our hit, NFL Rivals, and Nitro Nation World Tour, our soon-to-be-launched racing title that will be fast following. Like Rivals and NNWT, Blankos Mobile will also be launched with its own in-game marketplace, another first for the industry, and we’re going to keep moving the industry forward.
Blankos is described as a social multiplayer party game. As such, the community is obviously an important aspect of it. How involved are they when it comes to making changes in the game?We’ve always had a strong Blankos community, and the players, their connectivity, community, culture, and feedback are really at the heart of the game itself. So they are very involved, more than happy to tell us when we’re wrong, and even more happy to celebrate our wins, and it means a lot for us to maintain that and continue using their feedback as we develop the game.
Blockchain integration, among our products, has always been intended to benefit our gamers without being too in their faces, so super low entry bar - just create an account and it's that easy. And this really does speak to one of our core tenants at Mythical, and one of the reasons we chose blockchain, that gamers should own what they play for and what they pay for, with the ability to sell those assets or buy other ones from the Mythical marketplace.
NFTs have a mixed opinion among people, particularly when it comes to games. What would you say to anyone who's concerned about that aspect of Blankos?As is often the case, when new tech comes about, use cases can be simplistic and not ideal, and information can get skewed. NFTs were no different. Our idea was to make amazing games, underpinned by blockchain technology. So each NFT we create, you can use, and it has a purpose. No indie art pieces with no utility.
Aside from bringing Blankos to mobile, what else do you have planned for the future of the game?Along with bringing Blankos to mobile in 2024, we’re planning on lots of fun levels, more partnerships, new ways to play with your Blankos, new ways to compete with friends, and new ways to modify and change your Blankos. Just an outright evolution of Blankos as you know it!
