Cryptocurrency and VR - Introducing Mimicry: an Independent Virtual Reality and Game Dev Studio!

- The team, on the steps in front of our building

Hello, Steemit friends! We're Mimicry, a small 5 person VR & game development studio based in Portugal. This is our first post on Steemit, our introduction story!

Introducing the team

Our team consists of José Carlos Vieira, Pedro Oliveira, Artur Gomes, Daniela Fontes and Thomas Papa. We're a mix of programmers, artists, designers, and entrepreneurs and since we're such a small team, we take on multiple roles within the company. We are based in the city of Coimbra, at Portugal's largest tech-incubator; Instituto Pedro Nunes. We are currently working on a new VR game called Ganbatte. Ganbatte is a crazy social VR party game about cats, sushi, and space. More about that in future posts!

- The city of Coimbra, Portugal

About Mimicry

Mimicry is independently run, so we don't have any publishers or stakeholders telling us what to do, aka we have full creative freedom and we don't ship before we're satisfied with the quality of our work. We develop our own software projects, which are 100% virtual reality focused. We make VR games, but also experiences and educational VR apps. 

Besides our own stuff, we also provide VR services (aka client work and consulting). We work with companies, helping to bring their VR projects to life. Our clients range from healthcare institutes to universities to multi-user virtual reality metaverse platforms. BTW, for all you non-native English speakers out there, Mimicry is pronounced as /ˈmɪm.ɪk.ɹi/ - as in 'library'. 

Cryptocurrency and VR

About a month and a half ago we discovered Steemit, and it immediately sparked our interest. We're huge proponents of cryptocurrency. There is so much wrong with fiat money. We really believe in decentralized exchanges of value, and we value freedom and independence immensely. When we learned about Steemit, a platform that combines blockchain technology with the beauty of an online community that's all about sharing stories and experiences, we couldn't be happier.

Steemit very much feels ahead of the curve. We think it's a social platform, network, medium, that is driven by its users, not by big corporations and not controlled by a government.

Cryptocurrencies, to us, feel very related to virtual reality. Both offer a sense of freedom unlike anything ever seen before, both use state-of-the-art technology,  both evolve at a massive speed. And we're already starting to see products, services, altcoins and companies that are integrating one into another. There are many overlaps between the two technologies, they enrich and empower one another. That's why we feel particularly at home here.

Ganbatte

When creating VR, games, or virtual worlds, a lot of different disciplines are required, it's a mix between art, design, technology, and business. This is what our posts and stories will be about. Currently, at the center of our work stands the previously mentioned game 'Ganbatte'. This means that most of our upcoming stories will revolve around this fun and super exciting new project.

Re: original content

This is a topic we've seen popping up on Steemit, we think it's important and we want to address it: original content. When it comes to the question of original content and our Steemit posts, we've got a pretty clear rule for that: cross-promote, don’t cross-post.

Of course, Steemit is not the only place on the web where we talk about our work and where we share what we're up to. In fact, we're keeping a development blog of the game over on our website, and we are also active on traditional social media. Yes, we want to share our dev blog posts (and other stories and experiences) here on Steemit. However, we will not simply copy/paste our blog posts or Facebook updates in here. That wouldn't benefit Steem (in fact, it would hurt it) and that wouldn't the best use of the platform and unique affordances. Will there be some repurposing? Probably. But we'll never duplicate. We will craft and tailor our stories specifically for Steemit. 

Your input matters to us

Besides sharing, we also hope to get a lot of inspiration from you, the Steemit community. What do you think of our game? What are your thoughts on VR? Do you have a VR device? Are you thinking of getting one? How do you see the future of cryptocurrencies? How can VR and cryptocurrencies benefit from the one another? We'll be scavaging Steemit for your input, feedback, thoughts, and ideas!

We're super excited to be here on Steemit, sharing our endeavors in the world of virtual reality, game development and running an independent game studio. Until next time!

- Thomas, Mimicry