THOMAS VU HINTS FILIPINO MYTHOLOGY GAME IS IN THE WORKS
A former Vietnamese refugee in the Philippines, Thomas Vu returns to the country to launch Creta, a next-generation entertainment and gaming platform.
During the grand launch of Creta held last June 27 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in BGC, executives announced that its currency $CRETA will be available on https://coins.ph starting July 8, 2024.
THOMAS BACK IN PH; RECONNECTS WITH LOCAL GAMERS
Thomas is an Emmy-winning producer (for the Netflix series Arcane) who is also behind The Sims and SimCity. He was also part of the team that developed iconic League of Legends (LoL) characters such as Jinx, Vi, Lucian and Ahri.
Netflix's League of Legends animated series Arcane is the first streaming series based on a video game to win an Emmy. In 2022, it won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program as well as three other Emmy awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.
In an exclusive interview with PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal), Thomas admitted that he is considering the possibility of creating a Filipino mythology game in the future.
Has he met with any Filipino game developers?
Thomas disclosed, "Yes, I met a lot of gamers. It's amazing. They love playing games like League of Legends and they love playing games like Mobile Legends. They love mobile games.
"It's a great energy, experiencing, connecting, playing with each other. To me, it's the child in you, coming out in games."
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THOMAS VU LOOKS BACK ON NETFLIX ARCANE SERIES
Thomas also looked back on the time when he was producing Arcane, the animated series based on the League of Legends fictional universe.
"What's unique about is that we developed it then we took it to Netflix. Actually, it was really amazing because we developed much of the show without having to license it.
"It was very interesting because all of us were first-timers."
Did they get feedback from gamers back then?
"Along the way, we did [get their feedback]. What's unique about is that we shot the pilot episode and we used the pilot to show people and it's very interesting because it's like a puzzle.
"Some of the scenes, even in the pilot, were added towards the end of production. We got a lot of feedback from a lot of people. When you're making something, you're just pouring out your heart so you never know if it's going to land.
"We knew that it was going to be very good for people who play League of Legends and for gamers. The question was: was it going to be good for everyone else?
"Thankfully, it was great for everyone."
Thomas is no longer part of Arcane Season 2 but he pointed out, "I worked on the early parts of it so I can't say much about it. But it's the same team so I fully believe it's going to be great."
Have there been talks about creating a game based on Philippine mythology?
"I am fascinated by Philippine mythology. Looking at the different ideas of spirits in different countries, and I've been reading about it in the Philippines.
"I just think that in the future, there will be a lot of opportunities to tell these stories. There's a project I have in mind that really goes into these stories, the mythology of many different cultures that very few people know about.
"Everyone knows about King Arthur, more Western mythology or even Chinese mythology or Japanese mythology. But very few people know about mythology from places like the Philippines or the Middle East. I'm very excited for that."
THOMAS VU ON CRETA AND THE FUTURE OF GAMING
Creta, which is headquartered in Dubai, UAE, is a Web3 gaming and entertainment platform that has chosen the Philippines to be its launchpad. Creta combines the best aspects of video games, social media, content creation, and blockchain technologies.
It has four pillars: the Creta Studio where you can create your own games; the Creta gaming platform; the Creta multiverse; and the Super Club, which is its social media network. Users of CRETA will also be empowered to develop and distribute their own games as NFTs.
Will Creta be open to Filipino game studios or developers?
Thomas answered, "Yes, absolutely. With the gaming incubation program, we're targeting creators from all over the world.
"This is a very global and international endeavor and you can already see that we're very excited about the Southeast Asian market. Many of the developers are from Japan and from Korea. I'm from the U.S. We have developers from Eastern Europe and other European countries.
"It is going to be open to everyone. In the next few years, you're going to see teams of one to two people making billion dollar games. And the fact that games can now reach a global audience of 3 billion gamers and gaming has grown by around 8% to 11% a year.
"This industry is significantly getting larger and larger. And because of the commoditization of gaming, anybody can make a game. And I think it's all about education, the tools, people knowing and supporting ecosystems. Creta, at the end of the day, is an ecosystem. And so we want to really promote and support as many people making games as possible because the best ones will actually be the things that people will end up playing and be propagated across the world."
What games are currently available on Creta?
Ray Nakazato, the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Creta, pointed out, "Creta is a platform, but also we are developing games. So far, we've announced three games. Rise: Kingdom Under Fire is our MMORPG [massively multiplayer online role-playing game].
"We are developing Fortress World which is a very popular casual eSports game. The third one is the Tokyo Wars, which is a anime-themed adventure game.
"In addition to those, we've recently announced the first Creta Nexus project, which is a third party fundraising program. One of our partners has announced a game that he's going to create for Creta.The details of the game is not announced yet, discussed yet. He's just calling it Project C right now."
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2024-06-29T16:05:42Z dg43tfdfdgfd