Interview Sunday: Delving with Damien

Hey y’all — it’s Interview Sunday, and you know what that means! (We hope you know what that means — it’s literally in the title.) We sat…

Hey y’all — it’s Interview Sunday, and you know what that means! (We hope you know what that means — it’s literally in the title.) We sat down for a chat with Damien from Leo Crypto Ventures, who is, without a doubt, one of Apeiron’s most passionate and dedicated supporters — if you’re in the Discord, it’s highly likely you’ve already seen him around. Damien brings a wealth of experience in terms of both investment and gaming, so let’s listen to what’s got him waiting on tenterhooks for the arrival of the godiverse~

…but it wouldn’t be one of our blog posts without a quick reminder (we’ll stick with just one today): the Primeval Planet Presale is fast approaching, and if you don’t have a Whitelist slot already, you can get one by participating in our community Discord Whitelist event giveaway, so head on over to our Discord and get chatting, questing, and earning!

Before diving into the interview, we have a quote from our CEO and co-founder, Frank Cheng, on Leo Crypto Ventures and why they’re especially important to us here at Foonie Magus:

“Leo ventures joined early in our seed rounds before we actually opened it up, ahead of the giant gaming guilds and prestigious venture capital funds, which this seed round was supposed to be targeted towards. I made this choice for Leo Ventures, even though they are new and smaller in size, because it is rare to find such dedicated and passionate people that are willing to commit as hard as Damien and Leo have.

“I have been in management consulting and private equity for 9 years…and I have rarely seen an investor or partner this committed and passionate. I had the feeling that if I didn’t let them in early, I’d be crazy haha! Apeiron’s ability to galvanize partners with a gaming passion and background is a true inspiration for our team and a confirmation of the hard work we have put into building Apeiron, and so we are proud to have met valuable partners like Leo Ventures in our community early on! Gamers~~ UNITE!”

Thanks Frank! Cool, with that being said, let’s jump into the interview -

Foonie Magus: Hi Damien! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today about Apeiron :]

Damien: My pleasure! Happy to be here :)

Could you please introduce yourself to our fans?

Yup, no problem. My name is Damien, I work with Leo Crypto Ventures in Singapore. We help a lot of crypto start-ups. I’m also a long-time gamer…over 30 years now haha.

That’s awesome! So how did you hear about Apeiron?

Actually I just heard about it through the grapevine, as it were. Some people in the community let me know there was an interesting new project, and as soon as I checked it out, I was extremely impressed.

Oo, we love to hear that ❤ What impressed you?

Two words: gamers first. In one of the trailers, I appreciated the attention to detail — the ambient noises of nature, the little sounds the Doods made and their cute animations, then the awesome arrival of the Avatar. It made me interested to learn more about the Apeiron universe. It was very clear to me that you guys are focusing on the game first, rather than NFTs and play-to-earn tokenomics.

It’s something we’ve talked about with our other interviewees before — that other blockchain games perhaps look at setting up their economies before the game itself, while we’re the other way around.

Yes. The fact is that a lot of games are p2e clones focusing on value extraction…but if everyone is taking OUT of the system, then no one is putting IN. The game needs to be good for people to invest in it. So it’s imperative that you go in-depth for storytelling and gameplay — these should be #1, in my opinion.

We’re very much on the same page!

Just to add to that: what sustains a game? You look at a game like World of Warcraft for instance…people care about the characters, the story. They have this connection. And I believe that’s what Apeiron can have, can give to players — that feeling of being a part of an epic storyline.

That’s a thoughtful way of putting it! Right then…so we’ve talked about Apeiron’s focus on gameplay and storytelling…how are you and Leo Crypto Ventures working with us to bring this vision to reality?

So as a venture capital firm, we want to add value to the project. With our investment and partnership, we are linking you guys with different Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) — over 60 in 14 different countries — and overall just helping to get the word out, helping with press releases — I think recently we helped to see an article in Yahoo — and of course involved in Discord community building. We’re actually also interested in setting up a small guild so we can play the game ourselves!

You know that you’ve found a great partner when they want to play your project themselves! Well, I know you’re busy Damien, so are there any final words you’d like to leave us with?

Sure. The crypto-gaming space is changing, evolving. Play to earn is becoming Play AND earn. And in that sense, I think Apeiron can be the vanguard of this new generation of play and earn games, which puts gamers first.

Inspirational! *_* Thanks again, Damien! See you!

That’s all for today, gang! We’ll be back next week to close the month with more exciting giveaways and news, so stay tuned — follow us on Twitter, join our Telegram and Discord, so you never miss out.

And as always, thanks for reading, Godlings. We’ll see you next time.