Manticore and Deadmau5 team up on dystopian worlds game jam

Electronic music artist Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) has teamed up with Manticore Games, the maker of the user-generated game platform Core, on a dystopian worlds game jam.

In the contest, amateur creators on Core will create dystopian worlds for a new music video being created by Deadmau5 for the upcoming single, When the Summer Dies. Grammy-nominated Deadmau5 created the song with musician Lights. Deadmau5 is on the leading edge of art and tech, and he recently dropped some nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the market for the Blankos Block Party game and they sold out within five minutes.

Deadmau5 is “fan-sourcing” the content for his next music video, said Patrick Buechner, chief marketing officer at Manticore, in an interview with GamesBeat. Buechner said that Joel Zimmerman, whose stage name is Deadmau5, is quite tech savvy and was already familiar with the Core platform and its ability to enable players to create high-quality games using tools such as the Unreal Engine.

“Deadmau5 has a really deep understanding of all the different metaverse projects that are going on,” Buechner said. “He was checking out core and he’s extremely technical. He really appreciated the accessibility of Core and the community that has already been created.”

Manticore Games is one of the candidates to build the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. And it recently raised $100 million. It’s not unlike Roblox’s user-generated content, which enabled Roblox to go public at a $41.9 billion valuation. But Core games use Epic’s Unreal Engine, with graphics that have both greater variety and higher quality than many blocky Roblox titles, which are often for kids. Core is more like Roblox for adults. Because Roblox has become so valuable, it’s clear that investors believe that Manticore Games could have a similar value.

Back in April, Core moved into the Epic Games Store and early access release.

“Since then, we’ve been seeing tons of new games on the platform and a lot of new players,” Buechner said. “When you go into Core now, it’s an immersive 3D environment. You feel like you’re part of the metaverse from the moment you walk in.”

Zimmerman said in a statement that he was blown away by the creativity he has seen on Core. He said his passions include games, experiences, and world design. And Core’s creators are producing next-level art and user-generated experiences.

“Game jams are just part of what we do to give creators something new to focus on,” Buechner said. “It’s an exciting event for creators. But this is the first time we’ve partnered with somebody on the music side. A game jam just felt like a natural way to do it.”

In order to take part in the deadmau5 x Core Dystopian Worlds Collab Jam, anyone can build a world on Core and submit their entry online at deadmau5.coregames.com July 15 to July 26, 12 p.m. Pacific time, and winners will be announced July 29.

Top submissions not only have the chance to be featured in Deadmau5’ next music video, but are also eligible for taking part in the $50,000 prize pool and other premiums such as a VIP lifetime guestlist pass for all official Deadmau5 events, an invitation to meet-and-greet Deadmau5 at a future show, plus special autographed merch and swag.

Creators will also be up for awards like Best in Show and Deadmau5’ personal favorite.

“His videos are extremely experimental, and very visually stunning,” Buechner said. “He has a very high bar on that.”

Buechner, by the way, was the PR man at Electronic Arts’ Maxis division who introduced me to a game called The Sims for the first time.  And I helped Manticore CEO Frederic Descamps with his case study on the Xbox while he was studying at Stanford University’s MBA program. They’re moving up in the world.