Munzee 15th Birthday Special.

In this episode we talk with part of the team from Munzee, from Robbie, Sam, Tim, Mari & Dylan, to the president himself, Rob. Tune in to say Happy Birthday to Munzee and listen to just some of the 15yr history. 

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G'day, this is Craig, also known as Seemyshell from the Munzee team. I am by myself right now. Big congratulations and happy birthday to Munzee. Fifteen years well done. And let's get on to this special. That's right. This is a Munzee 15 year birthday special. Who we got to talk to in this special? Well, you're gonna have to wait and see. But first in line is the man himself, the myth, the legend. Well, he's not a myth. It's the president of Munzee, as of today. First and foremost, Rob, happy 15th birthday to Munzee, buddy. How are you?

Hey, I am good. I am not flat today, but I am in the game flat, Rob. Yes you are. The actually the original. The original flat. Before I ask you any more questions, Rob, you know, if people this is the first time they've even listened to the podcast, that sort of thing as well, first and foremost, how did you get involved in Munzie way back in the day, mate? Way back in the day. August.

mid August of two thousand eleven, so fifteen years ago. almost fifteen years ago. I was out geocaching. was going out on on a long run that was maybe twenty miles from where I lived in North Texas and looking on the base of a windmill for geocache and couldn't find the cache.

But there was a QR code that was flapping in the breeze right there. zip tied to the to the leg of the windmill. Saw it. And and QR scanners were kinda new for the for the iPhone. And so I was like, I've got a scanner. So I scanned it and and it said on there, scan for points.

So this was one of the original Munzies. And scan for points was an attractive thought to me. So there was no worries about like, they're gonna steal your phone and all your data and your credit cards because y you couldn't even put a credit card on the phone at that point. So anyway, scanned it and was like, wow, it downloaded the app, got the points. This was in the original days of obviously only five points each. three points for cap ons on those physicals, those greenies, there were only greenies and

Craig's (02:15.596)
Yeah, so that day, I spent the next three hours driving around and earned something like three hundred points from capping nearly every Munsey that I could find within about a fifteen mile radius. It was crazy. yeah, so so figured out where the the founder of the company lived, Aaron, based on the names of Munsies and the oldest Munsies in the area that I could find.

And over the next three months had some communication with him back and forth, some of it about not being able to find some some of the Munsies and he said to me that his daughter, who was like ten, had hidden them and if I couldn't find them that I might want to work on my geocaching skills, which was pretty entertaining. So he was a police officer and would didn't mind insulting me through message. good guy

Worked my way into the team, basically said, Hey, I'm a teacher. I want to be a volunteer. They they let me come on as a volunteer in June of twenty twelve. So it took me what, ten months to convince him that he needed me as part of the team. But when when I met I think I met him in like September and I said, Do you know what you have here? This is amazing. This could be something huge. I am going to work for you. Told him that early on, and again.

Seven months later, after badgering him nonstop, putting out pictures, doing social media posts about Munzy and helping to grow the game for no reason other than I loved it. You know? So yep. It was it was a fun start. So there's seventy-two minutes of my history. What else?

Well my d you you said you just said then as well you had this, you know, you you saw Munsey being big, you saw what Munsey could be. What was your actual you know original vision for Munsey if that's the case then? Well, I I saw it as a business. Like yeah, I saw there being something that could be like geocaching, but better. for for me, based on the fact that I could take Trey along

Craig's Riverside (04:29.334)
with me and play this game. At that point he was 10. him riding along in the car. I didn't have to take him out on trails. I didn't have to wander through the woods with snakes and all kinds of crazy stuff. I could drive up to locations we could get out, walk around the parking lot. it was the kind of thing where I could it was just moving faster. So the speed of it, the points, the competition based, everything about leaderboards and all of that.

was so attractive to me in talking to Aaron and the rest of the guys, they built it as this is just a game. Like here you go. They had no intentions. There were four of them. They had no intentions of this turning into a full time job for them. Each of them already had a full time job. We worked when I f when I finally got to join as a volunteer, we worked from like nine PM to midnight.

Three or four days a week. Those were the times that all of us would get on a call and we would we'd have those chats. So yeah, I I just I saw that there was there was a chance to to do something with this in a in a slightly different direction than geocaching. They claimed not to have built this with any knowledge of geocaching. I'm not so sure about that. I'm pretty sure that that Josh.

one of the four founders, the brother-in-law of Aaron, was a geocacher. So he had done it before. And anyway, this was geocaching with QR codes instead. Speed was the was the thing. So yeah. There you go. So you it's obviously been around for over a decade as well, Mike. But looking back, what what do you think has been the the single most the biggest turning point for you in the game's history since your involvement? I think for me was actually the very first project that I was tasked with.

was try and find a way that we could produce stickers. because back at the beginning, if you think back, anyone who was around, like you had to print your own. And you used clear tape and you taped them onto something or you laminated them and people punched holes in them and then they faded or they got wet and they were just done. So my my job was to to do that.

Craig's Riverside (06:50.626)
To find a way that we could do do the printing. I walked into a couple of places locally trying to figure out can you print? I need 10,000 individual, unique QR codes and I want them to be this size. I was like, I want them to be one inch squares. And that's the reaction that I got in three places. And the fourth place that I went to said.

We can't do it, but here's where we buy our stickers. So the actual producer of it, they said they they they mostly only take business clients. Good luck, go talk to They were ten miles from where I lived, walked in, sat down, talked with Steven, and we worked out a way to do it that day. And it it was cool. one of the original posts that we did on social media about the stickers, I stuck a

sticker to my head and was laid down on top of a pile of stickers because I rolled it out through the length of my house from my front door all the way through straight shot to my garage door and it was about forty feet long the roll of stickers that I got and I had to cut them down into sheets of fifty. So I stuck one and was like I stayed up literally all night long cutting stickers so that they could be shipped. We sold ten thousand stickers like in the first day.

Wow. Wow. Yep. Yeah. Mate, there's there's been obviously countless features as well where in regards to and events and collectibles, etc., all a while across the years itself. any any one decisions that you made earlier on, that you you think that's maybe shaped the direction of Munzie that is today? I wish that I could be fully responsible for this one. But I was part of the group and part of the like help decision makers, if you will.

The virtual Munsey. I mean the day when it was just literally stickers. That's all it was. Physical stickers. That's it. That's it. It was it was here's these greenies, five points, and all that kind of thing. I was I was instrumental in like bringing in the the jewel line. So before that there was greenies and there were mysteries. bringing in the jewel line. And all of that had come from the fact that we did bring a virtual munsi

Craig's Riverside (09:14.28)
that virtual Munzi, you know, if you think about it from a business standpoint, what's the cost of a virtual Munzie? Yeah, you know, a piece of air. that it's just coordinates on a map. So if you think about it from that point, that that was a that was a big deal. I wasn't solely responsible for that one, but I was for the things that came from that down the line, which led to us splitting the map layers so that you had a physical layer and a virtual layer.

And then later what did we do? We put in the the temporary layer. So you've got the the the cards. Then you have the bouncing virtual gardens and then you and the flat can see where the split goes. Right. I I was at a I was at an event in in Cologne, Germany, and there were so many virtuals that had been deployed in that area because of the event. Like it was gonna be a hundred people coming together. I think that's how many it was. My first trip over to Germany as part of the team and like

come meet Rob. And it just it grew. It got really big. I was so annoyed while we walked around Cologne. I'd never been there before. So annoyed that I had to walk along with my face in my phone, tapping all the virtuals because I wanted to give all those players their cap on point. That's right. and instead of talking with those great German players that had shown up, they were doing the same thing because all of these were new. They were new in the area for the event. And so I came home from that trip and what was born from that.

Blast cap because I said I want to push a single button, Scott. Scott. I want to push one button and I want to cap everything. And I don't care if everyone else is allowed to do it, but I want it and I need it and I need it fast before I travel again. He was like, Pretty sure we can figure out how to do that. Do something on that. At that point in time, Scott and I had an agreement and the agreement was I would come up with crazy ideas and it was his job to figure out how do you do it. So

Was that so b back back then as well, Rob, if that's the case, did you have the fact that they actually disappeared off the map after you kept them or they just turned to the red check mark as well for you? it was really, really, really annoying. because they were very, very insanely slow. What we have now, people that use the blast cap and they're gone nearly instantly now. and it's literal seconds before you get your here's how many points. I mean

Craig's Riverside (11:36.994)
I might have sat for a full hour waiting for one hundred to be blasted. Wow. way back early on because our servers were not ready. Our database was not built to withstand the pressure of trying to capture 100 of something at at one button push. So yeah, there was a lot of testing. There was a lot of patience. That's the reason. If you go on any of the social groups, Munzi teaches patience.

That's been a a theme that has run since I took over in twenty twelve. I can guarantee you that once it teaches bitch. To me and to all the players. Yeah. Well, speaking of worldwide Rob, if you're over there as well, are there any moments from past events or player interactions or any milestones, that sort of thing that you'll never ever forget in the last sort of, you know, since twenty twelve for you? man. The my stuff is all about the events that I've been to, the people that I've met.

You know, I mentioned that first one in Germany. there have been so many, so many big ones. There was an event in in Germany that had two hundred and fifty players at it. Like that's not something that we have been able to replicate again. That's the biggest one. And we've never done it again. They they built such a community there and I've really always enjoyed that. the

players that I met ha that have become team members. you know, we we go back to Sam and Lou was a player. yeah. And she's more than just a a a team member now. you, you, you know, and then through through you and through continuing to travel to events, there was Tim. you know, that that's been the biggest part of it is

Just the people that I've met going and doing that. another thing that I've always really enjoyed and and tried to make happen and I wish that it was every time, but it hasn't been every single time. When a new player is taking over as number one on the leaderboard. yes. Being there. Being there when it happens or shortly after it happens in order to have that celebration. that's been important to me. Whelan was a punk and he took over as number one.

Craig's Riverside (13:56.5)
After we completed the event. I remember that I remember that. He specifically waited until all of us were gone so that he could do it on the Sunday. He he didn't, but we shone it on him the next time that we were all around, that's for sure. Exactly.

I've I've always enjoyed that. I did it as a surprise one time in Florida for Arts Five when he took over. He had no idea that I was gonna be there and I just showed up and was doing a live video and showed people where I was and the people at the event were like, Wait a second, he that's right there, like he's right over there. Yeah. I'd flown in the night before. It was it was super cool. I love it. Well I'm gonna talk to Sam very, very soon as well on this on this episode on this special too. So I'll ask him about that.

I'll ask him about how he met you or whatever as well. So I think he was a young lad. I think he was nine. I think he was nine years of age back in two thousand and fourteen. So there you go. I'll ask him anyway. I'll ask him mate. So there you go. Mate, one last thing though, and this is a this is actually a really good question that that I could sort of come up with and that is if you're gonna go back, go back, Rob. You know, you people say, you know, if I if I went back and what would I know today? But twenty twenty twelve Rob, think about twenty twelve Rob, the actual Rob at twenty twelve.

What's one piece of your advice you would give yourself and what lessons have you learnt along

What lessons have I learnt along the way of being diplomatic being diplomatic. there we could do a series on on lessons that I have learned for sure. But I think that what I might go back and say to twenty twelve, Rob, would be focus. Mm-hmm and

Craig's Riverside (15:46.066)
stay on a path, not see how many more paths you can find. yeah. I I I won't blame anything on the ADHD. It is a big part of me that helps me in a lot of things and community building and all of that is is a big thing that I'm able to do. and just bounciness. But

The focus is not something that is easy for me. that would have made a massive difference because there's so many side quests that I went on and took the company on that if it had just been Munzie, wow. I don't know what we would have been able to do. because we did spin in so many different directions. But it was part of

shiny things and new things and some of them worked and some of them didn't and we've learned and we've grown. We're on a new side path with Skydrift brought us I was about to say Skydrift explore the world. I I know have I learned? Yes. Do I apply all the lessons that I learned? Absolutely not. just like so many people out there I'm sure people can hopefully feel that. but anyway that

That's what I would say to twenty twelve Rob. I would say the same thing to twenty twenty six Rob. focus. Find that path and stay on that path. we're at least it's at least in the same vein. and I have actually over the past couple of years tried to stick true to location based gaming. That's what we do. We don't we don't build marketplaces. We don't sell sandwiches and beer. we we consume those things. We don't sell them. Like you did a pod. Yeah.

Side side podcast for that one. Yes, exactly. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Rob, for joining us. I've got other people to speak to as well. So well done, mate. Congratulations. Happy birthday to Munziey. Fifteen years, well done. And here's to another fifteen, mate. Here's to another fifteen. Cheers. Thanks, man. Well, well, well. I have Sam with me now. Sam, also known as the Flat Cup. G'day, mate, how are you? G'day. I'm doing all right. That's the way, that's why. First and foremost, and this question isn't even on there.

Craig's Riverside (18:03.968)
Why the Flat Cup format? What's with the Flat Cup? from Cappa Z. from Cappa Z. Well speaking speaking of Cupaz A, you so you the one actually creative people don't know because some people were brand new to the game, etcetera as well. You created the the Cappa Z as a separate app to begin with. Tell us more about that. How how did you come about creating it, et cetera, et cetera, from there? Yeah, so Cappa Z started building that in sort of middle of twenty eighteen, I think. initially this was a

Just a tool for my mum, she's she was organizing the cover clans, which at the time had it was just a group of three clans, but she wouldn't be able to easily see all the clan stats for those three clans all on a single page. and the the existing things out there just let you look at one clan at a time, which a little bit annoying. to built that tool initially for mum, just with a th those three clans on there. And then eventually, you know, made it made it better in various ways to the point that it it functioned better from my perspective than

any of the other tools out there for looking at clan stats and expanded it. So you could you could look at other clans and published it in it might have been the Munsey G B group initially and then Munsey Watercooler. and slowly expanded its feature set from there. certainly at this point Capazy's main feature is not the clan stats, you know, it still does that but Yeah. I hardly ever go to that. it's yeah actively has grown

It's grown exponentially now as well. Did you ever think that it actually become part of Munsey, like an actual sister app to Munsey? Probably not, because if you just created it for your mum and that's it. Like you would never have thought, you know, you know, the Munsee team is gonna pick this up and run with it as well. Absolutely not. I mean at the time there were there were quite a few different third party Munsee apps. Yeah, you know, had Easnum, Munsey dot DK and Munstat and maybe others that I can't remember at this point.

All of them existing. And Kappa Z was definitely at the time not trying to overtake them even, let alone get in front and get in front of the Munsey eyes and the Munsee world as well, mate. Well, as I said before, it has come on leaps and bounds and it is part of actual Munsey now as well. Munsee purchased it off you or something something happened there in regards to the Munsey taking over the ownership of it, etc. But Sam, it still is in your

Craig's Riverside (20:23.576)
Capable hands, sir. Absolutely. You are still in charge of it. You are still the Kappa Z man. Everyone knows you for that. give me one thing, mate. One thing that you're most proud of when it comes to the the Capaz Z, whether is is it the is it the Cappa Clan stuff from the very beginning or is it something new from from you know, recently? Alright, this is an easy questi easy question. I mean Capaz Z Gardens, it's absolutely my favorite feature of the whole thing.

You know, it's the my the thing I was most excited to build coming on on board the Munzi team because it just wasn't something that I'd have the ability to do beforehand and it it's just completely changed how how gardens work. I'd I've been wanting to do it for years, you know, made various attempts at part of the functionality, but just getting the one click deploy was you know, so it really changed it, you know, not just making it easy to, you know, get the coordinates and, you know, design things nicely, but actually having just

Deploy with a clip rather than you know, copy your latitude, copy your longitude, paste them in, find the right type, find converted to the right colour, which you know, half the time you couldn't figure out the right colour of blue. What Sam is actually referring to, if you're brand new to Munzen, you you only know Capas E gardens themselves. You don't understand what Sam has actually created and built when it comes to these gardens. This one click deploy business in the right spot with the right colours.

what Sam basically just said is yeah, we used to have spreadsheets that everyone used to share online going back in the day. A when I say back in the day, I was even involved in the spreadsheets, Sam, and I'm not that old in terms of the Munzie world too. So yeah, no, Kappa Z Gardens mate by far to me personally as well. Probably one of the best features of Cappa Z to this date itself. But but if you you you had limited sorry, if you had unlimited time and resources right now, what's your what's your next big thing do you think it's gonna be part of the

Part of the Capazi world. that is a that is a tough one. I mean obviously, as I said, I've I've built my favourite thing, which is Capazy Gardens. But past that, I mean crazy things I'd like to build. I'd like to get the home screen widgets on Kappa Z, I'd like them to be better. I'd love to make an Apple Watch app, even if I just to give you more of an excuse to use my Apple Watch. and what I'd really like is to get some nice page which combines

Craig's Riverside (22:42.56)
all your sort of progress stuff. So you can see all your everything you need to do for Gauntlet games, everything you need to do for your daily and your secret Zeeop. And your crates and you know, make sure you get your streaks done, everything in one nice page. Which at the moment, you know, if you you need to know, you know, do I need to cap any Zodiacs at the moment? If you see some on the map, you're going past them, you know. Do I need to grab Zodiac? So you have to go and check is check your clan stuff, going, Yeah. Gauntlet game stuff. Have to go and check you know, your secret Zeeops, your daily XOps, all that lot.

I'd love to get nice pay churn at all, but that's bit of a challenge 'cause there's It makes it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it does make a lot of sense 'cause at the moment, you know, I'm even me, myself, I'm obviously on Munzie app itself quite a little bit. But I even forget sometimes I've got to check my daily Z Ops and I gotta do that's right I've still got a secret Z ups I haven't finished yet from like last week or the week month before or you know, there's some people out there that are running five or six secret Z ops at the moment and

Once a month they'll go and check to see if they've actually completed any of just randomly. But yeah, no, that'd be a great idea, mate. I really, really like that. But mate, you've been working now with Munzie for for quite some time. You know, after you developed the Cubasy app, etc. as well. Is there any particular favorite moment you can recall? Like, you know, maybe maybe, you know, 'cause you you met Rob when you were how old were you when when you met Rob? Rob when I was nine. you were nine and how old are you now?

I am currently twenty one. You had to think about it. So you you've known Rob since you were nine years of age and there is a I do believe there's a photo on somewhere as well of you when you met Rob for the first time as well. Was it an event? Tell us more about when you met Rob. Yeah, this was the London Robbed event in twenty fourteen. I remember exactly where it was now, I mean it's too long ago. I wasn't the person organizing getting there, so

Yeah. In twenty fourteen in London. Back in twenty fourteen in London. I met Lou sometime similar time, not at that event. I b was in Marlowe and Lou was came up to meet us on her bike. which was quite interesting. I can't remember whether that was before or after I met Rob, I think before. and that was that was I think before or soon after Lou became a member of staff. That was sort of certainly very early on when Lou was staff if if she was at the time. Mm-hmm. then after that had

Craig's Riverside (25:06.262)
I haven't met any other Memunsey members of staff since then. obviously. Not even me, mate. I haven't met you. Come on, get over to a UK. But obviously I've seen Rob and Lou plenty of times since then. Always good to see them. Yep, yep, absolutely, absolutely. Mate, outside of outside of Munsey, outside of the coding world in which you live in right now, literally I I f I feel like whenever I see, you know, I hear Rob talk about Sam or whatever else or

I all I picture is the matrix, you know the green screen with the numbers and the letters rolling down. That's all I picture you as part of the green screen itself. But outside of all that, is there anything else that you do any other hobbies, any other thing that you like to do? No. I mean I play Munsey and I code stuff and I do yeah, I do a lot of coding and that's about it. So you're not you're not like a yeah, some sort of secret bodybuilder or or tennis player or any of that sort of stuff at all. Literally it's just Munsey and coding.

Yeah, not at all. Absolutely not. And people people who have the have not met you, then yeah, that was a little bit of a joke because yeah, d definitely this is not a video, so people it's audio only. And no, he doesn't have muscles upon muscles upon muscles. Just saying. So Sam, thank you so much for joining us, mate. I do appreciate it. Happy birthday to Munzie. This is a birthday special for them as well. And and keep up the good work, buddy, too. Thank you again. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Wow, wow, wow. Thank you very much for that, Sam. Now we have actually Robbie. Robbie is also known as the Flat Disc Golf. And Robbie, mate, we're gonna learn a little bit more about you, buddy. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Happy to be here. Now you you you've been working with Munzie for quite some time now. What what roughly what's the length of time we're talking about? And how did you actually get on board with Munzi stuff? Gosh. that that's a whole nother story. I've been working with Rob and the team since

technically like the last bit of twenty fifteen but officially started with them January of twenty sixteen. So it's been over a decade now. And now you've come into one of the actual lead w I like I call it the lead developers in the Munzie world because you're you're in the gameplay team, but then again I think you're you're you're mostly doing all the coding stuff as well. What what does a typical day look like for you in the in the Munzie realm? Yeah. I mean a typical day for me

Craig's Riverside (27:29.114)
is coding up something, hands on keyboard, whether it's new features that are going into the game or trying to track down bugs and and fix those. that's that's mostly where my day is spent. some some bugs are pretty difficult to track down. but others, you know, can be identified and you know pretty pretty easily resolved.

And what a lot of players I try to explain this a few months ago now, mate, too. What a lot of players don't realise is the way the way it works with the coding itself as well. If you change some part of the code and you may add it in a feature, and you we all know what Munzi's like with adding features. But as you add that particular feature, something happens with the actual coding in somewhere else, and that's the bug we're talking about. Is that the bug you're talking about when you were talking about bugs? it can be that it can also just be like unintended consequences, I suppose.

so yeah, some of them are are because of what what in the industry is called spaghetti code where you change one thing and there's a there's a yeah, some sort of impact somewhere else in the in the system. we've we've mostly squared those away. It's not quite as bad as as it was years and years ago. but now it's mo mostly unintended consequences or things that we didn't think through all the way during planning.

okay. So you're actually fixing up all the the issues that were from b the past as well. But are speaking about the past as well, y y hasn't you've been involved with Munzie for quite some time now, but what's grown do you think the most in the the years you've been involved with Munzie, technologically wise, what's actually grown the most for you? I mean, I didn't come from a background of development at all. so my first kind of look and hands on experience with databases and structure and stuff like that, coding.

was with was with Munzie, and Wallaby technically. But yeah, so I mean most of my career here has been growth. started with just like a a simple interest in it and has evolved over time. A lot of the systems that we've put in or that I've had a a hand in putting in has been some sort of growth or like you know identifier of growth for me.

Craig's Riverside (29:47.63)
Yeah yeah yeah. And what about in tr in terms of challenging stuff? So you've basically started with Munzie, you know, through that sort of period. But what's been I think the most challenging thing that you can think of that everyone would say, I can see that part of it now too, like actually in the game of Munsey? Which which part is the most challenging for you mechanically wise? Yeah, mechanically I think the the biggest things were the things that Rob said that previous developers had said, No, we can't do that and I said, you know, hold my Doctor Pepper, you know? I

I'd have to say filtered blasts was probably the one that got people the most excited. and then alongside that was the ability to launch blasts over and over again without having to wait for the one that's in the queue to finish. those those kind of go hand in hand. But I mean, I've been a part of the team for long enough now where if there's some new feature that happened from I'd say twenty twenty.

Or so twenty twenty to twenty twenty one till now. it's come through my keyboard in some way, shape, or form. Unless it's on Cup C that's fully SAM. That's right. But one of the things that actually came through your keyboard, and I know because I was part of the testing team for I'm so I'm talking over 18 months of the testing team was the the VAC or known as the VAC or the virtual auto capture boosters.

That was part of the team now for like eighteen months or two years. Tell us about the the VAC and what you did in regards to the VAC stuff. Yeah, that was another one of those longtime projects that Rob had said that he wanted to get implemented and it just kinda sat there on the shelf. with the VAC, we didn't really know exactly how to tackle that until I had done work on the the blast and some of the changes that we had made with

the blast queue and and how that works on the back side. all of that went into give us the first glimpse at what the VAC is now. it gave us the stepping ground. So I was able to take that core concept from Rob and the work that I had done with the team on blasts to get that project started and then it quickly grew out of my control. and I needed to hand that off to G.

Craig's Riverside (32:07.5)
'cause I don't I don't do anything with the client. So anything with with the mobile application itself, G handles that. So I got it to a certain point and then he he brought it home. But you know, that's a good example of what our development team is able to do. And and that would be I think one of the the things as well when if if I ask you like, you know, players often see the most finished product.

You know, that sort of thing too, but they don't actually see the journey of it too. That one there being the VAC itself would probably be one of the ones we're talking about there. It would that be the story that you you'd talk about in regards to, you know, players seeing something simple and and basic, but you're like, hang on a second, I've been working on it for two years. Yeah, I mean the the VAC is a great example of that. I mean there's been so many different examples to share about like where the journey of s a product goes. I think the VAC is probably

One of the longer ones, most of the other things that we add, whether it's complex or not, gets implemented relatively quickly. the the upgrade to version two took a long time to get implemented. but it was a completely you know, complete back end rewrite. but the VAC is is probably one of the biggest projects that went from like simple on paper, yeah, you know, push button, make do, you know.

capture things like that idea to where it is now is is definitely one of the biggest biggest changes from simple on paper to complex to actually get implemented. But then alongside that pretty much anything that we do with destinations, the the OG destinations like motels, hotels, resorts, anything with that is a nightmare to implement.

Well, you've got so many different different rooms to consider as well in the different parts of and you know, when it comes to the motels versus hotels and when one room goes and the other one comes in. There's it's a lot to work with, absolutely a lot to work with. But you've worked closely with the actual development and the gameplay teams, as I said at the start as well. how do you balance the difference between, you know, when you come in with these ideas, etcetera, but then you sit down and actually you've got to make it reliable, you know, for thousands of players out there too. y so you're the one behind the keyboard from there. Right. Yeah.

Craig's Riverside (34:26.722)
So I G has been such a great lead and aspect of our team. He's he's ensured that that we're able to remain scalable, at least as scalable as possible when we have upcoming features. he holds really the stability of Munzi in his hands. And so I wanna start by just saying like props to him because he's allowed a lot of the gameplay team to really just kind of dream big.

not have to worry as much as the scalability or of the scalability and the back, you know, behind the scenes stuff that players don't have to worry about. we really don't have to worry about that as much. So I d I start all of that by saying like the the role that I get to play here, not only in development but with gameplays, is almost like a gate that kind of keeps ideas and reality separated. And so as we're coming up with ideas as a gameplay team.

A lot of things get brought to me, a consulter, I guess, and say, Hey, you know, what do we think about this idea, Robbie? You know, can you implement this? And most of the time I'm able to give a realistic yes or no. and sometimes I, you know, run with it from there and the idea morphs and we're spitballing things back and forth and this really simple idea has now become something more complex.

Like I'll give a quick example here. way back in the day we had this credit called Z creds and we were gonna phase it out and needed a way to do that. And so we were like, Well, why don't we allow people to use that to redeem these, you know, credits or Munzies with with that credit? And it was just a way for us to kind of sunset the Z cred credit into something else. And ultimately that ended up changing to

what you know now as the redeem store. so little little things like that. it's really fun to see, you know, ideas more. And, you know, that starts with just the creative heads that are that are on the team. And there are some absolutely creative heads on the on the gameplay team too. And they're w they're coming up very soon in this episode too in this special.

Craig's Riverside (36:44.3)
But meanwhile, Robbie, looking into the future now, so you know, you've got a little crystal ball there, slash computer monitor, etc. as well. You you know the technologies that are at the moment. There's there's AI is coming in a lot. There's you know the the augmented reality came in a a while ago too, and you know, plu other games like you know, Pokemon Go, all that has picked up all that sort of stuff too. But what do you think? Is there anything without giving anything away, is there anything at all that you think Munzi may or may not come up with or utilize some sort of technologies in the in the next few years or so?

Yeah, as far as like player interaction, I'm not quite sure. you know, AR or augmented reality was kind of a hot topic about a decade ago. That's when Pokemon Go came out. It's crazy. They just had their tenth anniversary, which is wild. Wow. yeah, they're they're the little bro on on the block here. But anyways, aside from that,

Yeah, it's it's hard to say. That's that's one of the fun things about being in this industry is we don't really know what's coming around the corner. people were asking me two or three years ago if I was worried about AI and I was like, No, have you seen the stuff that AI does? Like I'm not worried. but now it's like it's actually a really great tool, when used properly. So on the back end, you know, it can help us write tests, and it can help us with with

implementing some things just from like like part of the development sequence which which players may or you know may not ever be able to to see. But as far as being implemented into the game, I don't really know if there's a good bit there. Maybe something with you know onboarding or training players like how to play, maybe. But outside of that, I don't I don't really know. But I'm looking I'm looking forward to seeing like what comes down

pipeline because you know other people's development in the industry helps give us ideas for what we can do for Munzie. Absolutely. So you think you're thinking something like, you know, a Cappy, a an AI Cappy comes out of your screen as like you see on Star Wars or whatever and stands there dancing around and showing you how to play the game. Like like Clippy, the Microsoft paper clip. Yes, yeah. poor old Clippy. He's gone. I don't know.

Craig's Riverside (39:02.548)
I know. I think more so because you know Munzi's been around for enough time, there's still certain areas on the map that just don't have content. So if you come in as a new player, there's nothing for you to engage with. and we've tried our best to try and give some of those starting points. But you know, who knows, maybe AI or a a way of us building a system that better helps players get into the game would would be useful.

It would be. It would be. Mate, just before you go as well, you also are part of the you you are you actually are the flat disc golf. The actual the that's your flat. quickly give us a a reason why it's it's a flat disc golf. Yeah. it's actually a flat disc golf basket. It's sorry, the basket. Yeah, the basket. Yeah, it's the goal that if you're playing disc golf you wanna try and get your your disc or your frisbee into that in as few of throws as possible.

I've loved Dusk Golf for many, many years. I don't even remember when I started playing, probably around fifteen or so. And it's been something that's been consistent in my life, though I've had, you know, time in and out of of the sport. I don't know. We we changed from being like personas like, you know, flat rob, flat matte, flat blue, to flat items, which was also an item that I had

or a an idea that I had pitched to the team so that more team members could actually be, you know, brought in. We could continue the flats line without having to worry about it. Well, what if Dylan leaves the company and now his flat like yeah, we don't have to worry about that with the flat items 'cause those can be very quickly changed. So Disc golf basket represents me to that regard without it being a just a flat Robbie. but yeah, I I I really love disc golfing.

And if you haven't given it a chance, you know, it's it's made for everybody. Yeah, absolutely. I've taken I've taken my daughter disc golfing and she's enjoyed it. my dad goes disc golfing with us and it's it's a great time to get the family out. And you know what? You can play Munzie while you're just golfing, which is also great.

Craig's Riverside (41:24.494)
Y you can place and now you can place, you know, your own greenies and cap your own greenies too. So you can place your own greenies with permission of course, on the on the disc golf baskets as you go around. See there you go. You definitely need permission to do that for sure. That's right. But the virtual aspect of Munzi is definitely doable. Yep. All right, Robby, thank you very much, mate. And by the way, happy birthday, happy fifteenth to Munsey and and I'll see you on the on the next gameplay meeting, buddy. Perfect. Cheers.

Now now online we have Minnesota Boy, Minnesota Boy, Minnesota Boy, also known as Tim. Get it, mate. How are you? A going great here in Minnesota, Craig. That's the way, that's why. You say you're in Minnesota. Tell us a little bit more about Minnesota Boy, if people haven't heard of you or from you. Yeah, I am born and raised here in Minnesota. Have lived in the Twin Cities metro area my entire life and haven't had a reason to leave here.

You know, found Munsey because of geocaching. I think that happened for a lot of people. Yeah. You know. I was listening to a geocaching related podcast and they talked about Munsey and boom, I was in. Nice, nice, nice. So I've been Minnesota. Now I do rumor has it, Tim, that you actually are the player who placed the very first Munsey in Minnesota itself, in the state of Minnesota. Is that true? That's correct. I placed the very first Munsey here. It was a greenie at the time. Yeah. It is still available in downtown Minneapolis. It is called Minnesota's first Munsey. Mm-hmm.

And it has been there all this time. I've replaced it a few times over the years as they've painted over it on the fence and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it's still there and pig still gets capped once in a while. Now the other rumor, there's a second rumor too, Tim, the second rumor is that you, sir, have been playing Munzie longer than our president, Rob. Is that that got any validational truth to it?

That is absolutely true. My account is older than his. I believe it's by a month or two, if I remember correctly. and yes, that's something that we figured out a few years ago when he was at an event here in Minnesota and we I was like, my account is older than yours. That was a fun thing to find out. Might you since you've been i been in the game for longer than anyone else.

Craig's Riverside (43:38.37)
Give us something that th how the game has changed in your mind. Like from the very beginning to what you see nowadays in terms of Munzie wise. What's what's the difference between the t between the two? yeah, I mean I I think that the the biggest difference is when I first started out, of course, it was only greenies. you had to you had to scan a physical QR code. And for the most part, those greenies were also a lot of them being handmade. We didn't have the nice

vinyl stickers available from Munzi that we have now. Mm-hmm. and so you were out making your own and you putting them out and there wasn't that many to find. So gaining points and moving up leaderboards was a slow, slow process, but it was but it was for everybody. so yeah, from that and then virtuals being added and

Of course, all the different things. I mean, if you're involved in Munsey now, you know how many different things there are. And how many more, now that I'm in this on the inside, how many more I can see coming ahead. Exactly. And there's just constant ideas and constant updating of the game. And but one of the great things about Munsey Craig is that you can be a new player and you can jump in. Yeah. And you can just play so simply. Yes. You can just go and find QR codes and scan them. You can get close

Close enough to the virtuals to cap them. And if that that's all you want to do, you can play the game that way. Yeah. You don't have to worry about all the ins and outs of everything that goes on. You can just play the game very simply. Or you can take a deep dive and get involved in all of the different levels of the game, not only on the game board, but just with scatters and bouncers and gardens and it just goes on and on and on. So you can play it very simply. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. So

Were you around before they even had clan wars as well, Tim? Gosh, you know, I I participated in some of the very early clan wars, like 'cause they were numbered before I think they're still being numbered. Mm-hmm. But in in and if you go look back at my history, yeah, I participated in some of the very early ones. I think I might have missed out on a few of them. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that though, yeah, you you joined up that early that Very early. Ver very early indeed.

Craig's Riverside (45:54.156)
Mate, having experienced Munzie then for so long itself, and now you join the team as well. You touched on the difference between a player versus a an employee. give us any any other information that you found now that's different from being a or that w that now you've got to look on the inside, mate. What's anything different? Yeah, I mean obviously it's different playing from the inside, as you know, Craig, being on the team yourself, you have access to information in the game. You also have access to game pieces that

that you're come your way at a much easier price point. so that's why you and I and Rob and other players, other people that are members of the team are not on the leaderboard because it's a different game that we're playing. it wouldn't be fair for us to compete against players. Correct. so we just compete against each other, which we have a great time doing. I'm currently trying to chase Rob. I don't think I'll ever catch you. You are

Constantly beating me every day.

In the gauntlet games. I can see it. You know, I can see what you're doing every day. And I and and I I most days I can't keep up with you, even though you're seemingly on the farm every day. I don't know how you do it. Yeah. I I tell you now, if people want to know, have a look at my area. I'll just say that. If you want some tips and tricks, you look at some of the big players, you look at W. Helen, you look at Colecracker Seven, Mundiprof, in and myself and Tim. Have a look at the big players and see what

And how we can cap and what we cap and where it is as well. Have a look at our maps. Because I'll tell you now, Tim, I call it building your own nest, whereby you can build your own nest without actually you placing too many of the physic the virtual municipal, you know what I mean? So you you swap with other players. So therefore everyone you share the points amongst everyone, you see, because you're not gonna get the cap on points. so you might as well share them amongst your friends. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very cool indeed. Yep, you gotta build it up.

Craig's Riverside (47:52.09)
Exactly. Meanwhile, Rob, you Rob, see, I told you I was gonna say it. I told you I was gonna say it. I did it. I did it. But you've obviously seen the the the eras Munsey, I'm gonna call it like from a first hand. So you said before when you first started out, it was literally tell us about the your printing of the QR codes and that's all it was the two with you know the introduction of the virtuals, the introduction of all the bounces and all that. What what was there any particular one feature or moment in Munzie that really stands out for you in those all those different eras and time frames?

Yeah, for a big moment for me personally was the first time that I was able to get over one million points in one day. Mm-hmm. And I I know that players are still excited about that goal today. to get that badge, that million points in one day badge. I was out in in Los Angeles, you were there, Jucash and Vlogger was there, Rob was out there as well, of course. and we were going to the big events in LA and I spent a whole day

By myself walking around capping while you guys were doing other things. I do remember. And and I had I was not on the team then, so I was paying for my own blasts and having to do a lot of hand capping to try to save money and I I mean I worked all day long to try to get to that million points and it took me all day 'cause it was right up to that evening event when I finally got there.

Well, I saw you I still remember I was doing some filming in that with Josh and I look over and there you are walking the perimeter of the park like by yourself. But you you had your backpack on and you had your cord as well from your your your secondary battery to your phone and you were just head down. You didn't even see that we were there, like you just head down, whack, whack, whack, whack, and it's cupping as you go on too. So and that's what you have to do in order to get those especially the million points. And and now again

I'll say this to anyone who's got a millionaire. congratulations, well done. It is hard work. I still remember my first millionaire and that was before I was involved in Monday and it cost me a little bit of money in blasts as well. I was in Florida at the time. And yeah, so you go to a new area and that's where you can cap it. But that's another reason why there's that millionaire badge that everyone's so proud of as well. So well done, mate, well done. Anything else in regards to the the eras Munzi that you'd like to maybe even see come back, for instance, that you played before.

Craig's Riverside (50:07.726)
One of the things we used to have involved with Munsey is Eventsy. And I don't a lot of players probably remember what it is, but if you're newer, you probably don't. it's another scavenger hunt thing that Freeze Tag has available and it's used in other ways called town trek for and other communities use it for scavenger hunts. But we used to have it as Event C involved in events. Like we could do Munzy Mania here in Minnesota. We go to the Mall of America, set up an event sea all around the mall.

You could go around there and you're have to find certain things, answer certain questions about what you see, and then you gain points and you try to you try to beat other players. Sometimes it was a speed game, how fast could you do it? I would love to see that come back and I think we've talked a little bit about it within the team. but I don't know it's not quite there yet as being a a full thing that we can use again at events, but maybe soon, I hope.

Well, maybe is a possibility. We did I remember it did come make a comeback to a certain degree in California this year as well. And that's correct. We always know that that Rob and the team utilize California quite a bit in that first of big event over in California.

as a testing location as well with Cappy and the and the what is what when you do the the daily strolls and all that. We we did all that testing over there before we could release it to the rest of the world as well. So that's a possibility, Rick Tim. It's a possibility. I hope so, 'cause it it is a fun thing to add into Munsi events. Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for that, Tim, as well. And happy birthday. Happy fifteenth birthday to Munsey. Happy and happy fifteenth birthday to you too, Tim, because you've been playing since the since the very first year as well. Yes, yes. Happy birthday, Munsey. And I'm excited for all the stuff we're doing this month. All the stuff going on with the mailbox and the extra points available. And boy, we have so there's so many things glowing on the map right now. Absolutely. And if you want your own Minnesota boy signature as well, don't forget he's out of the shipping team and production. So

Craig's Riverside (52:02.432)
make sure you go online, order your stickers, etc. as well. And you never know, you may get a nice little autograph from Minnesota Boy, Minnesota Boy, Minnesota Boy. Or or catch me at an event, I'll have all that product there as well. Absolutely. All right, thank you, sir. Thank you so much, Tim. Munzie on. G'day, g'day. We've got Dylan. That's right. Dylan, also known as the Flat D H S. G'day, mate. Hey, how's it going? Guys, guys, girls.

All listeners of all kinds. Unicorns. The one I think the one listener that that actually does listen. So there we go. Hopefully Rob will listen back on this at least. well in that case then we mightn't say too anything too bad about him, but anyway. Might Dylan, give us a little bit of a rundown. If people don't know who you are, what you are, what you do, l little bit of a rundown of what you do at the moment in regards to Muncie stuff. Yeah, yeah. So my name's Dylan Derryberry. I am the creative director for

All of Freeze Tag, but Munsey in particular. And I've been working here for I guess just a little over twelve years now. And I yeah, yeah. So I kind of I as the title might suggest, I deal with a lot of creative ideas and particularly wrangling all of our gameplay team into making ideas that are actually followed through on and trying to keep somewhat on theme and then I work with our artists to bring those to life and

Ideally, the development side holds up their end of the bargain too. and I I joke, but most of the time they're waiting on artwork for stuff. So But mate, you you just said as well, you've been in Munsey or working with Munsey as well for for a number of years. I have. You've done a lot of things, not just creative directive stuff. What did you do in the beginning up until up until now? Yeah, so ironically, twelve years ago when I first got started, I was

a journalism student who had been out of school for a couple months and was not getting a lot of success working as a reporter. so I found Munzie and they had listed that they needed a blogger. and when I showed up for my interview they told me they absolutely didn't need a blogger, but they liked me well enough and a I joked that a coffee interview turned into lunch and that turned into

Craig's Riverside (54:18.486)
job offer to be a blogger but also manage the Munsee Marketplace, which was just being sprinkled about back in twenty fourteen. and so the luckily my career was much longer lasting than the Munsee Marketplace. But yeah, from there, I did a fairly lengthy stint running Uvency before its big makeover.

have been kind of jumping between creative and leadership roles and just kind of managing all of the big personalities on this team. And yeah, I've been the creative director for gosh, I don't know, five or six years now. It it all blends together. but again, we're such a small team that titles don't necessarily mean a lot, but it helps to I I think it helps us give you up our responsibilities to be able to tag it.

title to it anyways. I mean, they're so made up that my first original Pider was master of media. and then I then I realized that doesn't look as cool on a thirty six year old's resume, so I tamed it down a little bit. Maybe a sixteen year old might be and and I there's arguments to be made that I'm a perpetual sixteen year old, so

This is true. This is true. And if you've seen anything to do with your house and how it's dressed up every single season, we'll put it that way, and go from there. But Dylan, you basically just said then you've been around for a while, etcetera, in regards to the creative directing side of things, and obviously this is going to involve you know, technology as well, but what have you seen in regards to the Munzie side of things from back in the day as a as a creative compared to now in terms of their artwork or the character, their campaigns, all that sort of thing too?

Yeah, yeah. So you know, if you can imagine the creative direction of the game, has always been a passion of mine. and I think that as we've seen design trends come and go, I've tried to kind of hone us in on what's a bit more modern and I think it's been a huge goal of mine to kind of really hone down our art style in the game and our

Craig's Riverside (56:35.33)
kind of head artist. Andy has been very helpful in that process. But one of the big things, I mean, heck, it's been a couple of years now, but when we kind of put together the Cappy rebranding, that was a big project for just trying to hone in a lot of the creativity of Munzie and kind of trying to polish it up a little bit. Because we've had so many artists over so many years, you know, it's a very eclective

game. so you know, just trying to not only make everything kinda look like it all belongs together, but also make it so that when we do have other artists come in and help us out, it's kind of easier to jump into that style.

Absolutely, absolute well if that's the case then with in regards to style and stuff as well, Dylan, where do you personally as a creative director d draw your inspiration from when you're doing like either new bounces or new gauntlet games, weapons, that sort of thing too? Where where do you actually draw your inspiration from? Or is it just actually in that that fancy mind? Yeah, yeah, well I th there's a lot going on in the fancy mind for sure. I think that, you know, there's the the artistic answer and there's the company answer.

they blend together a little bit. I think we're always drawing inspiration from the things we see around us, obviously. particularly the things that don't come with copyright infringements. So we're we're always looking at the classics. You know, we dabble a l obviously a lot in like mythology and things like that. Particularly when we started bringing Kathy's world to life. Obviously we're looking at a lot of fantasy and kind of broad strokes and

dragons and swords and shields and all that sort of stuff. But there's also this tongue in cheek aspect of Munzi that I think we're constantly trying to, you know, play with as many Z puns as we can. you know, I think that there it's not like we're trying to delve into like my little pony or anything, but obviously we have a very cute small unicorn helming this adventure of ours. So we're constantly trying to balance also audiences of

Craig's Riverside (58:43.298)
you know, male, female, older and younger and just trying to find a balance of cute and fun and funny. and I I like to think that we've been able to accomplish that. That being said, we're all we also throw literally ourselves into all of this, you know, with the flats and flat rob and flat Lou. I mean, y again, y there's so much going on that when we kind of sat down to try and add a story to it, it was certainly a Herculean task to

bring it all together. Absolutely, mate. Absolut and you've done a really good job of that, I will say. 'Cause I mean, yeah. From the from the adventures and from the we used to be clo obviously the clan weapons and stuff too, into the flats and the personalities and whatnot too. So but speaking of flats and personalities, you were known as the flat DHS. I am. Give us a give us a reason and and what does DHS think? Yes, DHS again would be a play on DHS tapes.

those large plastic things that you used to put in televisions in order to play movies. I'm a nineties kid who probably should have been an eighties kid. so I love all things physical media, retro media. I'm huge into movies and I actually minored in film. and in a different world I probably would have pursued that. But Munsee pays quite a bit better. so

I'll stick with that. And more reliable. A hundred percent more reliable. Which is funny. You know, I I've got my so again, I've been working near twelve years now, and it's pretty much been my sole adult job. And I keep thinking like there's just no way that we're gonna be able to do this another ten years. And I mean, we've made it this far. It like I at some point I can't say that this small team this independent game isn't reliable because I've seen

A lot of other games with bigger names and publishers come and go. So there's some staying power to Munsey. and I think, you know, the flexibility of again, trying new things and throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks is a big part of that. Absolutely, absolutely. And I think as well in regards to Munsey stuff, it's it's very it's always moving. It's forever moving, it's forever evolving as well. and and giving it an evolving sort of style, what would you think in terms of

Craig's Riverside (01:01:05.474)
Future wise I'm talking about now. So, you know, we're looking ahead another ten years from now. Where do you see the trends in the gaming industry, especially with Munsey in the either design, technology, any of that sort of stuff as well? Where do you see Munsey in the next few years, Mike? Well, it's really interesting, 'cause I I I not to be a downer, but I think it's a very tough time in the gaming industry right now, particularly in what, you know, might be considered more traditional gaming. that luckily I don't think Munsee

is traditional game. I think it's a unique niche. We have a unique gaming audience. that again has been sh proven to show up over the last you know fifteen years now. so while I do think that the gaming industry in particular is hitting a bit of a wall continuing to do things out of the ordinary is what's going to you know continue to make Munzi unique. obviously there's

handful of other games out there that include geolocation and getting outside. But I like to think that we add a quirkiness side to to that kind of ever evolving genre of gaming. So I again I think just trying to stand out a little bit more from the tech side, I you know, not I'm certain somebody on the team will talk about AI and you know just the technology of where that comes into play.

I tend to be less bullish on AI. I do think there are some limitations that we'll see over the next few years. So we don't want to become too dependent on it, particularly in terms of replacing artists and things like that. But that being said, a very small team with limited resources. we have been able to utilize some AI tools from just a management perspective and

How we're organizing our games and stuff like that. And I think if I truly see kind of a a future path for Munsey is it, you know, and I'm certain various members of the the gameplay team and you know the player base itself would agree or disagree, but I kind of see Munsee exploding into different areas and really harnessing it on the Munsee brand, which again is so eclectic. I would love to see.

Craig's Riverside (01:03:26.188)
companion or, you know, new games based on pack rats or Whittles or Clan Wars app on itself. And maybe those do different things than Munsey currently does, but still utilizing geolocation, but taking some of these aspects of Munsey and bringing them into their own things. One, so again, our world just continues to grow, but also to maybe make it an easier onboarding process for people who

you know, join Munsey and they're like, Dragons, stick people, wars, what in the world is going on, Kim? I think it it can be a lot. So I'd really love to see us grow the Munsee brand, but also, you know, be able to introduce people into smaller pockets of it. that and I want more mini games in in our game. I think there I think there's a a large enough portion of the player base that pushes it back against mini games, but

I'd love for you to be able to do things with Munsey, even if there aren't a lot of Munsies around you, or if you're, you know, sitting on the couch and stuff like that, to still have aspects of the game that you can interact with. very much like very much like Skydrift explore the world. Yes, exactly. new app there developed by the Munsee team as well. So yeah, that of thing too. Nice But I can't take a lick of credit for anything on Skydrift. That

has been Robin Scott's kind of brainchild. I think Robbie's held out helped out, Sam's helped out. So and again, I think that's a unique adaptation of what a geolocation game is. It's not necessarily requiring you to get outside, but there's a location based aspect and a real world aspect to it. So again, I think those are the types of things that are thinking outside of the box because who on paper would want to

you know, play a game where they send a hot air balloon, you know, days away and then you don't interact with it until it comes back. But it's this niche aspect that I think people really you know, we live in a ever evolving world that makes it easier and faster to communicate with one another. And there's arguments to be said that maybe we don't need to be moving that fast. Maybe we do need to slow down and enjoy things and work for things and be a little more patient with our entertainment. So

Craig's Riverside (01:05:47.476)
again, I like the Sky Drift stuff. I think it's it's fun. Again, and that, you know, not to dive too deep into the development of that project, but that project had a quick turnaround time compared to some of the stuff that we've been working on. And so it's cool to see our development team being able to utilize tools and get stuff out faster. So it lets us do more things. yeah. Exactly. Here's to another fifteen years, right?

I'm sure we'll Exactly. Happy That's right. Happy birthday, Munsey as well. And thank you very much, Dylan. The flat DHS, you heard him here first if this is the first time you're listening, so there you go. Thank you again, Dylan. And get back to your creative brain. I will. I will. Birthday month is in full swing. Ironically, one of my first projects when I started working at Munsey in twenty fourteen was for the third birthday. So I've been

fully focused on Munzi's birthday for twelve years now. And hopefully I get at least another twelve. Absolutely. Thanks again, Dylan. I'll talk to soon. Thank you so much. Bye. Well I have none other than Mari with us. G'day Mari, how are you? Hello. Good. How are you guys doing? Good, good, good. listen before we start, if anyone doesn't know who you are, what you do, etc. Is it give us a quick rundown of Mari in the Munzie world? Sure. see I'm one of the

product managers for onesie, do a little bit of everything but help out quite a bit on project management overall and you know putting together the designs and then working with the team to kind of bring those designs to life and test through everything, get all the artwork hooked up and have everything working before it gets out to all the players. Yeah.

Nice, nice. And when you're saying in regards to the team as well, you are part of the gameplay. You're probably what I would say the head of the gameplay team. so when you're designing like new features in that four months, etc., is there any sort of process or anything that go that goes through your mind, for instance, that that you have to achieve this or achieve that, etc., before it goes at least to the players? Definitely, yeah. well, with each feature it depends kind of what we're working on, but we do try to balance, you know, a mix of updates. So we want to provide like

Craig's Riverside (01:08:00.398)
fresh fun gameplay, but then also balance like quality of life improvements that make things easier, quicker, better for players to do. And then of course also need to continue to drive you know, revenue so that we can continue to keep the team up and running for you guys. But in general, I guess with each feature, we kind of obviously start with brainstorming a lot of people on the team have fun on the gameplay team, you know, throwing out crazy wild fun ideas and then we try to rein things in, or you know, play until something's

sticks or clicks. And then we kind of discussed, you know, who is this feature for? You know, what is it trying to accomplish? And then we went through, you know, the design, whittling it down a little bit, polishing it to make sure it makes sense. you know, continue to simplify as needed. And then running running these ideas by the devs and try to get their opinion know if it's functionally possible, if there are any roadblocks or challenges we need to think through or tweaks we need to make. And then you know those considerations are taken into consideration for the test plan to make sure as we're

through the features that are being set up. It works as expected. we're catching any any gotchas or edge cases here and there. And then of course looping all the way into artwork and reviewing this overall idea with them, giving them reference images so we can start to swap out, you know, the placeholder images that we have with the cool fun artwork that you guys see for candy and everybody else. and then of course going through quality insurance, you know, testing through the features, make sure everything all together is behaving as expected. And you know if there are

are any unforeseen issues or edge cases that are happening as we're testing through and then, you know, all the way to the final bits of what you see coming out through social media, you know, prepping all the blogs and so forth and have everything go along with all of that. So all of that goes into, you know, putting everything together for a whole new feature. That

That is a lot. And you said before you start off by saying in regards to the balancing sort of side of things too. Now my my question would be that, you know, you you do a good job of the balancing, but how do you actually balance that that that creating the content for new players, but at the same time the I won't call them old, I call them veteran players to keep them like challenged and engaged in the game itself. How how do you balance between the the new and the the veterans? Yeah, definitely. It's it's definitely really important to consider and there might not be, you know, every single feature that encompasses.

Craig's Riverside (01:10:16.886)
As both, there might be a feature that's specifically focused for new players. There might be a feature that's specifically focused for our experience or veteran players. But if there's like a big whole new feature we are introducing into the game, we do like consider both sides to make sure it encompasses everybody. so for example, like you try to design a game loop that has more than one loop so it keeps returning and veteran players engage. For example, like the daily stroll was something.

completely new and wishing wells and everything. And that was initially created designed for new players to mind to give them something to get started with, especially if there's nothing in their area and just providing them some repeatable gameplay to bring them back to the game day. but then of course then we expanded to the idea of Whittles to give, you know, all players something to do to continue to visit those wishing wells and collect those stars. and then in that sense, you know, that created another game loop because

adding whittles once those archive, you know, those award twigs which are used to redeploy pack rats, which our bedroom players have been used to playing with and collecting. And then, you know, that created another game loop as well because as pack rats are archived, those award fog, which puts more resources into being able to redeploy mech. So you can see trying to create multiple game loops give everybody something to do in that. Absolutely. Absolutely. And

Player feedback in this game is an absolute key as well. as part of the Munzi evolution itself. But can you provide an example or a feature, for instance, in your mind personally, whereby because of community feedback or player feedback themselves, something has actually significantly changed. You know, I think it's from the community credits more than anything else. yeah, definitely. Community credits has been a great way for us to be able to get more feedback from players, especially like, you know, what we're doing coming up with with bonus defense.

larger changes or new updates or features that we're focusing on. You know, some larger changes that happened in the past, like the decision to separate the physical and virtual layers and then continuing to expand additional layers onto that. Or for example, the larger change we made from being able to recapture certain Funsies every single day, like Greenies. Another one, for example, was like streak rewards and continuing to want to give players more value in their streak rewards so that they feel like the

Craig's Riverside (01:12:40.206)
time they're putting into like keeping up their capture and deploy streak each day is is worth the reports that they're getting. So for example, we've continued to expand on adding like daily activity tracker and then introducing things like apart from streak badges or in addition to streak badges, the whole idea of streak bouncers. and the first time we initially added those into the game, players were really excited and they seemed to enjoy the ability of you know collecting these different skins each month for their bouncers.

But you know, as we continue to near the end of the year, we were hearing players go, we're gonna be bummed that we won't be able to continue to use these streak skins. That's why that idea kind of evolved into well, let's give players an opportunity to be able to keep a permanent streak bouncer into the new year so they can continue to use their streak skins. So you can see that's continued to evolve to continue to give players more value for the time and the the bounces that they're working and they're earning and everything. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Nice, nice, nice. Now, without giving any secrets away, Mari, I don't know I don't know you wouldn't. I mean, Rob does. Rob does on the podcast. He would give secrets away all the time. but with you again i what excites you the most in regards to the future of Munzie? Like what do you see in regards to the gameplay? and what are you more eagerly you eagerly to explore in regards to the gameplay stuff? gosh, there is there are so many wild, crazy, fun ideas that we've been exploring. So I think it's it's hard pinpoint just one.

And I know everybody has been, you know, leaning towards their favorites here and there. but I think one that has always kind of excited me was you know, the idea of potentially finding more Munzies in the wild or, you know, what if potentially any QR code has potentially become a Munzy or draw activity. So, you know, it gets you scanning a little bit more out in the wild to see that random QR code or is that a Munzi QR code? So potentially some exciting ideas. But yeah.

More hopefully again. Nice. Nice. You heard that Rob hasn't said anything about that. I'll just let you know that. Rob hasn't said a word about that sort of stuff. interesting. Interesting. Now, Mario, I'm gonna end it right here on one more question. And this was actually a question of the week, last week for the Munsey podcast. And that is, why are you, ma'am, not part of the traveling crew? I did actually see that question pop up. honestly, it's because I've I'm too shy to ever pitch.

Craig's Riverside (01:15:02.414)
putting myself into the game. So unless somebody else pitches it, it most likely won't happen. So yeah, I enjoy working on the design and you know, helping with the design of all the characters and everything, but I definitely do not end up pitching myself. So that's probably why. I did see as well that because you are the flat cat. you know, you got the two cats themselves. What are your two cats names? Benji and Burr. Benji and Burr. So you Benji and Burr and that's the reason why you're the flat cats. And part of the traveling troops there already is a lion time. So those are like a cat.

Hamer per se. So you know, we we'd have to find something else for you that's that's that sort of themed, you know. Exactly. Yes, yes. That's it. Now that's I'm gonna make it my goal, Mari, just to let you know in the next next gameplay meeting to have you involved in the next traveling troops, just saying you hear it. You heard it here first, everyone. So there you go. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mari. Thank you for all that you do in regards to it as well. And also, I'm telling you now, from a player's point of view.

Rob says it all the time on the podcast, and that is Mari is the reason why you get so many free and good stuff, especially like in the mailboxes and stuff like that too. Mari's a reason for it. So there you go. Thank you again, Mari, and happy 15th birthday to Munzie. Happy 15th birthday. Thanks again, bye. So there you have it. Happy 15th birthday to Munsey. Well done, Munzie itself. And here's another 15 years. First and foremost, I'd like to thank all the team that actually that's not all the team, but it's a lot of the team that we did tattoo today.

you know, Dylan, Mari, Rob, Robbie, Sam, Tim, thank you so much for spending some time with me and letting the the public out there know exactly who you are and actually get a listen to your voice as well if you haven't actually met them in person. So well done. And but more importantly, thank you to the players and to the listeners as well of this podcast. Without you, we wouldn't even have a game. So again, thank you. Here's to 15 years and here's to another 15 years as well. So this is C My Shell. As always, I'm over and out.

Thank you again, Monday. Happy birthday!