One More Question

How Huxley pushed against NFT trends and won – Ben Mauro

Episode Summary

In the first episode of season 04, Ross is joined by Ben Mauro, creator of HUXLEY. Ben Mauro’s work has made a powerful impact on the gaming world, as a senior concept designer and art director for first-person-shooting dynasties Halo and Call of Duty. His visions have graced the big screen in Elysium, Chappie, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Now he unveils his fully-fledged graphic novel series, Huxley. Ross and Ben discuss how HUXLEY has rebelled against NFT trends – using them as a sales channel instead of a fundraising platform and taking their time to craft the world of HUXLEY – and why Ben chose to launch his ideas in Web3 instead of traditional media.

Episode Notes

Highlights from the conversation:

A graphic novel [is] one of the few ways a single creator can create the entire product

You go to a meeting and they're just like "Cool art, kid – but what does this look like as a movie?"

Once NFTs + Web3 happened. It was just like, well, maybe this is a more interesting way to launch a product?

You can't one-to-one sell a product like you would in Web2, you have to create some kind of interesting gamification

I feel like a lot of stuff in Web3 is reverse – "Here's some art. Maybe I'll make a product, if you give me money"

Everyone was treating it like a Kickstarter. And I was treating it more like sales distribution

 

More about Ben Mauro

World builder. Character creator. Storyteller. Ben Mauro’s work has made a powerful impact on the gaming world, as senior concept designer and art director for first-person-shooting dynasties Halo and Call of Duty. Ben has been crafting the characters, weaponry, machinery and gamescapes that have made these franchises house-hold names for two decades. His visions have graced the big screen in Elysium, Chappie, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Now he unveils his fully-fledged graphic novel series, Huxley.

Find Ben here: Twitter | Instagram | Website

Find HUXLEY here: Website | Twitter | Discord | Opensea

 

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One More Question is a podcast by Nicework. We are on a mission to build purposeful Web3 brands that people care about.One of the things we do best is to ask the right questions. This podcast exists because we want to share some of the best answers we have heard over the last 15 years. Our clients range from a venture studio and Hollywood film producers to the inventors of the hamburger, to name a few. We have had the honour of talking to guests like Micheal Bierut, Natasha Jen, Bruce Mau, Jack Butcher, Aaron Draplin, Marina Willer and Fredrick Öst. Their work has shaped our industry over the last 40 years. The aim is to share useful perspectives, insights and inspiration you can use as you go about building your brand. Hosted by our founder Ross Drakes.

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