Martian Premier League

A narrative-led gaming studio, building immersive worlds, compelling stories, and delightful games.

Founding a start up at the frontier of web3 gaming

We came together to form an independent gaming studio, combining our love of games, world building and a belief in the future of Web3 Gaming. Where some games in the space have failed in the past, by focusing on financial engineering - we took a different tack. The MPL has fun and immersive experiences at it’s heart, whilst still catering for the demand of digital asset ownership.

My role as a founder has been to establish the creative vision and to build and nurture the creative team to deliver it, as well as sourcing and managing specialist suppliers and contractors where needed. I have worked closely with product management and development to inform the product prioritisation, striking the balance between our business needs and creating compelling experiences that stand out in the attention war.
In this environment managing complexity is key, working in an emerging space where many of the rules are yet to be written.

Learn more about the MPL

Arresting creative that drives results

Since we founded our start up in Nov 2021 we have achieved the following:

$2.5m in primary sales (that we have used to build our game and our team)
Minted out our 10k genesis NFT collection in under 4 hours
Partnership with Immutable including 2m IMX token grant with a value of $1-3m plus advisory services
Launched our alpha gameplay and saw 90% player retention week on week
Launched our beta football management tournament and ran 7k games for over 650 fictional football teams

It’s been quite the ride!

Story and adventure

On the surface, the Martian Premier League is a story about a maverick professor setting up a new football league on Mars; a story with
a lead protagonist, Ella, who left behind Earth for something more pure and exciting - only to find that Mars has its own challenges to overcome and mysteries to uncover.
It is a story that asks: is it really ever possible to start again?

To create and deliver this world I lead a team of writers and comic artists to create a series of four original stories set in the world. The stories themselves are experienced within a custom comic reader that enhances the reading experience using animation and sound.

A distinctive look and feel for an original world

As the lead for creative strategy, execution and look and feel, it was really important to me that we carved out an original brand that didn’t play up to the existing web3 cliches - no pixel art! No apes!
Instead I commissioned art that had a darkness and grit to it, whilst still having capacity for some surreal humour. We took inspiration from a nostalgia for retro sportswear aesthetics and vintage comics - and wove in affectionate nods to our favourite sci-fi worlds.
The result is something truly unique in both the web3 gaming space and the football management genre.

Designing engaging gameplay

To date we have released two key gameplay experiences:
The Bootcamp Mission
A series of mini games set on the surface of mars, including a prisoner’s dilemma and a head to head on-chain penalty shoot out.

MPL Cup
A knockout style tournament made over 8 weeks. Game play allowed managers to form teams, hone line ups and make deep tactical decisions. We attracted over 650 teams and simulated over 7000 matches.

Expanding into a lifestyle brand

Our brand direction of a retro look and feel combined with futurism allows us to expand far beyond our game. This vision has come to life through touch points such as our shop, and our colab with grime artist Chowerman. We developed a full merch collection and custom e-commerce solution, including the vinyl record and lyric video.

Immutable partnership announcement
Blockchain Gamer: Top Blockchain Soccer Games

Martian Premier League