M00m world, a developer building a transmedia universe that includes a webcomic and a mobile game, announced today that it has raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Boost VC. The company plans to use the funding to build out its integrated ecommerce system, which allows users to purchase physical twins of digital items. It will also grow its development team and launch the full version of its mobile game.
M00m World began as a series of audio stories which later became webcomic via VoyceMe. It tells a story of a cyberpunk dystopia where the human resistance against an evil AI finds an unexpected ally in the form of amorphous alien lifeforms that bond with the resistance’s secret hiding space: Shipping containers. Most of m00m world’s iconography and even gameplay design revolves around shipping containers, both as the home of the resistance (and the m00m aliens) and a site of personal expression.
The mobile game itself is a shared multiplayer space where users play minigames to earn rewards that then go into decorating their virtual avatars and their shipping container homes. Players are encouraged to engage with the universe on multiple platforms to help shape the direction of the in-universe story. In addition to its expanded universe, m00m world also offers users the option to receive select physical items that match up with what they use in game.
Crossing over into the real world
Founder Jordan Freda spoke with GamesBeat about the creation of m00m world and how it originated as a cross-media experiment: “It’s more than a comic, more than a brand, more than a mobile game… I want to bring people together through product and creativity, as well as bring real-life culture into our world to share with other people.”
Freda said that the reason m00m is available primarily on mobile is to reach a wide audience. “The reason I chose mobile as a platform to share my vision is because everyone in the world has a mobile phone. As a creator, the biggest gift I could give to people is to feel creatively fulfilled and inclined. I chose mobile to deploy that to the most people possible. I wanted anyone to be able to get in, low-stakes.”
Adam Draper, Managing Partner at Boost VC, said in a statement, “I’ve always been drawn to ambitious founders building the future of entertainment, and m00m world is exactly that. They aren’t just building a game; they’re building a universe. The team has already proven they can create an IP that resonates, evidenced by their massive webcomic audience and impressive early traction. We believe in their unique model of bridging the digital and physical worlds and are thrilled to partner to build the next great sci-fi franchise.”