Tiny Rebel Games

Tiny Rebel Games, established in 2013, is a game development studio founded by the husband-and-wife duo, Lee and Susan Cummings. Their combined experience in the gaming industry is extensive, with Lee having been a producer for Rockstar Games on titles like Grand Theft Auto, and Susan being a co-founder of 2K Games, where she was involved with major franchises such as Bioshock and Borderlands. The catalyst for starting their own venture was the birth of their son, which prompted a desire to create a company they could run from home. Initially, they founded a consulting firm, working with companies like Atari, before establishing Tiny Rebel Games. The studio gained significant recognition for its work on the Doctor Who franchise, developing the popular free-to-play puzzle RPG games "Doctor Who: Legacy" and its sequel, "Doctor Who Infinity".

The company's current focus is on the Petaverse, a project that combines gaming, extended reality (XR), and Web3 technologies to create an open standard for interoperable digital pets. The Petaverse aims to provide users with immortal, autonomous digital companions that can be taken across various games and digital experiences. These pets are designed to have unique physical characteristics and personality traits stored in their metadata, akin to digital DNA. The business model centers on the creation and sale of these digital pets as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Users can purchase a pet, bond with it, and train it. In March 2022, Tiny Rebel Games raised $7 million in a funding round led by Fabric Ventures, with participation from notable investors like Animoca Brands and Dapper Labs, to accelerate the development of the Petaverse Network.

The core product, the Petaverse Network, allows users to own digital pets, starting with cats, which are unique 3D companions. An accompanying augmented reality app, the "meme-o-tron," enables owners to interact with their pets, capture photos and videos, and share them on social media. The platform is built on blockchain technology, which underpins the concept of true digital ownership and interoperability. The pets' data is stored on-chain, allowing other developers to integrate Petaverse pets into their own games and experiences. This open-standard approach is a key differentiator, aiming to foster a broader ecosystem around the digital pets. The company also plans to open-source its tech stack to allow teams to build new experiences for the pets.

Keywords: digital pets, Petaverse, blockchain gaming, NFT, augmented reality, virtual pets, Web3, interoperability, game development, Lee Cummings, Susan Cummings, Doctor Who: Legacy, metaverse, open standard, digital DNA, Fabric Ventures, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, virtual companions, play-to-earn