Manex Darceles and Eneko Barandiaran (25 years old) have been directing Miru Studio since 2020. Miru Studio develops and publishes innovative video games and is based in San Sebastián. Its first product is the “Finger Gun”, based on virtual and augmented reality, which turns the user’s hands into guns using Hand Tracking technology. This technology is hand-tracking and Miru Studio wants to specialize in this subject. In this interview, Manex will talk about Miru Studio, Hand Tracking technology, video games, and entrepreneurship, among other topics.

What is Miru Studio?
In short, it is an innovative video game studio. We play virtual reality and augmented reality games with a little twist. This tour is the use of hand tracking technology, or in English what has been called Hand Tracking. This technology allows you to interact with the virtual world when you immerse yourself in virtual reality or augmented reality, with your own hands, without having to use external controls.
We create experiences through video games for these technologies and try to make those experiences as accessible as possible in order to attract the general public and help them experience virtual reality, augmented reality and hands-on technology in the most natural way possible. We develop and publish video games.

What kind of video games do you develop and publish?
It is best to explain it with an example. The first video game we are developing and releasing is called “Finger Gun”. "Finger Gun" is a very simple video game and at the same time very special, in a way that I think allows us all to live this experience that we all wanted to live from childhood, that is, to shoot, putting your hands like a gun, pointing finger forward looking up and thumb up.
What we do through hands-tracking technology and virtual and augmented reality is to immerse ourselves in a virtual world in which, by gesturing your hands in this way, you can interact with that virtual world.

How can you play "Finger Gun" and similar games? What equipment is needed?
Through virtual reality or augmented reality glasses. People put on virtual reality glasses and are already immersed in that virtual world. We make this distinction with other video games that may now be on the market because we are one of the first studios to develop this Hand Tracking technology, where the user puts on glasses, immerses himself in the world and needed some control to interact with that immersed virtual world. Now, with this technology, you don’t need a controller. You can simply interact with your hands.

What should a person interested in playing “Finger Gun” do? How can this be achieved?
You need to buy some Meta Quest 1 or 2 glasses, which are the glasses with the best quality prices and which are revolutionizing the market. To get a quick idea, 5 years ago, you needed an investment of 3,000 euros to have virtual reality glasses at home with a computer, cables, and now with Meta Quest you have your glasses without any cables, with all the computing power in the glasses for 300 euros.
So you need to buy these glasses and then our game. The glasses themselves have their own platform, as if it were an Apple Store, where you can buy the game.

What is the current state of the video game market?
It’s a complicated world. There are many myths about working in this industry. It is a very pure, pure industry, it requires a lot of work, the production periods are long and people in general work a lot. In addition, the industry tends to be very competitive, especially in traditional video games.
What happens is that in augmented reality and virtual reality there are many opportunities to get into it now, and in our case, to embark on it. In that sense and from that perspective, opportunities exist. In any case, the industry is very open and very different. In the video game industry in general, people are very open, very diverse, both the people who work in the industry and the industry itself. And I think that also gives it added value, to make people feel comfortable and more comfortable, despite the great work it requires.

What would you tell us about the world of virtual reality and augmented reality?
Both industries, in my opinion, have suffered the misfortune of being advertised as “The Next Big Thing” in recent years, the next technological revolution, which I believe has done more harm than good to the industry. People are generally very skeptical about these technologies because the beginnings of this technology transmitted something that is not really there. Virtual reality began in the 80s, but people have very bad memories of that time.
Technology is advancing, and right now, what these glasses can do is awesome compared to what they could have done 5 years ago. And in that sense, I think even though it may have bad publicity, it goes to a point where the market wants more and more people to enter, which will be able to remove the prejudices that more people may have about virtual and augmented. I think what people can do is give their sand grain and give them another chance to move forward with this technology, and get rid of any prejudices they may have about this technology if they’ve ever tried it, and tried it, because it’s really a unique and unique thing.

What is the best and worst of entrepreneurship?
For me, like Eneko and I, if you’re a person who wants to start a business, but you don’t know you want to start a business, the best thing you can do is talk to people who have started a business. What I mean by this is that Eneko and I wanted to carry out our ideas, our projects, and we never knew what entrepreneurship was, until we got to know some of the people who guided us and were lucky.
My recommendation is that if you are a person who likes to do your projects, moving your ideas forward, entrepreneurship can be a way for you. It’s not an easy path, not everyone can do it, and that’s true. One of the factors that led Eneko and me to be here has been luck, among many other things, including hard work, of course, but luck is key to getting to where we are. “If you want, you can” is a myth I would like to dispel.
With this, I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone who wants to embark on anything, anything further from reality. For me, embarking is an incredible and precious thing, and I can’t thank life any more for choosing this path. I encourage everyone who wants to do it to try it, if they can.

Do you think a business today needs to be in the digital world to be successful?
One way or another, indirectly, yes. If you are a person who is very fond of wood carving and want to create a craft business around wood carving, of course you need to be in the digital world if you want to reach more people. If you want to expand your target audience, you need to be digital. This does not mean that you have to build your business around digital, but that you need to exist in that world if you want to incorporate multiple people.

What are your future plans for Miru Studio?
In the short term, we are preparing for the release of “Finger Gun” right now and hope to be successful. In the short to medium term, we are preparing for the next game, and I can't say much about it, but we will continue along the lines I mentioned, and to be able to develop and launch this video game, "Finger Gun" and "Finger Gun" In order to consolidate the know-how we have created by developing, we have opened an investment round of two million euros, which we hope to close in September.

Finally, how would you encourage people to play "Finger Gun"?
If you have virtual reality glasses and are reading this in May or June, send us an email via our website (www.mirustudio.eu), or info@mirostudio.eu, and we will try to access the Betatester channel. If you’re reading it later, you can also buy it in any virtual reality or possibly augmented reality stores.

www.mirustudio.eu