Building the Multiplayer Internet: How Lux is Transforming Browsing into a Shared Experience
An interview with founder Valentino Dore on shaping a more interactive web
Valentino Dore (aka Tino) is on a mission to make the internet multiplayer. As the founder of Lux and a participant in Tapestry’s Solana Social Accelerator, he’s building a product that turns passive browsing into real-time, interactive experiences. From rethinking livestream engagement to overcoming the challenges of building a game engine inside a Chrome extension, Tino is paving the way to a more connected, dynamic internet. Read on to learn more about the development and future of Lux!
What sparked the idea for Lux? How does it work and what’s the big vision?
I took a return offer at Google, and after a little I realized that I wanted to build something, not just maintain legacy code for a multi-billion dollar company. So against all advice I decided to quit and pursue building fulltime. I have been huge into social gaming / social platforms for as long as I can remember, and I wanted to help innovate the space. The biggest problem I saw was specifically with livestreams. It felt like there was an opportunity for a better viewing experience. During live streams it felt like it was chat versus the streamer. There was no room for chat versus chat, and this only becomes exaggerated the larger the streamer. Live streams are largely un-interactive, so I wanted to try and kill two birds with one stone. Lux is super simple to use, all you have to do is install the browser extension and create an account. That is it. Now when you go to your favorite live stream, youtube video, wikipedia page, etc., you can press the pinned Lux extension and instantly the webpage transforms and anyone else who is also on that same video/stream/etc as you, you will be able to voice chat with, text chat with, and play with all in realtime.
You describe Lux as building the "Multiplayer Internet." What does that mean?
Browsing and navigating the internet largely feels like a solo experience, despite being the most interconnected entity. If the internet is supposed to be so full of live and bustling with traffic, then why does it feel so empty. The multiplayer internet is the idea of more easily interacting with other users who are on the same URL as you, whether that be a twitch stream, youtube video, or dexscreener. In my opinion the next logical progression of the internet is being able to add slight physicality to these websites which we browse! Lux accomplishes this by being an overlay, and unobtrusive as possible. We only want to augment your browsing experience, never hijack it.
What has been one of the biggest “aha” moments while building Lux?
The biggest ‘aha’ moment I had while building Lux came fairly early on in the iterations of Lux. When I first created Lux, users had to go to my website and copy and paste the link to the twitch stream they wanted to watch. And then I had an embedded twitch player showing the stream on my website. This was extremely inconvenient, and no one would have wanted to do this. After much time and thought I tried to weird idea of baking the entire application into a chrome extension so that users could natively use it ON twitch. This worked better than I expected it to and opened up the door to the true multiplayer internet!
What’s a challenge you didn’t see coming, and how did you handle it?
The biggest challenge I didn’t see coming was the need to create a game engine. Unfortunately because Lux lives within a chrome extension we do not have access to tools like Unity or Unreal engine, which means I have had to build up my own proprietary game engine.
How have you thought about onboarding users and growing an engaged community around Lux? Have any of your ideas changed since starting?
When I was first building out Lux, onboarding users wasn’t at the top of my priority list as I figured there was no point in trying to get users when the product wasn’t even fractionally complete. Now my perspective has completely changed as the product is live and ready to be used! My focus is solely on onboarding users and making that process as seamless and simple as possible. There is a unique problem with onboarding users due to a chrome extension, which is an ongoing problem being solved. In terms of growing an engaged community, I love building in public and being as transparent as possible.
A lot of SocialFi projects focus on monetization, but Lux is more about interaction. How do you see those two things working together?
I care more about making Lux an enjoyable product first, and then monetization will follow. Lux has always been 100% free to use, and always will be. Monetization will take the form of custom branded experiences within the internet. I truly believe that this monetization strategy works perfectly with more interaction for the users. An example I will give is the following: Imagine doing a partnership with Coca-cola. First off I have no clue who has ever visited coca-cola.com, however with Lux we could create them a custom experience and minigames directly on their website. We can extend our stickiness to other products and websites! Now users may compete and play minigames on coca-cola.com in hopes of acquiring the polar bear pet only found on coca-cola.com!
You’re in the Solana Social Accelerator—what excites you most about integrating with Tapestry?
At Lux, we are attempting to reshape the entire internet, we have a massive cold start problem. Tapestry allows for new users to instantly connect with past friends and begin their new enhanced browsing experience alongside them!
If Lux succeeds in its vision, how will the internet feel different in five years?
The internet will not only be “described” as a bustling metropolis maked behind obscure metrics, but rather you will be able to experience it first hand. Every website you go to, you will be able to instantly talk to and interact with users from all around the world who are navigating the internet alongside you. Brands will now have access to our newly created social layer, and be able to more easily connect with their customers.
What’s been the most rewarding part of building Lux so far? Any moments that really stuck with you?
The most rewarding part about Lux is when users are able to fully grasp the vision which Lux is attempting, and being able to try it out in realtime. It truly is an amazing experience watching them go from website to website and opening up Lux and talking to people they meet directly on those websites.
What’s next? Anything big on the roadmap we should be looking out for?
The biggest thing on the roadmap and on my plate is the new engine. Lux has had multiple unique problems, and one of them is the game engine which allows Lux to be built. Unfortunately due to Lux needing to run in a browser extension we don’t have access to tools such as Unity or Unreal engine, so I have had to build up a new engine which is capable of that from scratch. This has been an ongoing effort, and by the end of Q2 I am hoping to release the new game engine which is made to be built on top of! So other developers can create their own Lux experience, from minigames to items, etc!