Creepz has never played by the rules. What began as a chaotic blend of memes, conspiracy lore, and a god-tier lizard monarch has evolved into a full-fledged entertainment universe – with games, merch, and a community as unpredictable as the characters themselves. Co-founder Joe Carnell joins OpenSea to talk about how the team channels that chaos into world-class storytelling, crafting a brand that’s equal parts absurd and strategic. 

In the following interview, Joe discusses the origins of the Creepz IP, the creative process behind its eccentric cast, and how the Overlord’s masterplan extends far beyond the next trend cycle.

OpenSea: The Creepz universe has amazing, chaotic characters like Tuesday, Jeff, and Ziggy. How do you approach character creation? Do you start with story, design, or vibes?

Joe Carnell: For us, it always starts with the vibes, Creepz has always been about the vibes (We’ve one of the most active discords in the space for a reason). Then we throw gasoline on it. Each character emerges from a strange soup of cultural references, internet chaos, and lizard conspiracy lore. Once we have the personality dialed in, usually by asking “what would this freak do in a certain whimsical scenario?”, the design and backstory evolve naturally from there on. 

So to elaborate further:

• Tuesday’s a control freak who can’t control anything. 
• Jeff’s got rage issues and is a walking tank. 
• Ziggy’s a space stoner with no aim but lots of bullets. 

They're absurd, but grounded in a universe where chaos is the only constant.

OpenSea: Creeplingz introduces diaper-wearing delinquents to the mix. What's the creative intention behind “starting the takeover young?”

Joe Carnell: World domination is a long game. With the introduction of the Creeplingz, we’re adding pure playfulness into the mix on an IP level. Creeplingz are just baby Creepz designed for maximum mischief and minimal impulse control. In terms of a parallel, think of them as baby Looney Tunes.

It’s our way of saying that even the toddlers in our franchise are plotting about taking over the world. It also opens up a more playful, memetic expression of the IP, especially in our party game - Creepz Party (Mario Kart meets Fall Guys). On the merchandising front, they also open up an entire new demographic for us to target.

OpenSea: The Overlord feels like a breakout character. Is he a stand-in for anyone on the team or is he purely fictional?

Joe Carnell: The Overlord isn’t based on any one of us, he’s based on all of us. He’s the god-tier lizard monarch from planet Lemuria, a billion lizard years away, and the supreme commander of the Creepz. He has whimsical demands, an ice cream addiction, and a grand plan to infiltrate the highest echelons of society through shapeshifting lizards disguised as world leaders, influencers, and billionaires.

Think of him as a mix between Big Brother, a Bond villain, and the voice in your head telling you to top-blast a memecoin chart that’s already up 10x.

He’s the anchor of our IP and our most iconic character - a chaotic mastermind who occasionally “breaks through” broadcasts, drops cryptic commands, and rewards his most loyal disciples with all his precious treasures. We’re building him as a narrative weapon: part myth, part AI, part cultural virus.

OpenSea: How do you balance irreverent storytelling with the big worldbuilding that fans can invest in long term?

Joe Carnell: We design for both dopamine and depth. The memes, the chaos, the shitposts - that’s what pulls you in. But behind the absurdity is a narrative engine we’ve been building for years: layered characters, rich lore, cross-game continuity, and a real-time immersive storytelling system that rewards active community participation. Think of it as an ever-expanding galaxy that fans help shape, piece by piece. The irreverence is just the flavor, but the foundation is rock solid, data-led, and built for scale to reach mainstream audiences.

OpenSea: The tone across your brand is both absurd and strategic. Who or what inspires that combination?

Joe Carnell: We take inspiration from memes, crypto culture, and established entertainment giants in equal measure. We love what Adult Swim, South Park, and Elon-level chaos do for attention, but we also study the Marvel playbook, how Star Wars nurtured superfans, and how Pokémon scaled across generations. According to us, the fusion of the above is the secret sauce: weaponized humor that builds a real IP engine underneath. Our goal isn’t to be just another media brand that becomes a fad for a few months and then fades away, it’s to build an empire by making it impossible to look away.

OpenSea: With Baby Creepz Unleashed, you're entering the party game space. What was the creative spark behind the concept?

Joe Carnell: The idea came from asking, “What if there was a crossover between Mario Kart and Fall Guys?” Creepz Party is a fast, chaotic, hilarious entry point into the universe. Accessible enough to play with your younger siblings, deep enough to wager with your friends and climb the ranks. It’s funny, yes, but it’s also strategic with ridiculous physics as it expands our audience, drives token utility, and builds early emotional attachment to the brand. 

OpenSea: Is the long-term ambition to build a Creepz gaming platform, or do you see these games as expressions of IP in different formats?

Joe Carnell: Both, and much more. Each game is a gateway drug into the Creepz universe, and they form the foundation of a full-scale gaming platform. Our games are interlinked experiences that validate IP, drive retention, and act as gateways into deeper storylines and transmedia verticals. 

Long-term, Creepz acts as a next-gen publisher - working with developers to scale cross-platform games powered by our characters, lore, and tokens. Games are our hero vertical, but the hero characters involved also seed TV, toys, and apparel.

OpenSea: How do customization, accessories, or token ownership impact the gameplay experience?

Joe Carnell: Creepz traits have always been a core flex of the culture, from Balaclavas and Spliffs to Sneakerheads and Duckheads, these aren’t just cosmetics, they’re an essential part of the holder's identity. Within the community, owning a rare trait equates to status.

Now with the games involved, we’re taking that one step further.

We’re designing our ecosystem so that traits, skins, and accessories don’t just look good, they do things. Tokens unlock exclusive missions, wager zones, and high-reward game modes. Skins influence how you play, how you’re perceived, and even who wants to squad up with you. Accessories can grant multipliers, trigger animations, or unlock secret mechanics.

OpenSea: The phrase “every round rewrites reality” is bold. How do you design game systems that reflect that promise?

Joe Carnell: This would be best understood if you playtest either of our games. We’ve the playtest coming up soon, watch out for that. 

OpenSea: $CREEPZ is described as the “pulse of your ecosystem.” Can you unpack the utility behind the token?

Joe Carnell: $CREEPZ is the lifeblood of this internet lizard cult we’re building. It powers everything, from in-game upgrades and exclusive items to staking rewards, ecosystem governance, and future mints. You can stake it to earn future Creepz ecosystem tokens or flex how much you hold as a badge of true cult loyalty.

We’re also building multiple top of the funnel platforms (like Playground), pulling new fans deeper into the IP. 

OpenSea: How do staking, farming, and Clone token wars tie into your larger vision of world domination, or is it mostly about engagement loops?

Joe Carnell: It’s both the loop and the ladder. Staking and farming not only reward participation but they also help you climb ranks. Other ecosystem tokens within Creepz add layers of faction, identity, and purpose. As part of the Overlord’s masterplan of world domination, you don’t just farm, you align, you serve, and you earn your place. It’s gamified cult logic with real-world value and lore implications. 

Every token is a tool in the Overlord’s master plan (and part of the Creepz meta-game), and every loop pulls you deeper. It’s a system designed not just to engage, but to evolve with the user and reward them for the role they choose to play.

OpenSea: Is there a tension between being “entertainment value: infinite” and building something durable?

Joe Carnell: Not for us because we’ve designed both into the DNA of the brand. The entertainment value is what captures attention. The durability comes from the infrastructure underneath - multi-year development cycles, sustainable tokenomics, deeply integrated lore, and scalable verticals across TV, toys, and apparel. We’ve spent four years building the foundations of this brand and one thing is for sure that we’re not trying to trend. We’re trying to last.

OpenSea: What’s the most unexpected thing your community has done with the IP so far?

Joe Carnell: Back in 2022, shortly after Creepz had minted, one of our community members, Bunick, launched an entire secondary NFT collection inspired by the Creepz IP, called Lizard Toonz. Each piece was fully custom. Buyers would reach out and request artwork based on a popular character—like Vegeta, Charizard, Heisenberg, and Kermit—and he would reimagine them in the “Lizard Toonz” style. What started as a fun side project became a beloved unofficial extension of the ecosystem, and to this day, the IP is still actively used by community members in their creative work

OpenSea: Do you think of Creepz as a game studio, a cultural brand, or something else entirely?

Joe Carnell: Creepz is the first countercultural entertainment IP born from crypto. Yes, we’re building games, launching a TV show, and we’re dropping merch and fashion capsules. But above all, we’re building a movement - one that flips the traditional top-down model of entertainment and puts the power (and the chaos) in the hands of the fans. So no, we’re not just a studio. Not just a brand. We’re at the forefront of an invasion with good drip, lizard jpegs, and magic internet money.

Note: The mention of a token is for informational purposes only nor is it intended as financial or investment advice.