What is Astral Entities?
Astral Entities is a universe of games in development by Hella Rad Games Cryptoreaper and Tanzo that will use the same NFT's available now at https://www.astralentities.com for all their games in the Astral Entities Universe. The purpose of Astral Entities is to release a number of games with a cohesive lore all utilizing the same NFT's. Developers will also have the option of creating in network official titles and unofficial titles using the NFT's.
There are three games currently in development:
Taergyn
Taergyn is like playing Go with D&D inspired Fantasy characters with an array of stats, classes, and an epic depth of lore. This is the flagship game of the series and is expected to launch Q1 2022.
Discordant Adventures
Developed by kiokizz, is a text based adventure on Discord. Alpha testing for the program is live now on the discord server, but there is no cryptocurrency attached yet. This will be the first game released with a goal of Q1 2022.
The Hunter's Guild
The Hunter's Guild will be a Gamified staking game with an emphasis on the Gamified. On timed adventures, you will be forced to make a number of hard decisions that could take twists and turns in this choose your own adventure.
Many, Many more games planned for release down the line with options being developed for developers to create their own unofficial or official games.
Interview
I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of the Astral Entities Founders, Tanzo, and I'm very excited to share that interview with you all!
Sketchy: I really appreciate you being willing to do an interview with me! Feel free to take your time with answers, and there is a good chance I'll get distracted by something shiny here and there too.
Tanzo: I'm ready at any time! I'm also playig a video game... I mean... researching... at the same time, so some answers may be slow.
(Author Note: His answers were not slow. Not even a little, and we had a great chat for a full two hours!)
Sketchy: What game are you playing?
Tanzo: [redacted]
(Author Note: He answered and told me a little about the game, but I chose to leave it up to your imagination. Feel free to make guesses in the comments below. If someone guesses correctly, I'll send them an AE NFT.)
Sketchy: Can you tell me a little about yourself and what you do for Hella Rad Games?
Tanzo: I create the lore and stories that will form the backbone of our idea. I also design the gameplay for our game and link them in the lore. Because we're a small company... I do a little of everything else too.
Sketchy: Sounds like you keep busy! How long have you been working on the lore for the game?
Tanzo: Over 20 years... Man I'm old.
Sketchy: Wow, that's incredible! This is really something you put a lot of time, effort, and love into. Where do you feel you've gained the most inspiration?
Tanzo: Everything from Dungeons and Dragons and Forgotten Realms to steampunk culture. I especially love The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Though that came out a lot later than most things I read. In terms of game, Final Fantasy 7 was probably the first game I ever finished 100%. I could ramble a huge list. How much time ya got?
Sketchy: I know how you feel! So many great stories in this day and age, and I've probably sunk a couple hours into FF7 myself! What a classic! What do you think really sets the lore of the Astral Entities World apart from all the others?
Tanzo: I think it's the breadth and the history. I have a timeline that runs from the earliest moments in time as everything came into being to the latest years of the universe where spaceflight has been discovered. Not many fantasy stories have that, or if they do, they have one or two parts usually told through histories and flashbacks. With our games we will get to explore the breadth of the entire timeline and see how the universe is shaped by the actions of those in it.
Sketchy: Is that because the NFT's all represent the memories of those who lived in the universe summoned by the Time Mechanics?
Tanzo: Kind of. The memories themselves are no longer bound to any one point in time. Time Mechanics, with Lockaine's blessing, can draw these memories out to perform various tasks. Interestingly, Astralite, is comprised entirely of these memories, so there are some darker parts to this as well. But yes, the Time Mechanics definitely affect the timeline using those memories.
Sketchy: The lore absolutely gets dark in some places. Do you have a favorite story or chain of events you would like to highlight?
Tanzo: I think my favorite will be loooooooong down the road in Petrarcha which, oddly, is the first place we technically go with Taergyn. The arenas of Petrarcha used to be populated by indentured gladiators... or slaves. During the course of several years, a group of them banded together to overthrow the regime. This event created the O.P. (Old Petrarcha) and N.P. (New Petrarcha)calendars. That's the astral plane though. On Arcaylia I'm not sure. Much more complex is the world of Arcaylia.
Sketchy: I'm sure the regime didn't go quietly in the night. How long did the uprising last? Was there a watershed event that set it in motion?
Tanzo: There were a few events, but it's a story best told later I think. I will say, however, that the game will be a turn based gladiatorial RPG with guild management, light base building, and research. If I have my way it will become an e-sport.
Sketchy: That sounds amazing! I've noticed there are quite a few gods and unaligned deities. What role do they play in the universe, and other than Lockaine, do they interact with the Time Mechanics?
Tanzo: Also a long answer. The gods themselves are bound by the Divine Compact (they weren't always. That's even more stories). This binds the gods from interfering with the lives of mortals directly on Prime Realities. Think of these as proper worlds or planets in "Real Space." However, since this is a a universe where everyone knows the gods are real, it is easy for them to receive worship. Which, because of the compact, "powers" the divine abilities of the gods which they can then pass, through their representatives (priests, clerics, etc) into the world. How gods function is also a topic for later, as it has a lot of details and nuance to it.
However, that was a tangent. The role the gods play in the universe is to control aspects of reality, so the god of battle draws power from any "battles" that happen and the god of assassins would gain power each time someone is murdered, etc. That is where the gods draw their power. They are fueled by "belief" and in fact most young gods came about purely through that belief. It's probably better to think of them as forces of nature.
Sketchy: Awesome, I really love hearing about the Lore, and you also design game mechanics. Can you tell me more about the flagship game, Taergyn?
Tanzo: Taergy is a two player card game (potentially more than two players in the future) that will be heads up and active. I like the set it and forget it kind of auto battler games to a point. What we wanted to do was really show what blockchain games can do.
The depth of strategy should be vast in Taergyn, but it also should be very simple to get started. You will be able to earn real crypto immediately without having to spend any money. We really wanted to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible. We have tons of extra rules we will be able to add in as well. We can add in different tile bonuses, class bonuses, or even racial abilities given enough development time. We have big plans for Taergyn, and it's going to be fun to release it to the players and see what they want us to do with it in addition to what we plan.
Sketchy: I really can't wait for the physical card promo coming soon! When do we think we can expect that?
Tanzo: I have the physical cards, and here's an example of what they look like:
We are now working to produce a live gameplay video right now, and I'd say anyone who is interested in a physical prototype deck of the Taergyn cards should probably come to the AMAs in January. You know. Hint. Hint. In terms of basic rules, here is the only thing you NEED to play:
That number circled there, and whether it's higher than the target card's number. That's it, but none of that involves strategies. Those I will leave up to the players to figure out.
Sketchy: I love the sense of discovery learning the strategies on our own! I've noticed a great deal of stats on the back of the NFT's; are they what influence the number in the top left?
Tanzo: Correct. Six of the fifteen stats on the back of each card hold the numbers we crunched in our algorithm to generate which direction the arrows go, and the number itself is derived from different sets of attributes based on the damage type here:
This one is a melee card.
Sketchy: Nice! Players won't need to memorize all the stats, and they'll influence different games in the universe in different ways? Will they be displayed in simpler forms within the games to aid player choices?
Tanzo: Yes, such as this number on the Taergyn card. A player won't need to know where it came from to play the game, but if they figure out where it came from, they may be able to find cards that better suit their strategies. In other games it will function similarly on the surface. Easy to understand and grasp the basics, but with depth enough to fulfill all the number crunching needs of people who love that sort of thing. Here's some first draft sneak peek at some of the notes for Hunter's Guild Formulae:
Sketchy: I love it! I think that's one of the things that really sets Astral Entities apart! There will be so many options of games for different preferences and different uses of the same NFT's. That Sneak Peek has be even more excited about that T5 Fearmonger I pulled Today! (I pulled that card Tuesday to give you an idea how long it took me to get this up.) How many games in total are in development and how many are in planning?
Tanzo: That's not all the formulae, so Tanzo taps his nose In active developoment, two. Kind of. Taergyn is absolutely our main focus, and Discordant Adventures is also in active development. Along with these games, we are developing our toolbox which includes how to dock an NFT, how to connect things to smart contracts, etc. I am trying to use the same systems we are already developing in more games.
Hunter's Guild is a perfect example of this. It will use a large amount of code from Discordant Adventures, but it will put the pieces together differently to give another game that is played similarly but with a different focus. Everything we are working on right now will be used in multiple games, so our future games are also being developed? Kind of? Actual Answer: Two.
Sketchy: I see. You’re developing the foundation of all the games that follow alongside the first two games: Taergyn and Discordant Adventures. How many Devs are working on these games?
Tanzo: We have three main devs right now... two and a half actually. One for Discordant Adventures, one is Cryptoreaper (that's the half one because he has a day job), and one Full Stack Dev is working on what to contract out to get Taergyn here as fast as possible. He is dealing with multiple devs on a per contract basis. Then he goes and stitches everything together properly. I try and help too... I even wrote some json files... woo go me! Of course, there were some errors all over them someone else had to fix... so.. I don't help with the json files any more.
Sketchy: Fair enough! There's a reason I never went into programming, so I can relate! Can you tell me a little bit about Discordant Adventures and what you have planned?
Tanzo: The origianal idea was to have Blyx go on adventures by the community, and chapter 1 is in the discord channel dediated to it. I think I'm still going to do that if I have time, but after each leg of his journey those who read and follow his story can then go into discordant adventures, select their own astral entity, and then see what they would have done in that situation.
Obviously I will take creative license with the Blyx part of the story because it has to be entertaining for those who aren't going to play the game, but Blyx will be following the same rules and making the same checks and rolls as the players will in most cases.
Right now the developer is creating me a tool kit, so I can implement chapters as I see fit which will be great! Then I can start getting content out there. I have 12-15 chapters outlined already, so it should be fairly easy to get them out there.
Sketchy: I can’t wait. I’ve played with the Alpha test quite a bit on the server and it reminds me so much of Zork. I’m definitely geeking out about that!!!
Can you give me any spoiler of something we can expect from the first couple chapters?
Tanzo: There will be a choice players need to make: Blyx decided to get on a ship and leave the island... but that's not the only option...
Sketchy: Exciting. Choose your own adventure books were so much fun as a kid, and it was always amazing to me how even the most seemingly insignificant choices could have such profound impact.
You mentioned earlier that you wanted astralite to be accessible to Free players while still respecting the investment of players buying packs. Is the community pool a big part of that balance?
Tanzo: The community pool is step one, and we intend to have something similar for each major game we come out with. So in a sense... those who get in early will help support each game as it starts up, and early purchasers reap some rewards while allowing new players get to earn right away.
Sketchy: What is the community pool and how will it work?
Tanzo: The community pool is two things:
a place for people to put their extra cards and earn some passive Astralite
a place for new/free players to draw their cards from in order to earn Astralite by winning games of Taergyn.
Each game won by a player using Community Pool cards will split the Astralite won between themselves and the pool.
Sketchy: I really like that. There’s no way for player borrowing the card to lose since they pay a cut of their wins and lose nothing in a loss. And, when I stake 500 and counting NFT’s to the pool, I’m able to get some passive Astralite from cards that I wouldn’t be using either way.
Will cards used in the community pool for Taergyn be usable in Discordant Adventures or Hunter’s Guild?
Tanzo: Not at the same time. That's where the choice comes in; if you put good cards in the pool, you can't use them in a game while they are there. But if they're not there, you don't get as large a cut of the pool. Alternatively, you don't have kickass cards in the game you want to play. Hunter's Guild will be similar. As long as those NFT's are locked in and runing a hunt, they can't be used in other games.
Sketchy: That sounds like a great mechanic to reward a large collection. Do you have plans to reward having many low tier cards in addition to the T5’s and T6’s that will earn the most from the community pool?
Tanzo: The lower tier cards will have other benefits later on; for example, in Shattered Seas (very very early ideas) the only thing that will matter for the "staking" feature of that game... will be the class. The tier will have no impact on the staking.
Sketchy: I like that a lot. I’ll have to hang on to all these T1’s I’ve been tempted to offload for more packs then!
You currently do weekly AMA’s in Discord, and I see No Profile doing a lot of trivia challenges for free NFT’s on the server. But that’s not all there is to do on the discord server is there? Could you tell me a bit about the Elite Discordian Challenge?
Tanzo: The Elite Discordians have all been through a grueling test of intelligence and fortitude, and the first 50 people to complete the quest received the Elite Discordian NFT. Then through popular request we left the Quest up for 50 more people to finish
These 100 people will get early access to the Alphas of our games... as well as sneak peeks and early access to sales/special offers... such as our Physical Taergyn Prototypes.
**Sketchy: That sounds amazing! How many spots are left in this very limited and elite group of melonfolk?
**
Tanzo: 13... I think. I'd have to check.
Sketchy: Oh my goodness. That's amazing!
Tanzo: They aren't going fast per se, but they are going steadily.
Sketchy: Very true! There’s still time, but the test is quite difficult. I think I spent a total of eight hours on it, and those of us who made it through want the newcomers to work just as hard as we did!
Tanzo: Yup! That was all part of my secret plan. Mua ha ha. Community.
Sketchy: Community! It’s one of the best assets in any game, and I must say Astral Entities has an amazing one. The discord server is a must see!
Are there any plans for a DAO, governance tokens, or keeping the economy balanced? I know there’s no whitepaper released yet on the tokenomics, but early thoughts?
Tanzo: We are hoping for a sort of DAO thing in the future, but I think that question is better for Cryptoreaper.
From my angle, I'd love to have a core group of people with a vested interest in the success of the project who I can throw ideas at who don't mind me doing it and like expressing their opinions. As long as that is built into any DAO we move ahead with, I'm happy
Sketchy: Sounds great!!! I’ll be sure to bombard him with all the token questions when I can sit down with him!
Do you have any closing thoughts or things you wanted to talk about that we didn’t cover yet?
Tanzo: Not in particular, but I'm always open to more questions. If anyone reading this has some... join the server and bombard me with them!
In terms of the project, I want to say how thankful I am that our artists are so hard working and dedicated. Scaredy8at is great at keeping all the artists humming along; I'm thankful for her as well
Other than that... I'm good I think
Sketchy: Awesome! Thank you so much for your time!
Tanzo: No worries... any time.
Where to Buy Packs and Join the Community?
https://www.astralentities.com/shop or on the wax market. Please don't pay more than 6$ while they are still in stock at the shop. Gold Foiled Sets can also be purchased through the Alpha Presale channel on their discord, and they are also for sale on the wax market above official sale price.
For more information, please check out their official discord https://discord.gg/u5p5Dzz7Vc and https://www.astralentities.com.
Thank you all for spending time with me today. I always love chatting with everyone, so I hope to see you in the comments. I hope to see you again tomorrow for the next pack!!!