Greetings, Hive!
This time I shall offer you an interview with @elindos, A.K.A. Elindos Phar on a certain Discord server that has to do with the new Hive exclusive, blockchain-based space game @elindos is creating along with a small team.
The Game entered the Presale phase on April 4th, 2020. We expect the Market going live within a few days, the prices increasing soon (Presale ending) and the game being playable near the end of the month.
The interview below shall tell you more
Snapshot provided by the EXODE team. Source Article
Greetings, @elindos! It's an honor to speak with you about your project. Before we continue...How would you introduce yourself to the readers?
Well, I have been a passionate geek, game and tech programmer. I came to blockchain games last year thanks to Splinterlands. For some time I was just a player, but the JS troubles activated a revolt in me and made me want to do more creative works for the blockchain. I became a HIVE game developer that day!
How would you define the genre of EXODE?
EXODE is an immense space colonization adventure; that's what I want the players to experience. But as a genre, it is what I call a "Living CSG" - a Living Collectible Strategy Game. I believe that's a new genre, so I don't use this term often. You collect assets like in a CCG, and you can earn and sell anything because it is blockchain.
All this is already immense for a collectible game. But also "Living" because you have an ongoing lasting colony, and your entire experience is in it. Your colony is your story, and you can use your assets for many strategic options in this game.
What inspired you to go this way?
This vision has always been in EXODE. But achieving this would never have been possible before it became a blockchain game. EXODE was first imagined years ago, defining itself as a strategy/RPG (role-playing game), but the concept was 'too scary' for publishers.
Now, with assets on blockchain and the valuation given thanks to it, everything "clicks in". It is as if EXODE and blockchain were always meant to marry, and I discovered it only now.
So, are players following their own flexible scenarios? If so, how will they interact with each other apart from using the same market?
EXODE has an engaging interactive model between players. Players will team up in player squadrons, gaining team season ranks, and participate together in in-game missions.
For instance, one player could be the Navy Lieutenant, with his frigate acting as the team's flagship in space combat. Another could be the stealthy black marketeer, with a cloaked transport, carrying player resources between their colonies. And they may all participate in ground combat, space exploration, or fighting the aliens.
Oh, that's cool, certainly not a thing I've seen in a blockchain game so far!
Can players restart their game? What happens when a colony/ship does not survive? Does the player still own the same assets and what is different for them in such a case?
EXODE is a dangerous world and we want to keep it that way. But we make everything for it to be a positive experience.
First, playing a game unlocks exceptional rewards called "Legacy Rewards". The longer you survived, the more rewards you will earn. Surviving long is a real challenge but can be extremely rewarding. This sounds a bit roguelike, and it is actually.
Secondly, even when losing a colony, you never lose the cards you used. When you start a game, you "activate" some cards for this game and they will be "connected" to it. When you lose a game, you recover usage of these cards after some short cooldown... and you can start a new game!
Somewhere in your introductory posts, you used the term Frost Punk. Could you define it for us?
Frostpunk is a city-building survival game by 11 bit studios. Mankind is facing a global disaster. Frostpunk puts you in control of a last-ditch effort from mankind, in a small struggling colony facing a new ice age. It has exceptional, dramatic music. (
) That game resonates well with some of EXODE's strong points and gameplay! Although I would say EXODE also focuses on our hope to survive the alien threat... and our epic, powerful last fight against them.
How much time are players expected to play on a daily or weekly basis in order to do well in the game? Any expectations about the necessary minimum? In other words, how does time fly in EXODE?
There are two different "game flows" in EXODE. The first experience is the Evacuation Scene. That is where you escape to another planet. You should play it entirely. It should last 10 to 30 minutes depending on how you play it. The second is the Colony Survival. This one is longterm! You can easily play it "hit and go": log in EXODE, see how it goes, give some orders and leave. Or you can deepen if you want. Read all reports, study your planet, draft new plans, study every citizen situation; then research and design a new resource, and spend hours if you want to study the player market. Colony Management - and this extends to space exploration - is extremely flexible.
Can you explain NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) for those who are not familiar and how do they help the game? Are they comparable to, say, Splinterlands/Hearthstone/Magic: The Gathering cards?
NFT is a term that sounds quite unfamiliar to people. The full wording "Non-Fungible Token" still sometimes makes me think about mushrooms. But as much as I don't want the term to stick because it sounds bad for non-crypto people, it has been used in BTC and ETH games for four years. Currencies, like when you spend 23.201 coins of something, are "Fungible Tokens": you can split them into parts. Collectible cards are "Non-Fungible"; you cannot split this asset in two. You can't sell 0.3 part of it somewhere, and 0.7 of it somewhere else.
An NFT needs to be represented by something; usually, it is its unique id. When you sell something, you broadcast on the blockchain a message: an "I give you this" message, along with this unique id. This makes representing collections and transfers extremely easy, especially on the HIVE blockchain and it's 3-second cost-free transaction time. All CCGs such as Splinterlands or Magic have unique cards, so Splinterlands has NFTs everywhere. EXODE also gives you access to a collection of packs and cards and uses NFTs for every pack and card.
What assets can be gained as rewards for playing and what is a must-buy in order to play the game?
To get your seat in EXODE, you just have to get your hands on one of the 5 USD starters.
To play a game just needs one card - the Origin card. And every starter has one!
EXODE rewards you for playing with:
NFTs rewards you can resell, such as: characters, resources, ship modules, etc.
NFTs and FTs (= currencies) you receive from your own colony and research; such as new medicine, new weapons, new fuel you invented and produced on your planet, and want to resell to others.
and specific EXODE tokens, such as the eXode fuel (EXOFUEL), soon available on hive-engine, which you can produce on your colony and exchange on the market.
That is for the big picture.
To gain these, you just have to play.
There are season rankings, team rankings, daily missions, and special rewards.
But let's get to what people will be able to play and earn sooner.
Soon people will be able to play the Evacuation Scene, which for about one month only will deliver its own rewards. The Evacuation loot table will include specific unique items, including legendary cards which will not be available after.
To get bigger rewards you need some strategy, and you can also take advantage of other resources from alpha presale (such as Contracts, support ships, etc).
This is our way to reward our testers while they are awaiting the next playable phase.
We hope players will have fun too!
Ah, good old fun. The reason we play games, actually. When it comes to players worldwide.
New players have the option to buy in using Paypal even if they had no crypto before that. I see you are onboarding new players for free and that's a great thing!
But what about the RC they will need? How much Hive Power, and respectively, Resource Credits, would a new account need in order to play through the Evacuation scene and every day after that without falling low on RC? Where can they find support in that regard?
We are creating HIVE accounts free of charge for all people entering EXODE.
We have been powering up too (we have no interest in selling HIVE) to have more delegation capacity.
For every new account we created we will provide the required basic RC by delegating Hive Power to them.
If an account stops playing, we will retract this delegation after some time. (but it will be automatically reactivated when they come back)
It is a bit early to estimate the RC needs of playing EXODE.
But we aim at not consuming too much of it. We want a future where there are many games on HIVE so people need some preserved capacity.
We will also display the remaining RC capacity for all players (right from their game screens), and to the best of our ability, be there to help them.
What are the things we should expect from EXODE in the near or distant future?
This would be a nice place for the new roadmap image:
Snapshot provided by the EXODE team. Source Article
Access to the Evacuation gameplay will be released this month to our early backers, and after that to all captains in EXODE!
Then we will work on the full game - adding colonization.
After that, we plan to release EXODE on Steam - we are game developers after all and will have a very refined executable version at that point. So we know many people would enjoy playing it and come to own a HIVE account!
All this happens in the coming months.
And I believe that will be the first HIVE-powered game to come to Steam?
And once all this is done? EXODE universe can expand into so much more!
Great news! Thank you, @elindos! Would you like to add anything else? Anything else that you would like the players to know at this point?
The HIVE community has been extremely supportive so far, the experience has been great, and our development is already funded.
EXODE has an amazing future. How about looking at our game concept video, and joining now? :)
Remember the alpha is there for a limited time!
Thank you all for reading this interview. #hiveisalive !
And I thank you once more! It was a pleasure speaking with you!
Before I sign off, I'd like to share I already bought something I consider the minimum packs required for a start. But there are lots of tempting offers out there and...You know about that personal event almost everybody has once in the week now. The one that allows us to buy into whatever we feel like...
You can find links to articles by @elindos under both images I shared within this post. Better just go and follow @elindos for more on the topic. Also, a witness server coming up soon, as I just understood.
I shall leave it at that.
I hope you had a good time reading! I will be happy to get your feedback.
If you are interested in the game, please, consider...well...participating.
Here's the Discord server again.
Also, I invite you to use
My Referal Link!
Both players get bonus boosters for their collection and they also spawn close to each other.
Yours,
Manol
