A fascinating Podcast was released not long ago, with @aggroed, @jarvie and @nealmcspadden on the Peakmonsters Youtube channel about the vision for Splinterlands from here on. I thought it might be valuable to summarize it with this post as I am listening to it. A 1 hour podcast is a lot to take in, a summarized read with my thoughts may help some. The full podcast can be found at this link. Important to know these are thoughts and visions from @aggroed, not definite concrete plans and timelines.
Rough timeline:
- Kick-starter
- Asynchronous tournaments
- Mobile App
- Land expansion possibly Q1 2020. Just a goal, may take a lot longer.
- If Kick-starter goes well, bigger prizes in tournaments is possible.
Mobile App is probably the biggest key here for the short term growth, driving player numbers. Longer term, I am excited about the Land expansion and thing I'll start saving up DEC in the hope I will be in position (hopefully DEC will be needed, if not it is very liquid and convertible easily)
Teasers for land expansion.
- Mines, crafting, farms, fighting rewards, boss drops and land expansion with buildings, and resources are being planned.
- May make some weak cards more valuable. Rusty Android may not fight well, but it could mine resources well.
- Items and spells may grant extra abilities, could change the useability of "crap" cards.
- May come a time where people are in the Splinterlands and never actually fight. They could be farming and mining and have a strong position in the ecosystem without ever fighting.
This will add a whole new level of economy to the game. Needed resources will all be tradeable - thats how this eco-system thrives - and being in a position to produce significant resources should provide an income? Will have to wait and see next year how this all pans out, but I think it will be massive for the game, and add a new dynamic to the eco-system. This system may make crappy cards more valuable, could be a good investment for the long term to pick up cheap cards now in the hope they will become more useful. HODL those rusty androids?
Mobile App
Basic version soon, Oct-Nov. General App maybe December.
Has the potential to grow the player base, and on-board over time many new people to STEEM.
Kick-starter
- Launch of "Untamed"
- A physical book with all the Splinterlands back story and Lore.
- Physical items. Goods, stickers book.
- Physical cards with encryption.
- Will have examples of cards, not the full details of all Untamed cards.
Gotta save up so I can participate. Airdrops on the table for early involvement.
Card strength balancing.
Some interesting info about how they balance the cards out. Worth a listen around the 12 minute mark if you are interested.
Untamed
- A period with no packs (except Orbs) once Beta sell out.
- Around a month of pre-sale of tokenized packs
- AIRDROPS - the earlier you participate, the more airdrops you will get.
- Goal for each edition to run for a year.
- 1.5 million Untamed packs - $2 each still.
- Same card balancing system for Untamed as Alpha and Beta, sets should be complementary rather than overpowered or under-powered.
- Maybe changes to card leveling system.
- Summoners with different abilities?
- A new player will be able to compete with only Untamed. Players with Beta and Alpha will have more options.
- Rental market should improve. More players come in, need Beta's, rent from market.
Should add a lot of new variety to the gameplay, with many more options for useable cards. Will take a while for all but the richest to get cards up to the level of the rest of their decks. Rental market will grow hugely in my opinion.
Boss fights and Asyncronis Tournaments discussed.
- Any time tournaments add alot of potential.
- Improve prizes - bigger tournaments.
Big players will have more opportunities. I am looking forward to this addition, but at my levels will probably be overpowered by the strong players.
Mobile.
- A Free to play version?
- Get's the game on the app store with millions of users.
- More players and should drive growth.
- Brings people on to STEEM blockchain.
- Gaming is big growth. Trading card and blockchain is a good fit.
- Current player base is good for blockchain, tiny for a mobile app.
- Player base of 20,000 is acheivable.
If it's done right, it could be THE killer app that everyone is hoping for. So much more opportunity for Mobile as compared to desktop only. Can't wait till I can play Splinterlands on my lunch break at work.
Onboarding.
- Game is growing strongly in a really big bear market.
- Cheap STEEM can help onboard.
- $0.45 to onboard someone with a free account.
Side notes:
- There was a fair bit of talk near the end of the interview around NFT's (Non Fungible Tokens) on Steem Engine.
- The vision overall was quite inspiring, and certainly has motivated me to keep up my interest and investment in Splinterlands.
These Podcasts contain so much great information and insights behind the scenes. Hopefully this summary has been helpful to you if you haven't got the time to listen to the full interview.
Cheers,
John.