By now you’ve probably heard the team at GAME Credits is working on Genesis, a new galaxy-spanning, multicreator metaverse game. We thought you might like to meet some of our team members and learn more about the project directly from them. We’re talking today with Matt Quirk, Head of Innovation, and Paul Barclay, CTO. In this interview transcript, you’ll get early insights about the project and the philosophies influencing this work.
We’ve heard of multiplayer gaming, of course. Help us understand what you mean by ‘multicreator.’ Are you saying the game is going to be built by multiple creators? Are the players also creators? Will you need to be a creator or a gamer to explore Genesis, or will there be open worlds?
Paul: We’re approaching Genesis from a totally different viewpoint from other metaverses and other games. What “multicreator” means is exactly that – many creators coming together to build a shared experience. Not all of these creators will be individuals. We expect indie game studios, contractors, and other creative groups to be heavily involved.
Even when an existing team is tackling a specific feature, the creator community will still be involved in guiding those teams to achieve the overall community vision for the game. And no, you won’t need to be a creator (or pay for anything) to play Genesis. It will be 100% free to play, plus you’ll be able to earn, level up, and sell NFTs, so it’s a true play-to-earn experience.
Matt: We are definitely pushing the boundaries here with both the way software and games have been developed previously, and the philosophy behind it. The process for “multicreator” is more akin to the dynamics of how Linux was developed, with the added benefit of a financial framework whereby one’s efforts can be rewarded, which in turn makes it more like Ethereum’s development approach.
From a philosophical standpoint we see a ton of value in the freedom and excitement around a bunch of people banding together and saying, “We love this game, but how much cooler would it be if we did it this way? Let’s start a new world.” Carrying on the Linux analogy and all of the flavors of Linux that developed over the years, in the same way Genesis seeks to do that with the metaverse, and create this incredible variety and diversity of worlds and games.
A lot of us hoped for and expected a much faster adoption of blockchain technology in traditional online gaming. What do you think has prevented the large game developers from incorporating blockchain in their existing systems? Why is now the right time to build a blockchain-based metaverse game?
Paul: Uncertainty around the legal standing of blockchain projects has been a factor; the US government hasn’t done the gaming industry any favours here. But the biggest blocker is that the benefits to those large developers just aren’t big enough. Where blockchain really comes into its own is empowering communities to create things that are otherwise impossible. That’s going to be the big impact of blockchain gaming over the next ten years, and we’re positioning ourselves to be at the front of that wave.
Matt: In addition to what Paul mentioned, I think there is uncertainty in the economics from a game developer perspective, while users simultaneously want more control of their purchases. The resulting secondary market adds additional complexity to consider where developers must become stewards of secondary market content. It’s delicate for developers, if you sell new content that undermines the value of old content (by reprinting similar content functionally), this can have a backlash. So game developers aren’t lining up to adopt blockchain tech with these risks in mind, making it more challenging to build a gaming blockchain platform.
We think the entire economic model whereby games make money has to be looked at. The lack of blockchain adoption by game developers and the increase in demand for user control creates an opportunity for new or existing game devs to innovate within this space. WAX has had a few good games on the chain, but has mainly been successful with collectibles. Enjin did great in communicating their multiverse capabilities of items shareable across games, but as a platform, still hasn’t taken off in terms of game developer adoption. Genesis is a game and community that tries to innovate by redefining the entire model for doing business, embracing decentralization, and giving users the control they want.
Paul, your past experience in game development at Wizards of the Coast will be a huge benefit to the project. Because this will be community-driven and many decisions will be made through votes by token-holders, what are the unique challenges and opportunities you see when it comes to making a game like this?
Paul: Fundamentally, the game design process is the same for a community developed project as a centralized project. We come up with ideas, identify the best ones, develop them, and test to see if they work well. We’re just doing this on a massive scale, with thousands of people contributing. Guiding that diverse group of people is going to be the biggest challenge. We’ll need to help the community organize into teams, focused on different areas of development, and help the community mediate disagreements.
Governance votes are interesting here. For most things – even critically important things, they won’t be necessary, as there will already be consensus in the community. However, they’re very useful for the community to build support for new ideas. I’m excited to see how the community approaches the design and development of Genesis – I’m expecting some amazing results, and more than a few awesome surprises.
Matt, you’re working on some interesting ways to use smart contracts with the Genesis project. What are some applications of this technology you’d like to see available in early iterations of Genesis?
Matt: Smart contracts are a great way to automate transactions in a decentralized way and set up an economic framework for things to develop and scale. Economics are central to all that we do. As we don’t want to make a mistake, we spend a lot of time on this piece. It will be exciting to get the community involved and start hearing their feedback. We are looking to do a ton of DeFi incentives tied to NFT smart contracts to get people involved early. Without going into all the details, world share ownership will enable many of these DeFi incentives.
NFTs appear to be on a collision course with the metaverse, both in practice, and in the media hype cycle. Where do you see the potential for NFT collectors to get involved in metaverse gaming? Do you expect Genesis to offer the ability to display or use any NFT?
Paul: I think NFT holders are already deeply involved in both metaverses and gaming. It’s a natural next step to blend those two. To really have a strong blend of metaverse, NFTs, and gaming, we’ll need to bring new creators into the space, and encourage those creators to deliver NFTs with real in-game functionality. That will create a new generation of gaming-focused NFT collectors. I don’t get to make the rules for what other NFTs can or can’t be used within Genesis – that’s the community’s job. But I expect that the community will want to allow any NFT to be used in Genesis.
Matt: Personally I’d like to see how NFTs that are attribute based (Cryptopunks, Meebits, etc) or generative will be used as game content and not just collected for their rarity distribution and hype. I think this is also a new opportunity for NFTs. People can take advantage of this incredible gaming ecosystem. We want people to get a bit radical here. We have gone radical with the scale of this universe. In a similar way, how NFTs can be used to express oneself to new heights and dimensions, both in what they can do from a gaming perspective and what they communicate of one’s creativity, vision and viewpoint.
We’ve seen a number of companies jumping into the metaverse space recently, even as some projects have struggled to get off the ground. When you see companies like Facebook announcing metaverse projects, how does that influence the strategy for GAME Credits and Genesis? Will all these metaverses work together? Is there room for so many projects? How do you plan to stand out from the crowd?
Paul: We looked at the whole space in great detail as we were building Genesis, and that’s why we decided to build a metaverse that was also a cohesive game. I think some metaverses will thrive, others will die, and some will be data mined, ad-infested hellholes (looking at you there, Facebook). Lots of companies are building metaverses that hold standalone gaming experiences – Facebook, Roblox, Sandbox, Decentraland, etc.. Even more companies are building standalone games with little to no customization or freedom. And there’s also a growing clutch of blockchain “games” that are really just nicely dressed DeFi farms.
What we’re building, nobody else is doing – a metaverse that’s gaming focused, not for profit, and community created isn’t aiming to compete with other metaverse projects. We’re also looking at a completely different timeframe – we expect Genesis to be thriving in 100 years time. Rather than competing in a market with other metaverses, what we’re doing is moving the goalposts, and saying, “This is what games should be for their players and communities.”
Matt: I think one also has to ask oneself the question as well, “Do I value more consuming what other people have created for me, or do I value the ability to shape my environment, experimentation, and sharing in that process with others?” All of these metaverses are going to give you a certain amount of control to varying degrees. With Facebook, you’ll have an interesting way to connect with people, but within their business model, which often involves trading your data for access to their system. I think with Decentraland and some of the existing blockchain metaverses, you have a really great initial metaverse, but it’s missing the gaming side and fun factor that brings people back.
Final question to help our community get to know you better. What do you do for fun these days?
Paul: This. Guiding Genesis from zero to launch is the most fun I’ve ever had at work, and I’ve worked on a ton of fun stuff for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Transformers, D&D, and Magic: The Gathering. Outside work (that doesn’t feel like work), it’s playing with my kids and seeing how they interact with the world.
Matt: Definitely have the same joys as Paul with watching my four boys grow, learn and play in the world. I am actually stocking up board games for us to play (hopefully they’ll be into them) as they get older. My latest acquisitions are Crokinole, Dune, and awaiting my Frosthaven kickstarter. Otherwise, personally I do my own art (I do oil paintings, sculpture, and learning graffiti and street art right now), mountain biking, frisbee golf (playing for 25 years and still haven’t gotten better), and travelling to places for good coffee.
Dear GAME Credits friends and community,
We appreciate all the feedback and questions we have received since the June update. We hope you’re able to join us for the AMA with our CEO, Jason Cassidy:
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2021
Time: 1pm Eastern Standard time (EST)
Location: GAME Credits Discord channel
Join us at: https://discord.gg/5pJ5Aa6C
If you can’t make it at that time, you will be able to visit the channel afterward to view the conversation. We have already received a great list of thoughtful and challenging questions and we look forward to responding and continuing the conversation.
In community news, July wrapped up a meme contest in our social channels and a Nova Blitz tournament over the weekend. A huge congrats (and $GAME rewards!) goes to the creators and players in our community. And we have to say, we’re both humbled and honored to laugh with you laughing at us. Here are a few of our favorite memes from the contest.
In Metaverse news, we’ve had the opportunity to share some of our early plans and initial roadmap with a small audience of prospective partner organizations, creators, and collaborators. One piece of the vision that has resonated powerfully with this audience is our strong focus on gaming in this metaverse. We believe our team is uniquely positioned to execute on this vision, based on depth of experience and commitment to both gaming and blockchain technology. As a member of the GAME Credits community, you’ll have access to our vision, ideas, and plans before we publish major announcements and campaigns to the media and general public.
In the spirit of transparency, you can view the work in progress on our community hub at http://hub.gamecredits.org/. This is where we’re drafting our vision, documenting governance principles, and kicking off collaborative project work. The project is currently in Phase 0, which is all about getting set up and launching the core pieces of the ecosystem: Contracts, Community, and World Stakes. Our big launch in the fall will be our World Stake sales – NFTs with contracts providing holders with future access to themed worlds in the metaverse. This smart contract work is the bulk of our engineering work right now.
We have been working with studios and creators to develop the NFTs for our themed worlds. You may have seen a few teasers of worlds. Worlds in design now include themes like Treasure Island, Sports World, Etherium, Bitcoin, Area 51, Area 420, Cat World, and Monster Planet. The NFTs are designed to inspire creativity in the community and attract participants who want to help create and govern each world in the metaverse. We are also working on the first prototype world and hope to launch it for exploration by the end of the year.
Our NFT platform remains a great place for creators to mint NFTs, reward their audience and build a creative legacy on the blockchain. Collectors can still stake GAME on their favorite creators and receive loyalty points to redeem for exclusive content. Our community team is working to recruit and support new creators as they launch collections on the platform. You may notice gradual transitions to our website copy as we shift from eSports to content with relevance for our creator and gamer community.
Within the company, we are building a more formal operational infrastructure to support recruiting and retaining talent. As our team has grown, we have added more US-based team members. We have established US operations with USD payroll and competitive benefits, including company-paid healthcare premiums for US employees and their families. As we grow, we will be recruiting for team members in marketing and communications, engineering, and creative.
The GAME Credits team is excited about our vision for the future. It has been especially motivating to see all the recent news about organizations and teams moving forward with ambitious Metaverse projects. Increasing mainstream discussion and acceptance of this evolution in web3 experience will benefit us all!
With gratitude,
The Team @ GAME Credits
Dear GAME Credits friends and community,
In our June update, we shared with you our driving values – Community, Transparency, Utility, and Flexibility – and our plan to focus on the GAME Credits platform and Metaverse project. I’m proud of the progress our team has made over the past six months and am excited about the road ahead for GAME Credits. Bringing game utility to the Metaverse is a natural fit for our experienced blockchain engineers and our staff of gaming enthusiasts.
Our existing NFT minting platform and marketplace allows for sale and minting of NFTs with metaverse utility. To expand on that functionality, our engineers have been working on additional options, such as bonded NFTs, a new way to bring NFT’s to market while also solving a growing issue in the space – liquidity. As we discover and test creative functionality for smart contracts, we focus on features that provide metaverse utility, not only for our projects but across metaverse solutions. Features like these, as well as usability improvements, will be added to our suite of tools for creators over the next several months. Collectors will begin to notice a smoother browsing and purchasing experience.
One of the first tasks in the GAME Credits Metaverse project, is to develop the founding philosophy and community guidelines that will lead to healthy governance, engaged community, and fun and exciting design and development work. We’ll be sharing this documentation openly and encouraging feedback from the community. We’re committed to supporting a community-driven project by dedicating resources for design and development and staffing for administrative processes and community engagement.
Speaking of community, we are excited to meet new friends and reach creators, collectors, and gamers who are excited to participate in design, development, governance, and creative thinking around game mechanics in the Metaverse. We’re thinking big and seeking diverse talents and perspectives. We will expand outreach to individuals and organizations, recruiting partners to join us in this journey.
One aspect that is definitely a competitive advantage for GAME is our deep Metaverse knowledge. The team is blessed with some of the best minds in the Metaverse space, several who have been active participants with the initial offerings that have come into this sector. This experience, mixed with our deep gaming background has led us to bring forth our own Metaverse, one that challenges the currently held beliefs on what a blockchain-based Metaverse can both look and function like.
Having had the benefit of observing the early incarnations of the Metaverse landscape, we feel confident that our approach, coupled with involvement in existing Metaverse projects puts us in a position to succeed. Good things take time and we are pleased that we did not rush something like this as we plan on it being around for years to come post-launch.
Expect to see more open sharing from our team, including information about how you can get involved. I’ll be hosting an AMA for folks who have questions: about this and anything else under the GAME Credits sun. Details below:
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2021
Time: 1pm Eastern Standard time (EST)
Location: GAME Credits Discord channel
Join us at: https://discord.gg/5pJ5Aa6C
Enter your question in our GAME Credits Discord #AMA Channel
With Gratitude,
Jason Cassidy
CEO
GAME Credits
Dear GAME Credits friends and community,
The GAME Credits team has been heads down working on new technology, platform improvements and creating a new vision for the future. We are so grateful for your support, feedback and patience during the roller coaster ride the industry has been through in 2021.
We’ve built a strong team with a wide range of professional experience and we’re setting the stage for near term and long term projects we can’t wait to share with the community. These are the values that drive our decisions and help us become better at meeting and exceeding expectations.
Community – It’s vital we engage with and listen to our community and nurture relationships with the groups and individuals who help make us better every day. Our future vision includes growing this community and providing new opportunities for engagement and participation in governance.
Transparency – We know we have work to do to better communicate our priorities, works in progress and future direction. We appreciate community feedback that pushes us to do better and to communicate our efforts, even when we know we can never please everyone. We will be more open and transparent.
Utility – We continue to prioritize utility of the GAME token and the blockchain technologies we develop. We will not hype the token as a financial vehicle. Our motivation will always be to build blockchain solutions that provide utility for the GAME token.
Flexibility – Things move quickly in the blockchain space. We strive to remain flexible in order to take advantage of opportunities that play to our strengths. We research and test and iterate with the humility to know when it’s time to let go of something we may love, but may not be the best solution for our community.
So what does this mean for our future? Throughout our internal conversations about our vision for the future, a few priorities have consistently risen to the top. We’ll be updating the website and drafting a new white paper to support the vision.
Here’s what we’re focusing on for the rest of 2021:
Game Credits Platform
Game Credits Metaverse
What does this mean for Nova Blitz? We’ll continue to support the existing Steam game. However, the mobile launch is no longer on our list of priorities this year. We’ll reconsider mobile for Nova Blitz next year.
This is an incredibly diverse community consisting of digital artists, Nova Blitz players and fans, GAME token holders, gamers, blockchain enthusiasts and NFT collectors, all with a variety of interests, priorities and expectations. We appreciate your support and look forward to learning and growing together!
With gratitude,
The Team @ GAME Credits
GAME Credits is excited to continue the 2021 Nova Blitz World Tour #2.
The second Tournament will consist of 32 players from across the globe. It will take place on Saturday, July 31st, 2021 @ 5PM ET (UTC-4), Central European Summer (UTC+2), Japan (UTC+9) and will have a $2,000 prize pool paid in GAME.
Future tournaments will be announced at a later date, the last one being a special “Winner’s Tournament”, with a LEGEND of all LEGENDARIES Prize.
This tournament will seat ONLY 32 entries, with the top 8 places paying.
So make sure you sign up fast!
The Loot for Round 1
1st Place – $800 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
2nd Place – $400 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
3rd Place – $200 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
4th Place – $200 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
5th Place – $100 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
6th Place – $100 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
7th Place – $100 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
8th Place – $100 in GAME and a guaranteed spot in Round 2
Be sure to join the Game Credits Discord channel even if you don’t enter the tournament. There will be some lucky winners in the audience as well!
Tournament Format:
Streaming:
The tournament will be streamed live via Twitch & in Discord.
Tournament Details:
-You will be required to collect and use your own collection of cards.
-This tournament will be competitive, consisting of the top players around the world. However, everybody has a chance to compete and win! All newcomers and underdogs welcome!
-You must be part of the GAME Credits Discord. Matches will be organized via Discord. Please be present during the tournament.
-Please arrive in Discord at least 15 mins early. Not being present at the start of the match will result in a loss.
-ONE entry per person. People caught using multiple accounts will result in a permanent ban from future tournaments.
-No GAME Credits Team Members can enter the tournament.
Sign up and get ready to battle! Let’s UP YOUR GAME!
Hello GAME Credits Community,
It’s time for the monthly recap!
May 2021 was the first Nova Blitz “Up Your Game” Leaderboard tournament. We will continue the tournament for the months of June & July. On the first of each month, the Leaderboard resets. So everyone has the same chance of winning For more info on the tournament please read our previous blog
Here are the winners for the May Nova Blitz “Up Your Game” Leaderboard tournament
During May, we also had A TON of new signups to the GAME Credits Platform, which allows anyone to create, sell, & collect gasless NFTs with a very easy-to-use process. Here are two of the new creators:
And last but not least, did you see the unsolicited YouTube video that Crypto Plan / https://twitter.com/jntraining released about GAME Credits?
The GAME Credits team has been working on some big plans, and very soon we will be able to announce them. We do not believe in hyping things until they are ready to be released, but I promise you we are working very hard behind the scenes. These things take time to build out, but we believe you will be very excited!
Thank you,
The GAME Credits team
Happy May to everyone in The GAME Credits Family!
Let’s jump right into the April recap.
GASLESS NFTs and New Platform Feature
April saw the official launch of GASLESS NFTs on the GAME Credits Platform. We are utilizing the Polygon (Matic) sidechain to help reduce fees and make it easier for anyone to create and sell NFTS.
You can read the blog on all the new features here
With these new features, creators can now:
NOVA BLITZ
We launched the first 2021 Nova Blitz World Tour Tournament. This event had people from around the globe battling it out for a chance to win some $GAME. The winners of the tournament were:
1st Place – HIDE
2nd Place – Memento926
3rd Place – Upclass
4th Place – Aussiesloth
5th Place – JakeAlmighty, Uni, Penanegra, & Boschem.
Stay tuned for future tournaments coming soon!
Nova Blitz Leaderboard Competition
But that wasn’t it for Nova Blitz, we also announced the Nova Blitz Leaderboard Competition.
For the month of May 2021, players who compete to top the in-game Nova Blitz Leaderboards, will win additional prizes outside of the game. Win GAME and NFT Rewards as you hone your skills
1st Place – $400 in GAME
2nd Place – $200 in GAME
3rd Place – $100 in GAME
4th Place – $100 in GAME
5th Place – $50 in GAME
6th Place – $50 in GAME
7th Place – $50 in GAME
8th Place – $50 in Game
Play, play and play some more. We will pay out $1,000 in GAME Prizes each month to the end of May, June and July Leaderboard leaders.
Just For Fun
Who saw the FOX news story on Virtual Land sales?
They happened to highlight the GAME Credits banner on Nonfungible.com
Not a bad promotion!
Until next month,
GAME On!
GAME Credits is excited to announce the Up Your GAME Nova Blitz 2021 Leaderboard Rewards Program.
For the month of May 2021, players who compete to top the in-game Nova Blitz Leaderboards, will win additional prizes outside of the game. Win GAME and NFT Rewards as you hone your skills and prepare for our upcoming 2021 Nova Blitz World Tour*, an international set of Tournaments, culminating in a final Grand Prize winner at the end of the year.
What do you need to do to win in the Leader Rewards Program?
Play, play and play some more. We will pay out $1,000 in GAME Prizes each month to the end of May, June and July Leaderboard leaders. (The leaderboard resets at the end of each month)
Leaderboard Loot per month
1st Place – $400 in GAME
2nd Place – $200 in GAME
3rd Place – $100 in GAME
4th Place – $100 in GAME
5th Place – $50 in GAME
6th Place – $50 in GAME
7th Place – $50 in GAME
8th Place – $50 in GAME
GAME Credits is excited to announce the 2021 Nova Blitz World Tour.
The first Tournament will consist of 32 players from across the globe. It will take place on Saturday, May 1st, 2021 @ 5pm EST and will have a $1,000 prize pool paid in GAME.
Future tournaments will be announced at a later date, the last one being a special “Winner’s Tournament”, with a LEGEND of all LEGENDARIES Prize.
This tournament will seat ONLY 32 entries, with the top 8 places paying.
So make sure you sign up fast!
The Loot for Round 1
1st Place – $400 in GAME and move on to Round 2
2nd Place – $200 in GAME and move on to Round 2
3rd Place – $100 in GAME and move on to Round 2
4th Place – $100 in GAME and move on to Round 2
5th Place – $50 in GAME and move on to Round 2
6th Place – $50 in GAME and move on to Round 2
7th Place – $50 in GAME and move on to Round 2
8th Place – $50 in GAME and move on to Round 2
Be sure to join the Game Credits Discord channel even if you don’t enter the tournament. There will be some lucky winners in the audience as well!
Tournament Format:
-SINGLE Elimination Bracket, 5 rounds (32, 16, 8, 4, 2)
-First three rounds; Best of 1 Matches, Final Two rounds will be best of 3.
– Open Format. No card restrictions.
Streaming:
The tournament will be streamed live via Twitch & in Discord.
Tournament Details:
-You must register before Midnight EST, April 28th.
-You will be required to collect and use your own collection of cards.
-This tournament will be competitive, consisting of the top players around the world. However, everybody has a chance to compete and win! All newcomers and underdogs welcome!
-You must be part of the GAME Credits Discord. Matches will be organized via Discord. Please be present during the tournament.
-Please arrive in Discord at least 15 mins early. Not being present at the start of the match will result in a loss.
-ONE entry per person. People caught using multiple accounts will result in a permanent ban from future tournaments.
-No GAME Credits Team Members can enter the tournament.
Sign up and get ready to battle! Let’s UP YOUR GAME!
We have been listening to the comments and requests from the community and have heard you! Today we are releasing new Artist Features to the GAME Credits Foundry based on your feedback! With these new features, Creators can craft and sell NFTs, completely gas-free, in just a matter of minutes.
In 2020, we released our beta version of the GAME Credits Foundry, one of the first platforms allowing Creators to make NFTs on the Matic blockchain. Since the launch, we have been working closely with all types of creators to develop additional functionalities that will make the Foundry the perfect minting tool for everyone. Whether you are a visual artist, musician, game developer or other creators, the Foundry now provides an easy-to-use option for you to mint and sell your creations as NFTs.
With the new features, creators can now:
Sidechain Creators
Creators now have two options when creating their accounts on the GAME Credits Platform.
All New NFT Minting Options
With our new features, the sky is the limit on the types of NFTs a creator can craft and sell in just a matter of minutes without incurring any gas fees. Whether it’s a static image or an animated piece with sound, you can now mint it on the GAME Credits Foundry! The Foundry now supports files up to 50 MB in a wide variety of file types including: JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs, and MP4s. Best of all, the entire process of minting an NFT on the Foundry takes only a few minutes.
Unlockable Content
Want to give the purchaser of your NFT access to a 3D model they can use in a blockchain metaverse? How about the ability to download the audio file used to make your NFT? Or maybe it’s a high-resolution version of the image you want to make available to the purchaser for printing. Whatever it is, it is now achievable with unlockable content. Unlockable content gives the creator the ability to attach a file of any format to their NFT that can only be downloaded once the NFT is purchased. With unlockable content, there are virtually limitless possibilities to how NFTs can be used as a means of providing purchasers with all kinds of digital content tailored for virtually any use case.
This is just the beginning. We will constantly be adding new features and updates to make this the most convenient way to design and sell your own custom NFTs.
