Crypto: Updates on ILLUVIUM, a Play-to-Earn Blockchain NFT Game
Updated: Aug 25, 2021
Jake, On Chain Gamer had an incredible interview with ILLUVIUM co-founder, Kieran Warwick about their upcoming blockchain game ILLUVIUM. To be honest, I was really surprised with the quality of the interview particularly for a gaming channel. Jake was well prepared and did a really good job asking key questions uncovering valuable insights about the gameplay and how the game economy would be like. Watch the full interview video here.
This post will be highlighting the key points discussed about the game.
Co-founder's background:
Started with Kain (SNX founder) on OTC Bitcoin sales in 2016 (Over The Counter)
Learned about Ethereum, became vested, lost lots of money and quit crypto
Came back during yield farm summer
The Warwick brothers making huge strides in the crypto space lol.
Inspirations for creating ILLUVIUM:
Passion for gaming, explored blockchain gaming
Learned about Decentraland, lacked gameplay
Play-to-Earn with Axie Infinity: gameplay and artwork is kinda meh
Why not create AAA game with Play-to-Earn mechanics?
Birth of ILLUVIUM:
Shared idea with brother Aaron (ILLUVIUM co-founder), has game design background
Mind blown
Boom, ILLUVIUM was born
Aaron Warwick's background:
Haven't successfully created any games, lacked platform/funds to do so but is super smart
wrote 150 pages GDD (Game Design Docs)
AAA guys were mind blown by GDD
GDD became 400 pages presently
Team's background:
Bioshock titles
Batman Arkham
League of Legends (LoL)
World of Warcraft (WoW)
Transformers and many more
Still actively recruiting anyone from AAA studios
ILLUVIUM's gameplay vision:
Build a collectable game, open world RPG style (like Pokemon)
Explore and capture illuvials (collectable beasts)
PVP (Player Versus Player) battles using illuvials (like LoL's Team Fight Tactics)
Players have certain amount of points which are used to put units on the board based on its costs
Below is how the board will look like:
Release plan:
Slightly delayed
Will be released when it's fully playable
Mine shards, used to capture illuvials
PVP will open up later to give players time to collect and build their teams
Controlling illuvials inflation over time:
Illuvials are bonded to a time curve
Set 1 illuvials captured increases, chances of encountering set 1 decreases but will not go to zero
Set 2 will be introduced
Many set 2s captured, encounter rate reduces, introduce set 3 and so on..
Probably the most important section of the Play-to-Earn feature! By making illuvials more scarce over time, its intrinsic value is guaranteed to increase. ILLUVIUM took an entirely different approach from Axie Infinity where players can "print" infinite axies through breeding. Thus, axies can only grow in value if rate of new players joining exceeds breeding rate.
There's also a fusion feature not mentioned in the interview that allows different types of illuvials to be combined together to form a stronger variant which will further reduce the existing pool of illuvials. Value go up more!
Controlling player count:
Hoping to get 100k players but anticipating >50mil
Monitoring/ensuring constant supply of new content and not become 0.00...001% chances of encountering illuvials
The team has done some big brain server architecture design stuff here to make it possible to onboard millions of players. Read more about it here.
Play-to-Earn aspect:
10% $ILV tokens set aside for tournaments rewards
Game is F2P (Free-to-Play), tier 0 illuvials are free to collect
Grind levels on tier 0s to beat other tiers
Capture other tiers illuvials which will have value
Low entry barrier, no need for scholarships
Money will only be required if players wish to travel to Play-to-Earn locations in ILLUVIUM and catching an illuvial. Estimated to be around 10 and 15 bucks respectively.
I might discuss about $ILV tokenomics in another post.
Case study on another similar blockchain game, Lost Relics:
Rare NFTs to find in dungeon runs
Ran out of content, had to cap player base, new players unable to join
Not enough NFTs for players to farm
How to participate:
ILLUVIUM is completely decentralized
Governance structure/DAO set up by community
Staking programs available
Release plan:
Game demo soon
Gameplay trailer: ETA mid Aug
Closed beta: ETA next few months
Full game released: ETA EOY
Check out the cinematic trailer here or below!
I'm thoroughly impressed with the artwork from a game that playing it can potentially be a source of income. Looking forward to the launch!
Disclaimer: The information listed here is accurate at the point of writing. I am not endorsed by any of the platforms mentioned here. It is strictly my personal opinion and should not be regarded as investment advice. Please do your own due diligence.
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