Qi Podcast #16: Infinity Skies - A Play-to-Earn Crypto Sandbox Game to Build, Adventure, Trade & Socialize
Primer: Infinity Skies is an upcoming sandbox game. In this episode of the Qi Podcast, Archon speaks with Sander Dijkens, the CTO of Infinity Skies, on the inspiration behind the game, what the game is about, and what features do they have.
Background
CTO at DreamFuel Games
Studied at the University of Arts at Utrecht
Did 2 years of rigorous self-study on video game development
Has a generalist skill set — able to do arts, programming, and design
Broad spectrum of skills enable him to communicate between departments
DreamFuel Games
Infinity Skies is the first project for DreamFuel Games
Many of their employees have been in the industry for quite some time
Project Manager with >20 years of experience
Artists with 5-10 years of experience
Their developers are also working on a game called Timebenders which has been featured on Gamescom
Team size: ~22
Team is international
Will be opening up a physical office next month
Vision For Infinity Skies
Main inspiration came from a game called Habbo Hotel, which was popular back in the 2000s
A hotel game where players own a hotel room and could decorate it with furniture and have people come over and chat. Is a social game
Modeled Infinity Skies on Habbo Hotel, but they have diverged quite a long way from that original inspiration
Took inspiration from The Sims, Runescape, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Hades
Background Of The Game
Set in an afterlife setting of a mythical world
World consists of many different cultures of humans that each have their own set of religions
Each religion is represented by a living god and each of these gods have their own plans, using humans as pawns in their schemes against one another
"So that's kind of the idea of the lore behind this floating island world where people basically enter into the afterlife, and they help this god build up his kingdom." - Sander Dijkens
Their Technology
Decided to build on the Binance Smart Chain:
Gas fees are low
Transaction speed is fast
Aim is to be multi-chain, so that they can reach players on different chains
(As of 23 November 2021, the team announced the switch to Polygon Network here)
On The Play-To-Earn Space
Exciting to see this revolution picking up
10 years ago, it was unheard of that you can earn money playing games
Have taken a look at many of the play-to-earn games in the space. Took elements that they liked and shied away from those that they didn't like
Observed scholarship programs and guilds-as-a-business forming out of Axie Infinity organically
Inspired them to work on an end-game guild system to facilitate in-game community building
Took inspiration from Sandbox Game and Decentraland for their world map system
A Day In The Life Of An Infinity Skies Player
When the game is live, players will be able to download the game client from their website
Players have to create an account to log in into the game
There's an area known as deep sky. This area is free for everyone to own a sky plot
Currently updating their whitepaper. The updated version will be out in the coming weeks. One change that they made was to remove the size component from sky plots. Wanted to make sure that no one is ever restricted from building what they want to build
When players arrive at their sky plot, they will see a small cabin with some basic furniture inside. These furniture pieces are not tradable NFTs
Many ways to decorate your sky plot — floors, walls, doors, chairs, tables, armor sets, etc.
To get NFTs, players have to go on an Adventure, which is a roguelike dungeon crawling game. Players have to proceed through 5 different stages and beat the boss at the end of their run. The further they get, the higher the rewards become
These rewards are NFTs that could be used to build up their island/castle
The Adventure mode is play-to-earn and free-to-play. There is no kind of pay-to-win structure in place
Another way to obtain NFTs is to buy them with Skyblock tokens, their native token, from their marketplace. These NFTs would originally come from players who have grinded them out in Adventure mode
NFTs come in different rarity tiers
Land Location
Land locations that are nearer to the centre of the world are more valuable
These locations exist as NFTs and are tradable
A more central location will be important because of the leaderboard mechanic. This is tied to the Socializing aspect of the game
Whenever players visit the castles of other players, they can upvote the castle and give it prestige points. At the end of each month, these prestige points are counted and players who end up on top of the leaderboards receive the most rewards
Still possible to create a beautiful castle on the outskirts of the world. It's just harder to be found by other players and, consequently, obtain prestige points
Seasonal NFTs
Seasons are not tied to the monthly social leaderboard
The loot table for NFTs changes across seasons
This puts a cap on the NFT supply and would make older NFTs more coveted
Visiting Other Castles
To visit other castles, open the roadmap and look at the map display. Clicking on a castle would take you to it
Have an advanced search feature where players can look up a friend, a castle with the most prestige points, or the highest value of NFTs, etc. Will have multiple sorting options in their advanced search feature
In the advanced search, castles are sorted based on the numbers of feasts stacked. Feasts are common rarity NFTs that are dropped fairly often from Adventure mode. Feasts are burnt when consumed, increasing your castle's visibility
There will also be a newsfeed on the normal world map which shows the top 10 castles with the most feasts active
Expecting that people will be buying up lots of feasts to compete for the top spot on the leaderboards. Good for free-to-play players as it's a commonly dropped item
Rewards
Rewards for the social leaderboard go all the way up to Royal rarity
In Adventure mode, the maximum rarity for rewards is only up to Divine rarity
Astral and Royal rarities are exclusive for events and the leaderboard
Royal rarity NFTs are purely exclusive to the leaderboard
Adventure Mode
Adventures will be actual games on their own. They will not be mini-games
Will be constantly building so that there's enough variation in these adventure games
Building Infinity Skies as a hub where players can depart on different adventures. Doesn't have to be exclusively roguelike dungeon crawling games
For the initial roguelike game, they will continuously bring out new maps and storylines
Introducing a trial system where players embark on a trial and explore their character's past or how they got to this place
Currently building Act 1
Can Their NFTs Be Traded On A Third Party Marketplace?
Yes, this is the nature of blockchains
The Infinity Skies marketplace will still provide the most expansive searchability of assets. They will have the filters and sorting to help users find the asset they want
Burning NFTs In Exchange For A Higher Rarity Item
Trying to prevent the oversupply of common items
Allows players to use these items in the crafting system where they can burn them in exchange for a random item that is 1 rarity higher
Can only craft up to Legendary rarity items in this way
Skyblock Token
Main utility is for usage in their marketplace
Players can obtain Skyblock token by farming NFTs through Adventure mode and selling them
Another way is to buy them off an exchange
For every transaction of Skyblock token, there will be a 5% tax:
3% will go to the Play-to-Earn Stash
1.5% will go to the Claim Pool
0.5% will go to the development team
Every week, there will be different quests. Completion of these quests comes with Skyblock token rewards
For the Claim Pool, Skyblock token holders will be able to claim their share of the Claim Pool based on how many Skyblock tokens they hold
Token Distribution
Total supply of 100 million. Of which, 24 million will be in the Play-to-Earn stash. The Play-to-Earn stash will deplete as the game continues
50 million allocated to the marketing fund
200,000 for the liquidity pool
Team and advisors have 20 million that undergo cliff vesting
1 million in the public sale
10 million in the seed sale
15 million in the private sale
Vesting is usually 24 months long
Roadmap For The First 12-18 Months
Game will be released in early access. Expects to be fixing bugs, network issues, etc.
Will be constantly updating Adventure mode with new adventures
Will be working on assets for the following season
Where Can People Find Out More About Infinity Skies?
Follow their social media channels
Have a Telegram group with a nice community. There is an announcement channel in the Telegram group
They have a Discord and a Reddit as well
In the future, they will have a YouTube channel and a Twitch account
Their whitepaper can be found on their website
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