All Eyes On Infinity Skies
Primer: Infinity Skies is an upcoming sandbox game on the blockchain. We combined Gabriel Haines' interview with Sander Dijkens, the co-founder of the game, with Ceazor's AMA with the founders (Marc and Sander) to provide you with a comprehensive piece on the project.
Sander's Background
CTO of DreamFuel Games
Working on Infinity Skies, their crypto game project
Has been fiddling and tweaking with games since he was a child. Mixed up different board games and made his own rules for them
Got into programming at high school. Took a course in game development
After high school, he took a degree in game design
Most Successful Game He Remixed
Mix Colonies of Catan with Chess
Move chess pieces across the Colonies of Catan board for conquered territories
Degree In Game Design
His Degree
Not a common degree of study. Most universities do not offer it
His program focused on the rules and mechanics of designing a game
Analysis Of Popular Games
Had to analyze popular games
Learned to use the proper terminology in order to communicate between different departments
Spent his free time on game art and programming, which is not required of a game designer
Examples Of Well-Designed Popular Games
Big fan of Grand Strategy games from Paradox Interactive. A big challenge to ensure that all the mechanics in a Grand Strategy game work together
League of Legends
World of Warcraft. Did very well to build an entire backstory of the world
What Makes A Well-Designed Game
Knowing what your target audience wants
Game design is really about user experience design
After Getting His Degree
Went to experiment with a lot of personal projects:
3D Modeling
Animating
Rendering
Ray Tracing
Focused on day and night cycles for his rendering experiments
Joining Crypto
Received a call from Marc, his co-founder, in November 2020
Heard about crypto before. Had a vague idea of how it all worked
Began learning about the crypto environment at a rapid pace and found it really interesting
Marc's Pitch
Marc and himself have been friends since elementary school
Always had ideas of starting something together, but it didn't sit well with one or the other
This is the 1st project that both of them are really passionate about
Immediately reminded of Habbo Hotel, a very old social game both of them enjoyed
Wanted to modernize it, but ended up going in completely new directions
Habbo Hotel
Same genre as Club Penguin
Very popular in the year 2000
People have their character/avatar and could decorate the interior of their hotel room
Could visit each other to chat
People started to create mini-games that were not actually implemented by the developers
Infinity Skies
Sandbox genre game
Players own floating islands in the sky, on which they can build their own castles using NFTs as a building block
Inspired by Habbo Hotel, The Sims, and Planet Zoo
Has 4 important pillars for gameplay:
Building
Adventuring
Socializing
Trading
In sandbox genre games, goals are set by the player themselves. However, the Infinity Skies devs will provide some goals for players to work towards
Features
Races
Their lore is inspired by Game of Thrones
More focus on humans, but there are mythical creatures as well
Mythical creatures are not playable characters
Players are always able to pick the hair colour and skin tone they want, but actual haircut style/face types are NFTs
Accessibility Of The Game
Infinity Skies is free-to-play. Everyone will be provided with a basic floating island and some decorations to decorate their house
Camera Angle
Everything is in 3D, from a bird's eye perspective
Camera movement allows for 3D views as well (inclusive of zooming in/out and camera rotation)
Castle Themes
Have standard medieval fantasy theme as well as other themes (Fairies, Vampires, Nordic/Viking)
Moving From Castle To Castle
Every island contains a portal that can be used to jump to other islands
Done through the world map system
Can search by friends list, guild members list, highly ranked castles, etc. Many filtering systems will be in place
Crafting System
Taking a couple of the same-rarity NFTs and burning them to obtain a higher rarity NFT
Building Aspect Of Infinity Skies
Island Size
Takes 5-10 seconds to walk from one end of the island to the other
Object Placement
Has a free placement system. Players are not restricted to any grid when placing objects
Upgrading The Island/House
Starting assets are not NFTs
Players go on Adventures to obtain assets/NFTs to upgrade their island/house
"The building aspect is basically a competition between people building the most beautiful castle and having people come over to that castle and hanging around, socialising, chatting in that digital space."
- Sander Dijkens
Cost Of Expanding Islands
Have to farm in-game or purchase them on the marketplace from others who have farmed them
Interoperability With External NFTs
Not in their roadmap, but have been thinking of adding picture frames that support NFT art that players own
Selling The Underlying Island Of A Castle
Will experience an error. Players are requested to fix this error either by placing another island underneath the now empty space or to retrieve their items back into their inventory
Adventure Aspect Of Infinity Skies
Overview
Currently working on them
Don't like the idea of them being mini-games
Planning it to be more like Diablo or Hades
Hades belongs to the Roguelike genre, a genre known for its difficulty. If gamers fail a run, they will lose all progression and have to restart another run
For Infinity Skies, they will have a randomized labyrinth for gamers to walk through. Combat revolves around point-and-click movements, combined with buttons that are pressed to do certain attacks/spells
Roguelike genre provides variety in each run. Monsters encountered and rewards earned will be randomized as well
Rewards include new combat moves and equipment
Players have to keep track of their food supply while in the dungeons
Will have a chaos-versus-order system and a god system. Their moves change depending on their alignment
Character Classes
Starts of as a basic character
Can become any class you want if you find the proper items and abilities for it
Dependent on the run itself
Character Stats
No character stats. However, certain items will give bonuses like attack damage, defence, etc.
Levels
5 stages
At the end of each stage, they will face a captain-ranked enemy, which is a more challenging variation of one of the standard enemies
Boss fights at stage 5
Divided Adventure mode into different trials with different environment themes
End boss is different for each trial
Possibility to continue the game after defeating the boss to earn higher rewards. The difficulty will increase and players will start all over at the beginning but retain their items for that run
Average Duration Per Run (From Level 1 to 5)
30 mins - 1 hour
Enemies
Different types with different behaviours (swarming type, charging type, etc.)
Interesting enemies with more complicated behaviours (e.g. using the environment to hide to their advantage)
Entering A Dungeon
Multiple ways to do this
Quick access UI —> Adventure select
World map —> NPC-owned island with different portals to different Adventures
Items Obtained In The Dungeon
Players will leave behind everything they get in Adventure mode. Only NFT rewards can be taken out of dungeons
Did this to ensure that everyone starts off with the same difficulty level. Players cannot pay-to-win
Items in the dungeons are not NFTs
Multiplayer Support
The team is discussing this. Might be possible to implement it
Preventing Bots From Running Adventures
Will be implementing bot detection and security measures
Add a timelock to the opening of chests
Is The Roguelike Adventure Game Only Available For A Limited Period?
Designed Adventures to be games within the broader Infinity Skies game
Starting with roguelike at launch. Chapter 1 with multiple sub-acts in them
Will add more chapters in the future
Will have other types of Adventure games in the future:
PvP Gladiator Arena game
Adventure games will always be available, but the rewards gained from each adventure will depend on what season the overall game is currently in
Trading Aspect Of Infinity Skies
Inspiration
To cater to the management type of player who likes to manage their own things
Also for the investment-centric player
Making their own marketplace to support trading. The marketplace will be browser-based
"A good example for this type of players that if you look at World of Warcraft or RuneScape, this type of players are often found on the marketplace of those games. And they are buying items cheap, selling them for higher prices."
- Sander Dijkens
Their marketplace will not be like the traditional NFT marketplace. They will gamify their marketplace, taking inspiration from RuneScape' Grand Exchange and World of Warcraft's Auction House
RuneScape's Grand Exchange: Players are not able to see the items that are listed by other people as well as the buy orders. They can only view the recently fulfilled orders
The Grand Exchange format makes it harder for people to gauge prices. Makes it potentially more profitable for flippers
Accessing The Marketplace
Marketplace can be accessed in-game. Clicking a link in-game will launch the marketplace on a browser window
NFTs obtained from Adventures can be sold on the marketplace for Skyblock token
NFTs can be traded anywhere but their marketplace is specifically designed to handle the amount of volume and has the filters for it
Social Aspect Of Infinity Skies
Social Interactions
Has a chatbox system. What players say will appear as a chat balloon over their avatar's head
Providing emotes/making avatars to do funny poses
Has a whisper system to private message friends
Interactions With In-Game Objects
Can read up on the lore and have playful interactions with objects
Certain objects enable the playing of mini-games in the castle
Excited to see what the community comes up with and how they can best facilitate it
Social Competitions
Leaderboard/ranking system for people to compete for the most beautiful castle
Totally up to the player, they can choose not to compete as well
Can go walk around, explore other people's castles, and inspect the items that they have in it
Can upvote castles that you like and those castles will receive prestige points
At the end of each month, the prestige points for all castles are counted
The top players will gain a uniquely crafted NFT for that month:
Top 1500 players: a legendary rarity NFT
Top 500 players: a divine rarity NFT
Top 100 players: an astral rarity NFT
Top 3 players: Unique crown, which is of a royal rarity. On top of that, will gain a 1% shared royalty tax on all NFT transactions that are made
Selection Of The 4 Pillars
When they started thinking up Infinity Skies, they wanted to make sure that they cater to all the different types of players in a massive multiplayer game
Bartle's taxonomy of player types categorizes players into four distinct types:
Killer
Explorer
Achiever
Socializer
Infinity Skies cater to all 4 player types:
Killer: Creating competitions and a social leaderboard for them to climb
Explorer: The game world has extensive lore that has been created over a period of 5 years. It was initially meant for a book. Every single NFT/object has their own lore
Achiever: Have an entire achievement system for them. The Adventure mode will be interesting for this type of player
Socializer: Social system in the game
Play-To-Earn Aspects For Infinity Skies
Overview
Install the game for free, start doing adventures, earn NFTs, and sell them on the marketplace
Skyblock token, their native token, will have a burn mechanism. A large part of that burn will be allocated towards play-to-earn mechanisms
Rewards are allocated each week to players who complete the weekly quests within Infinity Skies
Has a passive earning system as well. Part of the token burn goes into a claim pool. Holders of the Skyblock token are eligible to claim a part of this claim pool
Scholarship For Infinity Skies
Provided tools that allow for this
Allow players to lease out their land to other players to build on their stead
Owner of the land gets rewarded by votes that are accumulated by their castle
Skyblock Token
Token Utility
As a medium of exchange inside the Infinity Skies ecosystem
Used for their play-to-earn mechanics (claim pool, achievement system)
Earning Skyblock Tokens
Earn Skyblock tokens from weekly quests
Examples of weekly quests:
Complete X amount of Adventures
Place X amount of NFTs on your islands
Visit X number of castles
Cast X number of votes
LP with Skyblock token to farm NFTs
Infinity Skies' Servers
Will set up multiple servers for different regions in the world
Can meet people/visit castles from other regions
Collaboration With Other Projects
Looking into making crypto-themed assets for certain partners they are working with
Thinking of NFT artwork that can be used in picture frames that are hanged on the castle's wall
Team
17 employees (including Marc and Sander)
Majority are artists who are working on the different 3D assets
2 programmers for the game
1 smart contract developer
Project Timeline
Working on Infinity Skies since November 2020
Expect to launch the early access/alpha version of the game alongside their token in Jan 2022
Will have exciting marketing events leading up to the launch
Investors
Currently concluding their seed round. Will make an announcement in a couple of weeks
Crypto Games Sander Has Played
Hasn't played any, but has been researching them
ChainGuardians working on some interesting stuff
Definitely see the appeal of Axie Infinity
The quality of crypto games is not yet at the traditional gaming industry's level
Lots of room for growth for crypto games
Sander's Favourite Game
World of Warcraft
How Can Listeners Take Action
Check out their Twitter, Telegram, and Discord channel for updates and sneak peeks
There is a lot of alpha to be found in their Discord, especially the #development channel
Try to publish weekly articles on different aspects of the game
Why join their Discord early?
Infinity Skies will have about 2-3 total fundraising rounds
1 round will have the Astral NFTs meant for early community members and supporters
2 rounds will consist of private and public sales for Skyblocks, bundled with NFT assets
Astral NFT sale
Participants of the first sale can purchase BEP-721 Astral Keys
Each key can open up 1 Astral chest containing 1 random Astral NFT from the pre-sale collection (to be confirmed)
These are unique Astral NFTs in the pre-sale collection that cannot be obtained anywhere else
There are 10x100 of each type, adding to a total of 1000. Each comes with an exclusive Genesis tag not available elsewhere
Both Astral Keys and Astral NFTs can be traded on NFT marketplaces after distribution
Skyblocks sale
Public sale and private sale of Skyblocks token
NFT bundles will be added for all the participants of the Skyblocks sale
Consists of 3 components: Skyblocks, Construction Packs and Sky-Plots
Constructions packs and Sky-Plots will receive the exclusive Exodus tag, increasing their rarity
Constructions packs contain several basic structure NFTs to help people get their castle started
The bigger the purchased Skyblock bundle, the bigger the construction pack
King's Auction
For each month, the top 3 castles will become Kings of Infinity Skies, where they will be entitled to a lot of benefits
But for the first month and season, the first 3 Kingships are auctioned on the Marketplace
Winners of the auction will receive 1 month of Kingship from launch day, receiving the first-ever unique Crown of Royal Rarity and the exclusive Genesis tag
All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Summaries are prepared by The Reading Ape. While reasonable efforts are made to provide accurate content, any errors in interpreting and summarizing the source material are ours alone. We disclaim any liability associated with the use of our content.