Hi SolChicks fam,
In the third post of our weekly SolChicks development blog, we would like to shift the focus to in game assets, in particular — land. As we continue to push the development of the game, we inevitably need to address key questions regarding our design philosophy for something as important as land.
But before we dive into our exploration of land in SolChicks, let’s have a look at what has been being developed for the broader SolChicks game.
This Week in Development
The game development team has been continuing to tirelessly build the SolChicks game, and below is a quick summary of some of the areas that have been progressed over the week. Detailed explanation of these will be revealed in the following game blog posts with visual references.
The core stats system has been nearly finalised, which composes of primary stats (strength, intelligence, agility, resistance, etc.) and secondary stats (physical damage, magic damage, health points, attack speed, critical attack, etc.). NFT traits will provide bonuses to the game character’s primary stats, with rarer traits contributing higher bonus stats to the game character. Stayed tuned for the next game development update for more details.
Elemental attributes will be designated to characters in the game, with elements including fire, water, lightning, etc. The elemental attribute of the character will be determined by the background trait of the SolChicks NFT, and the elemental attribute will likely be indicated in the game interface by the colour of the character’s tail. Certain elemental attributes provide advantages against certain other elements, with some elements being rarer than others and therefore offering greater advantages in the game.
The game character levelling system has been an area of development, with considerations being made on whether levelling should be associated with the SolChicks NFTs, weapons NFTs or the saved accounts. After deliberation, we are close to determining that the levelling system will be tied to the SolChicks NFTs so that the time the players spend playing the game can be more easily monetized, and the players have more freedom of trying out different types of weapons with the SolChicks NFT they spent time levelling up.
Battle mechanics have been the core focus in development, with emphasis placed on making the battle mechanics fun and intuitive to learn, but at the same time providing a challenge to master, thus providing the game with a dynamic experience where users will continuously be offered new discoveries. The battle mechanics would require both control skill and strategic skill from the players. An aspect of contemplation/challenge has been balancing the impact of the NFT traits, weapons, character stats and skills on the determination of the results of the game. This is fundamental in developing an exciting and engaging game that we have set out to create.
Detailed breeding mechanics and the economics/earnings of $SHARDS and $CHICKS have been considered and we are currently in the process of finalising them so that the NFT holders can start earning $SHARDS and start breeding by the time we launch the mini game that we hinted in one of the AMAs. We will be releasing finalized explanations of these in the following game blog posts.
In parallel to all of the above, we are in the process of developing game assets and UI/UX, and will be revealing these to the community in piecemeal over the next two months. The game development team has been hard at work using a bottom-up approach with the belief that establishing a sound game system that makes sense for a play-to-earn game is core to building a successful title in this space. This will ensure that our players will be able to get value from playing the game in the most efficient and logical manner.
Land in SolChicks
Owning real estate assets in games is not new, and successful examples include MapleStory, Final Fantasy 14, and Decentraland. In this blog post we will break down some of the reasons for their success and how they might relate to the SolChicks game. We would also like to take this opportunity to gather some feedback from our community in terms of how they would like their land to eventually look like. The design team has been thinking hard and have some really good ideas we would like to share, although they are by no means final.
First and foremost, we had to consider what gives virtual land its value. Real estate in the real world is valuable due to its scarcity and utility (residential, commercial, and industrial uses just to name a few). However, these do not readily apply to in game real estate assets as a game developer can always “create” more land mass. In the blockchain space it is possible to limit this via a mechanism in the DAO to put this into the community’s control. Furthermore, actual in-game utility is subjective since most players are unlikely to spend the majority of their time at their real estate. We have thought of three key pillars of value in ascending order of importance.
Social
In-game real estate provides players with a private physical area for social interactions and provides social utility with players being able to “flex” their houses. Like homes in games such as MapleStory, real estate in SolChicks should be a place where players can hang out and banter, listen to their favorite NFT songs and admire their NFT art collections together in the SolVillage metaverse. Players should also be able to purchase land plots of various sizes and rarities, decorate and customize their home with different furniture and items (depending on size of home, castle, or lair), and build a place where they can relax and look at beautiful views of the Chicco sunset. Players and guilds will also be allowed to purchase land together to create guild lodges for a greater shared identity.
In-Game Utility
The most direct way of value accretion for land is through in-game perks. In-game land usually conveys certain perks to its owner. For example, we are considering options such as small quality of life enhancements like increased storage and fast travel points and more significant advantages such as having crafting facilities and unique access to quests, items, and special vendors. In-game land provides a way for us to add more depth to the player experience.
Other options include allowing players and guilds to build shops, which would have rare items for sale and only be accessible to guild members as well as blacksmithing facilities which would have increased chances of success for the land’s owners and inhabitants — to name a few. Furthermore, we could also have a system where, as the players rest in their own homes, they gain well-rested buffs which would increase their effectiveness when they adventure. Different sizes and rarity of land plots would also have varying levels of power, with rarer plots providing more unique perks which include quests and other playable content for players.
Asset Productivity
The most important dimension when it comes to land value is for the land’s ability to be productive, which in the financial sense, to produce some form of future expected cashflow. Land assets in games such The Sandbox and Decentraland are productive. They provide value in terms of advertising and marketing, assets built on them can be rented out or used by their owners to produce income (think art galleries and concert halls), and in the case for games such as Crypto Unicorns, produce a steady stream of in-game items.
Land in SolChicks will be productive. Depending on the size and rarity of land plots, players would be able to build on and upgrade the value of their land through spending in game and cryptocurrencies, as well as through finding rare blueprint items which to enable them to build powerful structures or bigger and taller housing which they could monetize. Individual rooms in lodges could be rented or sold to buyers as separate NFTs, high level crafting facilities could be rented to others per use to gain their perks. Even teleportation pad access could potentially be monetised. While we are still at the planning stages as we would need to balance the economy, we feel that the possibility for asset productivity could be endless.
Rewards
Another feature we plan to include would be passive rewards. One example would be farming, which will happen on player land plots. Farming would yield food and other items, which would not only be used for feeding your SolChicks, but also be reagents to craft other consumables and hence be valuable. Another would be the ability to send your SolChicks on missions, where for a small “expedition fee”, you could use your land as a base to lock your SolChicks for a short period of time to reap rewards passively after your SolChicks return from an adventure.
All in all, we expect land to provide players with tangible yet balanced utility to not only incentivise players to own land but also to provide a basis of value to these land plots.
Again, we are excited to share our thoughts on land with you all and are keen to hear your ideas with regards to what you would like to see in your SolChicks land. It is even more important to hear from you as we will give holders of our genesis 10,000 SolChicks NFTs priority access to land.
As always, we wish to continue to bring you updates on our progress and thoughts for the SolChicks game. See you in the SolChicks Village!
Jun and Ben
The SolChicks Game Development Team
About SolChicks
SolChicks is the fastest growing and largest P2E in the Solana ecosystem, with a team of over 70 members, including a blue-chip game development team who have previously brought to market titles such as MapleStory, PUBG, Dungeon Fighter and Tera, and a business management team from institutions such as Wharton and McKinsey & Company.
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Game Mechanics | Whitepaper | Pitch Deck:https://www.solchicks.io/papers
