Holo everyone! Wanted to drop by a quick non-official update for those wanting to find out more info on Holozing.
With the way the markets have been lately, we've had to make some decisions on where to focus the funding we are getting currently. We also want to mention how appreciative we are of our team, mainly those who have been on hive prior to being part of Holozing team as most have been okay with not getting paid for their time and effort immediately but allowing us to develop the project and pay for services from outsiders that aren't as trusting and tied to the project and the people here. So thank you once again to them, we hope to be able to clear out any outstanding debt soon!
Alright, some of the decisions were to pause 3D generation for now, while this one is the furthest behind for a beta version of the game with all creatures and healers turned into 3D with movements, etc, it has also been the most expensive one which we can't entertain further at this point in time. We hope that once the alpha version of the game is ready, testers will be okay with limited 3D creatures to test and potential placeholders acting as our healers and unfinished creatures for testing. It would be great if we could finish 3D for the beta release, hopefully with Vials being released and sold along with a working game being public and actively tested it'll help funding the project further in this regard.
Another thing we've had to postpone is polishing 2D artwork, while our recent reveal of the dragon-type creatures may seem great already, if you were to zoom in you would notice a lot of discrepancies which we aren't too fond of for the longevity of the artwork and project. It's not something that can be helped with the way the illustrator creates them and we've usually had our in-house artist polish them but at this time it's not something that crucial to get fixed so we will be postponing that as well until more funding opens up later.
Our main focus currently is getting the game alpha-test ready. Our gamedev is still busy implementing the unique healer abilities and then some unique creature moves before moving on to open the alpha up to a few testers. Initially we'll only be inviting some we think can help out the most with balancing the game and deciding on stats on healers, healer items and creatures, then later we'll open alpha up to more people to find any remaining bugs and inconsistencies that may exist. After all that is polished, we could be ready for the beta launch even if some 3D work is not yet finished fully, we'll have to see what the community thinks at that time if we should launch it as is and implement new 3D work as it comes and as funding allows it or not.
Another thing we're working on at the same time currently is to implement Metamask integration to the website, basically giving people the option to link their metamask account to their existing hive account or just be able to sign up using metamask only and then later link a hive account to it. We will also be enabling referral links to work for both hive account signups and metamask, so if a new user signs up through your link using metamask, they'll count as your referral, if however they link a hive account that already was registered, the referral will be void.
Other than that we're also working on our Alpha Vials to be sold soon. This may start out as only the sale of vials without the option of opening them up yet which may not be as exciting, but as you may have read up til now funding is quite tight and this could help out even if not a lot of interest initially. To add some incentives to buying Vials you can't open yet, we'll be moving some zing rewards from delegation to collection rewards and count vials as part of collection rewards. Meaning those purchasing vials and having them unopened may get bonus zing for some time moving forward until we'll allow opening. Once opening is enabled, Vials won't get as much of the collection rewards as they'll shift to reward players who are holding diverse items from the starter vials such as creatures, healer items, capture cards, all based on the rarity and amount of them an account holds.
In the mean time, we'll be revealing some new creatures we're adding to our roster and showing you the results of our naming contest for the dragon-types, thanks to everyone for participating, the entries were amazing!
If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask in the comments or in our Discord. Until next time! Make sure to follow @holozing for official news, reveals and upcoming releases.
If you needed some extra alpha testers, here I am :)
appreciate it!
honestly if the gameplay is solid and the graphics are decent I see it being a huge success and then can be optimized and fleshed out later.
Thanks for the update, I'll be happy to volunteer for alpha testing if you need me.
The best thing about #Holozing is that you friend always keep us well informed about the updates that the game is having which leads to improvements
I don't really mind if the 3d work and the polishing of 2d takes some time as they could eat funding really fast. It would be better to focus on gameplay right now and if possible, would love the lore to be further expanded for the world- building of Holozing.
Let me know i want to be on the TEST team and learn more about, even the new names! (I won't drop the dook to u now haha)
Are you thinking about the zing token declining price?
No that's not an issue at all at this point in time, whoever wants to participate in the journey of the project can earn the token or buy some if they want. It doesn't affect the development of the project which was planned this way on purpose.
Once the game is released there'll be sinks for the token we look forward to fine-tuning with the community for a healthy game economy.
I think it's understandable that you will be releasing the game without the 3D aspects of it. I was actually surprised when I first heard that you were working on the 3D early on. I have read in multiple articles that 3D has been costly not just in game dev, but in movies and shows as well. But I'm happy that we are close to seeing the playable game.
It'll be in 3D but let's say some creatures and healers may just have a 2D flat picture standing in place instead of their models at least for alpha, hopefully not for beta. :D
(or maybe just some random borrowed 3D asset that's okay to be used with the monetization aspect of the project but the name would give away what it's supposed to portray)
I see. That makes sense.
Wow, I didn’t realize we're adding a 3D aspect to the game. Sounds like there's been a ton of progress. I’m really excited to see how it all turns out. There are so many great ideas, including letting players choose the wild encounter time, which is perfect for a lot of people. I wonder if there will there be a story mode too? 😁
Not initially but we definitely wanna provide a world for people to discover on their pc's and mobiles! But that will most likely be after beta!
I don't mind if the 3D work is pushed back or the 2D polish takes a bit longer. It would be nice to have, but what really matters is great gameplay. If the gameplay is solid, more funding will follow, making it easier to refine everything else.
Could the latest vsc work on integrating metamask with hive take some work off your plate.
Might help on costs if it could work that way.
We've been discussing this with the team and @vaultec recently, we'll see what we do there but as of now things are already all hands on deck with the current implementations, small team, low funding, etc, but if it is something we see beneficial for us at this time I'm sure we'll receive some support on implementing it!
Best of luck with the Alpha testing! Sounds like its coming along.
Thanks for the update !, can't wait for beta.
Thanks for the update. Nice initiative
Thanks for the update 🙏
Thank you for this update. It keeps our hope that progress is still on. I appreciate the effort of the team especially those who don't mind not being paid at the moment.
We learned a lot from this small update of yours. Great to know your thoughts on the 3D generation and 2D artwork. We feel very blessed to be a member of this community and to contribute in some small way to your continued efforts to complete new games and to develop new creatures. We also want games to reach their goal of becoming alpha beta versions as soon as possible. Thank you very much for publishing such a great post in front of us.
I appreciate the small update can't wait to see some new creatures as well
It's all good! Thanks for the update and I will be waiting here as long as it takes :)
Thanks for the update! :)
Each update of the game allows us to be well informed about its evolution.