Gem Diggers AMA with Animalia
The cryptoverse can be confusing, even to the seasoned crypto traders. Animalia wants to make things straight forward and universally accessible from regular platforms.
They are combining elements of NFTs and the all too familiar trading card game, creating an independent free-to-play, play-to-earn metaverse. The goal for Animalia is to introduce blockchain technology to the world in a way that is fun but easy to understand for all. The BSC (Binance Smart Chain) will be used to anchor in-game assets such as the NFTs, allowing the gamer full ownership of their assets, with a small transaction fee to continue the funding of the ecosystem when purchasing certain assets in-game.
Jorah from Gem Diggers recently held an AMA with Eddy, Animalia’s Co-Founder, Bill Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Animalia, and Joe CCO of Animalia to explain all that is involved with the upcoming launch of Animalia and all it has to offer. Read the following for the full Q&A.
Jorah: Can you tell us more about your core team, their background and experience in the spaces of gaming and blockchain?
Bill: Yes of course. I am Bill, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Animalia. Currently based in London, I oversee holistic development and manage the organisation’s mission as the architect behind Animalia. I was exposed to crypto during the ICO boom in 2016 and was curious about blockchain technology due to my background in programming. I have a great interest in the art field and this exposure prompted me to explore the marriage between art and technology.
Eddy (Co-CEO) Then, Eddy is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and majored in architecture. He is an entrepreneur who runs several businesses in Malaysia, and now occupied full time on Animalia where he leads the operational functions of the business, spearheads the token design, and is involved in the strategic expansion and community development.
Joe (CCO) Presently, Joe is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and majored in VFX as 3D generalist with previous exp working for Universal and Paramount. He is currently dedicated full time on Animalia where he leads the design concepts and artistic direction of the organization with an extensive understanding knowledge in conceptual imagery creation.
Omega (CTO) Omega is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Omega leads the engineering team and is responsible for the technical aspects of the game and blockchain development. He is experienced in developing blockchain and gaming applications. We first got into the crypto space in 2016 and it has always been our interest to learn more about cryptocurrency. We were all active traders and were eager to learn more about blockchain. It is an extremely exciting time to be in the crypto space even now!
Jorah: How long have you been developing Animalia for and how do you plan to set yourself apart from the other P2E games on the market?
Bill: The project was started in September 2021 and we are in the process of scaling up the development at the moment.
In recent times, meme crypto coins have become more of a buzzword in the investment space. According to CoinMarketCap, the top two meme coins (Dogecoin & Shiba Inu) are now among the top 12 crypto assets by market capitalization. The current meme culture has undoubtedly impacted the crypto market in many ways, and Animalia utilizes the hype of the meme culture to create an online game designed to serve as a source of leisure and education.
As a gamer ourselves, we understand the importance of gaming experience and we take this seriously in the development of Animalia. To us, NFT is all about artwork and when you combine it with a game, the priority should be aesthetic + gaming, and this became our primary direction in the development of Animalia. Every piece of NFT artwork in Animalia was meticulously crafted by our remarkable artistic team. All art pieces go through a rigorous process and are fine-tuned to ensure the highest level of artisanship. Please refer to our NFT card making video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXirEJborkU& to learn more about the process of artwork development.
We put a lot of emphasis in refining the storyline to improve the gaming experience. We believe that the players will be able to immerse themselves in the game through a good storyline and relate with the current trend of meme-cultures. Enzo “Warma” Floch is a top-ranked Hearthstone player and the latest key addition to our advisory board. Hearthstone presents many parallels to Animalia, as it too is a digital collectible card game built upon the lore of mystic PVP battle games. Warma’s experience in the field of gaming is a huge asset and his insights will give us a firsthand look from a player’s perspective on how to improve our overall gameplay to ensure it is equitable and enjoyable for all Animalia players. and we think this gives us an advantage compared to the one existing in space.
Jorah: How did you decide on the concept behind Animalia?
Joe: When we first thought about the concept of Animalia, one of our primary considerations was the artistic direction as an NFT gaming. With the proper artistic direction, we knew we could specify the format of the components to create and transform the gaming experience as a whole. In terms of the game content itself, Animalia’s inspiration comes from some of the most referenced crypto meme critters, including the bear, bull, Doge, and whale. We also closely integrate several financial terminologies throughout the gameplay for an immersive and educational experience.
Jorah: Can you tell us more about your factions, the Titans and the Critters and the role they play in the Animalia world?
Bill: In the Animalia Kingdom, the world is divided into two factions, each owned by a Titan — the fearsome Bull and the mighty Bear. Each player is represented by their chosen ‘Titan’, which determines the special cards and unique power available to them. The objective of the game is to reduce the opponent’s health point to zero before they can do so to you.
Titans can be classified into different “species”, each with its own unique abilities and powers. Different species of Titans would be introduced and released as the development progresses.
Critters can be summoned by the titans, as well as commanded to attack their opponent’s critters. The species of critters are developed based on the cryptocurrency-inspired memes. As part of the road map, the game plans to allow community participation to determine types of Animals to be introduced into the Animalia Kingdom through a governance model.
Jorah: Will there be any in game weapons?
Bill: Yes, the game will incorporate weapons with special abilities which can be equipped by the Titans. Once again we would like the players to be able to relate themselves with the crypto world, and we are introducing items such as bear trap (might be relevant to the market condition today haha), bull trap, tendies, diamond hand, mining axes etc. Similar to Titan and critters, weapons will be tokenized into NFTs as well.
Jorah: What are the gems stones, their utility and how easy is it to acquire them?
Joe: Acting as the elemental card, gemstones are used to power up your spell or critters in the battlefield. Each element has varying effects and will have different properties which interact with each other in unique ways. As a free-to-play model, there will be a free starter card pack for everyone to play the game without the need to spend any money. Some of the gemstones will be introduced as NFTs and it can be obtained via card packs, seasonal drops as well as trading through the marketplace.
Jorah: How do you plan to build out your Virtual Marketplace and Workshop?
Joe: Animalia plans to integrate an in-house virtual marketplace where players can buy and sell their cosmetic NFTs, Landscapes and other in-game assets. $ANIM will be used as the native currency in this platform. Apart from the NFT contract, there will be 3 layers of contract to ensure the functionality of the marketplace:
1.Pre-sale Contract: Distributes NFT for card packs. Sales price is written into the contract and is updatable by the owner.
2.Marketplace Contract: signs each listing, matching buyer and seller and transfers the NFT to buyer once matched.
3.Payment Contract: Proxy contract for payment for buying / selling of NFT in the marketplace. This contract validates each address’s balance and facilitates payment received to the organisation’s wallet.
Furthermore, The Animalia Workshop will act as a platform to allow the creation of unique customisable skins, templates and items for inclusion in the Animalia Kingdom. Artists will be able to create and submit their own unique cosmetic NFT assets, which will be curated by the Animalia team, and then reviewed and approved by the community through the governance model. The modifications should be purely graphical and do not affect mechanics or gameplay. The approved user-generated cosmetic NFTs are tradable in the Animalia Marketplace. Assets from this Workshop that are accepted for sale will pay the creators a split of the revenue if that item is sold for a fee to support both the Workshop and Marketplace. In the future, there is a plan to transform digital NFTs into a made-to-order physical item which allows the collector to include additional offchain information.
Jorah: Can you explain the gameplay and deck to us a bit more?
Bill: Below are the overview of gameplay rules and deck information:
In-Game -At the beginning of the game, both players are presented with their opponent’s titan type and selected gemstones. -Players can decide who would make the first move and if both players agree the game begins. Should there be no agreement, a coin is flipped to determine the order of play. -Both players draw 3 starting cards and 1 gemstone. -Both players are given the option to redraw the starting cards except gemstones. -At the start of each turn, the player draws a new card from their deck. -Each player starts with 1 Shard on their first turn. Every turn afterwards, the player gains an additional Shard. -The maximum Shard pool a player can withhold is 10. -Maximum of 2 unused Shards will be carried onto the next turn. -Each player has a maximum hand size of 10 cards. -A maximum of 8 critters on the landscape is permitted. -1 weapon can only be equipped at any given time. -Titan can attack only when a weapon is equipped. -If a weapon card is played whilst you have a weapon, the current equipped weapon will be replaced. -When a player runs out of cards in their deck, the player’s Titan will be turned into a frenzy ultimate form, and can attack the opponent’s Titan once per round.
Time per Turn -For the first 3 rounds, the maximum duration per turn is 30 seconds. During the last 5 seconds countdown, a rocket gets ignited to indicate the limited time left. -On the 4th round, the maximum duration per turn is increased to 60 seconds with the same indication during the last 10 seconds remaining.
Deck — Each deck contains a minimum of 30 cards to a maximum of 33 cards. -The maximum number of gemstone cards is 2 per deck. -The maximum number of gemstone types is 2 per deck. -Only 2 of the same cards are permitted per deck. -Only 1 of each Legendary card and 1 Arcana card are permitted per deck.
Jorah: What type of changes to the game can players implement through the DAO?
Bill: Animalia plans to introduce a governance voting system into the game platform that will allow players holding staked $ANIM tokens to vote for or against different proposed changes to the game. Each staked $ANIM token will be worth one vote, so the more $ANIM tokens a player has staked, the more they will be able to influence the results of the votes. A new page will be added to the Animalia website that will provide a user-friendly interface for viewing, creating, and voting on governance proposals. One of them would be the Animalia workshop which will act as a platform to allow creation of unique customizable skins, templates, and items for inclusion in the Animalia Kingdom. Artists will be able to create and submit their own unique cosmetic NFT assets, which will be curated by the Animalia team, and then reviewed and approved by the community through the governance model. Additionally, players can submit proposals for governance changes that have not been incorporated into the governance system. If they are approved with a substantial stake of $ANIM, the Animalia team will consider implementing the requested changes. Some examples that may be included into the governance system over time are:
—Tournament schedule, settings, and prizes
—Game re-balance updates
—PVE and PVP leaderboard rewards
—Introduction of new Critters and skins
Jorah: Do you have any plans to incorporate the metaverse into Animalia?
Bill: Metaverse has become the talk of the town and we are in the process of brainstorming how Animalia could incorporate itself into this new world. We are always looking for new opportunities and please follow us on our social media to find out more on the process of development as well as our future development.
Jorah: Are you currently on track to reach all of your 2021 roadmap milestones and which stage are you most excited about?
Bill: Yes we are currently on track to reach our roadmap milestones however the plans might be revisited based on the current market conditions — we will keep an eye on it. In the meantime, we are most excited about both the INO and IDO. We will reveal some sneak peek of the NFT images at the end of this AMA.
Jorah: Have you partnered with any VC’s and who do you plan to use for marketing?
Bill: We have secured a few major partnerships such as:
GD10, Exnetwork Capital, Master Ventures, Paid Network Ignition, Trustpad, X21 Digital, BSC News, Crypto Banter, Anypad, Lavender Capital, Roseon Pad, Gains Associates, Ash (Wall Street Bets), Tokenova, Synapse Network, Halvings Capital and Satoshi Stacker.
They are assisting us in developing our IDO and INO strategy, offering creative input and ideas with primarily focus on the project growth and the long-term business viability. Animalia aspires to be one of the most successful NFT gamefi projects and believe that we will be able to leverage on this experience for Animalia, and help accelerate our growth.
For marketing we also have a number of KOLs/Influencers groups (Gemdiggers of course) which are supporting us in our marketing.
Jorah: Can you tell us more about $Phl?
Bill: Phylum $PHL is an in-game uncapped utility token that players can earn where it will be integrated into the Animalia game as a play-to-earn currency. The purpose of $PHL is to enhance the Play to Earn loop by bonding and crafting new NFTs, and making in-game purchases. $PHL will also be distributed as a reward through PVE, unranked PVP and ranked PVP. $PHL tokens will initially be added to the various reward pools at a fixed rate per month and will decrease uniformly across all reward pools, meaning that after one year the monthly contribution rate to the reward pools will drop over time. Please keep in mind that once released, all these details including the amount of $PHL added to the reward pools each month and how the rewards are distributed may be changed.
Phylum $PHL is an in-game uncapped utility token that players can earn where it will be integrated into the Animalia game as a play-to-earn currency. The purpose of $PHL is to enhance the Play to Earn loop by bonding and crafting new NFTs, and making in-game purchases. $PHL will also be distributed as a reward through PVE, unranked PVP and ranked PVP. $PHL tokens will initially be added to the various reward pools at a fixed rate per month and will decrease uniformly across all reward pools, meaning that after one year the monthly contribution rate to the reward pools will drop over time. Please keep in mind that once released, all these details including the amount of $PHL added to the reward pools each month and how the rewards are distributed may be changed.
Play to earn rewards We aim to attract a large group of active players to participate in the Animalia play-to-earn ecosystem. A fixed amount of $PHL tokens will be allocated to a variety of Play to Earn campaigns such as:
—Seasonal PVP rewards
—Daily Quest rewards
—PVE Quest rewards
—PVP Daily rewards
—Tournaments
—Bonding NFTs
The bonding features in Animalia allow players to bond their current NFTs cards to exchange for a new card pack that can be used in-game or traded on the marketplace. At a basic level, players can combine their existing critters NFTs and a portion of $PHL together to exchange a “Card Pack”. This is called “bonding”. The “bonding” feature will result in the selected critters and $PHL tokens to be burned. In the future, we plan on introducing further upgrades to this process, to bond a wider variety of NFTs. A combination of $PHL tokens and NFT’s assets will be required whenever a user uses the Bond feature to exchange for a new card pack. Please keep in mind that, all these details including the amount of $PHL needed and quantity of NFT’s required may be changed depending on our $PHL ecosystem.
Crafting NFTs The Crafting features in Animalia allow players to craft their current NFTs cards to upgrade it into a higher tier that can be used in-game or traded on the marketplace. At a basic level, players can combine their existing critters NFTs and a portion of $PHL together to upgrade and get a random higher tier critter card. This is called “crafting”. The “crafting” feature will result in the selected critters and $PHL tokens to be burned. In the future, we plan on introducing further upgrades to this process. A combination of $PHL tokens and NFT’s assets will be required whenever a user uses the Craft feature. Please keep in mind that, all these details including the amount of $PHL needed and quantity of NFT’s required may be changed depending on our $PHL ecosystem.
In-game Purchases Users could also spend their $PHL tokens to purchase in-game items. There will be a variety of in-game items such as:
—Front Card Template Skins
—Rear Card Template Skins
—Emote Packs
Please stay tuned in our channels for more upcoming details in the future!
Jorah: How do you plan to protect players against cheaters/hackers?
Bill: In terms of the game security, there are multi layers to protect against cheaters and hackers. It is the design flow which is important to prevent users from doing that. The game will also need to be on the server side so all data will be synchronized with the server to prevent that from happening.
Jorah: How will you celebrate the success of your launch?
Bill: The team works hard with the best interest of Animalia in ensuring the game to be one of the most successful NFT TCG out there. We appreciate the support from the community to date. As we have yet to launch the project yet this is slightly too soon to speculate haha. We definitely would like this to be launched successfully and it will all be due to support from the community as well as team effort. We could look into potentially releasing some special NFTs to celebrate this event.
Jorah: Is there anything else you would like to share with us today that we didn’t cover?
Bill: As we are gearing up towards our upcoming INO release soon, we could show you a first hand sneak peek into our NFTitan Founder Edition artwork:-
In the Animalia Kingdom, the world is divided into two factions, each owned by a Titan — the fearsome Bull and the mighty Bear. Each player is represented by their chosen ‘Titan’, which determines the special cards and unique power available to them. The objective of the game is to reduce the opponent’s health point to zero before they can do so to you. Titans can be classified into different “species”, each with its own unique abilities and powers. Different species of Titans would be introduced and released as the development progresses.
As a start, we would be releasing our first 2 Titans which would be Ursa and Toro. This NFTitan Founder Edition is capped at the max supply of 8,700 and we are aiming to release 25% of them in this upcoming INO.
Conclusion
This covers the AMA held with Animalia. This game not only is a great start for those new to the crypto world and seek to benefit from the play-to-earn ecosystem, but it is also a fun and easy way to compete and interact with others, while having the flexibility to be creative and become a part of a DAO yourself, thereby allowing you to make changes in the crypto world. For more information, please see below.
For more information about Animalia, feel free to use and share the resources below:
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