Chumbi Valley Game Dev Update
Today we will share an honest recap of the ups and downs related to game development at Chumbi Valley. This update will answer some of the most frequently asked questions and provide an update of our current game dev status. Expect many more game dev updates to follow!
Game Dev Progress Video
Let’s jump straight in with a video of the current development state of Chumbi Valley. When watching the below video, please keep in mind that this article goes on to explain the details of why Chumbi Valley’s development is currently in pre-alpha, enjoy your first rough glimpses of the valley.
What is the current status of Chumbi Valley game development?
Chumbi Valley is in the pre-alpha development phase.
The video above shows the most up-to-date game build of Chumbi Valley, built within Unity by the Chumbi Valley internal development team. This is the first video showing dev progress from actual Chumbi Valley developers. With our newly hired senior game developer (who has 20 years experience in building Web2 games), we started building Chumbi Valley again from scratch, after ending our relationship with two previous game dev studio partners.
This video reveals just a small part of 2 regions including the ‘Overgrown Maw’ and ‘Brightwind Fields’ (Chumbi Valley aims to launch Beta with 6 unique map regions). The video gives some rough expectations in terms of overall game design, style, and aesthetic, but there is still much to refine and improve on as we continue our dev journey.
Important note: this video is not the final game and is an early pre-alpha ‘work in progress’ video. Each development update video will be improved and iterated on over the coming months. ✨
When will Chumbi Valley the game be released?
There is currently no official release date for Chumbi Valley.
The Chumbi team had previously mentioned estimated release dates for the game. Due to circumstances outlined in detail throughout this update, these target release dates have not been met.
We have had many discussions with the internal team, advisors and the community, and have made the decision to not sacrifice on quality in order to meet deadlines. We will be moving away from setting release dates, and instead will be laser focussed on creating and developing a Web3 game that is what all games should be — fun and well made.
A Brief Project/Game Development Timeline:
2021
- Aug 2021– 2 founders create the concept for Chumbi Valley
- Sep 2021– PDF Litepaper launched
- Nov 2021– Concept goes viral, 1M+ followers across all social platforms
- Dec 2021 — NFT sale fundraising completed
- Dec 2021 — Private token sale fundraising completed
- Dec 2021 — Kucoin IEO token launch completed
2022
- Jan 2022 —Raised funds are now legally ready to use for team expansion, game development, etc.
- Jan 2022 — Partnered with Vulcan Forged for third party game development
- Jan 2022 — Vulcan Forged was hacked for $140M USD within days of partnering with Chumbi, causing significant delays in communication
- Mar 2022 — Partially completed product provided from Vulcan Forged was declined by our team as it did not meet our design brief and quality standards
- ⚠️ Mar 2022 — Terminated Vulcan Forged partnership (all capital was refunded)
- Mar 2022 — Internal art team expansion (Chumbi Valley employees)
- Mar 2022 — Reduced marketing spend to focus on game dev during bear market
- Apr 2022 — Partnered with NonceBlox Metaverse Team to temporarily support game development (starting from the beginning, because of unusable product from Vulcan Forged) Learn more here.
- May 2022 — Begin hiring and building internal game development team (Chumbi Valley employees)
- Jul 2022 — Chumbi Team was scammed by a highly sophisticated OKeX impersonation attack, losing ~$300K USD. Learn more here.
- Oct 2022 — Product provided from Nonceblox Metaverse Team was not suitable for our new needs.
- ⚠️ Oct 2022 — Amicably Ended Nonceblox Metaverse Team partnership (external game dev) and started the transition to internal dev team. Note: We will continue our partnership with the Nonceblox Blockchain department.
- 2022–2023 (Ongoing) — The Chumbi Valley dev team continues to grow as game development progress accelerates. Note: in a short amount of time, since hiring our first internal dev, more progress has been made on the game and map building than both of the external studio’s progress combined.
Behind the Scenes: Challenges at Chumbi Valley
Chumbi Valley has crossed over its 1 year anniversary, taking the journey from inception in August 2021, to a living, breathing company and project in September 2022.
The scope of the Chumbi Valley ecosystem has always been ambitious. Attempting to execute the perfect structure has come with challenges. The 2 original founders were not prepared for the unexpected virality and rapid success that Chumbi Valley had in a short amount of time (Thank you! 💚). Early on in the project, based on advice from their investors and advisors, the founders felt that utilising a third party game dev company should have been the most responsible direction, but in the end this did not provide the anticipated results.
Tech Startup Learning Curve
The Chumbi Valley team initially underestimated the work needed to create a blockchain game and has learned what to do (and what not to do) over the course of ~1 year. After observing other projects in the blockchain gaming space, Chumbi Valley has restructured their company (employees/team), as well as revisited and improved many game loops, core mechanics, and project economics from first principles. This will allow the team to continue its core vision whilst improving sustainability of the project’s economics and providing a better gaming experience to players.
Transition Away from External Game Development
A large amount of time has been lost on game development progress due to transitioning to-and-from external game development companies (estimated ~6 months).
Vulcan Forged
Early on, Chumbi Valley officially partnered with Vulcan Forged for external game development services and consultancy. However, Vulcan Forged was not the right studio to develop Chumbi Valley. Although the game design visuals that Vulcan created for Chumbi Valley were beautiful, they did not match the artistic vision and style that was outlined in the project design brief and so the partnership was terminated (~April 2022).
NonceBlox Metaverse Team
Chumbi Valley required a new game development team and was connected with NonceBlox Metaverse to begin development of Chumbi Valley from scratch.
Chumbi started working with the NonceBlox Metaverse to build the foundation of the game. The scope of the project was to build a small section of the map, implement player & Chumbi mechanics/animations, basic farming, and a few other simple mechanics.
As the scope of the project grew, there was a need for Chumbi Valley to transition to an internal tech team. This transition has begun, with a senior developer joining the Chumbi team. The goal is to have the development of the game fully handled by our internal tech team but NonceBlox will still handle the blockchain aspect of the game.
See below current progress of the build from the internal Chumbi Valley game dev team.
Status of Chumbi Valley Project Capital
The Chumbi Valley project capital is in good shape, with enough funds to ensure that the team can comfortably operate and grow. The team has used financial projections to ensure that the remaining project capital is used efficiently leading toward Beta launch and our next capital raise (NFT Sale). Marketing spend has also been reduced in the bear market.
Regarding capital security, early on, the Chumbi Valley founders ensured that the capital raised during the private token sale and public NFT sale was only taken as stablecoins (USDC) to avoid the risk of asset fluctuations (ETH, MATIC, BSC, etc..). Additionally, all project capital has been securely stored in cold wallets, to avoid issues with exchanges such as the recent issues with FTX. Read more about the Chumbi Valley project capital wallets here.
Chumbi Valley Team Expansion
The Chumbi Valley internal team continues to grow. See below summary.
Job Positions — ✅ Filled
• Nov 2021 — Community Manager — Reign
• Feb 2022 — Business Development Manager — Kieran
• Feb 2022 — Concept Artist — Oscar
• March 2022 — Vector/Concept Artist — Natalia
• April 2022 — Digital Lead/Project Coordinator — Mamatt
• April 2022 — Marketing Consultant/Strategy — Mitch
• May 2022 — Lore Writer — David
• August 2022 — Head Community Moderator — Peach
• August 2022 — Animator — Ivan
• August 2022 — Digital Project Manager/Recruitment Manager — Silvan
• October 2022 — Senior Game Developer — Ray
Upcoming Job Positions — 🔍 In Progress
• Dec 2022 — Game Economist
• Dec 2022 — Game Designer
• Upcoming 2023 — Additional Game Developers
• Upcoming 2023 — Server Side Developer
Whats next for Chumbi Valley?
See below what’s coming up for Chumbi Valley (in chronological order, subject to change):
• Regular Game Dev Updates
• Gen 1 NFT Sale
• VIP Breeding Event (For Seed Holders)
• Dev Team Expansion
• Teaser Trailer
• Website
• Whitepaper
• NFT Marketplace
• Early Game Access (Alpha/Beta for Seed Holders)
• Influencer Marketing Campaign
• Beta Game Release
• Chumbi Merch & Plushies
Still in discussion as to where they fit in the timeline:
• Land Sale
• Staking 2.0
Thank you for Reading
Chumbi Valley is our dream project, we work passionately towards an exciting future and we are grateful that you are coming on this journey with us. 💚
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