NFT Gaming Podcast with Cosmic Champs
Show Notes from the interview with CEO Matty Blanchard
First published on the NFT Gaming Podcast blog.
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Introduction
Cosmic Champs is a space-themed game with a tower rush format where two players battle each other for three minutes. The objective is to destroy the opposing player’s base by any means possible. The winner takes home all the treasure on offer, and the loser leaves empty-handed. A large portion of cryptocurrency’s history can be traced back to gaming, especially to in-game currency. World of Warcraft gold, which was mined and sold online, existed before Bitcoin. We had the opportunity to speak with Matty Blanchard about his company’s vision for the future of gaming, how he got started with Cosmic Champs, and what he hopes gamers take away from playing this new type of game!
Let’s meet Blanchard and his Team
Matty Blanchard is the co-founder of Mad Shapes Studio, the developers of the Cosmic Champs game. He describes himself as an entrepreneur, and data analytics expert. Together with his co-founder, Simon Belingar, who is a Blockchain expert with AR, VR, and 3D gaming experience, they set out to build Cosmic Champs. The studio now has more than 20 team members distributed around the world.
Cosmic Champs is the latest mobile game to reach the ever-evolving world of blockchain gaming. The game is set in a retro-future where civilization has stretched to the far reaches of the cosmos. Cosmic Champs is in a good position to establish itself as the industry standard for gaming. The team is developing a project that will serve as the universal framework for a metaverse that is constantly expanding, utilizing its superhuman vision and the pool of talents behind its game development.
What is your team building at Cosmic Champs
Cosmic Champs is a real-time strategy game set in a retro-future where ships crewed by Champs traverse the cosmos, descending to do battle on hostile, resource-rich planets. The Champs compete in online battle arenas in a tower-rush format, fighting tooth and nail and antenna for their share of Cosmic Gold and intergalactic fame.
In keeping with leading trends in the Web3 space, Cosmic Champs has been designed to allow users to have permanent ownership and take full control over their in-game assets while fostering new ways to build strong communities who share a love for the game and its eclectic cast of characters. The fusion of NFTs into a play-to-earn gaming model is one of the many exciting new possibilities that set blockchain games apart from traditional games. It’s yet another reason why gaming is shaping up as the key to unlocking the true potential of the NFT industry and metaverse projects.
“Cosmic Champs is mobile first. So that’s our priority, but we will be launching a browser-based version as well. Also, we plan to release a high-performance desktop client version of it. So if people want to stream or participate in tournaments, they have that option, “Blanchard said.
Blanchard also had this to say about their vision for developing the game: “Our goal is for the Cosmic Champs playing community to govern and own the game. Any game’s experts are its players. Nobody is more qualified to run a game than its participants. We will progressively switch to a community-owned DAO to assure the long-term security and stability of Cosmic Champs. “
The gamer can start playing right away without having any NFTs in their wallet or even connecting a wallet because they don’t require them to access the game. But the NFTs will have different metrics if they want to take part in the crypto portion of the game.
Why did you choose Algorand for the game?
With an estimated 2.5 billion players globally and a 9.6% growth in global spending between 2018 and 2019, gaming is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. When it comes to innovation and the adoption of cutting-edge technology like virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, the gaming industry has always been “ahead of the trend.” Using blockchain presents a significant opportunity that hasn’t yet been fully explored.
Algorand ($ALGO), which boasts a multibillion dollar market cap, is unquestionably one of the most well-known Ethereum rivals in 2022. The ecosystem has experienced numerous migrations from both new and established projects, including many P2E developers, since its introduction in 2019. Fans of Algorand frequently cite the blockchain as one of the most secure, scalable, and decentralized gaming infrastructures in existence. It boasts a sizable ecosystem of projects, including innovative NFT marketplaces, some of the best crypto tools and resources on the market, and initiatives that are hot in the DeFi economy.
The Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM), atomic transfers, and rekeying features that crypto aficionados have come to know and love since Ethereum are all included in Algorand technologically. The AVM is one of its most distinctive features.
Blanchard had this to say about why they chose Algorand as the platform of choice to build Cosmic Champs: “I think Algorand is quite good for gaming because it’s got very fast transactions, it’s secure, and there’s a very low cost, and there’ll always be a very low cost for those transactions, which I think is great for a game like ours, which is going to have thousands and thousands of micro transactions all the time. Not all blockchains can operate like that. You know, like we saw with Ethereum and the high transaction fees on the network. “
Onboarding Web3 gamers through Barrier Free Game Play
Cosmic Champs is a game that you can play without having to buy any cryptocurrency or blockchain knowledge. It’s also fun and engaging, so it’s easy for anyone who wants an introduction to the world of blockchain gaming.
Cosmic Champs is designed to teach people about Web3, but in a non-technical way — so they don’t have to learn anything complicated before playing. Algorand is a spectacular and innovative blockchain that was created to be a layer 1 blockchain that is carbon neutral. It contains a variety of novel features not found in other chains, like rekeying, which allows users to transfer their wallets from a centralized entity to themselves.
By instantly creating a wallet for users as soon as they join, the game fully exploits this. All of a player’s earnings will be transferred to this wallet, but until the player chooses to claim (rekey) the wallet or connect their own Algorand wallet, it won’t be available. The game allows players to begin playing right away without even having to create and connect a wallet, which is excellent for onboarding less tech-savvy customers.
Blanchard had this to say about Cosmic Champs barrier free gameplay: “Most gamers aren’t interacting with the blockchain at this point in time. So how do you get them on? It’s by removing those barriers and making it a seamless experience for them. And one that feels very familiar with what they already know. We have the responsibility as game creators to build these games to make that experience as fun, as exciting, as easy to onboard people, and as frictionless as possible. Gamers don’t really care what technology underpins the game. They just want to know that it works and that it’s a fun experience. “
What do You Think is the Future of Web3 Games
Although the NFT gaming market is still in its infancy, gamers have welcomed NFTs and think they are here to stay. Blanchard thinks so too and had this to say about where he thinks the Web3 games are headed next: “I think there are lots of great things that come from building on the blockchain and giving that power or control over the assets to the players, because the players are the experts in your game. I think the future of blockchain games is one where they’re hard to distinguish from free-to-play games where the experience is so similar that players don’t even need to know that the blockchain is integrated into the game, but they have all the benefits and functionality that come with that.”
Conclusion
You can learn more about Cosmic Champs on this podcast or visit their website. It’s been nice talking with Matty on this episode of the podcast, and we wish them all the best with Cosmic Champs, and who knows, we may have a chance to catch up with him again in the future. We wish you a splendid week and look forward to seeing you all next Tuesday when we bring you another episode.
