AMA Recap: LitCraft
Date: February 22nd, 2023
Host: Skinny G
Guest: Tom Anderson- CEO
Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts!
We recently hosted an AMA with LitCraft. Here’s the AMA transcript for those who missed the live session. We sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it as we did while running the AMA!
Introductory Questions
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Hope you are all ready #raccoonfam! Today we’re having another educational AMA with Tom Anderson from LitCraft!
As you know there will be 2 parts, the muted part where me and Tom will be talking about LitCraft in general aswell as the latest news and updates! Then we’ll unmute an have the community ask questions and some winners will be chosen. We’ll also choose some twitter questions while we’re at it. A total prizepool of $200 (4 live chat and 4 twitter qs will be winning $25 each).
So Tom, without further ado, can you please briefly tell us who you are and what your role at LitCraft entails?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: So a brief background on me… I’m Tom Anderson, Devvio’s CEO and the creator of LitCraft. I’m an experienced entrepreneur. I’ve raised over $60 million in funding for my companies. The first company I founded was a video game company, so a lot of my experience is in the video game industry.
In that business, I licensed on the order of $100 million in video game development, and we published over 100 titles. My second big company is Devvio, a blockchain company. I started it 7 years ago as I see blockchain as one of the few technologies we’ll see in our lifetime that will fundamentally change computing, on par with the internet. We saw a lot of need and room to innovate, so we designed our own blockchain protocol from scratch, the DevvX platform. With respect to LitCraft…
LitCraft is a rich and deep sci-fi fantasy universe. The main idea in the LitCraft lore is that there are mages with powerful magical abilities living all around us, hidden in plain view. There are hidden mage cities, a complex society, a powerful magic system, numerous magical creatures and races, and it encompasses many metaphysical concepts that explore the nature of our lives and existence. From a business perspective, LitCraft is a brand that encompasses many different types of IPs — video games (LitCraft Nysperience and many more to come), books (Grant Beagan, etc), shows (Paps n Eeee, coming soon), and hopefully movies and broad expansions of everything.
LitCraft represents a society that I feel we should strive for. Importantly, with respect to the blockchain space, LitCraft is a beachhead in our Digital Financial Ecosystem. I believe it is the longest-running blockchain game, but most importantly, it is a complex ecosystem of digital assets and platform tools. We have a marketplace, seller’s portal, digital wallet, and the games and applications themselves. I believe that companies that create digital financial ecosystems (as opposed to specific applications) will be the biggest winners across all metaverse applications.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: I can see your previous experience in gaming has played a major role in the development of LitCraft, it appears to me you have created this world for gamers to become fully enticed into and actually want to “live in it” if you could say that. I myself am still currently stuck in some MMORPGs still.
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: yeah, I spent many many hours in Everquest back in the day haha. Many many more in City of Heroes :)
We’re actually about to release a “real-world MMO” called Lit Legion, where people can do real-world tasks and earn value in our overall financial ecosystem. And, yes… the games and metaverse we’re creating, we want to be encompassed as well.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: So Tom can you give the raccoons the infamous elevator pitch on what LitCraft stands for and what its purpose is in this crypto space?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: LitCraft’s place in the crypto space is an overall Digital Financial Ecosystem… we have great games, and a foundation to add many more, but the main thing we’re doing that I think is unique in the crypto space is creating a complex interrelated ecosystem where anyone can come into it and find their place, earn by interacting, exit to fiat in a number of ways, and interact with everyone else in the ecosystem.
It is like real life — if you want to start a bakery, you don’t farm your own wheat. You simply buy flour. You don’t get a legal degree, you hire a lawyer. You have employees you pay, and those employees buy things from other businesses, and in turn, those businesses have employees who buy things from other businesses, and so on. That is what we’re building in our digital world with LitCraft — a complex interrelated financial ecosystem.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: So the aim is for LitCraft to be the first real “Play to Earn” game then, from all these previous “play-to-earn” games that have come out they are fulled of Ponzi mechanics as well as being based of the “greater Fool theory” as they have very poor game play mechanics for the user to experience.
From what I can see LitCraft’s approach to gaming is really unique, and I’m curious — how does the platform differ from traditional gaming platforms, and what advantages does it offer to gamers?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: I think blockchain gaming represents a large part of the future of the entire video game industry — to me, it’s not as much play to earn, but rather, play to own, when you look at it in that bigger context. I feel it will become table stakes for video games in the future. If you spend 6 months building a sweet car in a AAA racing game and don’t own the car at the end, but in a different game you do own the car at the end, that you can sell on a marketplace, you will definitely play the game where you own the items. The video game industry is going to change to this model, as they will have to over time to stay competitive.
In terms of where we’re different from other blockchain games, the financial model, which is NOT a greater fools type of concept, is built around the economic flow. That is a much better way to build a long-term project.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Yes thats very true, I used to try explain NFTs to my family/friends by using this exact analogy. Look at fortnite for example all the money and time you spend gives you nothing in return other than wasting time and “raging” when you loose.
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: We have dozens of tried and true types of gameplay, so the LitCraft Nysperience game, and other games we’re releasing soon, are a great place to have fun. We have businesses that you can grow and expand in LitCraft Nysperience, where you can create financial value. Overall, one of the most important differences in our approach is that the players own the items that represent traditional game monetization.
For example, if you buy a bomb powerup in Candy Crush Sage, the publisher gets the money. In our ecosystem, if you buy a bomb for a match 3 game, the player that crafted the bomb gets the money. That is a powerful concept.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: So will players be able to list their own assets on a marketplace (to off ramp into Fiat for example) or is strictly player to player trading?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Yes! :) people can sell on GlassBlock.io, There are thousands of items in the game, and hundreds of recipes to create more and more complex items (including NFTs, such as LitPets, which are crafted on chain with a smart contract). Anything you earn in the game you own, and you can sell it in the marketplace.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: That really is impressive so as mentioned before it is actually all about digital ownership and receiving an asset in return for your time spend! This really is amazing when I look back at the many many hours I’ve spend just to get some “Achievements”.
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: We have a V4 release of Nysperience coming out on 4/22. What’s important in that in this context, is that it is the foundation for this broader financial ecosystem I’ve been describing. Traditional game monetization occurs in specific categories — power-ups, skins, advertising, etc. We have those types of things as craftable items that players can sell — in essence, we are taking traditional game monetization strategies and giving ownership to the players! We have achievements (badges) in Lit Legion too — you can do real-world tasks, or in-game tasks, level up and get badges in addition to earning tokens that can be crafted and sold.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: To be honest this should now be the standard for all games going forward in my opinion.
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: I think it represents a new category in games. In the 90s you could buy a game on CD-ROM. In 2000 you could buy a subscription to an MMO. In the late 2000s, you could launch a free-to-play game with advertising. Blockchain gaming represents one of those new broad categories for games.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: I’m always interested in hearing about the game development process — can you talk a bit about how LitCraft designs and develops its games, and what makes this approach different from traditional game development?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Sure… our approach is pretty straightforward in a lot of ways… we take tried and truly proven genres and combine them into a broad financial ecosystem.
I’ve spent a lot of my career in the video games industry, and I see crypto making many of the same mistakes that others in the traditional video game industry have made. It is very risky to try and create a big game. People might or might not like it, and even if you spend a lot of money, it is very hard to know what will be successful or not. A lot of crypto projects are going down that route, and many will fail.
We’re taking a different approach in that we focus on how all the game interactions work together, and using games that don’t have many risks. Many people like solitaire, without a question, so we’re adding solitaire as one of our games. If you don’t like solitaire, then you can play sudoku, match 3, a card battling game, or an FPS, etc.
Because we’re collecting many types of gameplay that are proven, most people will be able to find games they like, where they can play, earn items, own those items, and ultimately have fiat offramps if they want (or not if they just want to play).
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: What would you say are some of the biggest mistakes that these other crypto games are making?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: It is the idea of putting a bunch of money into a single big IP. There is a reason that the big game release multiple versions over time — Call of Duty, Halo, GTA, etc — it is very hard to build a successful IP.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Thats very interesting, so correct me if I am wrong here but it sounds like there is no exact “gameplay loop” for players to experience, it is more focused on players creating their own gameplay loop?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: I would say that each genre has its own dynamics. We have a match 3 game with randomized levels, so you can keep playing forever. We have a Minecraft-like game where you dig items out and get raw materials that you can craft into more complicated items. There is a merge game where you can keep combining items into more and more valuable items. There is a card battling game with deep strategy as you get into it, and has a great collectible component to the gameplay. There is also the overall business development that is less an action game and more similar to a sim game. Different people like different things, and everyone can find a place to do what they want in our ecosystem. We’re constantly expanding content as well.
We have a new Minecraft-like building game where you can build houses. That is a place where one can spend many many hours if you like that kind of thing. The Lit Legion portion of our app, where you do real-world tasks will have a lot of content too. We’re building a space shooter, which will be fun. We’re building an FPS game which will also be fun and starting a bigger 3D world RPG type of game.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Accessibility is so important when it comes to gaming — can you talk about how LitCraft is making its platform user-friendly and accessible to gamers of all levels, including those who may not be familiar with blockchain technology?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: this is a good question, and it is one of our biggest strengths I feel. The LitCraft Nysperience game is free to play. just download at LitCraft.com
When you first start playing, just follow the tasks in the task system, and you’ll learn all the basics. From there you can dive deeper into any category you find compelling.
We have a great Telegram community for LitCraft — lots of great folks who can help you to learn. There is a wiki at LitLegion.io to help players get started!
Also, the marketplace (buyer’s and seller’s portions) both are easy to use like traditional web2 experiences, but they are web3 applications. Check it out at GlassBlock.io
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: I know we have touched on this a bit but could you explain it a bit more in depth, how does LitCraft use crypto to incentivize and reward gamers, and what benefits does this bring to the platform?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Well not crypto, per se, but it is a blockchain-based approach where you own everything that you create or earn, outside of the game’s context. So by combining traditional game monetization, with a philosophy that users own the value created in the game, you get an end result that lets people play to own and then earn in the overall ecosystem. For example, in order to advertise in a game of ours, an advertiser needs to get advertising points. Advertising points are crafted by users, as one example.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Do you players buy/sell their in game items for stable coins or fiat on Glassblock market place?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: They can buy and sell with the game currency called Heptals, or they can sell for fiat. You can choose on the seller’s portal what you accept.
If you get Heptals, you can invest them into building a business that creates more items that you can sell. Like in real life, businesses are not profitable at first, but over time, with effort and money, you can grow the business to be profitable. After you’ve built a business, like in real life, you can sell it to someone else.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: I see now, the whole game design really is based off of Blockchain technology, that does eliminate alot of the issues that majority of the previous Crypto games had(such as Axis infinity).
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: yeah play-to-earn or as I described really play-to-own games are enabled with blockchain technology. It will become a big category in the entire video game industry.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Security and privacy are always top of mind — can you speak about how LitCraft approaches these issues and what measures are in place to protect users’ data and transactions?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Innately, security is a big part of what we do as a company. Blockchain technology is a great foundation for security, given our design’s byzantine fault tolerance. We also integrate more traditional types of security as well given our design — we have a traditional web2 interface in our blockchain that gives added protection, similar to what Cloudflare does, for example.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: So user’s assets really are protected then, thats great to see especially since they will be spending time playing to own all these assets!
It’s always exciting to hear about a company’s long-term vision — what does the future of blockchain gaming look like in your opinion, and how does LitCraft fit into that picture?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: I think Blockchain gaming is going to be a new category in the overall video games industry, as I described. I think players owning assets outside of the game’s context, will become table stakes for many games in the future. Mor broadly though, our vision is a big one. We want to become the hub, broadly, for metaverse applications. That is what I mean when I describe the digital financial ecosystem.
To start it includes games items and NFTs, but longer term we will continue to add more and more real-world assets into the ecosystem. For example, we’re looking into adding plastic offset tokens, where a token represents literally removing plastic from the real-world oceans. those tokens are indicative of doing real-world good, but also have financial ecosystem value as they can be crafted into more valuable items. Ultimately, I see the distinction between real and digital being blurred in a massive global digital economy that expands well beyond games.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: Wow thats amazing, so real world applications for in-game actions that actually is amazing! And finally to finish off the first part of the AMA, all of us at DeFi Raccoons are curious — can you give us a sneak peek into any upcoming projects or initiatives that LitCraft has in the works, and what you’re most excited about in terms of the LitCrafts’s future?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Yeah, one example we’re implementing now is marketing. In order to build a virtual business, you need marketing points. You get marketing points, called Opsonant, by taking part in real-world marketing in Lit Legion by doing tasks such as retweets or bringing in new players. You get those points by joining in with real-world social media efforts, then you can sell those points on GlassBlock to someone creating a LitCraft Nysperience business. It’s a pretty cool concept to have real-world endeavors represented as tokens in a digital financial economy.
SkinnyG | DeFiRaccoons: For me I love NFTs with real world utility/applications so this is definitely a major tick in my books! I love to see the full power of Blockchain Tech being used in our daily lives!
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Yeah, our LitPets is a great initial example of that. You can craft them yourself, and they have a lot of utility in the game. You can battle with them, or use them in businesses.
Twitter Questions
Q1: Sometimes NFTs can be quite costly for small investors. In this context, will LitPet NFTs be rented? If it can be rented, how will you determine the income ratio between the lessor and the lessee?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: With LitCraft Nysperience, you can play for free. There are no upfront costs. You can buy things on Glassblock.io to accelerate your growth, but it isn’t necessary. We are also building a concept of guilds where people can earn more and combine resources, which will add a lot of community interactions within the game environment.
Q2: I read that in February you are running a campaign #LitChallenge for a chance at $500 in prizes as well as rare NFTs. how to participate in this campaign? If I win, can this NFT be sold on the marketplace or can it only be used in the game?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: You can follow our announcements channel — https://t.me/DevvioAnnouncements — we post whenever a new task is available. You just click on the link and follow the instructions to enter. It is pretty straightforward to join in and get a chance to win ;)
Q3: In LitCraft, every player can have “LitPets” managed. Since every LitPets is an NFT, what is the minimum and maximum number of LitPets a player can have at any one time? Is it possible to have multiple LitPets for one player? How can players train & upgrade LitPets for fighting?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: You can have as many LitPets as you want! They are great collectibles and have fun graphics. You don’t upgrade them (yet — we have an upcoming artifact system that will allow upgrades), but instead you find ones that work for different applications. A key to battling with them (like many card games) is finding the right combination of LitPets in your battling deck. LitPets are going to be an important part of businesses as well — they are the ‘employees’ of businesses.
Q4: In the Litcraft ecosystem there are over 1000 item types and hundreds of base pet NFTs. Can you explain the rarity levels of these base pets? Given this large number, how will you combat NFT inflation within the existence as it's one of the issues that worry most GameFi projects?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: In Nysperience, there are what we call “Base Pets” which are used as the parents for crafting “LitPets”. Base Pets aren’t rare — they’re pretty easy to craft. LitPets on the other hand can range across rarity. Each LitPet has a power level. Only 1% of LitPets that are crafted has the highest power level. Each LitPet has an ability for battling, and characteristics for battling.
Given the many different types of deck strategies, there are many LitPets that will have a place in battle. LitPets also have characteristics like strength, intelligence, dexterity, etc. These give them more use in businesses. We will have many more games over time that use them too. Given that we can continue to use them in more and more ways, I envision that there will always be many uses for LitPets over time. We can adjust what it costs to craft them as well, to find the balance and not have too many of them for their use cases, and will continue to grow the use cases.
Live Audience Questions
Q1: Do you have any plan to get into AAA games that are competitive which will further expand your ecosystem? Also, can you highlight ways to earn from Litcraft?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: yes, I have a lot of licensing experience in the past. I licensed on the order of $100 million of game development in my last company. We are going to look to get AAA games into our digital financial ecosystem. There are some quick ways of doing that that we’re exploring (tying into APIs) so hopefully will have some integrations soon.
Q2: Since the launch last April and 4.0 version was released this April, what is the special meaning of Earth Day for LitCraft?
Tom Anderson | LitCraft: Earth day is important to us, as a lot of what we do as a company relates to ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) — we have a lot of environmental projects we support. We even spun out an ESG company called DevvStream that recently went public on the NEO exchange.
LitCraft
Telegram: t.me/LitCraft
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitCraft_io
Website: https://litcraft.com
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