Loom SDK Projects: Coins & Steel — A Fantasy Multiplayer Role-Playing Game (Like You’ve Never Seen Before) 🗡️
If you’ve been paying attention to Loom Network for a while — you know that one of our BIGGEST focuses is on blockchain games.
In fact, our co-founder James recently wrote a blockbuster article on Why Games Will Be The Catalyst for Blockchain Mass Adoption.
Even before that, I wrote a post about The Hidden Benefits of Running Games on a Blockchain for all the skeptics who thought blockchain gaming was a bunch of cockamamie nonsense.
Then Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin mentioned our in-house game Zombie Battleground and Axie Infinity (one of our Loom SDK Projects) — on CNN.
Not only that…
As of today — there’s a WHOLE BUNCHA game developers (and studios) building incredible games (like: CryptoWars, Neon District, Axie Infinity, Mossland etc.) on top of our Loom SDK.
…and today, the party is about to get even crazier.
In fact —Today, I am excited to announce that Coins & Steel — a fantasy multiplayer role-playing game, will be joining a long list of Loom SDK powered games 😮
…and I must say: The graphics on Coins & Steel looks badass AF.
Naturally… you are wondering…
What Is Coins & Steel, and How Do I Play It? 🤔
First, Coins & Steel automatically stands out from other RPG’s on the market since it runs on the blockchain.
So before I get to the actual gameplay — let me give you a sneak peek into the benefits of running the game on a blockchain.
In essence, Coins & Steel is a multiplayer role-playing game where you can:
- Use an ERC20 token called STEEL (STL) to hold everything of value in the game.
- Buy, sell, and trade your game assets with anyone for any reason — without being confined to the Coins & Steel marketplace.
- Earn STEEL (STL) tokens just by playing the game — which can be converted to ETH or fiat later.
- Transfer your digital assets from other games (like CryptoKitties) that run on a different blockchain to Coins & Steel with inter-blockchain operability.
…but saying it can do all of the above is like saying Eric Clapton can sort of play the guitar.
It’s a massive understatement — because there’s MUCH more to it.
We want to focus on an RPG where player choice truly matters.
The game boasts a variety of classes with a branching skill system, as well as features designed around fortifications, owning or defending your own slice of the world.
— Creators of Coins & Steel
Build a Citadel While You Defend Against Dangerous Enemies
Imagine a large open world that’s divided into various zones.
Each zone starts out as a Rural Village.
From the Rural Village, a Settlement forms.
Then players cooperate to build up their Settlement (which is in a single zone) into a Village.
As the Village grows bigger, it turns into a Town, and it finally becomes a full-fledged Citadel.
In life, growing and evolving as a person involves getting out of your comfort zone and facing uncertainty.
Similarly — each stage of growth (going from a Rural Village ➡️ to a Settlement ➡️ to a Village ➡️ to a Citadel) in Coins & Steel will make you face all sorts of uncertainty and danger.
I am talking Monsters, Dungeons, and World Bosses.
Most RPG’s that run on the blockchain are turn-based.
However, combat in Coins & Steel takes place in real-time.
Since combat is in real-time — gameplay is fast-paced, dynamic, and a LOT more fun.
Use Your Knowledge to Build Weapons and Armor 🗡️
In Coins & Steel, there will be dozens of different professions to learn and master.
For example, you can learn and master professions like:
- Blacksmithing
- Herbalism
- Mining
- Fishing
- Alchemy
- Cooking
- Pet Trainer
- Weapons Smith
- …and many more.
Equipment & Items
If you’ve ever played the Diablo Series — you might remember how equipment is generated randomly.
In similar fashion, everything that you can equip with (i.e equipment) like Helmets, Chest Armor, Rings, Amulet etc. will be randomly generated.
Which means, you have the chance to get very valuable (and potentially rare) items — which can have considerable value in the market.
As far as Items go…
Consumable Items involve (but is not limited to) things like:
- Potions
- Enchantments
- Meals
- Pet food
Plus, you can leverage your newly-formed alliances and resources to build weapons and fortify your tribe.
Got a question for ya…
Which Describes You the Best: Fighter, Wizard, or Archer? 🎯
When you start the game, you can choose from 3 classes:
- Fighters are heavily armored warriors with untold strength and toughness. They can take heavy hits without flinching. Since their health is excellent and can defend themselves, they are excellent in the front-line with direct contact with the enemy.
- Archers are skilled marksmen. They are highly agile (and effective) long-range attackers, especially against low-defense targets. Archers can inflict severe damage, but their survivability in close quarters is limited.
- Wizards are skilled magicians (not like David Blaine… more like Harry Potter) known for their intelligence and ability to cast powerful spells that penetrate armor. They are great damage dealers, but their health and defense attributes make them fragile on the front lines.
Each of the above classes will have three trait branches along with class-specific skills in each respective branch.
It’s important to note that…
A trait may be a talent OR a skill.
What’s the difference? Talents are PASSIVE, and they reward bonuses to a character’s attributes like increasing the characters defense against poison.
Skills on the other hand are ACTIVE.
That means Skills require player input before they are performed.
…and a well-timed skill can mean the difference between life and death.
Here’s the cool part: you’ll be able to obtain ALL traits for your class through the Reborn feature (coming soon) 😲
So…
Why Is Coins & Steel Using the Loom SDK? 🤔
So you might be wondering — why build Coins & Steel on top of the Loom SDK?
…and how will Coins & Steel use Loom to mold the architecture of their game?
Those are ALL great questions.
Here are some of the reasons:
- Frictionless UI/UX: Loom Network enables transactions at lightning speeds and at zero cost to players of Coins & Steel. There’s no need for users to pay gas fees or have MetaMask popups for every event action or button click.
- Unparalleled Security: Loom Network’s Basechain is a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) blockchain with 21+ external validators located all around the world, and it has been audited by Trail of Bits (a renowned information security company founded in 2012) — so Coins & Steel can focus on building an incredible game, instead of worrying about security.
- Proof of Play: Since Basechain is a full-featured DPoS blockchain, all transactions are stored on the chain without costing players any money. As an added benefit, players of Crazy House won’t be required to register an account, have a digital wallet, or hold any cryptocurrency to demo the games.
- Game Logic Saved On-Chain: Since the entire game is built on-chain, all game logic (which changes with game state) is run inside a Golang contract. Non-gameplay visuals and interactions (like the presence of other players) are handled by a NodeJS socket server.
- Instant Transactions: Since sector maps have been divided based on the maximum size of the smartphone screen and each sector is a mini-level with no importance on size (imagine 4 quadrants with 4 squares, where each square is a mini-level) — all interactions are essentially instant. This makes it possible for you to run in the world without a noticeable delay.
- DPoS: Coins & Steel will be using Loom’s DPoS to incentivize players to run game nodes. Other than improving decentralization, validators and delegates would be incentivized to earn STL tokens.
By the way — keep your eyes peeled.
In December 2018 — cool features like multiplayer and PvE combat is coming to an Internet near you 😉
That’s just a TINY glimpse into the benefits of running a game like Coins & Steel on top of the Loom SDK.
It’s obviously JUST the beginning.
…but it should be enough for you to get excited about the future of blockchain gaming 😎
Speaking of which…
The Future Is Already Here — It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed
Since games are likely going to be the catalyst for mass adoption of blockchain, and we are focused on making large-scale games and social apps possible on the blockchain — Coins & Steel is another excellent addition to the Loom SDK stable.
If you’ve been out of the loop…
This is the SIXTH of a series of posts in which I’ve been highlighting some of the projects that will be using the Loom SDK.
Essentially, this series gives you a sneak peek into some of the earliest projects that will be using the groundbreaking blockchain tech we are developing.
In the first iteration of this series, I covered Pixie Shopping Street — a clothing design and dress-up game (also marketplace) that’s exploring how the Loom SDK can be used to scale their current and future games using DAppChains.
In the second installment of this series, I covered Neon District — which is a hybrid role-playing and asset collecting game set in a futuristic, tech-noir landscape.
Then I introduced you to Axie Infinity — which is a game that lets you battle and breed fantasy pets (called Axies) on the blockchain.
I also introduced you to Mossland — the creators of a blockchain-based augmented reality (AR) game that lets you buy and sell virtual real estate.
…and most recently, I covered CryptoWars — a blockchain based strategy game.
That’s essentially what we are doing with this series: showing you how the earliest pioneers and developers are using the Loom SDK to build and deploy highly scalable games and social apps.
…and I wonder who will join us next.
You can follow Coins & Steel on Twitter, Telegram, Discord, Medium or on their official site.
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