Community Spotlight — NanoQuake
This week our interview room was a bit crammed full of Nano visionaries! James Coxon, ‘ArranHarty’, Andrew Mitchell, and ‘CommodoreAmiga’ on Discord allowed me to pick their brains for a bit before they insisted on getting back to playing NanoQuake.
How did you first get involved with Nano? Tell us a little about yourselves.
JayCox: I’ve been involved with Nano since March 2016, previously messing around with various blockchain projects. I regard my skill set as being able to rapidly prototype proof of concepts — Nano is perfect for this! I’ve had some sort of input in a number of projects around Nano including working on the Official Wallet/node in April 2017, Telegram Tradebot, the YapRai Web Wallet, Jolt Hardware Wallet, dPoW System, old RaiBlocks Discord and Twitter Tipbot, NanoSMS, Four-In-A-Row Game, Hardware Faucet, and the RetroXRBWallet.
ArranHarty: I’ve been around Nano for around a year, during which I created Nanoodle. I’m a avid gamer and when I heard about Nano & Quake 2 together — it seemed too good an opportunity to turn down. I quickly got involved in the Nano Center Discord and James seemed happy to have testing assistance. I helped with the initial push for the beta and set up a Trello board so we could track tasks that were essential.
Andrew: I’ve been around Nano for a while now. Invested in early December 2017 and started doing some development in the beginning of 2018. I run the Nano Tip Bot on Twitter, the Distributed Proof of Work Dashboard, and am working with the Kitepay team to develop a payment processor for cryptocurrencies. I also help on Nano Quake by providing the US server and the Discord leaderboard bot.
CommodoreAmiga: I heard about NanoQuake, read more about it, and then went to Nano Center Discord. I appreciate the Nano Center warmly welcoming new people like me. I have been helping with theming and modding for NanoQuake during testing.
Other than being fun — where do you see the potential in NanoQuake??
ArranHarty: NanoQuake shows how Nano microtransactions can be integrated into gaming. There are many use cases for cryptocurrencies in gaming.
Andrew: Nano’s potential in gaming is extensive. Nano Quake is a great proof of concept to show that cryptocurrency microtransaction integration is possible. Future games that are developed specifically with this support in mind can have even better implementations!
JayCox: Hopefully NanoQuake will inspire others to add Nano to their projects, Nano can act as a bridge between lots of different concepts and projects, being able to pay NanoQuake with your friends and then use your rewards to pay for your shopping.
What is your favorite part of the NanoQuake project?
ArranHarty: It allows me a nice break from Nanoodle accounting stuff for me! NanoQuake was my first bit (and I stress bit) of Python and C code, as well as my first pull request. You never forget the first time! I basically did a little tweaking around the previous terminal menus, and added in the bespoke game messages for in game kills e.g. ‘Hyperblaster does a 51 percent attack’. As a bonus, playing Quake 2 with 8+ players in deathmatch is lots of fun! I even had Colin kill me by teleporter in one game, pretty sure it wasn’t planned.
Andrew: I think my favorite part is the potential that it shows for Nano. Everyone talks about microtransactions as a theory, but Nano Quake shows this in action. We’ve had some other folks that have popped in the channel asking about how to integrate into their favorite games, and that is really exciting to me. Hopefully some standards can begin to be set to transactions and some really novel ideas can come from this!
CommodoreAmiga: I would say testing and then seeing it getting better and better with each version.
What things would you like to see in NanoQuake’s evolution?
ArranHarty: For me its keep adding fun maps and growing the user base.
Andrew: The discord leaderboard keeps continuing to evolve. I recently added a notification in the main Nano Center discord that will let people know if there are large numbers of players in any particular server, so people can join in on large games. We call them a “fragfest” for 4 players and “fragstravaganza” for 8. We’ve also discussed creating a website for the leaderboard so players can view this without having to join in discord, but that’s to come in the future.
JayCox: I’m looking forward to rolling in the latest changes from the Yamagi Quake project. In particular, the improved map/texture downloading features as this often catches the eye of new players. One area we are working towards clarifying is the legal aspects of what we have created — the aim was to create an a e-sports style tournament with the pay-in similar to a entry fee and the rewards coming out of this pot. It will be helpful to further clarify this and exclude any suggestion that it’s gambling rather than skill.
I think there is a natural tendency to wonder what other games would be a natural fit for this kind of project. Any ideas?
ArranHarty: Something like slither.io would be good. Alternatively some where you can trade items.
Andrew: I think FPS is a natural initial thought, but there are some other things that I can think of. RTS where you make micropayments to create buildings and units, something like Second Life / The Sims where you pay for in-game purchases, another shot at the Auction House in Diablo / WoW using Nano instead of cash.
JayCox: Adding currency suits competitive games, I’d be interested in looking at some sort of Worms-esque game and seeing how Nano could be added.
CommodoreAmiga: I was rocket jumping in NanoQuake when I heard there is NanoUnreal coming and thought that’s so cool.
In three words, tell me your favorite victim, your favorite weapon, and who you want to see come join in the action!
ArranHarty: Commodore! Rocket launcher, Clawz
Andrew: Troy, Chaingun, Roy
JayCox: ArranHarty, shotgun, Colin
Thanks for all the replies boys. I’ve shamefully yet to get in there and dominate the NanoQuake arena but that time will come, I assure you! There’s little doubt NanoQuake has acted as a catalyst for many thinking of other ways they can integrate Nano into already existing systems. Such a cool project — can’t wait for its population to grow!
Last week: NanoCharts
Next week: Nanites — The people behind Nano ft. Mica Busch
