DApp 101 — #2 BattleRacers
AMA with Patrick from Altitude Games
Battle Racers is an action-packed arcade game where you build, race, and battle model cars on arcade-sized tracks.
In Battle Racers, you can mix and match parts and weapons to create your perfect car, then use its combat skills to beat other players to the finish line.
Read more https://medium.com/battle-racers
BattleRacer’s Product Manager - Patrick has joined us today to answer our questions.
We’ll start with some introductory questions to provide some background about the project, their current focus areas & then there future plans in general.
Welcome, Patrick! 👋
Q. How long have you been making games and what made you decide to pursue blockchain?
A. Our company, Altitude Games, is a 6 year old, Manila-based studio, with a team that has over 90 years of combined experience in game development making PC, console, and mobile games.
A few years back, there was a huge discussion about how blockchain could disrupt the game industry. We started researching Ethereum and how NFTs are a perfect fit for games, then we decided to make our first ever blockchain game - BattleRacers.
Q. What was your inspiration for Battle Racers? Why model cars?
A. Arcade racing is a classic game genre that is easy to learn and play. We were inspired by Mario Kart, but the decision to go with model cars was due to our fond memories of Tamiya in the 90s. It made sense to apply the mechanic of collecting parts and building the best car.
Q. What is decentralized about Battle Racers?
A. While gameplay data is centralized to support real-time play, our cars will be standard ERC-721 tokens that players own separate from the game and can be used in other blockchain games, like Metaboss. Stats, ownership, and race record will be publicly viewable on mainnet.
Q. How far along is Battle Racers in development?
A. Battle Racers is currently in Early Access and available to play on @decentraland (coordinates 66,-22) or through play.battleracers.io. Players can do real-time multiplayer races using default cars or car parts that they own. More features will be introduced in the future.
Q. How do you play Battle Racers?
A. First, you’ll need a MetaMask wallet, but there’s no need to purchase anything right away. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a giant car - the Battle Racers arena! Interact with the track tables to choose your loadout and start racing.
Cars will automatically accelerate depending on the cumulative stats of the parts you are using. You will also have two skills that you can activate throughout the race. As it is a racing game, whoever finishes at the shortest time wins!
If you want to customize your loadout and build your own car, just approach one of the garage kiosks in the game. There are six default "test drives" that are free to use, while the 7th option is a "Practice Car" which is composed of any parts you own.
Q. What do I need to do to start my own collection of cars?
A. Car parts can be obtained from crates, which you can either win from competitive racing (coming soon) or buy from our website during seasonal sales. We had our pre-sale and Season 1 sale last year, and we’ll have another crate sale when we release a new season.
There are six car brands to choose from and you’ll need one of each part type (Front, Rear, Body, and Wheels) to form a full car. Each brand and type has stat specialties so it’s up to you to choose what to prioritize. Additionally, players can also buy parts on OpenSea.
Q. How can players earn from playing Battle Racers?
A. You can earn by trading on OpenSea, where a portion of the trading fees will go to the tournament prize pool. So in a way, the money goes back to you! Meanwhile, car rarity is also an important factor to consider when trading.
Rarities determine the max level to which parts can be upgraded. Higher levels mean higher stats, making them more in demand. In the future, cars will also have a recorded history, thereby adding more value based on the upgrades, buffs, and bonuses that were unlocked.
Q. What are the upcoming features and events that we can look forward to?
A. We will be relaunching our parts trading feature to allow players to transfer parts from the sidechain to the Ethereum mainnet and back. This will also let players, both old and new, trade for parts they can use in our upcoming tournament, the Duel Cup Open.
The Duel Cup Open is a 1v1 best-of-3 tournament for all our NFT holders. We are giving away over US$4,000 worth of crypto and NFTs including prizes from our sponsors. Registration is currently ongoing on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/gfEPSra
Q. Any gameplay tips for first-time players to increase their chances of doing well in the tournament?
A. Choose your car parts and weapons carefully and always strategize in every race. Review the stats and specialities of your parts according to the brand and type to figure out the optimal combination.
If you can, observe the playstyle of your opponent and determine your own combat style. Do you need weapons that are offensive or defensive? Also, proper skill timing can sometimes make or break a race.
Q. The Duel Cup Open has an exciting list of sponsors. Do you have plans to collaborate with them in the future?
A. We are so grateful to MakerDAO, Matic, Decentraland, PolyientGames, Neon District, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, & DCL Core for their contribution. We are huge fans of interoperability, so we’ll always be happy to work not just with them but with many more.
