M.A.P.C. x ZkNoid interview: Launching Wizard Battle
Hello, amazing snakes!
On May 8th, we had the exciting opportunity to sit down with our partner M.A.P.C. for an in-depth interview about our new game currently in development — Wizard Battle!
During this conversation, we discussed the development of our new strategy zkGame called “Wizard Battle”. Our goal is to create a captivating Web2 experience that incorporates familiar gaming mechanics, making it accessible and appealing to a broader audience of gamers. Players will embark on epic adventures with unique heroes, each equipped with customizable skills that allow for personalized gameplay strategies.
At the core of Wizard Battle lies zero-knowledge technology, which not only enhances privacy but also ensures secure and fair gameplay for all participants.
Let’s get into the highlights of this interview and explore what makes Wizard Battle a game to watch!
Speakers:
Jays
Gmask everyone! At M.A.P.C., we started with a simple vision to defend privacy and be a Mina protocol VIP pass. With the latest change in Mina, M.A.P.C. took a new stride to create a storytelling line, a narrative story.
Anthony
Hello, everyone. My name is Anthony; I’m the community manager and content creator at ZkNoid. If you need someone to speak to, have an idea to pitch towards us or have any Collaboration initiative, I’m the person to get in touch with.
Q1: Could you tell us a little about ZkNoid?
Anthony: ZkNoid is the home for provable gaming in the Mina ecosystem. We’re the protocol that makes ZK powered games on Mina and we’re the gaming platform for Web3 gaming. This week we announced the development of our new game — Wizard Battle, that aims to bring a web2-like experience to the world of Web3.
Q2: Before entering into the gameplay and mechanics of the game I would like to know how Wizard battle was born. What was the first idea for creating and building this game?
Anthony: During development of our previous games, we noticed an issue with games that focus solely on ZK to tend to lack a proper user experience. They are either too simple or too computationally heavy, which results in high latency for players. And nobody wants to play a game where they have to wait a couple of minutes to make each turn. You will be able to play Wizard Battle without any delays, potentially attracting a huge user base to the game.
The idea behind Wizard Battle was to create a zk-powered Web3 game with a Web2-like experience!
The game was born with an inspiration to make a Battleships-like game with more strategy and battle mechanics like Heroes of Might and Magic. But when we discussed the game behind the scenes with the team, there was a huge tsunami of new ideas and the game quickly evolved into something much, much bigger.
We implemented a lot of strategy elements into the game; it’s far from basic battleships. First of all, you have to strategically maneuver around the battlefield, which has several surface features. For example, mountains, forests, marsh, and others that affect your gameplay, affect how you can navigate around them, affect how your opponent can navigate. Moreover, both you and your opponent have various skills that can potentially catch you off guard.
Jays: I love the concept of a web2.5 game. And this approach is a good way to onboard a lot of new users to the blockchain space. By making a zkGame that plays without any notion of Web3 or transactions happening in the background.
Anthony: Exactly. Players won’t even realize they’re playing a zk-powered web3 game. That’s the main idea- play a game without even noticing that it’s being proved in the background.
It’s privacy and security secured without any repercussions. Players won’t notice that proofs are being generated in the background and sent to Mina!
All-in-all, Wizard Battle perfectly aligns with Mina’s new approach. We’re building an application that performs most of the logic off-chain, and only the final state is being finalized and approved by being sent to Mina.
Q3: What will be the visual identity of Wizard Battle? What art style can we expect?
Anthony: We’re building Wizard Battle in the pixel art style. As some referenced, you can think of Chained Echoes which is an amazing game in a pixel art style. Also, think of Terraria.
We have a wonderful artist working on the designs and animations! We will definitely be sharing some concept art and maybe even screenshots as the development goes on as teasers for the community to keep the noise going.
Q4: Will each hero have a unique design and can the player personalize these personas?
Anthony: There will be several heroes, each with his unique visual design. Players will be able to get skins both in-game and purchase them from the store. But heroes will keep all their skills that are linked to the class.
You can think of each hero as a different class, like arcane sorcerer, fire mage, dark rogue, etc. Each of these classes will have their own possible skill set which you can customize before starting the game.
Jays: Do you think about creating some NFT collection attached to this game? Like if we earn some equipment, we can have it in NFTs and potentially sell or trade this NFT.
Anthony: Creating an NFT collection is definitely an option, and we’re thinking in this direction. Especially with the recent launch of the V3 NFT standard, allowing you to make programmable NFTs. We can mint an NFT for each player starting the game and update its information to account for the level of each player’s character, his achievements, and equipment.
Q5: Let’s talk about skills. Can you give me more information about that?
Anthony: Of course. Currently, we have two types of skills. First are hero-specific skills which can only be used by a certain hero. Second are the common skills that can be assigned to any hero.
Before starting the game and after choosing your hero, you’ll be able to choose your skill layout; which of the skills you want to choose to go into battle with. Each hero has a unique passive skill defining his play style. In addition, you can choose several active hero-specific and several common skills. But you can’t use them each turn, skills have a certain cooldown period.
You’ll need to strategically choose your deck and have a fine-tuned balance between damage, survivability, and debuffs.
When you play, you’ll need to strategically choose which of the skills you want to use. And there are not only damage skills there also survivability skills that enhance your hero, and curse spells that debuff your opponent.
More skills will be unlocked as you play with a leveling up system. You earn experience by winning battles. And when you gain enough experience, you gain a level and unlock new heroes to play and new skills to play with your existing heroes.
Q6: Will there be a solo campaign and a PvP mode? Are the two linked?
Anthony: At the moment, we’re building a round-based game centered around a PvP experience. But we do also plan to add a solo mode, where you battle against computer opponents with various difficulties. Its first iteration will be like a warmup round before you go into real battle.
Going further, there is definitely a possibility for an in-depth and long-term solo experience in the game. We will have more info on that as development progresses.
Q7: Do you foresee a possibility for collaboration with M.A.P.C.?
Anthony: Absolutely! With Wizard Battle, there are huge possibilities for collaboration. When the game is fully launched, we plan to make regular PvP tournaments for the community. These can be special themed tournaments with thematic prizes. This is just one idea, with Wizard Battle we can make a lot of new and cool things happen!
Q8: What is the timeline for Wizard Battle development?
We’ve divided the development of Wizard Battle into several stages with a playable version of the game after each of these stages, gradually getting better and better.
The first stage is making all the core game mechanics: movement, skill casting, hero customization, map creation, etc. And when we get all that working, we’ll have the foundation to build upon. At this time, we will have a demo of the game that we can show to some exclusive members of the community to some of our partners.
On the next stage, we will focus on adding multiple new elements to the game. Think of new heroes, more skills, equipment and enhancements, NFTs, and so on. At this point, we’ll probably make several testnet phases as we get closer and closer to the full launch.
The final stage will be bug fixes, balancing updates, and overall game finalization based on the feedback we get from the community. This project is definitely the most ambitious project that our team has set upon and there are just huge possibilities that it can bring to ZkNoid and the whole Mina ecosystem!
As of the timeline, the game is currently set to launch in Q3-Q4 2025. But this is preliminary information and subject to change.
More info will come as we get closer to game and testnet launch. Follow our socials to stay updated! We’ll be posting regular updates on the state of development of Wizard Battle.
