Listen along
Lucas (Moderator): Welcome to this Town Hall. It's been a while. This is my first time moderating. My name is Lucas, also known as Abab on Discord. You might have seen me on other live streams, but not on a Town Hall like today. Joining me to answer all your questions is Diego, also known as Zeelex, the CEO of Skillcap and The Beacon.
We gathered all your questions from the past two days that you posted on the AMA questions channel. I'm going to go over the topics we'll cover today: first, team and development; then tokenomics and ecosystem; game content and features; localization and accessibility; launch plans and roadmap; community and player-based growth; and finally, Web 2.0 versus Web 3.0 partnership topics.
This might take a while. If we have time at the end, we might take some questions live, but don't worry if we don't - we'll read all of them and answer them offline. Before we start, we'll transcript this town hall in every language where we have big communities on the server. Today's session is in English so everyone can understand, but it will all get translated later. Are you ready to jump into the first topic, Diego?
Diego: Perfect. First of all, thank you all for coming. I know it's been a while since we've had an AMA or town hall in our Discord. We will have more in the future as well. We want to stay more connected with you. It's been a couple of crazy months, but I'm happy to be here and answer your questions. Let's kick it off.
Lucas: How has the team expansion over the past year been reflected in the current game?
Diego: There are a few things to mention here. First, what we released a few weeks ago is a new game client that's very different from the web version you were seeing before. This is essentially a brand new product with new code that includes many more complex systems than the previous version. It has Tinker within it, a networking layer, and many other features that allow us to create a much better game. It's also a requirement for us to have a product that can scale toward the masses.
It's hard to grasp with the current content you've seen how much progress has been made in the systems. We invested tons of time creating these systems, but now that they're in place, we can roll out plenty more content. Having your own client is tricky - it has more hurdles than a web version. You need to manage performance, compatibility on different devices, networking, and all those things.
We have developers dedicated to different parts of the client. Now that the systems are in place, we're finally able to create content much faster. What you've seen so far doesn't fully reflect the actual effort invested. You'll see the fruits of these systems soon as we roll out more content with more engaging and interesting mechanics.
We've also rolled out a whole new web app. We essentially migrated everything from the previous web app to this new one, which is also a complex product because it needs to interact with the Web3 assets and the game seamlessly. There's a whole team dedicated to that product itself.
But it's not only that. We've expanded the team in different dimensions. We now have our own set of musicians as part of the core team who work on all music aspects of the game, from background music to dynamic dungeon music. Just a small hint - every time you listen to the music in the dungeon, it's slightly different; pay attention. They also handle all the SFX, meaning the noises from enemies, explosions, all those elements.
We've also added personnel for QA and operations. We're now a proper company able to tackle the requirements of the game on all fronts simultaneously. Most of these things weren't feasible right away because significant investment in systems was needed, but the heavy lifting has been done. The client is there, we're reaching stability now, and we'll be able to roll out more content soon.
Lucas: Will the team consider bringing on a gaming advisor with extensive experience in crafting high-quality games to help streamline development and minimize trial and error?
Diego: It's something we can consider. The good part is that we have very strong partners on the side of Arbitrum and Treasure, and perhaps even future partners that are offering help in this regard. We're still evaluating this. I think it will be more crucial closer to the actual game launch than right now, but it's still on the table. The good part is that we have access to those resources if we want them.
Lucas: What are the team's thoughts on pivoting towards more idle-style content based on Phase 2 feedback?
Diego: It's something we are considering, although we're still working out the details. One thing we envision, because we know there's a need for this, especially on the mobile version, is pets participating in such mechanics. We know there's a ton of value to it, but it's further ahead in the pipeline as there are more crucial features to tackle right now. But it's something we're really considering - it's a real possibility.
Lucas: Could The Beacon draw inspiration from projects like OCH or Gigaverse or incorporate DeFi mechanics to attract a wider Web3 audience?