A recap of the Q&A session with the Solana community follows:
Chris: Welcome everyone, thank you for joining us today.
I’m really excited to be joined today by the team behind Star Atlas. Star Atlas is a blockchain driven massively-multi player metaverse built on Solana.
The goal of this AMA is to provide an opportunity for the Solana community to learn more about Star Atlas; who the team are and what they are working on.
For the first part of the AMA, I will ask some questions to help us to learn more about Star Atlas.
The second part is an open floor for the community to ask questions!
Let’s start off with a basic introduction! Please introduce yourself Michael and tell us a bit about Star Atlas.
Michael: Really excited to be here everyone! Thank you so much for taking some time with the Star Atlas team!
Chris: You’re welcome, we’re thrilled to have you here!
Michael: My formal background is in the traditional financial space, working in portfolio management, investment and securities analysis, and buy-side analysis. However, I was fortunate to be introduced to bitcoin and alt coins in 2013. I have fully immersed myself in the industry since then.
My earliest days were spent Scrypt coin mining with 30+ GPUs around my house. But I was able to evolve and grow alongside the industry in countless other areas, including cloud mining, running a small fund, and ultimately launching my first company in 2016 — the Tokes Platform. We conceptualized Star Atlas over the course of 2020, emerging from deep passion and enthusiasm for gaming, and expertise in all things blockchain and crypto.
Chris: That is quite the journey. And how about yourself, Pablo @StarSapa?
Pablo: Hello Solana Community, my name is Pablo Quiroga Peruvian born Star Atlas living. Co-Founder & COO at Star Atlas
Chris : Welcome, Pablo!
Chris: I’ll hop onto our first question! What inspired the idea for Star Atlas?
Michael: Well, Star Atlas was conceptualized as a grand experiment in society, politics, governance, and economics.
We like to think of the game across several layers. On the outermost layer, we wanted to present the first, or amongst the first, AAA gaming experience in the blockchain landscape.
This first experience is designed around an enjoyable experience that would be attractive to a mainstream gaming audience. Not necessarily crypto niche. Something that would be attractive to a global audience.
Chris: I agree, mainstream adoption is so important for the whole space to move forward.
Michael: We saw immense potential in coupling that experience with financial incentives delivered via blockchain. So things like mining, staking, yield farming, defi exposure, land ownership, and true asset ownership via NFTs. And we fully embrace and empower the gamer to monetize assets with NFT marketplaces delivered directly in the game UI.
The longer tail opportunity, and where things get really interesting, is in the broader Metaverse. For those unfamiliar, a Metaverse is an alternative reality within which entire civilizations can persist.
We are essentially building the sandbox. And the first attraction for that sandbox is the game. Which I should mention, is being developed in Unreal Engine (5 when released). So this will be of the highest graphical fidelity. Full cinematic quality rendered in real time. Like living a movie.
Going into the future, however, value creation and extraction from the metaverse will be through player/creator/builder empowerment. You will directly be able to influence the outcome of the metaverse, build experiences for yourself and others, and build real value for yourself as a result.
Not only player created content, or skins, or mods within the game, but entire separate game experiences. A multi-metaverse, if you will.
Ultimately, however, we see the potential for this ‘game’ to have broad societal impact around the world. An opportunity to change the system. To empower people from all countries to create their own opportunity, form collectives, and excel through teamwork. We genuinely feel the game will have real impact on the world.
Chris: Fascinating, Michael, your project ticks so many boxes. I note NFTs in particular are hugely topical this week! Can you give us some background on the lore behind the game and details on the team?
Michael: NFTs have definitely been trending!
I want to give a lot of credit to our Chief Product Officer, Danny Floyd for this response. He has been leading the design team since inception. In fact, our team has grown from 4 core founding members in December (many of which have worked together for years), to approximately 40 people today. Much of that new talent is on the design team — concept artists, 3d modelers, animators, VFX/finish, etc.
He has also been driving the storyline and plot of the core game itself. From the general space exploration theme, to character development, and lore.
Members of our team have worked on quite a few high profile games and movies in their long careers such as:
Games — Star Citizen, Destiny 2, Dreadnought, Horizon Zero Dawn, COD black ops 3/4, Halo Remastered, Dead Island 2, Spec Ops — The Line, Earth & Beyond, The Sims Online, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings, etc
Cinema — Love, Death + Robots: The helping hand, Watchmen, Terminator: Dark Fate, Captain Marvel, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Superman Returns, Spider-Man: FFH
Beyond that, there are several layers of meta within our presentation of perspective.
Chris: Clearly a lot of experience there, fantastic!
You’ve answered part of my next question already, however let me pitch it: Can you tell us more about the Star Atlas storyline? What are the objectives of the game?
Michael: For now, I will leave you with this:
An anomaly of 8 valuable minerals colliding in space cause a cataclysmic event. the discovery of this excited the 3 major space-faring factions to converge on this location to cooperate or compete for resources. Players assume a role or many roles, a faction and optional sub-faction guild to contribute and benefit from the economy. All players can stake claims and mine them, build space stations for commerce or just explore, fight and participate in social events. Pilot a small band of crew members on a small ship or command a fleet of ships with expansive crew stations.
One of the most exciting game mechanics we will be releasing is something we’ve coined as “Play for Keys.” The nature of the Security Zones is to deliver on a high risk / high reward model of gameplay. When exploring Deep Space, results of engagements are permanent.
NFTs will be burned off chain if an engagement is lost is deep space, with the opposing player capturing, or ‘salvaging’ some of the materials from your ship. Perhaps a hull, or components, or ejected crew members, etc.
Chris: So, there are real stakes involved in playing. So cool.
Michael: Also, for clarification, there are several classes of NFTs, alongside our new crypto-native assets in game:
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Ships
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Crew
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Components
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Modules
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Land (virtual real estate)
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Equipment
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Buildings/Structures
And we operate dual token ecosystem. ATLAS is our in-game transactional currency. The ‘gold’ if you will. And POLIS is a governance token. POLIS itself is multi-faceted, with functionality both in game and outside of game.
Within the game, players collaborating through our guild system — Decentralized Autonomous Organizations — will have the ability to politically dominate regions of space, and do things like impose taxes on other players.
Outside of the game, POLIS holders will have voting rights in long term game development decision making.
Chris: Fascinating stuff. The Photoli and Ustur look incredible, is there anything else you can share about them?
Michael: The Ustur being android can swap out all their parts as technology improves over time they’ve become a very well adapted space-faring race due to them being naturally able to navigate through open space without suits. Their minds and expressions are indistinguishable from any organic being’s personality, besides the fact that their articulating anatomy is mechanical, if you speak to one you’ll be more inclined towards empathy than anything else. Their “souls” are demonstrably prismatic and identify individually as a collective noun. For example, common names are “Peeple” or “Armi”.
The Photoli can manipulate light to the point of creating full scale illusory narratives. In idle form they take corporeal shape to facilitate normal communication between races. Their halos and forms morph and shift based on their desired visual communication or demeanor. With their illusory powers, they are unable to use them towards destructive consequences lest they lose their connection with the light. However, some rogue Photoli have found ways to cause destruction for the sake of creation and not everyone agrees with these methods. “You have to crack some eggs to make an omelet.” One Photoli in particular, Ahr, took a large part in moving the human race into a revolution that set us off in the right direction to become a space-faring people. But not without some very visible cost. They have primarily solo phoneme sounding names although a dipthong is considered fancy and superficial adornment.
Chris: Could you tell us more about how the multiplayer aspect works? Do players play as individuals or teams?
Michael: Teamwork will be essential to excel within the Metaverse. And we are already seeing a number of clans build teams in preparation for launch. Gabby Dizon and Yield Guild Games, a Philippines based clan for example, are preparing resources.
As I said, Deep Space is going to be exceptionally challenging, and high stakes. You won’t want to travel there alone.
But the rewards for success in the region are exponentially higher than the safe zones.
Chris: Understood, it sounds exciting to me. And I love how much thought you’ve put into those races. Can I call them races?
Michael: Haha, yes, you can. And we have put an enormous amount of thought into all aspects of pre-production planning. I don’t want to tease too much here, but we are already exploring additional channels for media distribution, including print and TV
There are a lot of complex moving parts here, and it is essential that we remain dynamic as production evolves. But we’re looking forward to bringing deep, meaningful storylines and engaging content for people to consume as early as possible.
Chris: It sounds like a very busy project! We’ve discussed your background in blockchain and I’m curious why you chose to build on Solana in particular?
Michael: Solana was honestly an easy choice, but came down to a few critical areas for us. And I will note, we analyzed a number of third-generation layer one protocols before selecting Solana.
Austin: 😎
Michael:
- The tech — extremely high transaction throughput (50,000 tps), highly scalable, low latency (sub-second finality), and low transaction costs at $.0001/tx.
All of which are essential for delivering a game of this caliber entirely on chain.
Chris: Yes, I can see that’s essential given the incredible detail that’s gone into the game
Michael: 2. The team behind the company. These are guys of high pedigree, working with some major tech companies historically (Qualcomm, Dropbox, etc.) And they/you have all been amazing to work with.
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The affiliations — having associates with teams like FTX, Alameda Research, Serum, etc. has already paid dividends.
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The ecosystem. The Solana ecosystem is absolutely exploding with innovation. We have a number of partnerships in the pipeline directly resulting from being involved in the ecosystem, with teams like Stardust, Audius, Raydium, and others.
When we initiated conversations with the folks behind Solana last year, there were something like 30 projects building on Solana. Today, that number is well over 100.
We wanted to be the first game built on Solana!
Chris: That’s a perfect segue to my final question, and I’m sure it’s on everybody’s minds!
When do you plan to launch the game?
Michael: Indeed great question! And yes, there is a tremendous amount of interest in the game. People can’t wait, and neither can we. So we have an interesting series of events coming up to engage with the community and provide opportunities to get involved in the game.
The next major event coming up is our NFT Collectible series, which we have titled “Re-Birth”. It is a 14 week event, with one ‘Poster’ being released each week through various marketplaces. These posters are not utility playable assets, per se, though you will be able to display them in your captains quarters, on your ship, or through in-game galleries.
This is going to be high quality, rare collectible art. Animations, AR ready, with some intriguing gamification involved. You will definitely want to take part in the sale ;)
This is set to kick off mid-April.
And one final point, each of the pieces introduces some of the backstory to the game, the genesis of the Metaverse.
That will take us up to July, which is when the TGE and public sale takes place. Tokens will be distributed through several channels — keep an eye out for those announcements. Dropping a little hint though — PAID.
Immediately following the TGE, we will release an in-browser minigame.
This will expose players to numerous gameplay loops, like ship configuration, land development, and space station building, along with crafting. It also delivers an in-game NFT marketplace.
Chris: I’ll definitely be following you on Twitter to keep an eye out for these events https://twitter.com/staratlas
Michael: The gamer will be able to immediately deploy assets to generate revenue, participate in staking, mining, and yield generation through DeFi protocols.
And finally, we have a novel ‘pack’ concept, which we call Salvage Wars. Random crates recovered from space, with the opportunity to claim some of the highest quality loot in the game.
The fully immersive 3D version of the game will take some time to build. The earliest pre-alpha version built in Unreal Engine will likely be towards the end of Q1, or early Q2 2022
Chris: So many things to look forward to!
I think that wraps up the first part of the AMA, so I’ll open the group back up for questions!
Himalaydev: What are StarAtlas preparations for the mass adoption of Blockchain Technology into the Gaming World?
Michael: It’s a great question, and one of the primary reasons we selected Solana as our base protocol. They are well prepared for web-scale applications on blockchain.
Our priority, and responsibility, is first and foremost to deliver the most entertaining and engaging gaming experience possible. Something attractive to a mainstream audience. Secondarily, we need to reduce the friction and barriers to entry to the lowest point possible. It should be easy for everyone to onboard into the game and learn how to navigate crypto wallets and NFTs. And finally, we will be assisting with educating the world on the functionality and benefits of blockchain.
Stan: Can artists contribute to the rebirth nft sale?
Michael: We are creating the core assets for this sale, but there will be opportunities for creator collaborations in the future.
CryptoLover: Why does StarAtlas ecosystem have two tokens $Atlas and $Polis ? Which is the main native token of #StarAtlas ? What is the main function of these tokens and how does it role in StarAtlas ecosystem?
Michael: Each token has separate functionality. ATLAS is equivalent to the in-game gold. Necessary for transactions, purchasing consumables, repairing ships, rebuilding land, etc. It is the lubricant of the metaverse.
POLIS is our take on a governance token with utility both in-game, and externally in voting rights on development decision making. Things like, which assets will be released next, which features are desired, and even economic decisions.
alexDcrypto: Are you thinking guys to create mmorpg games?
Michael: Star Atlas is an MMO RTS/RPG :)
Sir: What’s your plans for global expansion, on building and developing or getting customer and user, or partnerships for StarAtlas projects?
Michael: We do have an extensive go-to-market strategy that includes regions from all over the world. We already have several relationships with gaming groups from Europe, Philippines, Vietnam, China, and more. This will be coupled with extensive marketing efforts, working with influencers, Twitch streamers, gamers, and other educational efforts to explain the game and blockchain mechanics.
We also have numerous partnerships in pre-announcement, and feel confident in our growth potential.
Sir: How did the team come up with the name StarAtlas? Is there a story behind it? Can you share it with us. Thanks!!
Michael: There is a fairly funny backstory to this. Or serendipitous.
I am just particularly fond of the concept and story of Atlas. I absolutely loved the novel Atlas Shrugged. We evolved that to Star Atlas, given the genre of the game. We got incredibly lucky in snagging the StarAtlas.com domain, as it has just opened up WEEKS before we starting searching for web real estate.
It was previously a star gazing app, which just happened to release the domain around the time we were searching.
Broadly, Star Atlas accurately describes a major theme in the game. You will be navigating the stars. Exploring space. And you will need a map to do that, hence, Star Atlas :)
Chris: This is indeed serendipitous!
Stan: Will artists be able to make their own 3d assets, mint them as nft, and import them into the game?
Michael: Yes, amongst many other opportunities. One of the earliest opportunities for artists will be through land ownership. Imagine hosting your own digital art gallery in the Metaverse, and selling that art to other players in-game.
Stan: When very valuable assets are lost during game play, can this be written as a loss in our taxes?
Michael: Will need to consult with your CPA on that one ;)
CryptoLover: How StarAtlas different from other Nft based projects, or what is the key points that’s make StarAtlas different from other gaming and Nft projects?
Michael: Our major differentiation is in the caliber of game. AAA quality, developed in Unreal Engine 5 (when available)
Extending beyond the quality, the perpetual potential of the metaverse concept itself. This is a game that could potentially live on forever.
Ultimately it will be more about players and creators shaping the Metaverse, and less about what we as developers are building for the player. Very long tail, 10–15 years down the road, though those opportunities will exist within a couple of years.
Major themes of the game include NFTs, DeFi, gaming, cryptocurrencies, Metaverse, and some light elements of ‘gambling’ if you will, via Play for Keys
Chris: It reminds me of the movie ‘Ready Player One’ in many ways.
Michael: We hear that a lot. And honestly, it’s not far off. However, our hope is that it is not a direct result of a dystopian future.
Chris: Indeed! I think that wraps up our AMA for real this time!
Thank you again to Star Atlas for joining us and to all of our community members who have participated in asking questions.
Michael: Sincerely appreciate all of the great questions! We are incredibly excited about bringing you all the next generation of gaming, on chain.
Chris: Thank you very much for joining us!
Please join the Star Atlas Telegram community at https://t.me/staratlasgame and follow the team’s latest updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/staratlas.
