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This week’s guest has already been featured on the Cardano NFT Column and it is a project building a trading card game (TCG) reminiscent of famous TCGs like “Magic: The Gathering” and “Yu-Gi-Oh!”: Wolves of Rome.
Last week’s guest was a project that is using blockchain to allow customers to verify the provenance of the clothing that they wear.
This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.
Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.
Cardano NFT project: Wolves of Rome
Hey, welcome back! When we interviewed you back in May you were preparing for your first NFT launch. How did it go?
Thank-you! It’s always a pleasure to be able to talk to you about what we are doing! The Empire Wolves mint blew our minds. Leading up to it we were of course stressed, the market is bear, and we are the average run of the mill pfp project so it was daunting. We braced for the worst despite having loaded up crazy utility and focused on quality art, but leading up to it things really lit up.
We had sold out within 29 hours of the public sale going live and the community was incredible. It’s also helped us gain a lot of visibility which has helped a lot of new NFT gaming focused people discover WoR which has been amazing. The best part is it has almost doubled the size of our alpha testers!
There are many buzzwords circulating around the web like P2E (Play to Earn) and P&E (Play and Earn). Can you share your thoughts about this and how Wolves of Rome is approaching the synergy between NFTs and gaming?
As much as we are super active as an NFT project it’s important that people know that we are a game first. We just also happen to know and understand how the blockchain and Cardano can be a powerful tool to elevate transparency, ownership and fairness in gaming. We would definitely resonate with the concept of ‘Play AND Earn’ rather than ‘Play TO Earn’ as the purpose of gaming should be fun, immersive, social entertainment first, and everything else comes after.
We are a firm believer that the route to mass adoption means attacking barriers to entry. We see WoR as a vehicle for mass adoption and want it to be welcoming and fun to people who have little to no knowledge of the blockchain as well as people who live in this ecosystem. To do that we have opted to make a fully free to play game that does not require a wallet or an NFT to get into, with a ‘choose to mint’ system for players who wish to delve further into the value that the blockchain brings.
Furthermore we opted to not do the usual method of NFT drops before showing a game, and instead spent months and our own funds to develop a working prototype for the community – something we hope to see more projects do in future!
Can you share some details about the gameplay of Wolves of Rome? How does it differ from other TCGs like Blizzard’s Hearthstone or Gods Unchained by ImmutableX?
Many games’ nuances and differences are only apparent when you dig into the details. From afar many TCGs feel the same. Our game is steeped in a very unique universe and story is an incredibly strong driver to gameplay which makes us fairly unique. We also have a lot of similarities to games like Legends of Runeterra, Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone but as lifelong fans of these games we also had some pain points (like power creep in MTG) So there are changes that affect length and speed of games, preserving the integrity of older edition and game loop variations.
Gods Unchained is of course a huge case study for us as its a big blockchain TCG title – some very large differences between us and them which are instantly apparent is that we are building for mobile along with desktop, and we don’t utilise a minted in game token – we have an in game currency but its not a blockchain currency as we have opted to make the focal ownership and reward element of the game centre only around the cards – like it would in a physical TCG.
Here’s our gameplay trailer if you’re curious to see more.
You’re getting ready for your next NFT drop featuring Liches. Tell us more. What will be the utility of these NFTs?
Liches are the next Empire to be introduced to the WOR Empires NFTs. These aren’t cards – they are so much better – The Empires NFTs (which Liches are part of) act as an access & utility NFT to loads of redeemable items on game launch.
The NFT itself contains:
- A high definition, animated, unique 3D statue bust equipped with armor, clothing weapons or additional items as its traits. This will be available as a high resolution Mp4 & Gif.
- 3 static renders of the artwork.
- The lore book for the empire the bust belongs to (Wolves, Liches, Vampires, Yucatek, Barbarian, Qin) This will be a beautifully designed PDF booklet.
- An STL 3D printer compatible mini of the core bust from the empire your NFT belongs to so you can have it printed and own it in real life too.
- An MP3 of thematic music composed specifically for the Empire to which your bust belongs.
It then also whitelists you to the next season (Vampires) and allows the holders to redeem founders cards, ongoing cardpacks and glorium – almost like staking rewards upon the launch of a game and so much more than I can squeeze in here. If you’d like to read more about all the fruits of holding one of these you can watch our season 1 Whitepaper video summary.
Awesome. Any closing words? Where can people learn more about Wolves of Rome?
Our website is a great starting point as it links out to all our whitepapers and formal announcements, but best is to hop into our Discord and ask us any questions you may have or just dive straight into alpha testing!
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.