Souls and Warriors walk-cycles were released along with the Halloween event! Dotta shouted out Cosmo for doing a lion’s share of the artwork. Elf mentioned that some of the Warriors walk-cycles (which were a surprise drop) may need some fine-tuning before being released on their own. Souls walk-cycles have already been made available via API, and will be packaged up for easier download soon.Bisonic shared this animation preview as part of its Happy Halloween message on Twitter. (October 2022)Dotta shouted out Magic Machine for the Halloween event. It was challenging to integrate with all the partner collections. Art by Elf and Cosmo, marketing by Bearsnake, Nalgene and LachnessMonsta, and development by Niski (wrote 95% of the solidity contracts). The event included 13 contracts that required 52 transactions, and it worked on the first try. TheOneWhoRings and Kneeshaw helped with the frontend, and Jitcy helped with whatever was needed.
Runiverse land sale updates? No, but there will be plenty of advance notice. It may not even necessarily happen before the game launches - TBD. It’s important to the long-term economy of the game that the land sale go well, so Bisonic and MM are monitoring the market.
Runiverse beta play: Runiverse community manager and long-time Cult member Madotsuki came up and confirmed that Bisonic would like to release the next beta experience by the end of the calendar year. Keep an eye on the game's Twitter and Discord for more news.
3D model update? Elf: 3D models are well into production. Magus Wazir may be releasing some early tests with the models soon. Bearsnake reminded us that the initial 3D model creation process, which used an outside agency, just didn’t meet Magic Machine’s standard of quality. MM decided to re-do them, which takes more time/money, but they wants to do it right because they have a lot of plans for 3D, so the quality is crucial.
Costumes worn by MM? They all said that they didn’t wear any - too busy with the Halloween event. Bearsnake mentioned that he went to the Deadfellaz event with some other local Cult members, including Jitcy and Tania del Rio, who both wore cool costumes.
Favorite superpower? Elf: Immortality. Dotta: God-like charisma. Bearsnake: Super-speed, enough to break through dimensions and steal pizzas. And I’d look really good even with all the pizza-eating. (Bearsnake mentioned an urge to eat pizza several times during the hour.)
Wiki-lore updates on the map locations? Elf: This is where I want to shift my focus next - adding lore into the Wiki and elsewhere, such as the comics and the TV scripts.
The treasure chest animation for the Halloween Trick or Treat at the Nightmare Imp's House event. (October 2022)
Halloween Event - After-Action Report
Elf began with some observations on the event. He was happy that “Bread Friend” is getting the attention that he deserves. One inspiration was “The Ginger Bread Man” (GBM) nursery rhyme. The GBM provokes everyone and eventually gets eaten by a fox. The bread friend is intended as a cousin of the GBM. This is also a reference to the bread-based NFT collection Elf and Dotta thought about creating before they decided on Forgotten Runes.
Elf also enjoyed the popularity of the dolls, as well as “group photos” of holders' collections of Wizards & Warriors. Some other fun screenshots & videos of the Halloween experience were also circulating. Dotta wondered if anyone found the hidden Dotta wizard...
On the Treats: Elf loves the creative speculation and lore that’s already been circulating about the items. The barrier to entry is relatively low, making them easy to buy/sell/trade. Regarding mechanical utility, Elf doesn’t want to say anything specific for now. Anything said now, are just ideas that Magic Machine has, and there are no promises made. Some of the items are more or less self-explanatory: eggs, books, and alchemy ingredients, for example. The fishing pole too, it pretty obvious. Food items could be fed to Ponies or Beasts. These ideas could all totally happen in the future, but no specifics/promises. Dotta also warned that there aren’t concrete details and timelines in place yet. We have characters, written lore, commissioned art, and now items to help flesh out the universe. MM wants to start expanding the world and interactivity with people’s characters.
Example of how ShapeShifter tokens change the visuals of a Forgotten Runes character (the green flames added to the original character visual). (October 2022)
Elf on the vases: There could be something inside the vase. The vases also have names associated with Runiverse locations - there could be some location-based utility behind that. How to redeem the scrolls for free Wizards/Warriors/Ponies? Dotta: Scroll holders - DM me to set up an OTC swap. I was planning to throw all the prize items in Sudoswap to redeem randomly, but it doesn’t support ERC-1155s yet.
Elf: goblintownbought a jar with a goblin brain, and "maderemarks" about the Runiverse’s goblin town location. And that’s serendipitous, because the goblintown theme might just be related to something (p2e game) that MM will be releasing soon. Elf: We’re meeting with the goblintown team tomorrow. Bearsnake: The partnership with 10KTF happened organically, and the goblintown partnership that may develop is similar. There is nothing set in stone yet, however, stay tuned.
Dotta added that the p2e game will have a green paper soon. It’s an MMO, real-time, crypto version of Settlers of Catan (SoC). In SoC, you collect and trade resources to build roads, towns, and cities, and gain points. In the crypto version, there are no “turns”; it will be a real-time resource collection and trading game. Dotta will release all the specific details about the mechanics at a later time.
Regarding the Tricks...
Do the Tricks have utility? Dotta: Yes! This is our follow-up to our discussion about dynamic NFTs. Although originally the collection was established at a time when the immutability of the on-chain images was important, MM has since seen the benefits of being able to change or evolve the characters over time (with the holder's consent).
The Tricks are part of a ShapeShift collection - the idea is to be able to apply conditions, props, equipment, etc. by using tokens, going on the Forgotten Runes website, and applying selected Treats to your Wizard or Warrior to change their appearance in some way. This wouldn’t change the on-chain traits/rarities of the token, but you CAN change their cosmetic appearance, which could even be verified/displayed on platforms like Twitter and the Book of Lore as well.
Time and nature conquer all, as shown by this preview of a Runiverse jungle scene, released by Bisonic. (October 2022)
The ShapeShift tokens cannot be sold separately - they are intended to stay with the underlying base character token (if the base token gets transferred to another wallet, you can transfer the ShapeShift token to that wallet also). MM plans to continue working with and releasing ShapeShift tokens going forward. Dotta said that the possibilities for this are greater than you might imagine. You could change pixels around of course, but you might even be able to generate an anime-style or 3D version of your character and have it serve as your token’s visual representation. The sky's the limit, but there is some time needed to build out the UI. Elf: We’re about to enter a new phase of Forgotten Runes once these capabilities are released.
Elf Lore Drop - Deep-dive on the Green Hat Wizards
The Greens are centered around a city in the equatorial jungles of the Runiverse map. Their society strives to blend in with nature, and live in harmony with it. The architectural designs of their structures are solarpunk-like, harnessing the sun for energy. Their magic comes from deep within the earth. They pity the Red Hats, viewing their financial power as short-sighted. And the Blue Hats’ focus on technology is misguided. The unstoppable forces of nature will always prevail, it predates civilization and will persist even after the singularity itself.
Just like the other hat colors, there are good and evil applications of this Wizard type. But it gets interesting here, because in the natural world, the concepts of good and evil don’t really exist. But nature can be harsh and brutal from the perspective of human concerns. Elf mentioned the Jungle Book as a good example of this. Mowgli confronts the “law of the jungle” epitomized by Shere Khan, who is just doing what a tiger does. Mowgli learns that since he’s a human, he is not within the jurisdiction of this Law, and he wields fire, which can destroy the jungle and the animals in it. Similarly, when Green Hats try to integrate with nature, unexpected things can happen. Take Jurassic Park, where nature-loving humans resurrect an ancient form of nature. The dinos get loose, but they aren’t evil. They are being normal dinos, who were let loose by humans. So the evil examples of this type are very fascinating. On the good side, there are the Ents, Radagast the Brown, and the Elves from Lord of the Rings. The Ewoks from Star Wars. The Navi from Avatar. San from Princess Mononoke.
Elf himself might identify with the Greens most, out of all the colors, if he had to choose one. Next week - the Yellow Hats!
BARONVONFANCY created a ceramic version of Elf’s wizard and sent it to him. (link mentions samikitty, who also does FRWC ceramics, but it got corrected in the WW).
