Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-01-12
Elf kicked off the Wizard Wednesday by thanking all the Cult members who stuck with the project and participated during the launch year (2021). After six months, all the activity and conviction is starting to pay off - Forgotten Runes appeared in Business Insider, as part of the first fully regulated NFT investment fund.
Q&A Session
- Is the map that Elf made for all 7 Realms, or just one? Elf: The map I made, is a very small portion of the overall Runiverse world, maybe 25% of what will eventually be released. Dotta: We will reveal more of the map as more of the story is released.
- Can you share more about Magic Machine and the team? Dotta: MM is myself, Elf, and Bearsnake, and we are equal partners. We also have people collaborating with us, such as the lawyers. No employees yet, but we think that will change this year. Elf and I used to collaborate on a mobile game, and Elf and Bearsnake have previously worked together as well. Elf: All of us are very experienced in our respective fields. I've been in entertainment development for 10 years, and my partners have been involved in their industries for at least that long. Contrast that to a lot of the inexperienced teams you often see in the NFT space.
- Any more details about the land sale and the Runiverse game? Dotta: Details TBD, but we will take care of Wizard-holders. Lore-writers will be favored, but not those with "airdrop lore". Overall, participating members don't need to worry about getting whitelisted. Originally we were trying to target Feb. 22nd for the sale, but we no longer think that will happen, because we want land-owners to be able to "walk around" in their plots. And that won't be ready until maybe March.
- Regarding the game. Dotta: The idea is to have three types of tokens. Land ownership will be represented by NFTs. Same goes for unique items, weapons, armor, etc. And resources will be ERC-20 tokens. This provides for a lot of gameplay options in terms of the in-game economy. The ERC-20 tokens will not be designed as governance or investment tokens - the model will have uncapped supply, with capital controls. So if there is too much of a certain resource in the economy, the team will be able to reduce the generation of that resource. And resources cannot be bought with real-life money - you need to play the game or create something in-game to get the resources.
- Will Warriors have familiars too? Elf: We are still deciding this. I'm leaning towards yes, but they won't be called familiars. More so, an animal companion. Dotta: My intuition is that Warriors won't drop until after the land sale. But of course, we'll let you know if this changes.
- How did the Great Burning event come to fruition? Dotta: We had noticed that many collections had such an emphasis on floors. We had a story to tell, but we also wanted to have a mechanism to "burn" the commonest Wizards, and make them more interesting. This was planned even before the initial mint. Dotta revealed that his dad came up with the idea of the "undesirable" results of the burn. Elf: The element of risk really spiced up the event.
- Will Ponies be in the Runiverse? Answer: Not in the alpha release, but yes the idea is to eventually get them in the game as mounts that allow you to travel faster in the game.
- Will there ever be a retrieval/resurrection of burned Wizards? I am sad that
The Goblin King (1986) (eg. David Bowie) got burned. Elf: Not sure there will ever be anything, but never say never. - Acrylic announced as archivist for MM. Eventually, one goal is to create a physical anthology book for the Book of Lore. Nalgene announced as someone helping to coordinate artists for commissions.
Elf Talks Pixel Art Aesthetics
Elf wanted to discuss why he chose the pixel art style for the Forgotten Runes collections. He gave a brief history of painting - at the beginning, painting was evaluated based on how closely it matched reality. Then in the 19th century, the camera came on the scene, which was able to create realistic images with the click of a button. The art world was rocked, and they went into an existential crisis, because portraying reality could be done better by the camera. But then, painters started using the paint in different ways, developing impressionism, cubism, surrealism, etc. Painting became more about respecting the medium of paint itself. It's not about hiding the paint, it's about celebrating the textures, colors, and brush strokes of the paint. Eventually you take it all the way to abstract expressionism.
When it comes to pixel art, Elf had a large exploratory phase to figure out with style of pixel art to use. He felt that the style used in FRWC had a certain "truth" to it. It is as low-res as possible, while still communicating the impression of the character. Every single pixel is crucial to the design (especially the small familiars). And the poses are somewhat stiff by design - he didn't want to give them to much personality in the image, because he wants the owners to give that to them. He views this as a "creative primitive".
Dotta added that many people see the Wizards are "retro" or "nostalgic". But Dotta doesn't think it's defined as "retro" - pixel art is still relevant today, and will always be used. Elf agreed, as long as we have a digital world, it will be relevant.
Sick Burn of Week
ZayLaSoul had a "special burn" when he ignored his car's "check engine" light for a while. He eventually went to a gas station to buy oil, but when he came out, it was burning next to the gas pump! Luckily, the fire got put out before the situation could escalate.
When asked, ZayLaSoul said is mainly observing 
Hedge Wizard Ixar of the Villa (5775)'s special event. There is a Discord server that needs a certain number of people to join before the mystery can proceed.
Lore Reading
We had a very special lore reading this week - Dotta's son Gee came up to read his lore about 
Runecaster Gee of the Citadel (74).
Cult Content Shoutouts
- Hunters gotta Hunt - by Terp and DieCrypto
- Henboyd's Druid Merlon of Dreams and Bun-Bun commissions.
- Kumo53 - Animation showing the wonders of Reflections in the Runiverse
- Adept Jackdaw - Crypts and Caverns map interpretation
- Joe Flaherty - Battlemage Robert of the Mount commission
- PSA from Dr. Wagmi - made by TheOneWhoRings. Elf mentioned giving them a production budget and letting them run with it.