On 7/23/2022 at 5:00 p.m. (PST), an AMA session was held on Avalaunch Telegram with some of Dragon Crypto Gaming’s core team — DGC’s Project Lead, Sam, Project Manager, Paul, and Senior Developer & UX, Neo, for our second AMA to cover the technical underpinnings of the project. The focus of this AMA will be the underlying tech, development and roadmap.
Below we present to you an excerpt from AMA with questions and answers.
Dave| Avalaunch
Welcome to our epic sequel AMA with Dragon Crypto. Today we are joined by an elite duo in @samthewise78, founder extraordinaire and @neothon, a Senior Developer. I can say that in my months of knowing and working with you all, Dragon has been a longstanding work in progress and it’s been great to see you all continue to evolve. You are Avalanche native OG’s and very welcome guests, so let us get right into it.
It is a pleasure to have you with us today. Can you please tell us who you are and how you ended up as a team member on this highly ambitious project?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Hello all and thank you for the warm welcome!
I’m the Lead for Dragon Crypto Gaming.
I have been a passionate RPG gamer most of my life. I started programing at a really young age and started building computer games as a hobby.
I had the idea for a blockchain game early on, when there was hardly any games that had true gameplay that I enjoyed.
So I founded Dragon Crypto Gaming, I combined my passion for RPG games and crypto into one platform with the help of the team.
We’ve been chatting and working together for a long time and I extremely happy to have a well rounded team of professionals, with decades of experience in software development, project management and marketing.
We are all passionate gamers and hard workers with the drive to see this game through
Do you want to introduce yourself @neothon ? 😊
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Hey everyone! So glad to be here 🙂
Hi, my name is Neothon and I am one of founding members and of the team. I handle various stuff from coding full stack, to contracts, to UX wherever needed.
I have been prodiving product solutions since the last 18 years and currently ran an e-commerce venture before coming into crypto.
As Sam mentioned, we have been chatting and working together for a long time and our thought process aligned perfectly. when Sam came up with the idea of the game, we all jumped on it instantly. Being gamers, this was the perfect opportunity to create a really outstanding game on the blockchain 🙂
Dave| Avalaunch
Good to have you both and a long time coming some might say. There is a core team of seven that got this whole adventure started — how did you all meet, and come together to work on Dragon Crypto Games?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
We all were degens exploring DeFi early last year and connected with each other through this.
Being nerds and gamers, we had similar interests and thought processes which helped build a very strong understanding among ourselves.
This is when I pitched my vision of a RPG game on the blockchain.
It clicked with all of the team instantly and they were more than happy to join in and work on it. Blockchain games were mostly just decked up UI for defi and we all agreed that an actual fun game was still missing.
We decided we will change that with our focus on an actual on chain game that is fun to play foremost. That’s how the road to Dragon Haven began last June/July.
Dave| Avalaunch
Good stuff Sam. I think we met you not long after. Was a different time to be sure. As a digital universe for gaming, Dragon Crypto Games has taken a different approach in the sense of having already developed two different games: The Legend of Aurum Draconis and Tiny Dragons, what were some of the challenges in completing this first milestone?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Of course the tiny dragons were the first nft gaming experience offered by dragon crypto gaming these are a set of 1000 dragon nfts, they’re very cute and were offered as a way to play our first game tiny dragons arena, where you could battle these dragons to earn token rewards.
Dragons Cryptos main aim from the start was to build a strong engaged community. Alot of Defi projects were rugging and we wanted to show our good intent and promise to deliver a quality game.
At the start the team funded the project and minted all DCAU to the community besides some put to the side for game rewards to help show that we were here because we are passionate about our project and not just trying to make a quick dollar.
Dave| Avalaunch
I think your history in Avalanche and the community building of actual players will serve you all well. This is appreciated as most teams tend to launch tokens a little prematurely and try to ride sentiment.
What are the game mechanics that make the platform unique? As a side question, how does the play to earn mechanic work and how does it link to the Hero NFT marketplace?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
To play The Legend of Aurum Draconis, players must hold a Dragon Crypto Hero NFT, which will be their in-game character.
In line with Dragon Crypto Gaming’s ethos of making games that are widely accessible, these NFTs are pegged at $100 on initial mint, making them much more affordable than other GameFi projects.
All in game actions will also be pegged to the $USD, with the majority being injected back into game reward and a significant amount being burnt. Creating more of a self-sustaining economy, rather than just printing tokens.
This burning mechanism and the transactions being pegged to the $USD mean that if the price of our tokens go down a higher percentage will be burnt which will have a positive effect on the price of the token.
This all links in with royalties in our in-game marketplace too.
We use a dual token economy; $DCAR is the currency required to purchase crafting materials and actions, land plots, and can be staked to earn a share of platform revenues.
$DCAU is required to purchase Dragon Crypto Hero NFTs as well as to perform certain essential in-game actions such as healing and resting to recover your turns.
We’re not stopping there; $DCAR will, in the near future, become the native gas token for the Dragon Crypto Gaming Avalanche subnet and both $DCAU and $DCAR will play a key role in future game offerings.
Dave| Avalaunch
Boom. Kudos to keeping that entry cost fixed at $100 and for DCAR being the real economic driver. I see DCAU as an entry point which you did to establish a community presence and reasonable entree into the game. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for that comprehensive answer…moving on…As I understand, Dragon Crypto Aurum, the second build out phase of this project, unlike the first game released in phase one will have a DAO structure. How decentralized will this structure be? What level of decentralization do you aim to achieve?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
We thought a lot about this and this won’t be a DAO in the actual sense. The community will play a big role in the growth and future of the project, be an essential part of the entire journey. They will get to vote on new features and various aspects of the entire game. But at the end of the day, mission critical features will still be decided by the team.
Dave| Avalaunch
Organized governance with subject matter experts weighing in more heavily. I like that approach as DAOs tend towards chaos and not enough individual effort. How much of the current phase, phase 3 or the Argenti phase has been developed so far?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Phase 3 has been going as per plan, we try to keep flexible as well and change as we get more feedback and players onboard to create the best experience possible.
Our main game, The Legend of Aurum Draconis has been improving daily and I’m very happy with our progress, especially looking at how far we’ve come.
It’s currently in BETA and playable, right now for all of our Hero NFT holders. We’ve already got initial versions of crafting and gathering which $DCAR(argenti) is a major part of.
We are in the process of launching the mainnet version in August.
I can’t wait for it to release on the mainnet for everyone to experience the magical land of Dragon Haven.
Dave| Avalaunch
Uhhh a magical land of Dragons? Count me in. 😁
What are the plans for expanding this current production into a fully interoperable metaverse? Are there any plans to expand the current economy to other EVM chains beyond AVAX?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
We have a huge road map but right now we are completely focused on getting the game ready for mainnet. Interoperability has always been a core pillar of our game. The blockchain standards ensure that this is possible and this is why we believe that blockchain is going to change the $220B gaming industry landscape completely.
Having blockchain technologies in the core of our game allows us to collaborate with various other NFTs and have them as utilities within our game.
How awesome it is that we can invite our partner projects into Dragon Haven and go on adventures together with their NFTs? 😄
Once our current game goal is achieved, we can then focus on subnets and cross chain operability 🙂
Dave| Avalaunch
Nice. I think I know the answer to the following question but a plug for our base chain doesn’t hurt — What attracted the team to develop the Dragon Crypto Games on the Avalanche chain?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Stable, secure, never had a dropped tx and tons of room to grow, the tech has proven this to me as a daily user of it. It’s expandable, subnets and updates are also a welcome addition for any GameFi project, adding even further utility to our native tokens.
Besides the technical aspects of the Avalanche network, the community has been very welcoming, amazing projects have been there offering support and advice from the beginning and it has shown us that we are stronger together rather than all competing.
Dave| Avalaunch
Amen. The instant finality thing still shocks and amazes me. People will get it in due course. Glad to be here with you all — How long do you expect the main building phase to last such that Dragon Crypto Games is hitting the current team’s vision?
Neothon | DCG 🐲 (Will never DM you), [23/07/2022 20:27]
haha yeah, the instant finality bit about Avalanche is why I love it!
At present we are at the peak building stage. The team is churning our road map features and improving the game on a daily basis. I just came to this AMA after pushing another update to the repo haha
Once we achieve a stage where we have a stable version of the game with all the things planned, we can then focus on the next step of the roadmap. But be rest assured that the building phase isn’t going to end. The game is an ever evolving product and our goal is to keep iterating and improving it, making it as enjoyable as possible and one of the landmark games on any blockchain 🙂
Dave| Avalaunch
Assuming you are done 😜Final question which isn’t really a question but we are moving to the Twitter portion of our program next so let us leave no turn unstoned (see what I did there?)…Are there any last thoughts you’d like to share with our community?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Haha, yes lets leave no turn unstoned!
We have been tirelessly working on the game for the past so many months and cannot wait for everyone to try it out on the mainnet. It’s so exciting to see our players come in and enjoy the game.
Being gamers we know that a game should be super fun to play and that is what we set out to do.
An immersive RPG game with blockchain tech at it’s core allows our players to own their life in the ecosystem.
We have amazing things planned next like land ownership where players can set up their own marketplaces or crafting shops.
We’ve talked to a lot of veterans and professionals in the space on our tokenomics and game economy, there’s a lot we’ve done differently which we have done to solve major problems in the GameFi space and we’re not stopping.
This is just the beginning!
Dave| Avalaunch
We have indeed just begun but here’s a sobering thought — You have successfully. navigated the first leg of this incredible journey with relative ease and your dignity is still intact. Now it is time for questions from the twitterati who take residence in the twitterverse.
Twitter Questions
First up comes from @GarretMei who wants to know — what are the initial requirements to play in project? Is it possible for players to earn from Free-to-Play?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Thanks for the question Garret.
The only requirement is that you need to own a hero NFT to actually play the game. Like you need a character to actually go on an adventure 🙂
The hero nft is your gateway into the world of Dragon Haven and explore the legend of Aurum Draconis.
We ensure our entry fees for the hero nft is always fixed at $100. We don’t have any free to play features at present but never say never.
Dave| Avalaunch
And now @nevano143 — Will you have any other DeFi features like staking, yield farm or NFT in the future?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
adding to the previous one, we will indeed have some interesting programs though, like scholarships and guilds 🙂
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Great question, we believe there should also be passive ways of earning and a sync for earned tokens.
In saying that, what is a town of Dragon Haven without a bank?
Yes, we will have Grom’s Bank within our ecosystem which will be a vital part of our economy and have DeFi features, like profit sharing, staking and bonding NFTs to help build our own platform owned liquidity.
Dave| Avalaunch
Nice. Here’s a softball but a good question for new peeps — @C_GMCKZ — Can we hold your NFTs in the MetaMask Wallet?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Yes, NFTs are inherently by nature owned by you and stay in your wallet. That is the whole reason we are so excited by blockchain gaming. It allows you to own your in-game assets, from characters to equipments and even consumables.
All the assets are NFTs and will be minted to your wallet 🙂 Everything is freely tradeable on our own in-game marketplace or any marketplace that supports NFTs.
Dave| Avalaunch
Although it’s been covered @AlphaMediad likes to be redundant and wants to know if — Can you tell me about your team’s history? Which areas are your team focusing on at the moment?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
We have a very diverse core team from all over the globe.
From seasoned developers, to experienced marketers and business development gurus.
I keep telling everyone that with all the projects I have ever done, this is the best team I have ever worked with; I am the Head of Technology for a SAAS company so I’ve had a lot of experience in development both professionally and as my hobby, which makes me appreciate the team even more.
Everyone is equally pumped and give more than their 100% for everything we do.
At present we are completely focused on building the stable mainnet version of our game, along with our marketing campaigns and creating strategic relationships across the entire ecosystem.
Dave| Avalaunch
Personally I both admire and am supicious of anyone that describes development as a “hobby.” 😀
I’d also like to highlight your developmental progress from a security standpoint. Just an editorial but it’s super important and often overlooked.
You all are very security-centric and Paladin is some of the best in a business where there are some serious shortcomings. That much I know — how was your final audit with them?
Warning: final question until the community goes ham with questions.
@tulong890 — Do you have any tutorials or some YouTube videos to make it easier for newcomers to understand this game?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Oh yes, our Audit report just came in. I will let @samthewise78 talk about the audit 🙂
Sam|Dragon Crypto
No problem, we’ve always been very concious about security and it has been a number 1 for us, especially after seeing things happen in Defi and being part of them when things get exploited.
So we’ve teamed up with Paladin and have just released our audit for the token which is part of the IDO, all contracts will be audited by them, with the game contracts in progress right now.
Dave| Avalaunch
Warning: final question until the community goes ham with questions.
@tulong890 — Do you have any tutorials or some YouTube videos to make it easier for newcomers to understand this game?
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Thanks Sam! 🙂
Coming back to this question, we have our own YouTube channel led by our team mate Nick! We do live streams almost every week and record every small detail about the progress of our game. There is always a learning curve involved in any new game, especially RPG games. A lot of intricacies are usually present in a RPG game, like stats, crafting, blueprint, forging etc are there and hence a slight learning curve will always be there. But our mission has always been to have the best onboarding experience for new players. We have a very detailed onboarding wizard in game, hand holding new players in our ecosystem and of course very detailed youtube videos.
Most importantly we have such an amazing community! So many of our community members record their own game experience videos and do game streams. It’s just amazing. We wouldn’t be here today without our community! We love you all very much, thank you 🙂 ❤️
Oh and here is our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DragonCryptoGaming
Go like, subscribe and don’t forget to press the bell icon haha 😉
Dave| Avalaunch
Looks like we did it. Well done guys and now you must face your own dragon in our community. @shahi297 you ready to take the training wheels off?
Telegram Questions
1 — @AlyseHudgens42 Are you afraid some day there will be another project with more innovative technology can replace your project ?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Good question, that’s why we retain a very flexible base product, always keep researching the space, talk to professionals and consult with our community and why we won’t just stop with the base features. We’ll keep building and keep innovating, keeping our project relevant in to the future.
2 — @Darren_vega Do you have any Bug Bounty to check for weakness? In what way do you plan to make Your project more complete??
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Yes, we have a bug bounty program which we are running right now on our discord, players have already been rewarded with tokens for making reports.
3 — @Dennisjeffers89 Is there any multiplayer mode to play with my friends? And can I chat with them in game?❗️🔥
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Very good question! We definitely have PVP mode on the roadmap. Our goal has always been to build a fun game. A game which isn’t social is always extra fun. We have planned a lot of collaborative stuff in game. PVP is one of them. 🙂
Chat is one of the most used in game features as per our analytics tool. 😄
4 — @isadora_moon What is your strategy to attract new users and investors to your project and keep them long term because Marketing is a central element for every project, so that everyone know the potential that a project can bring is vital to achieve the goals set?
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Yes absolutely, we’ll be rolling out a community focused group where users get a special status for working and helping promote us, an elite club of our hardest working community members. They’ll get rewarded with their own unique Hero that represents them as well as other benefits.
This alongside traditional marketing and a scholarship/guild system is a winning combo.
5 — @Marilynn_mcdade As a project who based into blockchain-game , Will there be free play opportunities for players without NFTs ?,,🙏🙏
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
We are actually going to have some interesting features which will alow to get scholarships to play the game and various guilds which will alow you to rent heroes and play as well 🙂
Dave| Avalaunch
@samthewise78 and @neothon you have been mighty guests. Worthy of an encore but alas, we have completed both AMAs so if people want more, they will need to go do your discord. We very much look forward to your launch and the upcoming mainnet. I appreciate all you’ve done in making this a very community friendly launch and one worth watching. Take care.
We appreciate your time here today.
Neothon|Dragon Crypto
Thank you so much for having is. It was an absolute pleasure in doing this AMA. You all are awesome hosts and an amazing community here. ❤️
Sam|Dragon Crypto
Thanks so much for hosting us, have enjoyed both AMA’s — looking forward to the future!
