Key Highlights
- The first game-play of the closed Alpha is to be launched soon
- The Game token is not live yet
- The vision is to build different sports games that vary in gameplay but share the same economy and offer interoperability
- The game is free to play with the governance token $MSTAR being off-setted by an in-game off-chain currency which can be earned and redeemed for $MSTAR
AMA With Pedro Cabaco
Adeeb: Hey Pedro, great to have you with our community here.
Pedro: Hi everyone. It’s good to be here.
Adeeb: So let’s get into an intro from your side, what led you down this path of creating games and how did you end up where you are?
Pedro: So basically I’m the CEO with one of the four co-founders at Volt Games and I’m 26 years old. I began building mobile games around 13–14 years ago. So I released my first game when I was 12–13. I always had this passion and curiosity for the game development space so that’s why I decided to keep on working on it. Released a football game around six years ago called Supercross Part Challenge which got over 2 million downloads. In January 2020, around 3 years ago, I decided to co-found Volt Games alongside my other 3 co-founders in Volt Games itself. It started focusing on our typical mobile games, and then we released Football Clash, another football game in early 2021, that got over 1 million downloads so far. I would say that’s pretty much it in terms of the background of the company and myself. Then at the end of 2021, we decided to start drafting a white paper and the game design document for another football game, which is what we’re working on at the moment, which is Meta Star strikers. This one is our first step into the web 3 space, and it’s also very exciting. I feel like it has tremendous potential and could be in for what we believe and what we expect to be a huge success.
Adeeb: That’s crazy. You’ve been building games for more than a decade now. What brings you to Web 3? What aspect of Web 3 crypto tokens do you think will help you make a better game in Web 3 than in web 2?
Pedro: I feel like Web 3 has different components that allow users and players to engage more deeply with the games. So one is the ownership of the assets, Through NFTs and blockchain technology adds a lot of different immersive features to a game. So, by playing a game, if I know that I’m the true owner of a football Stadium, I will immediately be much more engaged and much more immersed in the project. So that’s one of the reasons why we went into the Web 3 space. Second, I feel like this is the future of gaming.
Adeeb: That’s a great answer. For gamers, what do you think is better in web3 than web2?
Pedro: I feel like the NFT components and the crypto components unlock many different monetization models and many different engagement models that allow for a much deeper experience. So it unlocks from a creativity standpoint, it unlocks a lot of different things that allow us to explore a lot of different features that weren’t possible in web 2.
Adeeb: So let’s hop onto your white paper, What made you launch a token before you launched a game itself?
Pedro: Just to clarify that the token isn’t live yet, So it’s still something that’s being worked on in terms of tokenomics really wanna make all the most study and most research as possible to make sure that the token when it is launched, it will be the most viable possibility out there for the governance of the project. So the token is not live yet. The game is not live yet. We are launching the first gameplay build of our closed alpha next week.
Adeeb: Yeah. So what is it about football that you went for it first and tell us a little more about the whole metaverse angle that you want to work towards?
Pedro: So for football, we went with it first because of two different reasons. One is the whole team, myself included, we’re tremendously passionate about football sport. So not only are we passionate about it, but we’re also kind of like experts. So it’s just a sport that truly resonates with us. So that’s why we decided to explore it first. Second, it’s the world’s most popular sport worldwide. So that’s also why we wanted to tackle it and see that it has a tremendous audience that is still untapped and we want to reach it as soon as possible the vision for our metaverses, but then we want to reach out to different sports games like tennis, basketball, golf, etc and this is interesting because all of the NFTs and all of the crypto tokens will be interoperable. So it adds this tremendous utility to the assets which are unprecedented in our opinion. The vision is to build different sports games that are interoperable in themselves. They share the same economy, they just vary in the gameplay.
Adeeb: So let’s get into the NFT bit, The digital collectible bit. So what are the NFTs that you guys are planning or intending to launch for the game itself?
Pedro: So we have 3 different types of NFTs. The main one is the striker NFTs, we call them the strikers. The playable characters are the ones that you walk around, and shoot the ball with. They have four different stats- pace, shooting, passing, and stamina. And every time you play a match and win a match, the stats of the striker will go up which makes it more valuable in the game and also in the marketplace. So it incentivizes you to use different strikers and play with them and get their stats up so that you can, in the end, probably make just a quick buck out of it. Even though we do focus first on fun gameplay rather than the tokenomics side. So our main focus with this game is to build a fully fun, fast-paced action tactic experience and then two other types of NFTs. One is the stadiums. So all of the different stadiums will be NFTs. So if I have one stadium, I can customize it to host different matches. And then there’s also another NFT, which is probably the highest level of excellence in meta star strikers which is the club NFTs aim more towards guilds, football clubs, etc, groups of people, and if you own a club in NFT, you’re essentially the president of the club and then you can say key decisions like hiring new players, getting a new stadium right, ranking up in the leagues.
Adeeb: So with the clubs being noted for the guilds themselves, how does that exactly work in terms of a guild holding “X” number of clubs? Is there a capacity of players which could fit in one club?
Pedro: Yes. So basically the vision with the clubs is to imagine I’m a guild. I own a club called NFT inside MetaStar strikers. Essentially what I have is my club in the game. So for the clubs, there will be unique leagues in leaderboards inside that. So imagine there’s a league with 10–20 different clubs. The higher the club finishes at the end of the season the better the price they’ll be distributed to its players. So as the president, imagine I’m the president, I can hire five of the top players in MetaStar strikers. They can play for my club, they can participate in matches, represent my club, play in my stadium, wear my outfit, etc., and then each time they play the record points and the points go towards the ranking, the league that I just mentioned.
Adeeb: That sounds great for guilds to have that control. So the people who own the clubs have more control over the people who own the strikers, and so does a player need a striker to get into the game and play it and what does he need to do to get into this club?
Pedro: Yeah, so the game is free to play first. So whenever you download the game, whatever it is, you will be able to play and participate in different matches for free. You don’t need to spend any money to be playing the game to enjoy the game and have fun. What we do incentivize is players, whenever they purchase a striker NFT, they will unlock different features that accelerate the progression inside the game. We incentivize the purchase of an Austral NFT. Having a striker NFT or having a stadium NFT will unlock different features like idle training. So if you have a striker, you will then be able to train it and increase its stats without even playing the game which is very interesting from a progression point of view. And also, if you purchase NFT, you’ll get inserted inside the score and all loops and the scoring. Our loop essentially is a loop where players will be able to own their assets, of course, but also earn tokens.
Adeeb: Let’s go into the tokens a bit. What structure of tokens are you guys using, and what are the different types of tokens in your game?
Pedro: Yeah, So basically we went with a very innovative and off-chain approach. So the idea is to have a governance token, which we call the $MSTAR token, which is not live yet and this governance token is basically to govern the whole project, to take key decisions in the future, etc. We aim to also have an off-chain currency, which is not a listed token in any exchange or anything. It’s just a currency inside the game that is the currency that you earn whenever you play matches. But what’s interesting about this currency is, you can spend it inside the game by yourself, and you can purchase different strike NFTs inside the game. You can purchase other items inside the game with that currency. But what’s also interesting is, now and then, you’ll be able to cash out that currency for the $MSTAR governance token. So in cash-out moments, you’ll be able to recognize what our game will recognize. this player has 1000 off-chain currency tokens, which translates into 10 $MSTAR tokens. You’ll be able to cash out your earnings inside the game to get the real token.
Adeeb: So players are essentially earning from transactions that happen on the chain through the NFTs, and a part of it is going to the treasury. So who can manage this treasury?
Pedro: So one is the MetaStar team, the volt games team. We will be managing the treasury, and in the long term, we want governance token holders to also be able to manage it.
Adeeb: the governance token allows you to manage the treasury itself. What type of game modes are we talking about for meta strike?
Pedro: So different game modes we have. One is, the online multiplayer, which is the most exciting one. So whenever you participate in key matches, you’ll be matched against players that are in the same skill level as you. So we’ll have a matchmaking rating skill system where the better you perform, the higher the league that you’re in, and the higher the league you’re in, the better the players will match against, the more competitive we’ll be. So that’s the main mode. It’s online competitive multiplayer. Then we have tournaments which are also online, they’re bracket space. So you start in the round of 16, and if you win, you go through the quarterfinals, then the semi-finals, then the finals, etc. So that’s also very exciting because it’s more like the winner takes it all. Then, there are also other smaller game modes that we’re planning on. But these are the two main ones. Then we have idle training, which has idle components and features. We have a player versus environment, basically playing versus bots to practice. And yeah, just, just a wide range of different features that we have. We also plan on having different mini-games to freshen up a bit.
Adeeb: So when you say PvP, And the progression is like, you know, better for people who have a striker. So, when players are playing PvP, is there a significant amount of reference between someone who holds an NFT and who doesn’t hold an NFT?
Pedro: There is quite a big skill gap. So the game is very skill-based. So I might own a very good and very powerful NFT, but if I don’t play well, I’ll probably lose against a very good player with very bad NFTs. There’s also an interesting part, which makes it so that the stats that each strike NFT has, have a big influence on the gameplay. So if I have a player with a big play stat or a big shooting stat, it has key differences in the game. But then, the biggest difference that it makes is the skill of each player,
Adeeb: So skill over even holding an NFT. So people who are playing without an NFT can still earn, is that right?
Pedro: They can earn the off-chain currency, the one that allows them to participate in the shop and everything, but they cannot cash out. So they cannot cash out until they have An NFT. The amount of option currency that they earn will be less than the ones that have NFTs.
Adeeb: Right. like, just to get a sense of the difference, right? How much is the difference between somebody who holds one and doesn’t hold one?
Pedro: Probably I would, we were earning some calculations, but likely the owners of NFTs will earn 10 or 15 X more currency than non-holders.
Adeeb: Sounds good. So you guys are starting with a, like, you know, with a pass, mean pass and a claim pass, like so, so is, is this Freedom mint how, how, how you, you guys distributing this? And will there also be a public mint?
Pedro: Yes. So basically the idea with these, with these passes is we have two different passes at this stage. One is the Mint Pass, which essentially is kind of like a whitelist spot. So owners of a Mint pass will be able to participate in the private sale of the NFT drops that we’ll be launching. That will be announced pretty soon. But the Mint will not be free. So if you have a mint pass, you’ll be, you’ll have to pay for the price, of the Striker NFTs. That will be the drop with a discount of around 20%. If you own a free claim pass, the Mint will be free. So not only will you have the privilege to, participate in a Private sale, but also will it be free.
Adeeb: Right I can tell you that our community has only gamers and no speculators that way. But I would like to pick your brain on basically some larger issues here, right? Like how do you see the gaming ecosystem within Web 3 itself evolving, and where do you see it heading, right?
Pedro: So I feel like 2023 will be key because we are now seeing a lot of very good smaller or bigger game developers that are game developers at heart. They have a creative mind, and they have game development knowledge, and that’s key to making good games, right? What the Web 3 space is missing is good games. And it’s key to have good games built-in good games out there to prove that the Web 3 space is here to stay and to prove that NFTs are good for the gaming industry in general. So I feel like I’m very bullish on the gaming side of Web 3 because I feel like gaming itself is a very powerful form of interaction for any sort of influencer or whatever.
Adeeb: You said that most of the previous Web 3 games, what they got wrong was that serious game developers weren’t necessarily developing it. And you see more Web2 game developers switching to Web3. Do you think on a longer note, all Web2 games will be web3, or is that not gonna happen?
Pedro: I feel like, like in every other tendency in gaming, like not every game will be Web3, right? And that’s not a problem, right? So you see 10, 15 years ago when free-to-play games came around everyone was against it. And now a lot of games are free to play. Even in Call of Duty Fortnite, you see big IPs being free to play. And not all, not all of them are free to play right? Not all of them are multiplayer, right? So there are different genres of games, and I feel like Web3 games, I feel like NFT-based games will be a subgenre of gaming itself. Not all games will go in that direction for sure, but that’s not bad. That’s just how I feel like the industry will be in the future.
Adeeb: Right. Good, a great correlation between free-to-play and how still Paid to Play games exist along with Free to Play. What has been like the biggest pain point or challenge building in Web 3?
Pedro: I would say that the blockchain technology side has been quite a heavy and big difficulty for us. It’s just, it was just composed of a lot of research at the start, right? But now it’s, it’s already done marketing as well. In this new space. It’s been very difficult, especially when you’re in a bear market trying to grow your community, trying to grow the hype surrounding your project. When the NFT space is being looked down upon it’s also very difficult. But from a game development perspective, it’s more of the same, right?
Adeeb: Right. You are just focused on building the game and the tech will do its thing, right? How important is the community to your project, and how do you intend to grow a strong community?
Pedro: For us, it’s very, very important. So community, it’s a thing that has always been key for us right? But it was not something that we’ve, we’ve had to worry about in the past, in the web2 games. Since it was mobile, like, it was more you know, you build the game, and then the community is built around it naturally here, we had to put a lot of work and time and effort on it, and it’s been something, it’s, it’s been amazing to meet some of our community members on Discord and Twitter. And for us it’s, it’s super important to get feedback. That’s why we’re doing a closed alpha launch over the next week or two.
Adeeb: Awesome. any closing thoughts, Pedro?
Pedro: Yeah, just, just very excited about what we’ve been, what will be the next few months in the web 3 gaming space. And of course, very excited about what we’re building because it’s something that truly resonates with us. And yeah, just, loving what’s, what’s been built, what’s been being, what’s being built in this space. And I feel like our game itself will be, will be unique and will be very different. And yeah, let’s see what happens. We’re very confident, very bullish on it.
Adeeb: Great. Looking forward to playing your game itself. And actually, we’ll also be for I think, think I’ve got mentioned, we are also doing that giveaway of 10 mint passes and one free claim pass. We’ll be doing that all over in our discord for the people who attended our ama. So with that, thank you so much, Pedro, and take care.
Pedro: Awesome. Sounds good. Thanks for having me. All the best.Bye.
