Chris Chris 06.02.2023

Undeads Metaverse the First AAA Role-Playing Game for Web3 World β€” Creator's Interview

Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Today my guest is — Leo Kahn CEO of Undeads Metaverse.

There is a short brief about the project:

  • Undeads Metaverse, the first AAA role-playing game for Web3 world πŸ”₯
  • $5M+ already invested 
  • Led by ex-PayPal executive Leo Kahn and ex-Animoca's Phantom Galaxies CMO Ash Hodgetts 
  • Backed by n0b0dy.eth — one of the world’s largest private NFT investors with over $10M worth of Bored Apes and Crypto Punks! 
  • Secured partnerships with top industry players, such as Warner Bros., Wabi Sabi Sound, with many more to come. 

Undeads brings feature-rich gameplay along with VR experience and a healthy and efficient game economy design verified by Machinations.io.

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Undeads Metaverse - Pitch on World Blockchain Summit Bangkok 2022

Chris: What is Undeads Metaverse?

Leo: Undeads is a 3D Metaverse play-to-earn survival game powered by blockchain. It aims to provide a unique gaming experience by blending top-level mechanics with fun features and play-to-earn rewards. The game is currently in the development stage and is designed to engage both traditional gamers and survival game fans.

Undeads is set in a post-apocalyptic world with an above-the-ground city for humans and underground lairs for zombies. Crypto earnings are the core of the gameplay, and players can choose to hold either a zombie or human NFT to access the game. The 3D characters are based on a cartoon-style design with unique features to merge the excitement of modern blockchain gaming assets.

Features:

  • 12 types of playable and upgradeable Dynamic NFTs
  • Dozens of off-chain assets and resources, trophies, and achievements
  • Multi-layer structure with exciting engaging activities in addition to typical play-to-earn interactions
  • Crafting, fighting, and trading
  • NFT-Free access for newcomers
  • Feature-rich gameplay and earning crypto while exploring a post-apocalyptic metaverse
  • Constructing buildings, gathering resources, creating NFT blueprints, 
  • Dual gameplay with different features, mechanics, skills, and professions for players of each faction
  • Five grades of lands in the Undeads Metaverse with increasing rarity

Benefits for NFT Owners:

  • Recognition as a player in the game
  • Unlimited access to benefits on the Undeads platform
  • Minting new 3D characters or zombies before the game releases
  • Earning rewards through breeding Zombabies
  • Adding specific features to the already-owned 3D character or staking to transform into grown up playable NFT zombies

VR component

In addition to the Undeads Survival game, the team is building a VR Social Hub with multiple VR games for a true metaverse and virtual reality experience. Players can come together to hang out, socialize, have fun, interact and earn. The VR Social Hub offers a wide spectrum of gaming experiences, including VR RC racing, sports fishing, bowling, pool hall VR, and more. The Undeads Metaverse VR environment is powered on Epic’s Unreal Engine 5.1, the most innovative engine used by industry giants including GTA VI and Matrix Awakeness.

Chris: Where do you see your brand in a few years? What are some of your dreams and aspirations?

Leo: Here they are:

  • Undeads metaverse to be leading the next era of web3 games in terms of production quality and gameplay. We want all players, no matter web3 traditional or web3 to enjoy the experience their way.
  • Grow to expand into additional games for a wider range of genres and reat more players
  • Become the Day-z/Fortnite/TheyAreBillions of zombie games in web3

Chris: What angle or focus for these articles would you like to see?

Leo: We're focused on:

  • Strong leadership team - Led by CEO Leo Kahn (Ex VP at PayPal), CMO Ash Hodgetts 20+ year games & marketing veteran (Animoca Brands & Gameloft)
  • High-value partnerships - i.e Warner Bros & Wabi Sabi Sound 
  • Thought leadership pieces - mainly focused on the ‘next era of web3 gaming’ style of content
    • Undeads Metaverse is Leading Web3’s GameFi Revolution
    • The role of community-involved development in shaping the future of the metaverse and games industry 
    • The impact of decentralized gaming on the traditional gamer: Opportunities and challenges & the critical role marketing play in onboarding new players. 
    • Building trust in virtual worlds: The role of smart contracts and marketing/team transparency in building long-term trust with players, communities and other projects, 
    • Why Blockchain technology aims to elevate games to a new era of gaming, not aimed at dividing gamers
    • Examples of work already commissioned:
  • Other content focused around the Undeads Metaverse and the VR experience. 

Chris: Is there information you do NOT want to be included in these articles?

Leo: No shilling or overhyping or FOMO generated content. Focus is on brand awareness.

Chris: How do you approach designing the in-game economy for your game? What elements do you prioritize when creating this system?

Leo: First of all, we pay attention to inflation/deflation to make the game economy balanced and efficient without oversupply. 

Chris: How does your game's economy differ from other games in the same genre or market? What sets it apart?

Leo: Undeads will have dozens of monetizable mechanics and interactions to make the game truly engaging, entertaining and profitable for the long term

Chris: Can you describe the development process for creating and implementing the game economy? Who is involved in this process and what steps do they take?

Leo: We have designed dual token powered tokenomics and game economy design in collaboration with two enterprises well-known in the industry - BrightNote and Machinations, in addition to our in-house economy design team. Such collaboration is a one more layer of verification by Machinations testing tool to make sure that there are no vulnerable and disbalancing issues.

Chris: How do you incorporate player feedback and data into the design and maintenance of the game economy? How do you use this information to make decisions about changes or updates to the system?

Leo: Our game economy is being verified by Machinations, which offers the software for game economy health verification. After the game is live, we’ll keep monitoring the flows and adjust some settings to improve economy balance if/when necessary.

Chris: How do you handle issues such as inflation or deflation in the game economy? What measures do you take to maintain a healthy and stable in-game economy?

Leo: I suppose answer for this question is included in above answers. Additionally I would add that all rewards are distributed via vesting contracts and lock-up periods up to 48 months from TGE. Initial supply is also limited to 250M tokens.

Chris: Can you discuss any challenges or setbacks you have faced during the development process for the game economy, and how you have addressed or overcome them?

Leo: The largest challenge that we had is to develop the game economy structure because there  are over 1 thousand of various in-game items and assets with various properties, value and other parameters. This process took around 3 months to be completed to further proceed to game economy health verification with Machinations team.

Chris: How do you think your game's economy design will evolve over time, and what changes or updates do you envision making in the future?

Leo: We see that Web3 gaming industry needs the strong products to accelerate it’s growth. According to our research, currently available games are too far from traditional gaming, where people get the most of gaming via emotions, sound, graphics and overall quality. Simple games with weak economy leave the players unengaged, and we believe that AAA-class games will boost the industry growth which we expect to be started from 2024 because such games can be produced within minimum of 2-2.5 years, and some of products are in development including Undeads Metaverse.

Chris: How does your game leverage the unique capabilities of the web3 space to provide a unique and innovative gameplay experience? And can you discuss any specific features or mechanics that set your game apart from others in the web3 space?

Leo: We’ve set the goal to get the most of blockchain when developing our product, so we designed dozens of reward-producing merchanics that required over 20 smart-contracts to be developed to make it work. Additionally, we are paying much attention to fun-first gameplay to ensure the long-term engagement of players. Our product consists of 2 parts-  role-playing survival game and VR Social Hub, which is a metaverse for true VR experience fans, and which is powered on the newest Unreal Engine 5.1. VR social hub will be loaded with multiple VR games with reward-producing activities, competitions and mini games to let the players socialize and interact in the metaverse.

Undeads is powered by Dynamic NFTs with updateable metadata that may contain durability or heath bar, so each. There will be also governance and voting, so the players will be able to drive the development of the game by participating in voting.

Chris: Can you share any examples of how your game has pushed the boundaries of what is currently possible in the web3 space?

Leo: We’ve paid a lot attention to sound design, so we’ve partnered with Warner Bros. and Wabi Sabi Sound to product the premium and emotion-driving sound design for maximizing the engagement and enjoyment of players. 

Chris: How does your game aim to solve problems or address challenges within the traditional gaming industry through its innovative use of web3 technology?

Leo: While fully meeting players’ expectations from the gameplay, graphics, economy and sound, Undeads offers full range of benefits that Web3 has - digital ownership rights for over 10 types of playable assets, cost-efficient transactions and opportunities to earn crypto «as much as you play» with almost borderless economy and deep engagement in the game scenario. So our primary goal is to bring the rich and fun-first gameplay from traditional gaming to the crypto space.

Chris: How do you envision your game evolving and adapting as the web3 space continues to grow and develop?

Leo: We believe we’ll be able to engage the large number of traditional players who typically stay away from Web3 games due to low quality gameplay totally incomparable to any of trending games of last 5 years.  

We always do research and constantly monitor the market to see the demand and we make bets on South East Asian, Latin America and Africa as the most fastest growing markets in GameFi sector, which we will primarily be focused on, and we will always fine-tune the product to meet players’ expectations after the product is released.

Chris: Can you discuss any partnerships or collaborations that have helped to drive innovation in your game within the web3 space?

Leo: We have partnered with Warner Bros. and Wabi Sabi sound as our sound design partners who will product the sound design for our product from scratch. Unicsoft is our blockchain development partner. BrightNode and Machinations - tokenomics and game economy design partners. Whimsy Games - partnered game studio

Certik - audited 20 smart-contracts for Undeads

Chainlink is our oracle partner required for game operation and Immutable X will be used as Layer-2 solution for gas-free experience.

Chris: How do these partnerships benefit the development team in terms of resources and support?

Leo: We have greatly combined all competences of in-house and external teams to double check each other and make sure that all things are kept in mind and all ideas are proposed and discussed when we project important parts of our product. Enterprise-approach of B2B partnerships is also a sign of quality because of high qualification and time-proven reputation of counter-parties.

Chris: How do these partnerships contribute to the longevity of the game, whether it be through ongoing updates or expanded player base?

Leo: Ongoing updates of the product, economy, sound, graphics and gameplay. As web 3 develops, the game will adopt new functionality and gamify it for new features in the game.

Chris: What considerations do you take into account when deciding to enter into a game production partnership?

Leo: Partners’ reputation, qualification & competencies. Cost-efficient and time-efficient approaches are also factors which we are focused on. Strict following to agreed deadlines as well, and portfolio of previous work if necessary.

Chris: How do you ensure that these partnerships align with the overall vision and goals of the game?

Leo: We spend much time for researches and negotiations to select the most suitable experts and enterprises for collaborations before taking decisions to proceed with signing contracts.

Chris: Can you share your Allocation plan? 

Leo: All our allocation plan is here.

Also, don't forget to join our Discord and Twitter. It is the best way to stay informed on news and announcements.

Chris: Can you explain the concept of seamless onboarding for web3? How does this differ from traditional onboarding processes for decentralized games (need for NFT)?

Leo: Traditional gamers can join the game and start playing without NFT but they will need to pay a small fee (cheaper than purchasing NFT) for creating non-NFT characters in the game. This character will have limited capabilities and no access to real earnings, so it’s just an entry point for new non-crypto players to get them engaged into both Undeads Metaverse and Web3 together. Once the character gets raised some game experience score, the player will be able to pay crypto fee to tokenize his hero and mint NFT asset.

Chris: How do gameplay mechanics play a role in onboarding users to web3 actions without the need for NFTs?

Leo: Access without NFTs is limited to free-to-play to just explore the world and for limited interactions.