Chris: Hi there! Please introduce yourself.
Metaman: Hi there! I'd like to be known by my pseudonym 'Metaman'. I am one of four co-founders of the War Snails project and responsible for Marketing and Partnerships. By way of background I have founded and exited a number of ventures in technology and finance. I founded one of the largest angel networks in the UK, QVentures which has invested £230m into ~120 fast-growth companies. I have been active in crypto since 2014 and currently run a small Kadena mining operation alongside being deeply involved and passionate in NFT gaming and the DeFi.
Chris: War Snails are essentially artwork collectibles that work as strategy game tokens. What is this game all about?
Metaman: That's right, we've worked really hard to combine awesome artwork that owners would value for it's own sake but that also would act as a token or more specifically a playable character in our upcoming game. I had been breeding Axie's and researching all play to earn gaming options around August 2021 and felt very strongly that gamers deserved a more compelling gaming experience. As an avid retro-gamer I've long held the belief that the core mechanics of gameplay remain timeless and although high-end graphics and expansive worlds are typically the markers of games in 2022 this doesn't necessarily translate into an enjoyable gaming experience. Oftentimes in fact, gameplay is forfeited for snazzy graphics and marketing marketing budgets.
I started to look for classic games that could inspire an NFT game and when I stumbled back onto Worms it was an instant and easy decision. The Worms game has certain features that lend well to an NFT game that offers play and earn options. Play is turn based and time limited, teams are generally comprised of 3 to 4 characters and it's possible to pick up and play as a novice and have fun whilst also offering an option for deep strategy players to master the skill curve.
It's also fun and highly competitive and from a technical perspective a 2d destructible landscape is much easier to build well than an expansive 3d world. It's relatable, understandable and will work well across various screen sizes and platforms.
Chris: Interestingly, the game apes worms games from 1995. How did your team incorporate a similar game on the metaverse? Who all are behind the development of this NFT and the game?
Metaman: We're staying fairly true to the Worms game in terms of gameplay, layout and process. We're aiming for something very similar to Worms WMD which was released in 2016. The NFT artwork has been developed by Rugman and Teazy. Rugman's art has been exhibited internationally, in Barcelona, New York, California, Dublin, Stockholm and London. In more recent years at The Saatchi Gallery and subsequently Jealous Gallery in London. His designs and art have been worn and collected by comedian and writer Tim Minchin, actors Tom Hardy, Eva Green, Tom Davis and musicians Maverick Sabre, Mikill Pane, Ben Drew (a.k.a. Plan B), Joey Bada$$, Liam Howlett of The Prodigy, Travis Barker of Blink 182, and Grant Nicholas of FEEDER. He did the album cover artwork for FEEDER’s Tallulah album in 2019.
The game is being developed partly in-house by engineers that worked on the original Worms game under Team17 and partly by an agency partner that has built mobile and browser based games with over 150m downloads. We've recruited talent in de-fi and betting as War Snails also incorporates these elements in a deeply integrated way. We're still deciding which blockchain to build on and have applied for the grant programmes of both Harmony One and Binance's Smart Chain.
Chris: In fact, we would like to know how are these NFTs designed? What are the key themes and characteristics?
Metaman: Rugman and Teazy spent 4 months designing over 200 individual layers for the War Snails NFT, we went through a wonderful creative process to refine from a former list of around 600 traits to ensure that our final generation would be consistent but also offer enough variation in character. All the layers for our NFTs are hand-drawn and aimed to create an awesome, high resolution piece of art that blends humour with colour, attitude with personality and an obvious contrast and juxtaposition. We also spent a lot of time correlating the visual traits of our NFTs with in-game abilities that are fixed in the metadata of the NFT. For example having a Viking Helmet will mean your Snail has more Attack ability, this applies across all traits, it was an intense process to assign all this data but will make ownership and gameplay much richer.
You will also be able to breed your War Snails and bet on matches, either as a player or as a spectator. Here we've taken cues from what has worked well with Axie Infinity and have senior talent on the team from one of the largest online betting sites in the UK to assist with structure the market makign services needed for betting.
.jpg)
Chris: It is also mentioned that the token holders can choose weapons. What are these weapons and how can one get hold of them?
Metaman: Yes, players will be able to choose from over 100 weapons with different traits and elements to master the use of. Some of these weapons will be airdropped to War Snails owners for free but the majority will be in-game and will either be free, earned or special edition. Weapons will range from close contact to from a distance and will vary in their damage potential.
Chris: Importantly, what is the price of each War Snails NFT? How much does it cost to pay for gas?
Metaman: Currently War Snails can be minted in our public sale for 0.07 ETH, gas will depend on network congestion at the time of minting of course. Over time will will increase the price of the mint until the collection is fully sold out. We're anti pump and dump and feel we need to provide passionate owners some time to find us and to understand the scale of what we're building here.
Chris: So, how many tokens will float in the metaverse thin March? Do you have any plans to expand your collection in the future?
Metaman: We are releasing 8,888 War Snails which form the Genesis Collection, these are available now. We have no future plans to release more Snails as breeding will allow for a controlled way to increase the playable supply.
Chris: At last, please lay down the minting process in the interest of the readers and potential investors.
Metaman: If you'd like to become a War Snails soldier you can head over to warsnails, connect your wallet and mint from there. Ownership breaks down into different groupings with additional benefits, perks and access being afforded c/o how many War Snails you own.
COMPANY - 72 Snails
PLATOON - 36 Snails
PATROL - 18 Snails
SQUAD - 9 Snails
TEAM - 3 Snails
Also, don't forget to join our Discord and Twitter. It's the best way to stay informed on news and announcements.
