Community Spotlight: Crossroads Myth
Getting to know the upcoming Crossroads: Myth game that is being built on Tezos through a Q&A with the team.
1,750 words, 9 minute read
I have often talked about the potential gaming has with blockchain integration and why Tezos is the perfect fit for such a use case. With many different projects being built around this idea, this week we will take a deeper dive into one of them that is currently being built on Tezos.
The game is none other than Crossroads: Myth and what better way to get to know it than a direct Q&A with the team building it? Since we had a lot to discuss let’s dive straight right in!
Q&A: #
Before we get into the game details, could you give us a small introduction of your team?
Crossroads: Myth formally began development in 3Q22 and is the collaborative effort of three passionate individuals.
Firstly, we have founder Timothy or “Tim”, a recognized figure in the Tezos community. Starting with Hic Et Nunc, he contributed to notable projects like the NFT PFP project Flux Tribe and Mavryk Finance. A highly experienced smart contract developer, his dedication earned him the Tez Dev Award by the Tezos Commons Foundation in April 2023.
Kate is our resident master artist, a digital artist with a decade’s experience. Coupled with her immense creativity and passion, her hand-drawn art and designs provide Crossroads: Myth with its unique and immersive visual identity.
Last but not least, Ben brings a blend of strategic and analytical prowess, rooted in his background in traditional finance and consumer-centric businesses. An avid gamer and reader, he plays a pivotal role in crafting engaging and sustainable gameplay mechanics and lore, and enthusiastically engages in community-building across our socials and growing interest in the game.
Together, we are a small but powerful team dedicated to building a memorable gaming experience.
The Crossroads: Myth team: (L) Tim, (M) Ben, ® Kate
Can you give us a brief overview of Crossroads: Myth? What kind of game is it going to be and what will the gameplay look like?
Crossroads: Myth is a venture into the world of gaming backed by blockchain technologies, enriched with elements of deep lore and world-building, mesmerizing visuals and art, and enjoyable and innovative gameplay mechanics.
Set in the fantasy realm of Mythenia, players will find themselves navigating a world where elves, humans, and dwarves coexist with other races, beings, and creatures.
Our gameplay will be browser-based and will include a blend of traditional strategy, role-playing and resource-management elements.
Players can obtain unique Lands that produce resources. These resources can be strategically invested in various ways, such as through research, upgrades, or acquiring units and items. With a squad of units, players can form an adventurer squad and dispatch them on interactive and immersive quests to search for treasure, hunt monsters, and delve into the lore of Mythenia.
We also focus heavily on inter-player activities and how we can encourage players to have fun together as a group. Players can venture together on group quests with multiple squads or form guilds with other like-minded players and unlock guild-only perks and activities such as dungeon raids.
Another aspect of the game we’re encouraging is exploration, in its most intrinsic sense.
Our game lore is part of the player’s adventure, and players can uncover useful clues and hints by engaging in dialogue with certain NPC or exploring dark and difficult areas during a quest.
Through our game design, whether playing alone or with others, our players can be constantly engaged and progress enjoyably through the game.
Explore the wide and expansive world of Mythenia: (L) Map of Mythenia, ® Human city of Cerafione
What was the initial inspiration behind it?
The spark for Crossroads: Myth arose from our deep-seated love for gaming and a fascination with the untapped possibilities of blockchain technologies within the gaming realm.
We recognized the potential of blockchain technology in developing a game where players not only have direct ownership of in-game items, but also have a direct impact and reward from a game’s performance over time.
With our passion and a collective desire to craft an accessible and enjoyable game, we embarked on a journey to blend traditional gameplay mechanics we are familiar with and features that we believe would be unique and fun in a game, while striving to create an immersive world that resonates with both new and seasoned gamers.
Thus Crossroads: Myth was created, and we remain as passionate and committed as ever to craft a game with mechanics that are both familiar and intuitive and yet novel and enjoyable for all.
Which parts of the game will be on-chain?
Crossroads: Myth is a fully on-chain game where every item, unit, resource, and achievement exists on the blockchain as tokens — either as fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, or even soulbound tokens.
Actions that players can undertake, such as harvesting resources from their lands or fighting monsters with their squads, will also be processed on-chain with each outcome recorded on the blockchain.
A player’s progress throughout the game will also be recorded on-chain, such as their research level and achievements while completing various quests, ensuring a transparent and immutable gaming journey.
A selection of the many on-chain items in Crossroads: Myth: (L) Crossbow, (M) Food, ® Potion
From what I understand there will be a play-to-earn aspect of the game as well, could you tell us how will that work?
As a strategic game at its core, we have designed Crossroads: Myth’s mechanics and tokenomics such that value accrual depends largely on players’ actions and choices they make in the game.
Every player has a limited amount of Action Points (AP) that they can use each day, and upgrading items and lands require not only resources, but also time as well.
Our game design introduces layers of decision-making complexity. For instance, players have to balance their trade-offs in deciding whether to sell a rarer or higher level item, unit, or land that they have for immediate monetary gain, or consider the long-term strategic benefits of retaining and leveraging it for greater potential gains in the future.
On the flip side, there may be certain players that adopt an investment-centric approach seeking to acquire advanced in-game assets. By doing so, they can bypass the grind and time associated with upgrading and leveling up, and position themselves more favorably in the game’s economy and competitive landscape.
Most importantly, however, we want players to have fun as they continue progressing on their quests and adventures in Crossroads: Myth over time.
This comes not only from a player’s progression in the game, but also from a sense of discovery and adventure from exploring the vast fantasy world of Mythenia, and the need to have stronger items and units as they venture deeper into more dangerous areas.
Through this application of supply and demand dynamics (fun fact: Tim and Ben both hold BSc economics degrees), a base value of sorts for each NFT would be naturally realized, following which players can decide on ascribing further value to each asset, based on their playing style and preferences.
This will lead to a virtuous cycle where players are engaged and incentivized to play further to explore and enjoy the world of Mythenia more.
Why did you choose to build the game on Tezos? Are there any specific benefits?
Our answer can be condensed into 3 reasons, which we will elaborate further below: expertise, blockchain performance, and potential growth and support.
To start off, Tim’s extensive knowledge of the Tezos blockchain architecture and smart contracts expertise reduces the security risk and ensures a certain level of quality expected of the game’s codebase.
Kate’s amazing artistic abilities enables the world of Mythenia to be brought to life in vivid and eye-catching art. Her numerous videos showing her drawing actual in-game units and items also capture the attention and imagination of followers.
Alongside his robust game design models and planning, Ben’s continued engagement with the web3 gaming community and early supporters across the game’s socials has been effective in building a stable and growing community.
Secondly, the Tezos Foundation and its affiliated organizations have recently shown interest in the gaming vertical. We believe this presents a timely opportunity to collaborate with relevant stakeholders, and have made efforts and plans for continued discussions and interactions.
And finally, Tezos boasts a highly efficient blockchain that results in minimal gas fees, rapid transaction times, and a reduced environmental footprint compared to more mainstream blockchains. With continuous improvements being made, we anticipate this efficiency to persist in the years to come, further benefiting users of the blockchain.
What are the plans moving ahead? Is there an ETA for launch?
We’re currently working hard to have a beta test build ready sometime in 1Q24, from which we’ll gather feedback and iterate aspects of the game further to make it enjoyable and intuitive for players.
We also intend to begin more marketing activities to garner awareness and interest in the game in the lead up to the beta launch, thus would appreciate it if our game could be shared far and wide by those that support it!
How can people get involved?
We appreciate any form of sincere feedback, questions and suggestions, and would love to hear from interest parties across our socials.
A fun and easy way to get started with us would be to participate in our ongoing Community Quests activity, where participants are awarded Elemental Crystal NFTs and relevant Discord roles.
While the game is still in its development stage, Crossroads: Myth is already showing great potential for what gaming on Tezos can look like. Tezos offers a solid foundation for fast, secure, and decentralized gaming experiences and Crossroads: Myth is planning to take full advantage of these features so I can’t wait to try it out!
If you are interested to read more about their game, you can check out their litepaper, take a look at all the info on their website, or join their Discord server to ask any questions you might have!