Game Update:
As of Yesterday, Etheremon announced its partnership with Decentraland. Decentraland is a virtual reality platform that is powered specifically on the Ethereum blockchain. Users are able to create, experience, and monetize their own applications and content. Integration of both of these platforms was a ‘natural’ step and enriches the gaming experience from both platforms. You can read the full in-depth blog post of the two platforms integration here.
To date, the Etheremon game has almost 40,000 battles on its platform and over 830 castles built. If you’d like to take a stab at the game, click here.
We got to sit down with the game’s co-founder Jarvis Nguyen, for an exclusive interview with CryptoCurrencyNews.
What is your background and how did you get started in the cryptocurrency market?
I am a senior software developer, I have 5-years experience as a games publisher. I care about the new technology, especially blockchain, so I have spent a lot of time investigating the technology behind cryptocurrency. I also did some investments in Ethereum, BAT, NEO … (I say no to Bitcoin).
Etheremon seems very similar to Pokemon. What is the main difference between the two and how did you come up with the idea?
They are totally different concepts. Pokemon is role-playing video games (RPGs), Etheremon is a game on the blockchain.
In the Pokemon game, the players try to complete the Pokedex by collecting all of the available Pokémon species found in the fictional region where a game takes place. The trainer can raise a team of Pokémon to defeat many non-player character (NPC) trainers. That’s it when you complete the Pokedex, there’s nothing else to do. You cannot play the game with your friends, the monsters are limited and they are not there forever. Many Nintendo 3DS’s are sold; anyone can have the same set of monsters and if your 3DS gets a problem, then your monsters are gone.
Etheremon is a game on the blockchain.
The idea of gaming on the blockchain is very new. The traditional game is controlled by a company and the game behavior can be changed easily by them. As a decentralized application, no one controls this game, and no one can take away your assets or cheat you in this world. It is immune to any outside influence as it’s guaranteed to execute only what the smart contracts were programmed to do. Moreover, because Ethereum runs on thousands of machines simultaneously, the services are provided with a 100% uptime guarantee.
In Etheremon, all players share the same world. For example, there are only 195 Pangrass, so the maximum number of players that can have Pangrass at any particular time is 195. Users can also play with others via battle modes. It is similar to any online games, but there is no centralized server, all actions are done via Ethereum network. From those attributes, players can earn money from playing. Players can sell, lend their Etheremon to others, and as the resources are limited and transparent, there is a need for collecting them. It is similar to Bitcoin, there is a limit cap and no one controls it.
In conclusion, the gameplay between Pokemon & Etheremon can be similar (catch a monster, train them, defeat others), but the concept is totally different. I came up with this idea because I want players fully control their monsters and I want to give more value to the monsters.
What makes your game stand out from the rest of the games on the cryptocurrency market, more specifically the ones built on the ethereum blockchain?
We are the first and only real game in the cryptocurrency market. Cryptokitties is just collectible and other games are just in the white paper. In Etheremon you can play with your monsters (train them, send them to the gym and defeat others to earn EMONT). Here is one example of a battle in Etheremon: https://www.etheremon.com/#/battle-details/14118, all game features are released so you can play the game now.
Players can sell or lend monsters and can earn in-game currency EMONT (an ERC-20 token with the cap of 20 million). Those features are unique and none of the games on the market have such features. Other games just stop at collecting the assets.
Why did you build Etheremon on the blockchain?
It is indicated in our blog (https://medium.com/@myetheremon/etheremon-decentralized-world-of-ether-monsters-a4f355971ea2)
“As a decentralized application, no one controls the etheremon world, and no one can take away your etheremon or cheat you in this world. It is immune to any outside influence as it’s guaranteed to execute only what Etheremon’s smart contracts were programmed to do (the source code is verified and open to view, nothing is hidden in this world). Moreover, because Ethereum runs on thousands of machines simultaneously, the services are provided with a 100% uptime guarantee.”
It changes the way people play the game, no one controls your data, you own your assets. The gameplay is fair for everyone.
You can check these numbers from our smart contracts, the numbers are transparent. However, you may need to have some programming skills to check them as we update the smart contracts quite frequently in the beta phase.
Cryptokitties, the largest Ethereum based game to date, backed up the ethereum blockchain when it took off in December. Have you constructed your game to prevent backing up the blockchain as developers continue working on the scalability issue and are the developers on your team focused on this issue?
This is a challenging part of any blockchain game. We believe the Ethereum network runs better when PoS and sharding are released.
However, we have a backup plan. If the situation is not improved, we will move some heavy processing parts of Etheremon to off-chain (centralized servers) to proceed and commit the changes to Ethereum network in batches.
I know you recently just upgraded the game so users can move their Etheremon, how has that been going?
Players can sell, lend, release, transfer their Etheremon to others now. We have thousands selling & lending now (https://www.etheremon.com/#/market).
Transforming and laying egg will be released tomorrow.
Where do you see the game at in 5 years?
You see how people are crazy about Pokemon? Etheremon can do the same thing, especially when the Etheremons have a limit and no one controls them.
We have a clear roadmap for the Etheremon project. You can expect the Etheremon esport tournament to be held every year.
VR technology is also applied to Etheremon. We are trying to partner with some VR companies also.
Why should crypto holders play Etheremon?
Artworks are as cute as Pokemon, gameplay is very interesting and they can earn money.
Last Question, what is was your favorite game to play before games were put on the blockchain?!
Pokemon, League of Legends, Dota.
Etheremon currently has held 19K battles completed on its platform, to date and 357 castles have been built. If you’d like to learn more about the game click here.
We’d like to thank Jarvis Nguyen for taking the time to sit down with CryptoCurrencyNews.com for an exclusive interview.
