Hello, World.
In this post we'd like to announce a gaming project we've been working on called Holozing. We'll start out by writing down the current Litepaper which you'll be able to follow the updated version on the link provided and then we'll move on with details about the token launch.
Litepaper
Game Overview
HoloZing is a Web3 enabled monster catching, training, and battling game. It draws strong inspiration from classics like Pokémon and World of Warcraft. The game has four unique elements that set it apart from similar games and other web3 games:
- Players are not given much information about the monsters they encounter, requiring them to make mid-battle decisions. Players who take the time to watch for patterns, research, and diligently experiment will have an advantage.
- The aspect of Healing and HP management is a central part of the PvE element of the game.
- The game’s economy and assets are backed by the robust Hive blockchain and ecosystem, enabling play-to-earn and play-to-own mechanics.
- No team allocation, founder’s share, or pre-mine.
History and Inspiration
HoloZing is the brainchild of longtime Hive user and contributor @acidyo (Acid), who is perhaps best known for growing and running the OCD (Original Content Decentralized) and POSH (Proof Of Sharing) projects on Hive.
Work on HoloZing began in 2023 when web2 platforms handicapped the main usage of his POSH project through unrealistic API costs. POSH had been built on years of effort, but suddenly needed more use cases for the token. Acid considered connecting the POSH to other projects on Hive, but nothing quite fit his requirements in terms of operation or tokenomics. Instead, he decided to finally pull the trigger on his gaming idea he had been working on for years but never found the perfect moment to start.
Similar to OCD, POSH, HoloZing aims to be a bootstrapped effort, funded mostly through blood, sweat, and tears. No founder’s shares, venture capital, angel investors, etc. The only significant injection for the game’s economy will come from the POSH project: a fairly distributed economy that lives on the same ecosystem as HoloZing. The goal is to make it as fair as possible for the players and passive investors from the very start.
This is a passion project for Acid—an avid gamer since childhood with tons of experience across genres and platforms. He loved the Pokemon-franchise when he was a teenager, and graduated to more competitively complex titles as he got older. When web3 entered the gaming scene, at first he couldn’t understand the criticism it received from the masses—in his eyes, web3’s ownership and incentive opportunities held massive promise to the whole sector. As he delved more deeply into the web3 gaming projects that were out there, it became apparent that most had little to no vision, misunderstood or didn’t care about blockchain based systems, and were focused chiefly on short-term gain (or outright fraud).
HoloZing seeks to be the polar opposite: a collectible-based game with a sense of accomplishment, competitiveness, smart incentives and an ever-growing and evolving ecosystem that allows for cross-compatibility of in-game assets. Most importantly, the capacity to share the value generated between everyone participating. This is what the true promise of decentralized gaming can offer, and it is what Acid and his team are working hard to build.
Team
@acidyo - Founder, Game Design Lead
Having been a blockchain enthusiast for over a decade and a gamer for even longer, he wants to create something long-lasting and fun for people to enjoy the advantages that this technology makes possible. With a couple of big projects already up and running and having stood the test of time on Hive, he aims to give players and investors the value they can't find anywhere else while being part of a gaming ecosystem.
@rishi556 - Back-end developer and Hive integration
Rishi is a seasoned software developer with a lot of experience in the exciting world of blockchain technology. With multiple years of work on the Hive blockchain, Rishi has honed his skills to develop the best possible solutions. Alongside his software development knowledge, he's familiar with both system and network engineering making for a very experienced developer.
@asgarth - Blockchain Developer
Creator of several web3 projects and Full Stack Web3 developer with a passion for turning code into captivating experiences for the community.
GameSuper Blame - Game Networking Engineer
Blame has accumulated over 8 years of experience in game development, during which he has created a diverse range of 2D and 3D games. He has had the opportunity to participate in several large-scale online games powered by blockchain technology, which aim to foster a strong sense of community among players. He firmly believes that the world of gaming has the power to enrich and enhance our lives, making them more exciting and beautiful. As a game developer, his ultimate dream is to create a widely beloved online game that provides players with an immersive and unforgettable gaming experience.
@jfuji - Content and Game Design
With a background in professional writing and marketing, jfuji has always been fascinated by the psychology that drives exciting game experiences. From storytelling to flow state engineering, he believes gaming is the ultimate creative playground. jfuji is a trailblazer in web3 serial publishing, using Hive to release tell on-chain novels part by part. Since discovering Hive in early 2022, he has supported many of the ecosystem’s communities and projects in marketing, creative communication, and more.
@rubencress - Creative Director
Ruben Cress, a Dutch creative professional with a Bachelor's in Motion Graphic Design, is a renowned Commercial Photographer and Creative Director. Ruben is an active member of the Hive Blockchain community for over five years and is passionate about playing the piano, (Web3) gaming, and blockchain tech.
@hiddenblade - Art
As an artist with a fine arts background, hiddenblade has been creating art in digital medium and working with the use of blockchain technology since 2018. As one of the pioneers in cryptoart scene, she has gained experience and networking around the NFT art space. Her role in the project includes polishing of the art and creating some of the illustrations for the website.
@strawhat - Game and level Design
Strawhat is a passionate Game and Level Designer with a lifelong love for gaming. Their journey began as a dedicated gamer, exploring countless games and understanding what makes them tick. Beyond that, they've founded the largest gaming community on the Hive Blockchain, creating a space for gamers to create and collaborate for over seven years. They play games whenever possible and are driven by the belief that games have the power to inspire individuals.
@mobbs - Music
Having pursued music since an early age, mobbs has made a career out of being a composer for games, films and commercials, a choir director and all-round music educator. Best of the lot, composing for games is historically a goldmine of musical adventure, as all traditional rules and restrictions need not apply. Mobbs has been publishing music education and reviews on hive for over 6 years, as well as sharing various performances and composing for hive commercial videos.
Lore
HoloZing is set in the 2040s, in a world where global gaming networks are common and digitized realities are the norm. Players take on the role of a futuristic gamer that uses the proprietary Holo-Lens device to access the world of the HoloZing game, duel with other players, gain fame and glory in esports leagues, and more.
A vision for what blockchain gaming could one day evolve into, HoloZing aims to give Players a taste of the future, today.
Alpha Gameplay
Once the game is out in alpha, you'll start off with purchasing a healer NFT, representing your character. Then you need to get yourself a starter pack that’ll give you the necessary items and your first creature for playing.
The reason you have to purchase to get started is to discourage bot and multi-account usage. The funds received fully go towards the game’s ecosystem, and will be used for growth and evolution. None of it is kept for-profit by a single entity.
Monsters in the wild (PvE)
Progressing in the game and being competitive in PvP requires you to capture and efficiently train wild monsters. By design, HoloZing offers a range of styles for PvE, all of which manifest based on how the Player wants to approach the game.
Casual Players will enjoy the variety of monsters, the regularity and rhythm of leveling, and the power to use in-game automation to ensure they are progressing even when offline. Battles in PvE are not that hard to win… but winning is just the beginning.
Competitive Players will realize that they need to be very picky about the PvE battles that they spend their time and energy on. Capturing rare and powerful monsters from PvE will require skill and deeper game knowledge. Ensuring that captured monsters get the most out of their level-ups also requires that they are properly matched in PvE encounters.
Top Players will need to employ a mix of complex and complementary strategies, including highly efficient PvE encounters, selective PvP matches, and a thorough understanding of the secondary markets for game assets.
Monster Stats
Players will find familiar stats for creatures, such as attack, agility, defense, and HP. Where HoloZing gets interesting is in how it approaches creature rarity and stat leveling. Two creatures may look the exact same and have the same type—but their min and max stats per level can vary wildly.
A common rarity creature is one whose stats are on the lower end of the spectrum for its level. An epic rarity is one closer to the maximum. Therefore, your creatures’ rarities can improve or degrade over time—it all depends on how you train them!
Encountering monsters
The world of HoloZing is filled with a wondrous range of biomes and creatures. In the pre-beta version of the game, players will encounter and battle creatures (PvE) and be able to challenge other players (PvP).
The website will allow you to “concentrate” when your daily encounters appear, this is done to prevent you from receiving notifications of a nearby creature you may want to battle when you should be focusing on work, school, or other boring things such as sleep. The encounters will consist of random creatures with random stats (the stats won’t be fully random since higher stat creatures are more rare and thus don’t appear as often).
Battle outcomes (PvE)
Battles can end in a variety of ways:
- Monster defeated: you and your monsters have reduced the wild monster’s HP to zero. You and your monster will gain XP according to how hard the fight was.
- Monster wins: Your monsters’ HP was reduced to zero. You will suffer a penalty but gain a small about of XP. There will be a mana cost to revive your creature.
- Monster flees: The monster runs away from you before the battle ends. You will gain a small amount of XP based on type and damage caused to its HP.
- You flee: You run away from a fight. No penalty will apply but you also won’t get XP. Any resources spent in the fight will be lost.
- Monster captured: You were able to successfully capture the monster! This monster will now be available to fight for you and level up and you’ll be able to know its exact stats and abilities. If your roster is full the creature will be sent to your storage.
Battle anatomy
Battle will be familiar to those who enjoy and play turn based RPGs.
Whether engaged in PvE or PvP, battlers will have a set amount of time to choose from a variety of actions or skills. The action is then executed, and its effectiveness is determined by a mix of factors, including luck (random number generation), the opponent’s stats, and the opponent’s previous choices.
In PvE, there are multiple outcomes (see Battle outcomes (PvE)).
In PvP, the aim is to reduce all your opponent’s monster’s HP to zero.
The Healer role
The Healer system is a unique take on the classic battler. The mechanics should be immediately familiar to most gamers, but new and nuanced enough to add a nice twist of strategy.
Healers are humanoid monster trainers—the Player’s character is one of these Healers.
Each battle has at least one Healer (the Player), and at most two (during PvP).
Healers have their own stats and skills that can drastically change the tide of battle. As the name implies, most of this is through healing your own monsters. A basic heal action restores some amount of your monster’s HP. More advanced skills and abilities can grant buffs to the monster, or nerfs to the opponent, change battle rules, etc.
Using healing skills drains a Player’s mana, which does not fully recharge between battles. This lack of recharge means that the Player must be judicious in the use of their healing skills.
Strategic and efficient use of healing and mana will result in the fastest and most rewarding progression in the game.
Capturing monsters
Monsters that you encounter in PvE can be added to your roster of collected monsters. They can be trained and used in future PvE and PvP battles.
A monster must have low (but not 0) HP in order to be captured. The “sweet spot” is different for each monster. An opponent monster’s exact HP may not always be available for the Player to see, so instinct, practice, and trial and error will be a big part of capturing monsters.
Capturing the “right” monsters also adds a layer of meta-strategy. Most PvE monsters will be serviceable, but a competitive Player will want to be discerning and aim to capture rare and powerful monsters. Which monsters are which are not always apparent on the surface, so Players will need to pay attention to clues during a fight to see which wild monsters may have special skills or unusual stats.
Capturing will require its own tool, a capturing device powered by laser ammo and empty cards that will potentially hold your future monster if caught successfully. The ammo and cards may vary in strength based on its rarities. It’ll be a futuristic polaroid camera that shoots a laser beam to attempt to capture a weakened monster then prints out a card containing it and revealing its exact stats.
Leveling and training monsters
Monsters gain experience every time they fight. Once they hit an XP threshold, they will level up and gain stats. This system will feel very familiar to anyone who has played an RPG game.
HoloZing’s leveling system does have one unique aspect: not all XP is treated equal!
For example, if your monster gets most of its XP by fighting monsters of a weaker type (i.e. you grind away with easy fights), the stat-gain upon leveling will be low or modest. Conversely, if you are always engaging in challenging fights, when your monster levels up it will enjoy a significantly higher roll on its stat increase and more XP.
This system allows casual collector types to enjoy progression without intense strategy, while also rewarding those who want to compete with a way to maximize their roster.
Arena battles (PvP)
PvP will allow players to challenge other players in their rank range for weekly rewards. Players will be able to earn $ZING based on where on the rank ladder they end up before the week is over. A minimum amount of ‘games played against unique players of equal win ratio’ will be required to be eligible for rewards.
Ladder brackets will also be split up between levels and other various categories (for instance only certain rarity creatures or healer items allowed) with rewards distributed to each ladder.
Professions
There will be a wide variety of professions to choose from and level up.
These include gathering professions like Botany, Mining, and Scavanging, or crafting professions such as Cooking, Alchemy, Engineering, Forging, and more. For many Players, professions will be necessary to progress in the game or to trade your way into gear upgrades, enchantments, and other cool items.
We have also planned a passive way to earn gathering materials while offline to help discourage bots and farmers.
Professions will be a big part of the game’s economy in terms of crafting items players can use in-game and outside of battles.
Tokenomics
This section describes the game’s economy from a web3 perspective. Unlike traditional games, the $ZING token is much more than an in-game currency. As a cryptocurrency (fungible token) it can be traded on secondary markets, used by other Hive-based projects, held by non-Players, and a huge range of other creative uses enabled by Web3 technology.
An instinctive question many folks have is, “Does this mean I can make money by playing HoloZing?”
The short answer is yes—but exactly how much depends on a multitude of factors and is a more complicated discussion. This section explores the raw technical facts and plans for both the $ZING token and other ownable and tradeable game assets (non-fungible tokens, aka NFTs).
The $ZING token
$ZING is the game’s main currency. It is used for many things in-game, including:
- Item recharges (e.g. your Capturing Device)
- Crafting gear and gear upgrades/enhancements
- Crafting consumables along with other materials
- Cosmetics
- Tournament entry
- Progression
Because HoloZing is a Web3 game, you are able to trade or send $ZING tokens to anyone else who has a Hive Engine wallet (whether they play the game or not is irrelevant). The game cannot do anything to your $ZING—it belongs only to the person who holds the cryptographic keys to the Hive Engine wallet.
It is also possible to “stake” $ZING tokens. This means you make them unusable and untradable (but you still own and control them). If you wish to un-stake the tokens, you must wait for a predetermined amount of time before you can get them back (four weeks is a common timeframe). Doing this can help bring stability to the token economy, and it sends a signal to everyone else that you won’t sell or use these tokens for a while. Many projects give rewards to people who stake their tokens. Most of the distribution will occur in staked Zing while some rewards may happen in liquid Zing.
$ZING Distribution
Full distribution plans for $ZING will be announced soon. What we can say is that to start, we will reward HP delegation and POSH holders with staked $ZING. Those pending rewards will be claimable once every hour. The amount going to POSH holders will be limited based on how much POSH assisted on kickstarting the funding of this project.
Future plans for distribution include activity-based rewards, such as:
- Tournaments/weekly ranked ladders
- Creature collection, based on amount of creatures caught and their rarities
- In-game Professions
- In-game items and gear
- In-game achievements and titles
Transferring assets
Moving your assets from in-game to on-chain requires the signing of a blockchain transaction. On many blockchains, this costs “gas” and can be prohibitively expensive.
HoloZing is built on the Hive blockchain and ecosystem, meaning that transfer fees are 100% free. Hive uses something called Resource Credits (RC) to pay for gas. Every Hive account has a small amount of RC that recharges every day. You can get much more RC by staking $HIVE tokens as Hive Power (HP) or by receiving delegated RC directly.
If you are transferring your $ZING tokens infrequently (e.g. once or twice a day), you will never need to worry about RC or HP.
If you want to participate in more complex and involved Hive actions (e.g. buying/selling $ZING, transferring NFTs, performing certain actions in-game that rely on the Hive blockchain, earning crypto by posting about Zing or other topics on Hive), we recommend acquiring and staking about 10 $HIVE to be able to do this comfortably. Other Hive users can also delegate you both HP or RC, so if you cannot afford the $HIVE, ask a guildmate or friend.
Roadmap
- 3D Battle prototype - Done 🎯
- Website - Done 🎯
- Token creation - Done 🎯
- Starter creatures artwork - Done 🎯
- Game logic - Done 🎯
Closed Alpha - Q4 2023
- Character/Healer artwork and generation 🛠
- Genesis Starter Pack sales 🛠
- Healer character sales 🛠
- Creature and healer balancing 🛠
Open Alpha - Q1 2024
- Item Balancing 🛠
- Play Testing 🛠
- Professions 🛠
Open Beta - Q2 2024
At this point we envision the game to be playable through the website and unity for PvE and PvP battles. We aim to have a ton of different creatures available for players to discover and capture. A mobile-ready version is planned to exist at this time as well.
Launch - Late 2024
The vision for official Launch is for Players to have a big space to explore, train their gathering and crafting professions and encounter creatures in the wild while also being able to see other players, chat, inspect. and even challenge them in the game world for battles.
Much more on top of this is planned for future phases as well!
Stay tuned by following us on Hive @holozing
Official Hive community: Peakd, Hive.blog, Ecency, inLeo
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/holozing
Discord: https://discord.gg/EGzdV9z8BG
We will be updating you with posts on new additions to the Whitepaper and upcoming exciting details on Healers, Monsters, items, professions, and much more!
Token Claimdrop Launch
For the project to remain as fair as possible to users we're announcing the token launch ahead of time to let everyone prepare to participate from the very beginning.
Website: https://holozing.com/
Launch Date: 7:00 PM (19:00) UTC on Saturday the 21st of October 2023.
Details:
To participate in the token launch, you will have to delegate Hive Power to the @zingtoken account and/or have POSH tokens in your hive-engine wallet and log on to the website once to register. Following that and past the date mentioned above, you'll be able to claim staked Zing to your account on the rewards page once every hour. These tokens will appear on your hive-engine wallet.
Make sure to delegate at least an hour in advance to launch time to be one of the first to claim and to sign up using Keychain on the website when login is made available a day prior to launch.
Further details on token inflation, POSH's role and reason towards its claimdrop, and more to be posted a day before the launch along with a reminder to sign up on the website and to be ready!
