This was my first time attending a fest and it was an interesting experience. I never thought I would be attending a Hivefest as I’m not much of a traveler. With 2020 this presented the unique opportunity to jump into the fun with it being hosted in AltspaceVR this year.

While I’m known for being a huge gamer I do not own any kind of VR headset. As such, I was rather pleased one was not required and you could join with a PC. Between attending a few presentations and exploring around I had quite the blast.

Checking Out HiveFest Areas

I loved the layout and the ease of movement by just clicking on a few a map to be teleported to where I wanted to go. The areas were not overwhelming large to the point someone could get lost either. AltspaceVR itself has a certain low poly look that is not very taxing on requirement either making it easy for a wide range of individuals to be able to join.

The main lobby itself was buzzing with talks for a large portion of the event. Only late at night did it seem to clear out. Many people I have never seen before. With so many without a Hive badge from signing up beforehand. It did make me wonder how many of them had no idea what Hive was till this event. AltspaceVR seems like it could hold quite an interesting opportunity to onboard more tech-savvy individuals in the future.

It was quite interesting the amount of thought and technology that went into this event as well. One of the areas set up was a Photo Booth Island where I ended up picking up my badge that provides all kinds of options for interacting with others. All from entering in my secrete memo that was sent to my Hive wallet beforehand to acquire a badge that my character walked around with for the remaining of Hivefest.

They even had a nice little area set up to take some photos. You could even select objects to have with you in the photo. Everyone at least when I was there was kindly waiting in line without having to be told to wait their turn. Which I feel speaks a great amount about the kind of people you typically find in the Hive community overall.

There was also a nice area set up as an art gallery for artworks from NFTShowRoom. There is just something about artwork being displayed in a gallery that makes it even more real. Even if it is a digital art gallery at that. So many amazing pieces displayed with many wondering individuals checking them all out.

Finally, there was the main stage area where I spent the bulk of my time at Hivefest 2020 hearing the different presentations being given. So many of the major dapps within the Hive ecosystem made an appearance to talk about their app and the future it has. We also got to hear about some up and coming things coming such as some new blockchain games.

With there being four different main areas to check out regarding Hivefest I felt it was more than enough space for everyone that attended. You could wander off on your own if you wanted a break from the crowds or presentations and just check out some cool stuff.

Curated Worlds

One nice touch I liked about Hivefest is not everything there was all about Hive itself. There was one area itself in the main lobby that had portals to worlds outside of the event. Some of them seemed quite random and others were a bit more cryptocurrency-themed. I rather enjoyed exploring what they had to offer when nothing was going on.

I ended up adventuring into a maze, cave, cities, and a spaceship in hyper warp. Out of all of these, I think it would have to be the BTC citadel that stood out the most. From the cryptocurrency culture that was included inside of that world and the silliness as well seen in the above screenshot.

These all inspired me to want to try my hand with world-building within AltspaceVR. That flame was quickly put out as I did not find it an enjoyable experience. From looking further into it they did not seem to have support for UE4 which I’m more accustomed to. Perhaps in the future, I’ll give it another go. They do have support for Unity.

Presentations

My main reason for attending HiveFest was for the presentations. While sure you could watch the live streams of them in several places. There is just something about actually being there even if it’s just in a virial world that makes it special.

Part of the fun of Hivefest being virtual this year was showing up to a presentation I felt I would be interested in. There were two full days of over a dozen each day going on. I’ll admit I did not attend them all. While most of them I was there in the world itself I did watch a couple on a live stream as well if I was a bit more limited on time.

Outside of some technical issues, odd things with AltspaceVR and some open microphones in the audience. It was quite an interesting setup. It was cool they had working slideshows and a special controller the presenters could pick up. At times it seems like they were trying to hide the controller from the host!

I was really happy to hear about two new games in development in the Hive ecosystem. A platform like this seems like a great place to have a launch or game announcements and I could see more wanting to do something like this in the future.

The one I was most interested to hear about was Unsung Hero which was just titled as “new game” in the schedule. While I did not know it was going to be an idle game going into it. It was by Scrooger so I knew it would be something cool. It was great seeing what he has been up to these days. I look forward to playing it next year.

The second one was Ocean Planet. Being a huge fan of the movie Water World myself as well and playing games like Raft this seemed like it would catch my attention. It looks like they already have something playable and I’ll have to investigate further into the adventure game they are making.

Final Thoughts

I’m at least glad I was able to attend Hivefest 2020 in AltspaceVR this year. It was something that was felt needed by the community and it was great to see all the people that showed up for it. Perhaps one day in a few years I’ll attend one in person. This method of going about it allowed so many different people to attend that would not normally be able to.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar. Screenshots are from AltspaceVR.