APRIL DEVBLOG ?

Game Assets

Skins are now tokens running on the liquid sidechain ?

We have been extremely focused on implementing a distributed  infrastructure to provide extra security and ownership to our game assets. This implementation is still pretty early but we have adapted the tokenisation process to match as much as possible with the gameplay specification to be compatible with the Arena game mode.

Improvements at play.lightnite.io

On the web platform, in the library section, after the purchase of a skin, now you can inspect additional information about the tokenised asset properties related to such item.

We wanted to keep simple and minimalistic the amount of data to be displayed, so only extremely important fields are displayed such as the asset rarity, type and id. We plan to add withdrawals and deposits of assets during the next month(s).

Alternatively, you can click on the view in the explorer button to have more detailed information about that asset on our new skins explorer!

Skins Explorer

Great news! We put together the first utxo-based NFT token explorer in bitcoin history ?

The explorer is available at explorer.lightnite.io and you can see all the current available skins in the game as well as their liquid asset properties. Currently you can filter skins by rarity type as well as searching by skin name, utxo, & liquid id.

We want our explorer to offer the same user experience and same features of an average bitcoin explorer. So users assets will be public but pseudonymous, the same as a bitcoin address does not expose the user identity or sensible data. Then, you would also be able to find how many assets a user has if you know the user id.

When inspecting a single game asset, users can view a 3D rendered image of the actual skin as well as clicking on the next or previous asset form the explorer.

We are also working on a standard to make this solution accessible for game developers to implement their own game assets, but this will take more time to be publicly available.

For a higher-level of detail, when inspecting a game skins, you can view the liquid technical data about the asset issuance details or the actual transaction. We are also putting together a more detailed blog post to go through the entire assets system to make sure everyone fully understands:

• Provable scarcity of our game skins.
• Proof of ownership of our game skins.
• Conceptual differences between our game assets & skins.

Just wait for that post to be released, it will be very helpful to understand all the special properties of our game assets.

Game Art

This month, we worked hard on getting more branded assets and locations done to highlight our commitment to foster our collaborations. Additionally, we prepared models for the mini-game of the upcoming release. The assets include character skins, weapon skins and hoverboards that the characters use to traverse the map. The locations are points of interest on the map that players will be rewarded with loot upon exploring them.

Character Skins

CryptoCloaks Character

The character wears a purple hoodie and comes equipped with a custom-made CryptoCloaks backpack. You can find out more about CryptoCloaks here.

Mr.Hodl Character

A character skin was made for Mr.Hodl based on his iconic profile picture with the gas mask and the black hoodie.

Magical Crypto Friends Characters

We prepared models inspired by the characters from the Magical Crypto Friends (MCF) show, Pony, Lion, Panda, and Chikun. You can learn more about MCF here. Please check out this offer https://lightnite.io/ref=mcf if you are interested in obtaining a special discount + all the four characters of MCF to use them in the game.

Weapon Skins

Wasabi Wallet Rifle

This rifle was textured using colours from the Wasabi Wallet logo.

Spending Bitcoin Pistol

Similarly, this pistol is coloured after the Spending Bitcoin logo.

Mini-game Models

Coronavirus Models

The models will be featured in the Coronavirus mini-game which is planned for the next release. As the model takes damage, it will start cracking and the cracks will continue to get bigger till the virus cell is broken. The pieces will fly away under the force of impact of the bullets. We are still experimenting with the design. You will find a few work-in-progress renders below.

Character customization

One of the new exciting functionalities that we've been working on is the ability to finally use your custom characters and items in the game, to be available soon in an upcoming release.

Please note that not all items will be available right off the bat, as some may require features that are not yet implemented (e.g. hoverboards, different types of  weapons, etc).

A new character customization screen will allow you to select which character to play with and equip/unequip items such as guns, hats, and other props available in your profile. You can preview how your character looks as you browse the categories.

For now the in-game functionality is restricted to browsing items that are already available in your profile, so to add more items, you need to get them through the external store.

In the future we plan to allow shopping within the game client as well, though there may be restrictions on some platforms, so we're currently working on ways to gracefully support all of them.

Core Mechanics

A new specification for the backend api has been designed, catering for advanced features such as load balancing, communication encryption and other security measures, local cache efficiency, etc.

Currently only a subset of features will be implemented (mainly related to characters and items), but this will be expanded in the near future as other features are implemented in the game client (e.g. leaderboards, achievements, friends, teams, etc).

Authentication

A new login option has been introduced, which will allow the user to link the game to an existing profile.

This allows the user to save progress across different devices, and recover their profile if the game ever needs to be re-installed.

In the near future we will also make available a guest mode, where no login is required, although any progress will be bound to the current device, and may be lost if the game is re-installed.

Authentication will also allow early access to the game on distribution platforms other than Steam, to be announced soon.

Satoshis integration

The in-game satoshis balance now reflects the external store current balance, and in an upcoming release, minigames will award satoshis for gameplay points.

Due to Steam's terms and services we won't be able to allow bitcoin withdrawals directly from the game balance, only from the external store.
In the near future, this functionality may be integrated on other distribution platforms that don't enforce such restrictions.

Prototype Improvements

The month of April was mostly dedicated to fixing issues with the current prototype, along with several enhancements, such as:

• Better movement and aim control
• Better controller input control (see settings options below)
• Improved camera collision resolver
• Unlimited ammo while playing the minigame
• French and Turkish community translated language packs
• Interactable items with physics and better colliders
• Personal best score on minigames
• A slew of bug fixes and other minor improvements

New settings options

By popular demand, the settings options have been expanded considerably, including new functionality such as:

• Separate options by controller type (general, keyboard, gamepad, etc)
• Toggle whether to invert the vertical axis or not
• Adjust look/aim sensitivity
• Redefine keyboard/mouse layout
• Redefine gamepad layout

April was great, May will be even better!

New upcoming releases in May bring a ton of exciting new functionality, along with bug fixes and stability improvements and, of course: new minigames!

Thanks for staying with us in this intrepid adventure, we're working hard to fulfil all of your expectations, one milestone at a time... ;)

And if you're not part of this community yet, what are you waiting for? Join us now! :)