AMA with Naramunz
On the 21st of January, 2022 at 14:00 UTC, Decentralized Club had the honor of hosting Åke André from Crystals of Naramunz for an Ask-Me-Anything session on their Telegram page with a community of over 70,000 people. It was hosted by DC Admin, May.
The session was divided into three segments. Introductions were made in Segment 1, questions from the Twitter community were answered in Segment 2 and live questions from the community members in attendance were answered in Segment 3.
If you missed this event and would like to know what Crystals of Naramunz are all about, you can find a recap of the interview here. Information here should be researched and should not be taken as investment or financial advice. Also note that slight edits have been made for clarity, and links in this recap lead to images, documents, or other media.
Segment 1 - Introduction
[May]
Hello, 大家好, नमस्ते, Selamat!
My name is May and I'll be hosting the AMA with Crystals of Naramunz.
Today, we have with us a guest from the Naramunz Team.
[Åke André]
Thanks for having me @MsMayMay looking forward to this AMA.
[May]
You're welcome to the Decentralized Club 😊
How's your day going?
[Åke André]
I'm watching the red sea of blood in crypto but otherwise, all is good. :)
[May]
Aha! 😅
It's a Red Thursday everywhere!
[Åke André]
Starts to feel CT is as it was back in 2018 :)
all doom and gloom
[May]
I know, right? Can't wait for Bitcoin to hit six figures 😁
Before we get started, could you please tell us about yourself and your role at Naramunz?
[Åke André]
lol
Sure, I'm Åke André and I am the founder and CEO of this project. I'm an old-school gamer geek who spent way too much time grinding stuff as a teenager. Grew up...okay lie, according to my age I'm 40+ but mindset... let's just say it's lower ;)
I've spent around 20 years in the gambling industry, 8 years in fintech, and have been involved with crypto since 2017
In 2020 I and some friends here in Sweden where I live started the company Crypto Rogue Games that is behind this project Crystals of Naramunz.
[May]
This is great!
It's really great to have you!
[Åke André]
Thank you 😁
[May]
So much experience 🥳
https://t.me/addstickers/MayTheHost
[May]
Let's get straight into the session.
Can you tell us about Naramunz and the inspiration that got it started?
[Åke André]
Sure
Crystals of Naramunz is set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world laced with sci-fi elements. The game takes place about a thousand years after an impact event known as The Great Tear.
The game is a multiplayer action RPG in the same vein as Diablo II, Path of Exile, and Torchlight II. Those are the games we also drew inspiration from.
[May]
https://t.me/addstickers/Cheese
What innovative solution is Naramunz bringing to topple its competitors with similar offerings in the GameFi and NFT sector?
[Åke André]
Because we actually know how to build a multiplayer action RPG, let's start there :)
Then add that we are probably the crypto game project right now that takes legal and regulation very seriously and actually has an answer to tackle it. Meaning we are not worried to be shut down from a regulation standpoint. It's silly to think there is not going to be regulation issues for games that allow players to withdraw cryptocurrencies directly to their wallet as you can in 99% of all crypto games today.
We are tapping into NFTs with our game in a way that enables players to earn from playing a game without positioning the entire game as a VASP.
I think those two are key points with Crystals of Naramunz
Team with the know-how of successful action RPGs
The project/game is positioned to be legal from a regulation standpoint.
[May]
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
What is the gameplay of Naramunz and how can users get your NFT drops?
[Åke André]
Think old school diablo II 😊 For those that never played Diablo II:
The player chooses to play either as a mage, archer, or warrior. More characters will be released later on. The game starts in a bright overworld where the player receives a quest. To complete the quest the player must enter a dark underworld, defeat mobs & bosses, obtain loot, and return to the overworld where the quest reward and new quests await. The loot obtained in the underworld can be equipped, traded with other players, or stashed away for future use depending on player preference.
As for the NFTs, I know it’s a hot topic and something players want to have. In Crystals of Naramunz players will find the gear that they can turn into NFTs. Can you do it with every sword for example? No. And there is no point. The majority of loot you find in a game like Path of Exile or Diablo II are low to mid-level stuff, right? Why would you want to trade those? It's the endgame, high-level stuff that holds value and you as a player want to trade. It will be obvious in the game what gear can be turned into. NFTs.
Then you will have other NFTS such as ships, islands and pets, and so on. We will release some limited versions of different NFTs before the game. Follow us on Twitter or join our telegram channel to know what happens.
https://t.me/Naramunz
https://twitter.com/naramunz
[May]
This is brilliant gameplay!
Can you tell us about your native token and its utilities?
[Åke André]
We have created a core system so that everything is about the NARZ crystals. When a player with NARZ connects a wallet to the game. Those tokens will be represented as crystals in the game.
NARZ is where your character draws power from. One can view NARZ as a source of energy or battery. Imagine a mage and you have a mana pool that is also connected to the number of NARZ you have in your wallet/Inventory. The character can also augment items with NARZ to become more powerful and turn into NFTs. NARZ will also be needed to fuel a player's Airship to travel to different locations and to do exploration in the underworld of Naramunz.
This is just the tip of the iceberg and a full breakdown of utilities can be found in our whitepaper https://whitepaper.naramunz.com/token/utility
[May]
🎉
Dear community, please check out this whitepaper
Please give us a summary of your 2021 highlights and what major news should we look forward to from Naramunz in 2022?
[Åke André]
The entire year of 2021 has been just a crazy fast passing year. In some way, it feels we only have been neck-deep in development. When you lift your eyes for a moment and look back it's quite a lot of things we accomplished last year. We went from three guys with the vision of what we wanted to do. Now we are twenty people and growing.
Then we launched our whitepaper, social media, did a lot of locomotion and animation prototyping. Secured our seed and private rounds. We attended AIBC Malta and had a chance to meet a lot of other cool Web3 projects that we will work with in the future. Will announce some of these partners shortly on our social media.
Then it's always cool when you start to see your game come to live and you can do combat prototyping which we did last year.
As for 2022…I will focus on what will happen shortly. We will soon announce the strategic round wrap-up and those who joined in this round. I think many people will be surprised in a positive way who these VCs are 😊 Then you of course have the IDO.
We will make all of these announcements on Twitter so follow us there.
Lots of cool stuff in there ;)
May:
https://t.me/addstickers/OwledDidi
[May]
Congratulations on the team's growth!
Looking forward to more great news from your project!
[Åke André]
Thanks. It was a bit crazy last year :)
[May]
I can imagine 😄
[May]
Let's now take some questions from our Twitter community
[Åke André]
Excellent!
Segment 2 - Twitter Questions
[May]
Why did you decide to make $NARZ not essential to play the game?
Twitter Username: @cradled_in_
[Åke André]
hehehe
I think the person who asked this question should go to our whitepaper and read about the NARZ token and the utility of the token. 😊
https://whitepaper.naramunz.com/token/utility
It is true though that there is a pool of NARZ tokens that is reflected in the game. We have this one there because of players without a wallet. Do you know those traditional gamers who have no clue what a metamask wallet is? Well, those are the gamers you want to come and play the game also, right? Then once they play and they have cool items that they can turn into NFTs. Guess what? They will be incentivized to monetize them and turn them into NFTs 😊
I encourage those interested in this project to read the economy flow section in our whitepaper.
https://whitepaper.naramunz.com/economy-flow
It explains in detail how we, thanks to our economy flow model, can protect the value of NARZ and still open the game for non-crypto gamers.
[May]
Great answer!
Why do you think Crystals of Naramunz is a replay worthy game? In other words what makes it replay worthy?
Twitter Username: @static_current
[Åke André]
I really like this question. Because it focuses on the game and we are building the game with a “game first mentality”. So risk for a long answer here 😊
[May]
We're here for all of it 😁
[Åke André]
To make a game replay worthy you first need to have a sticky core loop in the game where the players are spending most of their time. Then you need really good core systems that also tie into the in-game economy. Here is where tons of “crypto game studios” fail to even come close to being successful. Normally you have “core story” playtime of a game like Diablo II or Path of Exile that’s around 20-24h. Once you play through that you have the end-game gameplay. That’s where the game expands and those of you who played Path of Exile know what I am talking about. It's here players spend 95% of their game time.
Now you need to give players forking path options in how they build or develop their characters. Easy example. You have an end-game grind with a fire mage focused on area damage. Well, that could be one build right? You could also go ice mage focused on single mob damage. Each character came from the same “original building block” but is forked differently and has different ways to contribute in end-game grouping with other players to take down end-game bosses etc.
We are applying forking path options to other things besides character build. We have not announced that yet so stay tuned 😊
Then with all of the above, you do “league seasons” with “re-set” of the in-game economy between each league. We will explain more how this re-set will work closer to the game being launched.
I hope that answers your question.
[May]
Great answer! We hope so too!
[Åke André]
😎
[May]
In your documentation, you mention that the treasury fund protects the value of $NARZ through three different mechanisms. Can you give us details about these mechanisms? What are they based on and how do they work?
Twitter Username: @KevinSalom1
[Åke André]
Good question and important one
I think to make it more simple for the people in this community to follow. I will use an image from the whitepaper to answer this question.
Treasury The treasury pool protects the value of NARZ via the following three mechanisms:
1) Continue holding the NARZ in the treasury to limit the amount of NARZ in circulation.
2) Refill the in-game pool to maintain its balance and sustain the in-game economy.
3) Liquidate NARZ to release more NARZ back into the circulation supply
That's from the whitepaper which I think the person on Twitter is referring to.
NARZ in-game pool will have 30% of all NARZ tokens in it and is not touching the circulating supply of NARZ. This pool has a 1:1 ratio to the number of crystals in the game. It’s there for those players who do not have a wallet and can find crystals in the game. The crystal has the same utility as a NARZ token. Before anyone says “but why should I buy NARZ?”. These are rare items found from mobs. A player starts with zero. Meaning you must grind to find them. Just as you can earn gems in a game like Clash Royal you can also buy these gems. Which players tend to do 😁
As these crystals are spent by players in the game. May it be for paying fees to use airships for underworld exploration or minting really cool NFTs. These will be moved to the Treasury. They can come from either NARZ in-game pool or a Players wallet.
When the tokens are in the Treasury they are not in circulation supply on any exchange etc. Meaning less NARZ out there to create sell pressure. When the in-game pool gets low we can then reset that pool. Meaning we transfer NARZ to the NARZ in-game pool. AKA "in-game economy reset" which can be applied between different leagues/seasons.
If there are too few NARZ in the circulation supply then NARZ can be sold back to the market.
The way we see it is that this economic flow model accomplishes three things.
1. Enables players without a wallet to play the game earn Crystals and get adopted into crypto. Which is what we all want. To have more people using crypto.
2. We stay compliant and not a VASP. Cause you can only monetize your playtime/earnings via NFTs through the NFT portal. (an important one)
3. We protect the value of NARZ aka we do not want NARZ to be another SLP token 😉
[May]
A minute for the community to read 🥳
[Åke André]
lol Yeah, might be needed :)
[May]
🥳
The main story of the Naramunz can be played alone, but the end of the game, which is where players will spend 95% of their time, relies heavily on trade and cooperation with other players. How does the Naramunz player reward system work? Is it a play-to-earn game?
Twitter Username: @jogamboa08
[Åke André]
First I need to be “crystal” clear that in Crystals of Naramunz you can not find NARZ in the game that can be withdrawn to your wallet and sold on an exchange. The NARZ is represented as a crystal in the game. You can find more crystals in the game (hence the in-game pool).
How you monetize, and we see it as play AND earn. You find rare items that have true value in the game and which players want to have. Those you can turn into NFTs through the NFT portal. Then sold on the open market. After all, in games, the items that have true utility in the game are the ones that players will want. When I say utility I'm not referring from a crypto point of view. I'm referring from a gamer's point of view. Hope that makes sense :)
[May]
I understand that we can play Crystal of Naramunz either to generate rewards or just for fun, but if we really want to just have fun, then we don't need to buy NFTs, right? Or will we also need the NFT even if it's just for entertainment?
Twitter Username: @AugustK95
[Åke André]
No, you do not need the NFTs or NARZ to just start and play the game. Neither of these should be some kind of barrier for any person who wants to start playing the game. We at Crypto Rogue Games who are developing this game have never understood why you want to limit your audience in such a way? Isn’t it cooler to play a great game with a MUCH bigger potential player base? Do you think League of Legends would have the same success if it had the same brick wall of crypto in front of it as Axie? The answer is no.
Then you can monetize your game time in Crystals of Naramunz through NFTs if you want.
I as a kid spent tons of hours on Diablo and later Diablo II. I WISH I could have gotten some proper money playing that game. As a traditional gamer, I couldn’t have cared less if it was a crypto game or not. I would have cared if I could earn $100 a month playing the game.
NFTs are there as something that helps you as a player to earn something from your time playing. It's up to you if you want to do that or not. After all, You are the person who owns the item. Not we as a company. Which was the case with other games when I grew up. NFT is there to decentralize the ownership of items in games. So why not enjoy the earning part while having fun? That's how we see it in crypto rogue games.
[May]
Yes! So glad we can get money from games now!
[Åke André]
Yeah, it's a new way of grinding a game :) Could say I'm doing this for my kids. So they can come back and claim they are not "wasting" time in front of the computer 😂
[May]
Hahahaha! Yes!
[May]
It's now time to take questions from our live audience
[Åke André]
Hehe, let's do it 🙈😁
[May]
In this 3rd segment, I will open the group for some seconds for the live community to shoot you some pressing questions.
Please pick five original questions to answer.
Try to ignore generic, vague, and copy-paste questions 😊
[Åke André]
https://t.me/addstickers/Crocosaurus
[May]
What's your favorite fruit?
[Åke André]
I'm a mango person :)
[May]
Dear community, please use Mr. Ake's favorite fruit in your questions.
The group will be unmuted shortly.
Segment 3 - Live Questions
[May]
🥳 So many good questions!
Kindly prioritize the questions with your favorite fruit MANGO. Your favorite fruit was added to show originality 🎉
[Åke André]
Yup, there are some really good questions. Give me a min to just scan through them.
[Vivek]
Security is the top priority for the community now :), How can we believe that Crystals of Naramunz is 100% safe and secure enough against hackers? Mango
[Åke André]
Okay, I am taking this one first cause I see some other people are writing about this one. Those didn't have mango in them though. However, they touch an important part.
[Lestmaris Vera]
The industry and I mean GameFi is lacking in games with a game-first mentality in MY opinion. How does Naramunz work for his game to have addictive core systems? Why wouldn't they be another boring NFT game?
Mango
[Åke André]
This is the second question I choose
So if you consider you have a team with 20+ experience in in-game monetization and founders from a studio like Grinding Gear Games is the company behind Path of Exile. Well, that gives you a team of people who know how to build core systems for multiplayer action RPGs. If we claimed that we were building let's say a strategy game like Civ VI or something like that. Well, I would tell you all to run in the other direction :)
A studio needs to have the know-how to connect the core systems in a game to the in-game economy. Then to know how to build sticky core-loops in the game.
We as a studio have this knowledge.
End of the day it's going to be our players to judge us if we are as good as we claim to be ;) I do think the chance is higher that this team has what it takes than crypto people trying to build a game and slapping crypto on top of it just cause NFTs are hot right now.
[Ana]
Crystals of Naramunz is a multiplayer action role-playing game inspired by Diablo II, Path of Exile, and Torchlight II. So, knowing the previous games, how easy can it be for a user who has already played these games to mine his token? How do you not make it so easy? MANGO
[Åke André]
Just cause the person asking this question knows the games we draw inspiration from. I chose this one. :)
This is all about balance in the game which is very important. For certain main features/skills/actions and early on in the game you might need less of the Crystals and this will gradually increase in difficulty cause you need more of them. It's all a balance. That's why making these games is not something you just whip out of the cereal box, right? :) Luckily we have some really sharp-minded people who are doing these calculations so they are connected well with the core system.
[Gay]
It is impossible to start a project without investment.
What is the most advantageous benefit that your project will provide to investors so that investors are attracted to invest in your project?
🥭
[Åke André]
I think this is different for each project. In our case, a core team is a group of friends who have had success as entrepreneurs and our previous projects. We made our money that way. Then we invested our own money into starting this project.
As for finding investment most VCs look at the team and try to understand if they are a team that can execute. That's what I have done in the past when I have done my own investment.
As for why our project is getting attention from VCs. I think there are a few things that make this project stand out a bit from the noise.
1. We are very legal focused. Meaning that we are talking to VCs that are publicly listed. They can't invest in shady companies.
2. We are a team with a track record of actually building multi-million valued companies in the past.
3. We are building something that we know how to build aka action RGPs :)
4. We are solving issues around non-crypto players not being able to play a game
[Temitope Awoyinka]
🥭🥭🥭
I want to know more about the upcoming $NARS CRYSTAL IDO. Can I have more INFORMATION about the "IDO"?
[Åke André]
Choosing this one so I do not have to repeat my answer to other community members here :)
NARZ is NOT live yet :)
We will announce the upcoming IDO on our social media.
Make sure you follow us on Twitter
https://twitter.com/naramunz
We are going to try and make sure that as many as possible can participate in the IDO. We are looking into ways to see if it's possible to reward whitelist spots to those early community members and supporters.
So stay tuned and follow us as we develop Crystals of Naraumz 🤟
[May]
Yes! Aaaaaand it’s a wrap! 🎉
Thank you so much Sir for your time with us today.
Any final remarks for our community?
[Åke André]
Thanks for having me on this AMA. Was a pleasure to meet the DC community 👌
[May]
Your project is an impressive one! I’m glad we had this interview.
[Åke André]
Final remarks: I hope you all stay safe in this pandemic and wish you all massive gains in whatever you choose to invest in :)
Thank you. I like your community. Had some really good questions 👍
[May]
Thank you so much!
https://t.me/addstickers/MayTheHost
Our warm regards to the rest of the team back at the HQ working to make Naramunz a success!
You’re all amazing people!
Thank you once again for your time!
[Åke André]
☺️
Take care everyone.
Or as we say in Sweden "Adjöken" 😂
[May]
We hope to have you back soon.
Until next time, do have a great day!
Hejdå 🥳
The AMA with Crystals of Naramunz is now over.