AMA with WondermanNation
On the 9th of March, 2022 at 13:00 UTC, Decentralized Club had the honor of hosting Garth Midgley from Wonderman 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 Wonderman is 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]
Helló, สวัสดี, 大家好, नमस्ते, Selamat!
[May]
It’s your favorite host, May! Here again for another session - this time with Wonderman Nation 🥳
Today, we have a special guest from the Wonderman Team with us!
[Garth Midgley]
Hey Decentralized Club, thanks for having Wonderman Nation!
We're looking forward to sharing our project with you 👍
[May]
You're welcome to the Đecentralized Člub
How's your day going?
[Garth Midgley]
We're glad to be here 😁
Great. It's just ticked over midnight where I am, so I'm looking forward to sharing the early hours of my Thursday with you all 😎
[May]
Wow! Thank you for making out time to be here! It's going to be an amazing session!
[Garth Midgley]
Yep. Looking forward to it!
[May]
First off, I am absolutely pleased to be interviewing you!
I have heard so much about Wonderman!
[Garth Midgley]
Sounds like you must mix in the right circles then 😁
[May]
A girl loves her blockchain games :)
For the audience hearing about Garth Midgley for the first time, can you tell us about yourself and your role at Wonderman Nation?
[Garth Midgley]
Sure!
For the second part of that question first. I'm the original creator of the Wonderman Nation IP (though it's been a massive team effort since!) and I'm the creative director for the project
For my introduction ...
I've been developing games for 24 years. I started in 1998, and my first published game was South Park Rally on the N64, PS1, Dreamcast, and PC
I've worked as a senior and lead artist at AAA studios and with AAA game publishers. I've worked as a lead artist on Transformers with Activision and as a lead on a Star Wars title with LucasArts.
I founded GOATi Outsourcing in 2010, where we've worked with AAA publishers helping them to deliver games like LA Noire, The Darkness 2, Darksiders 2, and Zelda: The Twilight Princess HD, to name a few.
And I co-founded GOATi Entertainment (with Brooke Hodgman) in 2010 also, intending to create games for our vision of a future game eco-system where users are playing globally, and use digital currencies and digital assets to transfer value frictionlessly.
With GOATi Entertainment, we've built our own game engine 'RevGen', which we've used on our own games, on games with partners like Honda, and we've used it for award-winning simulation training programs
[May]
Garth The Sensei! You have so much experience! It's amazing!
[Garth Midgley]
LOL Thank you! 🙏
[May]
No wonder Wonderman is so cool 😎 (pun intended)
[Garth Midgley]
hehe
[May]
Awesome!
Now can you tell us about Wonderman? What was the inspiration for it?
[Garth Midgley]
Sure!
The inspiration for Wonderman Nation is as multifaceted as our wonderful Wonderman himself ... At its heart, the story and characters are steeped deeply in parody, with just the sweetest touch of the political, tightly woven with humor and then with generous lashings of the ridiculous
On the gameplay side, a big part of the inspiration is 'to have fun!'
One of our development mantras is "If it's making you laugh, then it's right"
We were inspired to make a P2E game that's fun to play first and foremost, and then all of the P2E features are the ever-so-sweet succulent cherry on top.
We believe that if you develop with fun and laughter as part of the process, then that fun will come through into the final product.
And on the development side, my super talented AAA GOATi Outsourcing team have been developing Wonderman Nation between our outsource project development since 2013 - Wonderman Nation is more than the direction of just one person, it's the sum of many parts, as the development team has all inspired each other throughout.
Our team works on a lot of 'ever so serious' AAA titles - So Wonderman Nation was the perfect in-between project to lighten the mood. We enjoy doing the serious AAA work also, but sometimes you want to do high-quality work + have a laugh :)
[May]
🤣
If this isn't the truth 🤣
Hello AAA GOATi Team! You're amazing ☺️
[Garth Midgley]
Absolutely!
If you can't have fun making it, then how can you expect people to have fun playing it right!? 😎
[May]
Exactly! You have valid points 😃
So tell us, apart from the humor that Wonderland has got on a lock 😃, what innovative solution is Wonderman bringing to topple its competitors with similar offerings in the GameFi sector?
[Garth Midgley]
Feature-wise, we have some exciting stuff lined up!
We think that accessibility is a huge issue with current blockchain games, and we're making blockchain games truly accessible for the first time by developing
- Easy sign-up. Just an email and password are required. The same as with regular game platform accounts.
*This is already live over at Pavillion Hub (which we developed)
- Browser-based. So absolutely no downloads or installs, and it's accessible on all devices.
- A live marketplace. NFT creatures are available for all players to use immediately 'with no upfront cost or 3rd party sign ups', meaning that new players don't have to buy creatures, and existing users can easily loan them out and share rewards
- We have onboarding with cryptocurrency and fiat, using credit cards and bank deposits, so players don't have to mess around with crypto exchanges if they don't want to. Perfect for all non-crypto natives
And last but not least, anyone that discovers a new creature in the metaverse arcade game and brings it back for breeding will get ongoing rewards for future sales
[May]
Impressive! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Can you tell us about the gaming projects you have worked on?
On Wonderman 😎
[Garth Midgley]
haha, sure :)
The published games that I've worked on are ...
Zelda: ‘The Twilight Princess HD’, Darksiders 2, The Darkness 2, La Noire, 22 Racing Series, My Drive School, Little Space Heroes, Transformers ‘Revenge Of The Fallen’, Star Wars ‘The Force Unleashed, Star Wars ‘The Force Unleashed 2’, Hellboy ‘The Science Of Evil’, Viva Piñata ‘Party Animals’, Test Drive Unlimited, Transformers, Far Cry, Woody Woodpecker, ‘Crazy Castle 5’, Looney Tunes ‘Space Race’, Equestriad 2001, Mary Kate & Ashley ‘Winners Circle’, South Park Rally
South Park Rally was the first published game that I made, on the N64 and PS1 back in 2000
I founded GOATi Outsourcing in 2010, where we've worked with AAA publishers helping them to deliver games like LA Noire, The Darkness 2, Darksiders 2, and Zelda: The Twilight Princess HD
I worked as lead artist on a Transformers with Activision and as a lead on a Star Wars title with LucasArts
[May]:
https://t.me/decentralized_club/749958
[Garth Midgley]
😂
[May]
See guys, Garth has good hair and he knows his onions! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
You. Are. A. Wonderman, truly 🥳
Look at this portfolio!!! Come on!
[Garth Midgley]
LOL
Curly hair takes a lot of combing. I don't know if I'd recommend it 😉
[May]
Your hair conditioner budget must leave holes in your pockets then 🤣
A round of applause for you and the team for all the achievements!
[Garth Midgley]
Thank you 🙏😁
[May]
What are the utilities of $WNDR?
[Garth Midgley] We've created HEAPS of use cases for the tokens and NFTs, and we've created the metaverse cross-play both because it's fun and because it helps to balance both the use cases and supply in the dual token economy.
$WNDR - The governance token
$NKTR - The utility token
Use cases for WNDR
- Buying creatures
- Buying food NFTs
- Using as fuel for your NFT spaceship to enter the Metaverse play
- Entering tournaments
- Renting creatures from the marketplace
- Staking for NKTR rewards
- DAO voting on NKTR inflation
- DAO voting on future game features and ecosystem partners
Use cases for NKTR
- Breeding creatures
- Buying spaceship parts
- Entering tournaments
- Renting creatures from the marketplace
And worth mentioning for all those that are familiar with dual token economies like Axie -
We have a revamped way of managing token supply - It's a pool based reward system that's dynamically adjusted based on players in the ecosystem, balancing the rewards per battle to keep the outgoing and incoming supply in check 👍
[May]
The use cases for WNDR and NKTR look really good!
Where are they trading?
[Garth Midgley]
We're currently working towards our public IDO and IGO's on launchpads and exchanges - These will be coming up very soon 👍
[May]
Something to look forward to!
Please give us a summary of your 2021 highlights and what major news should we look forward to from Wonderman in 2022?
[Garth Midgley]
Absolutely!
Our highlights for 2021 was launching our whitepaper, tokenomics, pitch deck, website, and a cinematic trailer, and then connecting with some amazing investors, advisors, and launchpads to get everything ready for our TGE
For 2022
As I mentioned, we're currently working towards our public IDO and IGOs on launchpads and exchanges very shortly.
We have our staking and an initial batch of the creature and food NFTs planned for a sale all coming soon - This was scheduled to come after our public launch, which is now looking to be moved due to the Ukraine conflict and market conditions - So stay tuned on this!"
And on our development roadmap, we have our alpha build in Q2 this year, our beta build (with community access) in Q3 this year, and the release build in Q4 this year
So 2022 is going to be a big year for Wonderman Nation!
[May]
Fingers crossed! 🤩
Can you please share the pitch deck with our community?
[Garth Midgley]
Yeppo!
https://bit.ly/Wonderman_PitchDeck
[May]
Sweet!
Let's now take some questions from our Twitter community!
[Garth Midgley]
Awesome🤘
Segment 2 - Twitter Questions
[May]
Breeding in this competitive environment can be quite difficult, and good allies can make all the difference and save you some time. What partnerships are on the Wonderman roadmap?
Twitter Username: @Alicewonder1202
[Garth Midgley]
Yep, absolutely.
We have some amazing investors, advisors, and launchpads already onboard - These, and more, will be announced over the coming weeks, so stay tuned to our socials!! 😎
[May]
Now's a good time to share those socials :)
[Garth Midgley]
I like that @Alicewonder1202 already looks like he's living in Wonderland with us ;)
[May]
Haha! Yup!
[Garth Midgley]
Telegram
https://t.me/WondermanNationCommunity
https://twitter.com/WondermanNation
Medium
https://altshiftgames.medium.com/
Discord
https://discord.gg/vmYjjD6AMc
[May]
What is the relationship between Wonderman Nation and Phantasma? What were the reasons the team decided to work with Phantasma and no other blockchain? Should we expect omnichain integration in the future?
Twitter Username: @theyasflower
[Garth Midgley]
Ooo, this is a long one - And actually, we have a medium article coming out very soon about this very thing, so be sure to follow our medium to hear more.
In short ...
We've been working with Phantasma for over three years now.
They have a fantastic layer 1 blockchain that's been built with SmartNFTs and gaming in mind. So they're a natural fit for a P2E gaming
[May]
https://altshiftgames.medium.com/
That's really good!
Do the users who currently hold Wonderman tokens have access to partake in the governance of the project? If yes, what kind of decisions do they make on the project?
Twitter username: @EscobarDefi
[Garth Midgley]
Yes, they do!
A few of the decisions include
- Voting on staking rewards
- Voting on upcoming game features
- Voting on new ecosystem projects
[May]
Good to know!
One of the main problems that I have been able to observe in NFT games is that over time there is overpopulation in the marketplace, for this reason, I wanted to know if you have a plan in mind to avoid this, but at the same time, there is no a brutal need for NFTs?
Twitter username: @HumbertoAnttoni
[Garth Midgley]
This is a complex question, and again, perhaps one better answered in full in a medium post - I'll add it to the list - But yes, previous P2E economies haven't dealt with this well.
We're addressing this with our metaverse approach, and our reward pool system.
The arcade metaverse arcade game brings cross-play to the tokens and NFTs, providing more use cases, and providing opportunities to manage the removal of tokens and NFTs through these mechanics
Check out our pitch deck and whitepaper for some background on the cross-play use cases for NFTs and tokens.
And more info on these mechanics will be revealed in the future also
These are great questions btw!!
[May]
😎
Great answers from you as well!
[Garth Midgley]
Thanks!
[May] I feel that users who aren't too familiar with GameFi and Blockchain technology will have problems figuring Wonderman out. Can you explain what it takes to play?
Twitter Username: @anthonyudem
[Garth Midgley]
Things can look more difficult when you're reading whitepapers and pitch decks in the early stages, but it will be simpler once people see it in action ...
For us (as I mentioned in part in some other questions above) accessibility is key to the future growth of blockchain games - And this is at the heart of how traditional games have always been made.
Easy to play, hard to master.
We are following this same mantra
In short - We'll have easy account creation, fiat onboarding, no need to buy creatures to play, one-click launch, browser-based - cross platform, no downloads or updates required.
So a new user entry will be super simple!
[May]
"Easy to play, hard to master" 👏🏻
Beautiful solutions right here!
[Garth Midgley]
Thanks!
The elegant solutions are the ones that you can't see 🥸😉
[May]
Riiighhhhtttt! 😃
It's now time for the most popular segment of the session!
[Garth Midgley]
WOOT 🥳
[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 😊
Everyone, please prepare your questions
[Garth Midgley]
Ok done!
Looking forward to it 👌
[May] What’s your favorite game of all time?
[Garth Midgley]
Ouch!
Man. This is a tough one! 😬
Hmm ...
I'd probably go with something like Diddy Kong Racing, or Banjo Kazooie ... there are so many great games, but these ones were a great balance of challenge and fun
[May]
Dear community, as a measure to deter bots and reward hunters, please include the phrase below in your questions so the guest can tell original questions apart!
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie
Dear guest, please prioritize such questions 🙂
---Chat was then opened for the live community to send in their questions---
Segment 3 - Live Questions
[May] Dear guest, as a measure to deter bots and reward hunters, the phrase below has been included in questions so you can tell original ones apart!
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie
Please prioritize such questions 🙂
[Temitope Awoyinka]
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie* 🔥
Do you consider feedback and suggestions from the community? Are you decentralized?
[Garth Midgley]
This is precisely the great point about building games this way, and getting communities involved in a game and its ecosystem early - We absolutely want feedback from the community. The more the better, and the better the game it will be!
[Manugotsuka]
I realized that To play your game, a user must register on the pavilion hub, but this doesn't limit the game to being only compatible with PC users? or do you have a mobile application for mobile devices?
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie 🏎 🪕
[Garth Midgley]
You can sign up to an account on a browser, and the game itself is a browser-based game, so Wonderman Nation will be accessible across all OS's, devices, and browsers 👍
[Sen]
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie
According to your pitch deck, Wonderman is a combination of Axie Infinity + Final Fantasy, so can you give us more details about this? What are the similarities of Wonderman with these 2 games?
[Garth Midgley]
Wonderman Nation uses a dual token economy, and has PvP battles - This is where the similarity to Axie Infinity ends.
The battle mechanics are similar to the battle mode in Final Fantasy - But with lots of extra features like environmental interactions, creature team interactions, and unique items that can be used during battles, which change depending on which team you're playing for. Players will be able to battle casually in one-off battles, and in prized tournaments.
And we have full genomic breeding on the chain, and using smart NFTs in a way that allows for interesting abilities to be inherited and mutated allows for a really deep game strategy experience, which we think will be super interesting to watch evolve
[Oluwayemisi]
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie
On your website, you said, "Play the hometown team and get the hometown advantage".
Can you explain to us who the hometown team is? And what advantage does one get from the hometown team?
[Garth Midgley]
There are different pros and cons to each team.
Team Wonderman gets
- To take the first move
- To pick their first creature (picked at the start of the match in sequence)
- More advanced (but single purpose) weaponry
- More likely to find ship part NFTs
Hometown team get
- To pick their team second - So they get to choose characters that work well against team Wonderman
- Weapons with more use cases, and more environmental interactions
- More likely to find food NFTs, which can be used in battle, or held on to for breeding creatures with different abilities
[Topind]
Puppies are cute and our guest likes Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie
Can I know why you decided to build Wonderman Nation on PhantasmaChain?
[Garth Midgley]
Phantasma Chain is the first purpose-built - And still the best - layer 1 blockchain for gaming.
- Transactions are FAST. This is super important for a successful P2E game, as you want to use blockchain features during gameplay, but you don't want the blockchain to slow the game down
- Transactions are cheap. And so we can cover the costs to make transactions free, and streamline the experience
- The SmartNFTs are advanced. We have LOTS of creative options for how we can use NFTs, whether it's as multi-layer (nested) NFTs, or using the RAM and ROM features to bake some details into the NFT (i.e. the original discoverer of a creature for ongoing rewards), and have other details fungible so that the NFT can change over time
And more 🚀
[Garth Midgley]
That's five questions done, so I'll stop here ...
Great questions everyone!
It was hard to pick which ones to answer. Hopefully, I've answered a good spread for you all!
This is a seriously great community - I've enjoyed being here 🙏❤️
[May]
Thank you dear guest for taking the time to carefully answer questions from the community.
We've come to the end of this session with WonderMan Nation.
[Garth Midgley]
Thanks again for having me, and Wonderman Nation, here 👍
Thanks for having us. And it'd be great to see some of you in Wonderman Nation in the future!
A reminder for our socials again ...
Telegram
https://t.me/WondermanNationCommunity
https://twitter.com/WondermanNation
Medium
https://altshiftgames.medium.com/
Discord
https://discord.gg/vmYjjD6AMc
I hope to see you there sometime 👌
[May]
Any parting words for the community Sir?
[Lee]
Yes, thanks for setting this up and Wonderman Nation will be hosting another giving away this week. So if you aren't already make sure you following across all socials
Thanks for organizing!
[May]
Thank you, we look forward to an amazing and exciting future!
Our warm regards to the rest of the awesome team at the Wonderman Nation HQ working tirelessly to make this project a success!
Wonderman Nation is a solid GameFi project and we wish you all the best for the future!
Until next time, do have a great day!
The AMA with Wonderman Nation is now over.