Greetings Voyagers,
Our game designer, Mark, recently hosted an AMA (ask me anything) session on Discord, where he did his best to answer all of the questions that our community members could think of.
The entire session was a really fun event, one that we definitely would want to do again in the future — so be sure to join our Discord server so that you don’t miss out!
For those of you who missed out, don’t worry and read on as we’ve gathered all of the questions and answers here!
Important note before we begin — while this was an AMA and Mark attempted to answer everything, Mark is our game designer and as such was unable to answer the blockchain-related questions.
Mark highlighted the following two questions as the most interesting to answer, so we’ve put them on top of all the other questions.
FEATURED QUESTION 1
Considering the daily release of multiple games, what makes Hash Rush different in the blockchain world/different from other play-to-earn games?
This is the type of question I was really hoping to see and I could talk about this for a long time but then I wouldn’t answer any other questions so I’ll try and keep it short.
I think Hash Rush is probably the first game that is going to really set the standard for what Play to Earn games can be. I fear that many people using the word “Blockchain” are using it as a buzzword to try and drum up support for their game when they don’t fully understand what it takes to design a game in this space, it truly is a unique area and I’ve learned so much in the last year about what you all care about from on here. I don’t respond but I have spent a very long time reading.
Any new space or genre is always risky but Hash Rush is going to jump wholeheartedly into this space. We’re planning a game that we expect you to still be playing 5 or even 10 years down the line. We’re not looking for something that will appear, be fun for a bit then disappear we’re here to stay.
As for the Play to Earn, this is something I constantly consider when I’m writing up designs. I want there to be multiple ways for you guys to play Hash Rush, finding what you enjoy most about it and doing that, rather than feeling forced into doing one thing because everyone says you have to.
FEATURED QUESTION 2
Even the best of games i.e WOW becomes boring at some point. What advantage do you think, or what’s different about HR so it won’t bore the players
Great question. We’re planning for a game with lots of different areas, allowing Players to play what they want to or what they’re good at. We’re hoping that this combined with the fact that you can trade for the items you don’t want to fight / grind /craft for should help mitigate some of the frustration points that can cause players to leave.
Regarding the boring part, hopefully there should be plenty for you to do and aim for, I want to hear what you guys love, don’t love and what you’d like more of!
And now, prepare yourselves for a long read, here we have all of the questions that Mark was able to answer, enjoy!
Will craftable heroes have a limited amount like the founder heroes or do they have unlimited quantity?
At this time, craftable Heroes do not have a limit, you can craft as many of them as you’d like however they’re pretty expensive in materials.
Can you give us an updated roadmap (also to show when you expect to launch the PvP mode)?
This is one that we can’t answer right now, we have some really big plans for Hash Rush. What you’re seeing in the current test is only a small part of what we hope to have someday. This all has to be planned out, scoped, and checked before we commit it to a roadmap.
I would love to say more on timings, maybe if we do another of these in the future I can say more then.
Will we need RUSH for crafting items like you stated in a blog post back then?
Nope, none of our planed crafted items require RUSH to make
Is this the final graphic quality or will it be improved?
This is not the final graphical quality, we will be making various improvements, make sure to let us know areas that you do and don’t like!
Also, when will you release the Comic NFT?
[Mark] I honestly don’t know the answer to this, I’m really excited myself
[Addition from Darkfall]
Yes, we’re going to be doing something with the comic and NFTs!
Where do you see the game in 5 years ? and the team ?
I think I sort of answered this above [for this article, see the featured question 1 answer] but the answer is still doing this, more content, more ways to play, more talking to you guys.
Are you thinking about implementing Guilds ? Lands to buy/sell ?
We’re focusing on the single player game right now, while I don’t want to write anything off, guilds aren’t something that will be in any time soon.
Regarding Land, not at this time, we’ve still got a lot of other features to get working right
Could you tease some P2E developments/features ?
In the game you’ll see Dungeons mentioned, this is still an RTS feature but plays differently to the main game you have access to now. As for other teasers, there are currently plans for 4 modes in the game, don’t want to spoil things!
Mobile version → Impossible ?
We’re PC only for the time being sorry, RTS on other platforms is just really hard to do well if it isn’t built for that platform from the ground up. As such, if we were to move elsewhere, it wouldn’t be the same game
[Addition from Darkfall]
The answer provided by Mark answers the possibility of a mobile version of Hash Rush, that does not mean that we’re not considering a companion app for Hash Rush, but there are no solid plans for this just yet.
What’s the approximate size of the team ? Are you still increasing FTEs ?
Don’t want to say how many people we have, not my place but i can say we’re growing.
What is your ultimate goal to reach ?
We have a lot of plans and hopes, I want to get to a full launch and add all those crazy ideas in!
What is the total players needed to reach your goal ?
Another good question, there is always a risk with games that you don’t get the audience size you want, we’re taking this into account and making the game as flexible as possible. More players are better however so bring everyone you know!
Non-crypto players will need to be attracted… Is it a priority to attract them in the future ? How ?
Yes, they really will be a priority. This is a core goal for me, the game must be approachable for players who have never had anything to do with crypto before. The current design is for a game that should stand on its own and be fun to play, even if you don’t have anything to do with the crypto side. With that, we hope to attract in players who are fans of RTS game or looking for something new or different
Even if not related directly to the game, lots of comments are related to the marketing. Could you please specify your view on that about the past/present/future strategy ?
Sure I’ll have a quick comment. In this modern age where games are fighting for attention, marketing is key. In order to have a good strategy though, you need to know exactly what you’re making, that way you should know who your audience is and can accurately target them. I hope that in the next few months we’ll really nail this down allowing the future marketing to be focused and get the right players in
I just have 1 question. Will the final graphics quality match previous versions of Hash Rush? It was certainly the Unique Selling Point for Hash Rush earlier.
The previous version of the game looked amazing, I loved the ambiance and feel of the planet. It’s my hope that we can get back to that quality while making some improvements to make it easier to see what’s going on (less blending into the background).
What are the income revenue streams planned for the company?
Sorry this is still an area of major discussion.
(I’m looking to get rich quick) What are the income streams planned for me? AKA — “When Lambo?”
Aren’t we all? If you find a way please let me know!
This is a play to earn game so you’re in a good place. Trading with others will be a main area for you
Will there be a daily limit on my P2E activity, or since I have the time, can I grind all day?
We’re hoping we don’t need to have any sorts of limits. So yes, if you love the game, you can grind all day.
If the game is F2P, how do I get a hero to start playing.
You don’t need a Hero to play, they just make things a lot easier. There will be multiple crafted heroes. The exact amount is still TBD.
Is there a goal for number of unique heroes, or will additional heroes be constantly added (post go live)?
The plan is to have a solid roster of heroes for launch with more to be added as the game grows
[Addition from Darkfall]
Right now, we have 11 heroes in various stages of development, with more planned!
Will a rarity system eventually be used?
Yes, there will be items of different rarities. I also want those rarities to be a conscious choice for the Player and not simply “get the best”
What does release goal look like, just PvE or, aspects of PvP?
Mostly PvE, any PvP will start very casual. There are plans for more PvP in future but it will gradually increase, we’re not going for a hardcore high APM esport RTS game
Is there a goal system spec for release, or will I need to go buy a new computer to play?
This is meant to be suitable for a wide audience, so no, we don’t expect you to need a super high end PC to play
^^(add on) Will PvP just be against 2 players, or will maps allow for more?
Nothing is off the table for PvP but it is not our main focus, I wouldn’t expect it any time soon
What all is planned to be NFT’s? (resources {like wood, food, iron, etc}, heroes, crafting materials, etc)?
While I’m not going to speak to any one thing in particular, the plan is to have as many items as possible be tradable between Players. Our default is “it’s tradable” unless we have a good reason and in those cases, we’ll state if it’s not tradable at all or only in some cases
Will skins ONLY be for looks, or will they provide additional utility in game?
No plans to have skins be anything other than allowing you to customize your army the way you want to
^^(add on) Why should I burn ~$100 in RUSH for just a cosmetic item. Seems expensive for just looks.
In the end, one of the points of a Play to Earn game is it puts power into your hands, if you don’t want to buy / sell something, you don’t have to.
What inspired the graphical theme of RUSH?
I’m assuming this is about the game rather than RUSH? — to that, I don’t know, I joined after a lot of the original art was already made
[Addition from Darkfall]
Nathan, our creative director, is the one that will need to answer that question, perhaps in a future AMA!
Will the P2E aspect be solely based on PvP? Or can people earn tokens/coins/NFT by only playing PvE?
PvE will be the main way to acquire items within the game, PvP will start very gently so there won’t be much from it.
The items you get from PvE can be used to craft new items or Heroes, Improve your Heroes or if you don’t need it, trade it away
Will the heroes have levels and skills like in Warcraft?
Yes, Heroes will have levels, skills and more that we haven’t revealed yet!
When will it be possible to play the game with the bundles i bought recently?
right now, our focus is on testing the core aspects of the game, I don’t yet have a date for you for that sorry
Hash rush is similar to what game?
It’s an RTS game and there are some amazing games within that genre over the years. We’re taking inspiration from a few areas, we’ve got lots of resources like AOE, we’ve got Heroes like Warcraft but those Heroes can be equipped with gear like an RPG.
There isn’t a game like Hash Rush, we’re planning on learning from others but doing what we think will make for the best P2E game
Will the game have a significant advantage for paying players by design or will it be balanced? Like won’t players with 3 heroes be too much for players with none?
There will be a lot of Heroes within the game, craftable Heroes are obtainable by everyone. Paid Heroes like the founder pack will give Players more options but we don’t intend for any Hero to be a “must have” in order to play an area of the game
In the playtest we can build multiple HERO buildings and produce multiple same heroes. Will it be possible on final version of game? Or maybe it will be possible if account of player has multiple NFTs of that heroes?
No, that’s a bug, the current plan is that you can have up to 3 Heroes for the mode you’re playing right now, you can’t have duplicates of Heroes. There may be other restrictions on other modes but we’ll tell you more about that when we release more info.
Is there a system requirements for the game (sic) cuz i run it on my laptop and it’s laggy (i7 8gb ram)?
The current version is far from optimized, we’re just testing out mechanics right now, final version will play a lot better
The gameplay in the playtest looks pretty simple , how complex do you think the game itself will be at launch (amount of buildings, etc.)
There will be different difficulties within the game, what you’re currently playing is below the lowest version of complexity. There were a few features that were causing issues for us that we had to leave out and hopefully you’ll get to see them in the next playtest.
Do you plan on adding more maps/levels in this playtest?
Not that I know of.
I see in a note about hero on the marketplace that “hero may only be tradable if they have not been previously used to game play”.
- Does it mean that once we use hero, we cannot trade them?
- If we can trade them, the current level of hero will be the same when it is listed on the market or go to level 1?
Sorry this isn’t something I’m going to answer right now, as Heroes will be a major part of our game going forwards I’m sure you can understand they are the regular topic of discussion. I don’t want to say anything right now that might change later
You just mentioned that you hope that you can get back to the same graphic quality you showed before. Is it a question of time ? Do you have game engine limitations ? Why a downgrade versus upgrade ?
Unfortunately, the previous version of the game, while pretty, had some serious issues with it’s core. When we moved away from the spherical planets, we had to start from scratch in a lot of areas. As such we’ve had to spend a lot of time getting core features working nicely and so making it pretty has been pushed back.
They’ve not been forgotten but for me, a game could be the prettiest thing ever created but if it doesn’t play well, I won’t stick around.
What are you 3 all-time personal favorite games ?
This is probably the hardest question of the night…
1- I think one of these has to be more of a series than a single game and that is the original command and conquer series, right up to and including generals Zero Hour. I can’t imagine how many thousands of hours i lost to those games. I remember when I first got a demo for C&C, I played that level at least 30x before getting the full version.
2- Guild Wars 1 — not sure if i should be proud of this but my /age on that is over 3,000 hours… I just loved the mix of story and being able to really customize your heroes the way you wanted with infinite skill combinations.
3 — probably going to lump both SC2 and WC3 into this one. I spent a very long time playing those both solo and with friends.
Can you highlight the “light” mechanic in game? Other than seeing the area around a light post (during the pitch black nights), is there any benefit? Early gameplay made it seem like there were debuffs to units in non-lit areas??
So the light system will have 2 benefits:
1 — it will be a vision system, if you’ve played zerg, it’ll act like the creep, allowing you to see what’s coming
2 — it will provide bonuses to your units when fighting in well lit areas
It was planned that once you capture an entire planet you can still be attacked once in a while and have to defend it. Can you elaborate on that?
This has changed a little from previously, you will fighting on parts of a planet, not a whole planet. You will be fighting to cleanse the planet and the scourge will react to your efforts.
In the long term, the more you visit a planet, the more you will benefit — i can’t say more than that without giving away info about another feature
What mechanic OR aspect of the game/gameplay are you most excited for or proud of?
Right now, Heroes are a fraction of what they’re going to be, I can’t wait for that system to be fully fleshed out
Will you make combat more entertaining/complex? Have you thought about giving heroes abilities that have to be activated manually?
Yes, the combat is currently below what the minimum complexity will be. In the full version all Heroes will have abilities, some active, some passive
When will you release more info on the lore and are the three founder Heroes playing an important role in it?
I don’t know the answer to that sorry, we do have someone who has a lot of focus on lore / backgrounds etc. so I’m sure there will be a lot more of that in future. I love that side of things myself and can’t wait to include it all.
Will co-op PvE be an option at some-point?
This isn’t something that we currently have planned but this isn’t something I’d categorically write off. I’d need to make sure that it fits with the core game.
How do you want to have a progress for the player without having repetitive tasks and the need for grinding all the time? I mean will some mid- and late-game stuff come to the game/gameplay and if so, what could that be?
There will be multiple modes, a difficulty curve for each mode and we’ve planned quite some variation within each mode too.
Now, there will be grind, it’s a P2E game, you sink in time, you get valuable items out. The better you are at the game and the more efficient you are with your time, the more you’re going to get out.
It’s our hope that with all the varied modes, if you get bored / fed up with one area, you can jump across to something else to change it up
Will there be water units?
We want to make sure there is a lot of unit variety within the game, both player and enemy. To that end, we’ll be considering things like water / flying units but want to make sure they add to the game experience
And that brings us to the end of the AMA. There is a wealth of information, some completely new, that we hope you will enjoy reading through.
