GateLive AMA Recap-Guild of Guardians

Q1: Give us the details of what Guild of Guardians is?

Guild of Guardians is a Web3 squad RPG Mobile Game. The game revolves around running dungeons. As you progress through these dungeons, you collect loot that can be used to upgrade your Guardians or summon additional ones. Ultimately, your goal is to help save the world of Elder from The Dread.

The game itself is straightforward, but it has a compelling hook that keeps you engaged. For the past 9 months, the developers at Mineloader have been focused on building the core engine of the game, ensuring that progressing through dungeons is fun and engaging, with key choices to make along the way. They want Guild of Guardians to be a fun companion game that can play as you go about your day to day.

One of the things that attracted me to Guild of Guardians when I joined the team was its ability to be played alongside other activities. It’s a game that you can play for a few minutes on the train, pick up and put down easily, or even play while watching TV with the kids. Guild of Guardians is finding its niche as a game that can be seamlessly integrated into your life, and that’s a great thing.

Q2: What is the story behind the Guild of Guardians? What has been the journey of the Guild of Guardian so far?

Joining the project, it was initially just a day a week to assess the moment-to-moment gameplay of Guild of Guardians as an action RPG. The core elements were there, but they didn’t come together into a fun experience. We worked on the core gameplay for a few months, and while we made progress, it was clear the core engine of the game wasn’t working. Action RPGs demand full attention; if you’re not fully tuned in, it can feel like busywork. After iterating for a few months, with over 20 years of experience making games, it became clear we weren’t on track to ship in a reasonable timeframe.

At the beginning of the year, a reboot of the game was proposed. We did some quick market analysis. In games, typically there’s a winner in a category, like World of Warcraft in MMO RPGs. Then there’s second place, distant third, and all the also-rans. The top three games typically comprise upwards of 50, 60, 70% of the market share. When we looked at the mobile market, AR RPGs make up a relatively small percentage, single digits. Squad RPGs are around the 25% range. And then when we look at that segmentation, the top five games in squad-based RPGs only comprise about 20% of the market share. This showed us that if we can enter this space with a compelling game, we have a good chance to win because it hasn’t been consolidated yet. Whereas in ARPGs, you’ve got Diablo Immortal taking up a huge share of that.

This led us to look at squad-based RPGs for a good core loop that could get us there, and the pivot to where we are today, the switch from step-to turn-based combat. That was a long journey as well. We explored over 20 potential partners, and Minloader came out on top. Partnering with them has been amazing, which is why we’ve gotten as far as we have. It’s only been about 6 months since we started working on the project, and the game is well beyond what you would expect for something that’s 6 months in. A lot of work was put into Guild of Guardians before I joined, which gave us a solid core of art and other things that we were able to adapt quickly. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if we were starting from scratch, so kudos to the original team for the work they did on that front as well.

Q3: How is the web3 component integrated in the game? How have you thought about integrating this without it compromising on the fun?

The most challenging part right now is implementing in-game features. One of the difficult decisions we made was to make equipment crafting Web2 based. While on the surface, it seems logical for equipment to be NFTs, it creates progression and gameplay loop problems. If equipment is NFTs, it allows players to bypass content and accelerate their progress, which can be detrimental to the game. A classic example is the Diablo 3 auction house, where buying power directly destroyed the game.

Our approach to the Guild of Guardians economy is different. You can play it as a traditional Web2 game, but for increased efficiency, you can enter the Web Three space over time. This is crucial because it allows us to onboard traditional gamers into a Web2-friendly game and gradually introduce them to Web Three concepts through tutorials and guides. Players can then learn to target specific items directly in the marketplace, avoiding mechanics like summoning numerous Guardians to get the desired one. Instead, they can purchase the Guardian they want directly from the marketplace.

Currently, Guardians are the primary NFTs in the eco, and they will remain a key part. However, equipment crafting will be entirely Web2 based initially. As players progress, there will be advanced crafting components that can be used to craft equipment. These advanced crafting components are what we’re targeting for the trading eco. So, while you won’t be buying the equipment itself, you can accelerate your progress by acquiring specific component pieces. This also ties into how I play games; I feel a stronger connection to gear I craft myself compared to buying it from someone else.

Q4: Is the Guild of Guardians Available? When is the Guild of Guardians Launching?

Guild of Guardian is currently available as Pre-Launch Testing in Australia, Indonesia and Canada. The game will launch globally on May 15th, 2024!