The world of blockchain gaming has been explosively growing over the past two years, with the rise of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market and play to earn (P2E) gaming models. One of the leading projects in the space, Arker aims to boost the development of blockchain gaming to offer users a better gaming experience and unique features, rewards, and gaming titles.
Today, we linked up with Juanjo Chust, CEO and co-founder of ArkerLabs, the lead developer of Arker, to discuss the new flagship game, Arker: Legend of Ohm and other topics including NFTs, play-to-earn gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto, metaverses, and everything in between.
Techbullion: Welcome to Techbullion Juanjo Chust. Could you tell us more about yourself and how Arker: The Legend of Ohm came to be?
Juanjo Chust: Hi, nice to be here. I’m Juanjo Chust, CEO of Arker Labs, a company founded in 2018, which has been developing all kinds of applications, although since a couple of years ago we are dedicated only to giving consultancy and Blockchain developments of all kinds for companies around the world.
Within the company, we have a department where we develop our own products, such as Arker: The Legend of Ohm, which is one of our flagship products, which we have been working on it for years, specifically since we opened the company, and for which we entered into the adventure of setting up a business with several friends to “see what happens”.
TB: The launch of your flagship game, Arker: Legend of Ohm, represented a huge milestone for your team. Please tell us more about the game and its free-to-play (F2P) and play-to-earn (P2E), and NFT models?
JC: Arker: The Legend of Ohm is an online multiplayer game, which allows you to create a custom character, equip it with NFTs, and fight against others to fight for control of the city of Ohm.
To enable P2E within the game, you only need 2 pets (NFTs with unique stats), this way you can already have an ROI within the game, otherwise, you can always play for free without having to make an initial investment.
Once the P2E mode is enabled, we will be able to play up to 10 PVE games per day, so that we can get FoA [the native token] within the game daily, to continue progressing in the adventure, either with better weapons, better skills or buying relics to enhance your character.
In addition, you can also purchase unlimited PVP tickets, which allow you to play against real people who are looking for a game, and thus continue to earn unlimited FoA (as long as you win the battle, of course).
TB: There is a rising number of gamers, especially younger generations, who are choosing play-to-earn games over traditional gaming to earn additional passive income. Could P2E games be the gateway to widespread crypto adoption?
JC: We believe that the P2E concept will be very important in all areas where the user is likely to acquire in-game content, progress in the game or perform certain actions.
For us, it is very important that when a player acquires something in-game, he feels real ownership of it, and in the same way, it is an asset that in the future he can sell to another player, either because he will not play anymore or to leave it to a friend so that he can progress faster.
So from our point of view, we do not want to confuse P2E games with market speculation or the famous click to earn, but we do believe that Blockchain technology can take a big step forward to raise awareness in the community about its great virtues and advantages throughout the gaming world.
TB: Recently, Arker: The Legend of Ohm game developers announced a strategic partnership with Habbo, one of the earliest “metaverse” projects in the gaming industry. Tell us about the partnership and what it means to the Arker users/gamers?
JC: Indeed, it has been one of our best milestones, since we as players believe that having a partner of this calibre will bring us much value and credibility in the crypto community, not only as a project but also as a company.
Currently, Habbo has released an NFT collection, which gives exclusive access to content from its famous game. Basically what we have done with them, is to give one more utility to their NFT, making all their holders also have access to exclusive content within Arker.
This offers the players extra value, since people from our community interested in this exclusive content, will go to learn about their NFTs. For us, we are able to bring on their community, which is much larger and loyal to the Habbo brand, interested in the world of Arker and may want to expand borders and come to learn more about our game.
TB: What are your views on the growing GameFi ecosystem and could every game in the future be built on a blockchain?
JC: At Arker, we believe that not all games are possible to carry out on the Blockchain, not because of technical limitations, but because of its business model.
Clearly, in the games where it can be applied, we gain a lot of value at the user level. But there are others that simply do not add value; on the contrary, they make it more difficult for an inexperienced public to enter.
TB: Away from the gaming ecosystem for a while, recently the crypto market was rocked by the “LUNA-UST debacle” where billions in value were destroyed in a matter of days. What are your thoughts on the debacle and what solutions can be offered in the stablecoin industry?
JC: The most important part of a stablecoin is to verify that the token is backed by any real and valuable asset, which could be something like USDC, where they store the dollars in a centralized way, or DAI, where the collaterals are stored in a decentralized way using smart contracts.
If we always ensure a liquid exit for all the stablecoin holders without affecting the price or even the collateral price, we will have a healthy and safe stable coin.
TB: What does the future roadmap of Arker: The Legend of Ohm hold for its gamers and users?
JC: We are currently creating a lot of visual content, as we are one of the few projects where all the assets are made in-house. Also, we are making a revamped version of the current 2D game that is already available in the stores.
In the near future, we will launch a 3D metaverse with AAA graphics, which looks spectacular, it will be much more extensive, and users will be able to see themselves while walking through the big city that we are creating. Arker also aims to create terrains for users to acquire ownership of these and perform activities with their friends, which makes the possibilities grow.
Additionally, we want to start building on console platforms to reach more users and allow them to get scholarships that help new users who want to unlock their full potential but don’t want to invest money at the start.
All this is just a tiny part of what we are preparing, as we have many things in mind, and we will not stop until we reach our goal: A triple AAA game where users play for fun and on top of that they have extra features that the blockchain brings to the game, like ownership of items, monetizing your time and much more.
TB: Any closing words for the Arker community and the wider blockchain community?
JC: Well, as we always say in the groups, be patient, the team is working very hard, and don’t be in a hurry to make instant profits. The goal of Arker and what should be for all P2E is to be able to get rewards for your leisure time while having fun. Not to use our leisure time to try to make money without any fun, as it is a game, not a financial product.
So, we are just going to ask users to help us reach more communities, spread the word, and enjoy. The rest will come on its own.
