KuCoin AMA With LOCGame (LegendsOfCrypto) — Collect, Play, Earn and have fun at the same time!
Dear KuCoin Users,
Time: June 11, 2021, 10:00-11:22 (UTC)
KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the LOCGame team led by Founder Mik Mironov in the KuCoin Exchange Group, where they answered some of the questions regarding the development of Legends of Crypto, the gameplay and the future of the game and NFT.
Project Introduction
LegendsOfCrypto (LOCG), also known as LOCGame, is a variation of a Top Trump Card game on blockchain with collectible NFT cards and lots of DeFi perks.
The Genesis Edition of the cards is fully dedicated to the crypto industry characters that we all know and love, make fun of, create jokes and memes about, like Market Maker, Day Trader, Exchange Listing Manager and many more. It is literally a tribute to the crypto industry!
The game will offer many special incentives for the players. You own the assets, can trade them, can invest them – get the % from the prize pool, can vote for major game decisions. In LOC Game, you are basically a part of it and they really want everyone to benefit.
Official Website: https://locgame.io
Follow LOCGame on Twitter and Telegram.
Guests:
Mik Mironov — Founder of LegendsOfCrypto (LOCGame)
Mik is the founder of LegendsOfCrypto (LOCGame) and RBL Labs (a part of Crypto Rebel). Mik has been in blockchain since 2015, in crypto since 2017 and otherwise had a long career as a banker, where he was a part of the innovation lab at ABN AMRO which experimented with several products like real estate on blockchain, trade finance on blockchain, etc. Mik also worked with Airbnb in Amsterdam. He then took the reins at SMC Capital, and a year ago launched Crypto Rebel — a news and entertainment company that organized conferences and events around the blockchain and crypto industries. And at the beginning of the year, LOCGame was born and was a great success.
David Fried — Game Designer of LegendsOfCrypto (LOCGame)
David is a 22+ year game and narrative designer who has worked with studios like Blizzard Entertainment, Ubisoft, Wooga, and inXile, on franchises like Wasteland, Warcraft, Silent Hill, and many others. Starting at Blizzard Entertainment where he worked on the infamous “Culling of Stratholme” for Warcraft III, David has a penchant for dramatic and intense gameplay focused narratives that draw the player in and pushes them to tackle the difficult ethical questions in the virtual space.
Spanning genres from High Fantasy to Sci-Fi and Real-Time Strategy to Adventure, David works effortlessly between genres to tell human stories that push people to play long into the night wanting to find out what happens next.
He now hopes to bring his talents to the collectible card game genre with a special focus on NFTs, allowing players to not only build fantastic combo and themed decks, but also collect precious beautiful cards that will only ever increase in value.
Janet Han — Tech Lead of LegendsOfCrypto (LOCGame) also joined the AMA session.
Janet is a master of multi-disciplinary engineering and has spent 15+ years in progressive leadership roles within the engineering and technology industries. With accountability for leading technology teams, strategy, planning, and business development, she has brought numerous successful high-revenue products to life.
She is passionate and deeply committed to providing prosperity to LOCG with her expertise in startups, love for innovation, and action-oriented and results-driven leadership skills.
Janet is actively engaged in the technology industry through her role as the Government Liaison Chair for Professional Engineering Ontario. In her spare time, she teaches software development and likes to spread her knowledge to kids and educators.
Q&A from KuCoin
Q: Please explain what LOCGame is.
David: LOCGame is a Trading Card Game, in the vein of games like Magic the Gathering, YuGiOh, and some others. If you're familiar with Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad or FF XIV's card game you'll have an idea of the core gameplay already. A lot of games want to be the next Hearthstone, but Hearthstone is a CCG (Collectible Card Game) where you can't really trade cards. So TCG is the more appropriate acronym for LoC.
Mik: And of course the Genesis Edition of our cards is fully dedicated to the crypto industry. We are a blockchain-powered NFT Trading Card Game with lots of DeFi perks!
David: Indeed, the game will feature a board control mechanic that we're calling the "block," and two players will fight to secure the block for themselves.
Mik: Very much blockchain like (about the “blocks”). One thing to mention - our game assets are amazing collectible cards! Let me show you.
This is how our cards are going to look rarity-wise.
We love the crypto industry and our genesis edition is a tribute to those who made this crypto revolution possible and we have even this.
This one with Kucoin co-founder will be a very rare card.
Q: What are the unique points and advantages of LOCGame?
David: Well, for starters they're NFTs that work with the game. So it's not just art, it's an actual, real, digital, trading card game. You can buy/sell/trade the cards with your friends to complete your collections or put up the more valuable cards for sale to buy a lambo or whatever. So unlike CCGs where your cards have almost zero value after purchase, our cards will only go up in value.
Mik: On top of that we will be THE FIRST NFT CARD GAME of this kind on blockchain - so first to market.
David: And unlike traditional TCGs where cards can be destroyed, bent, and lost, as long as you have your wallet, these cards cannot be harmed or stolen.
Mik: As David said, lots of companies in the blockchain space try to replicate Hearthstone, almost all card games are their clones. Our game will be quite unique, yet easy and exciting to play.
Collect+Play+Earn and have fun is the motto of LOCG.
Q: What marketing plans do you have for the upcoming weeks/months?
Mik: Our marketing strategy and activities are centered around
1) community - growing and developing LOCG ambassadors and people who really like what we do,
2) influencer marketing - we have overwhelming support from guys like Carl the Moon (he did the review on YouTube of our game), Bitboy, Crypto Banter and many more,
3) PR in media outlets - we have at least 1 publication about our project or expert opinion per week.
What's more?
We are working on lots of exciting activities behind the scenes - we will be launching our Twitch channel pretty soon and a podcast dedicated to NFT gaming.
Our Market Place will be launched within a month and there will be lots of marketing activities around the launch: community referral campaigns, review videos on YouTube and Twitch, lots of publication and hype around buying/selling/trading our newly minted NFTs.
David: I'll be on the first podcast talking a lot about the gameplay and design mechanics if you're into that.
Q: Tell us more about the LOCG token and its utilities.
Mik: Our tokenomics is quite elaborate. Of course while we are building the product the utility is limited to the activities you guys like so much is Staking and Farming new NFT cards/decks - we have had several staking programs already launched and more than 4,000,000 LOCG locked.
When we launch the marketplace there will be a cash-back/kick-back to buyers of 5% in our native LOCG token so you guys can kickstart playing the game.
$LOCG acts like a lubricant in our gaming/NFT trading ecosystem. Let me tell you more.
You will be able to get it as a reward for playing the game (play to earn), stake LOCG to farm new NFT items, farm LOCG in liquidity pools and use it for payment within the ecosystem, and vote when we build the DAO and more. NFT holders will be able to stake them in a liquidity pool and get % from the prize pools as a reward in LOCG token.
For the value of $LOCG, we will have a governance mechanic by the end of this year, token holders will be able to vote on the issuance of new cards, new categories, gameplay, charity donation and more. There will be a LOC Council with minimum LOCG holding requirements to be able to propose those game changes, request new features, etc. So there will be a lot of utility and definitely a lot of value that will be unlocked after the launch of the game for those invested in our token.
Regarding the supply - It is capped and shrinking, the max is capped at 150 million $LOCG, however already 1,500,000 LOCG was burnt, hence total supply now is lower.
You can see all the stats with our contract here: https://etherscan.io/token/0x60eb57d085c59932d5faa6c6026268a4386927d0
Q: How big is the LOCGame team and where are they based? Can you also provide their background?
Mik: Indeed we just had three rock stars joining our team last week including David, our Game Designer.
The total team currently is 11 people and growing fast as we are hiring for several positions in Operations, Marketing and Tech.
David: I'm currently based in Thailand, but I'm both American and Finnish. I grew up in the U.S. though. Just to answer for myself.
Mik: And David’s background is just amazing, he brings a wealth of knowledge from his previous work with Warcraft and other top games.
Our Game Producer Artem has a stellar professional expertise in shipping AAA games, like World of Tanks and many more.
David: 22 years working in games will do that. But my most recent AAA game was Wasteland 3, where I had a lot of fun writing for the cannibal "hero" Fishlips. Among others.
Mik: And we will have our Tech Lead joining now.
To introduce, Janet is our Tech Lead and Ravi is our Senior Engineer with strong blockchain experience. While Janet is joining, let me introduce other team members.
We have Ben - our community lead from Australia, he manages and grows our Discord community. We reached 100k followers on Twitter this week, something to be proud of. Among our followers we have Gary V or Gary Vaynerchuk.
Khalid - our rock star marketing and content manager - every week he produces a report on the whole NFT market - you guys should check it out.
Janet: Hi everyone! I'm Janet from Toronto in Canada, I am stoked with joining the LOCG family as Tech Lead. I bring a wealth of technical knowledge and leadership, looking forward to bringing our marketplace and game products to life!
Mik: And Janet is also teaching coding to other people in Canada, which is pretty cool! We also have Kasimir on tech team from Switzerland, really skilled in blockchain and smart contracts.
Janet: That's right. I teach girls, kids, and educators how to code. It is fun and rewarding. I love to be able to share my knowledge with everyone.
Mik: and sharing with the LOCG team now! And other team members Game Artist - Polina, Marketing Manager - Valentine. We will publish the whole team in a couple of days on our website.
Q: What are the milestones achieved so far?
Mik: We are really working around the clock guys to bring you an amazing experience playing the game, collecting cards and winning glory.
Our major milestone was completion of the fundraising to build the game, which was supported by renowned funds such as Signum Capital, NGC, LD Capital and many more strong names including Kain Warwick, the founder of Synthetix.
David: (regarding the milestone) My daughter and I played a paper prototype version of the game yesterday and she enjoyed it. That's a milestone for the game and for me. 😉
Mik: You tell them all the secrets David 😉
The second one was the successful IDO on DAOMaker and a BurningDrops on KuCoin!.Now we are listed for a month already - very happy with that.
What we are working on right now:
1) Marketplace launch - because of the many lustom features it is built from the ground up to bring you the best experience buying our Packs with the experience resembling those when you purchase NBA Top Shots.
Plus, we got a grant for that from Polygon/Matic. So you guys can buy/sell and collect our cards within a month. David is mastering the gameplay so you guys will have a very unique experience with us.
2) Hiring the Tech Team is a major milestone I would say as well. So we are on track launching the marketplace and THE GAME this year! Again, a very unique and fun one, with DeFi elements and lots of utility for our LOCG token.
Janet: Thanks Mik. We have an amazing tech team and our love for innovation is our drive!
Q: Share with us your roadmap and plans for the future.
David:
1. Release an amazing card game
2. WORLD DOMINATION
Oh sorry, that's the secret one.
Mik: Well our team is not only very experienced but also very ambitious! So we plan to be the number 1 card game on blockchain with a 1 billion market cap.
So the major milestones this year are 1) marketplace launch (within a month) 2) game launch 3) DAO launch with the estenplishement of the LOCG council.
Free-Ask from KuCoin Community
Q: Can we generate passive income when we use your Staking and Farming services and will we be able to generate income on NFT cards/decks?
Can we still be involved in your staking program that has been started? How do we calculate the rate of return we will get when we lock LOCG tokens?
Mik: Of course! Our first staking program had 215 APR, the staking on KuCoin offered amazing returns as well. Plus on top of that we had a pool where you could stake LOCG and farm NFT items. We will continue providing these opportunities to our community. Stay tuned in our LOCG group: https://t.me/locgame_io
Q: Finding investors has been difficult, keeping investors is even more difficult, so what strategy do you have to make investors trust and go a long way with investors?
Mik: The most important is the PRODUCT. We are working on it around the clock. You can do one thing to keep investors happy: build the product people love. And that's what are here for, to build a stellar new game and increase the value of our token.
Q: You said that your team now has a total of 11 members. All of them are awesome. Is there any plan to increase more members to your team to build your team stronger?
Janet: Yes, we are currently growing our team. We are hiring for operations and developers right now.
Q: You said LOCG is a top trump card game on blockchain. Conventionally, Top Trump Card Games are played off-chain. How do you manage to make it decentralized? How can we play the game? What are the killer features of the game?
David: LOCG was a top trump card game but is now moving in a more innovative and interesting direction in the vein of Triple Triad. The killer features of the game at launch will be the crypto theme and innovations on the tried-and-true Triple Triad gameplay.
Q: NFT is a hot topic now. Many exchanges and projects bring their own NFT. Some projects add NFT in their goal. So are we gonna see own NFT or NFT collab in the future?
Mik: Definitely. We already have a partnership with Illuvium, the partnership with Seascape is in the pipeline. We will be having many more with famous artists and other brands.
Q: How much grinding or investment does it need to collect the legendary cards? And what is the drop rate of each card?And is LOCG the only currency to buy your NFTs?
David: The drop rates for cards are currently being tuned. I will be adhering to the traditions of magic gathering in that regard, but we have a much smaller card set for our initial launch. Future sets will have more cards and thus more variety and potentially more rarities. I may have more information for this on the podcast which is coming soon (TM).
Q: Can we also develop NFTs using LOCGame? And in which platforms is the game currently available on?
Mik: Currently we only have the feature of our native NFT created by our in-house game artist or in partnership. We are building on MATIC/Polygon and ETH.
Q: Can you share with us your tokenomics? How much is the total and circulation supply of your tokens? Will there be a buy back system or token burning in the future?
Mik: 150,000,000 was minted initially and already 1,500,000 burned so total current supply is c 148,500,000. There will be more token burning and buy backs.
Q: Is this a pay to win type of game, where do we have to buy to have a chance to get a rare card?
David: All TCGs are inherently "pay-to-win" in that if you don't have a certain sub-set of cards, your chances of victory over someone who does are slim to none. That said, the barrier to entry for that card set will be relatively low compared to other TCGs at launch. But because these are limited release those who do not get in early will find that the cost to get a winning deck may become the stuff of crypto-legends.
Q: I'm a gamer and I have a question about how the game functions. Are you going to have seasonal cards for some big events in the crypto world? Something that may change cards' power in the game? Something like Elon tweet, lol.
Mik: We actually plan for it, having special NFT cards (very rare) related to some big events in crypto.
Q: Would the platform be to collect NFT cards, or is it to play cards with other people, like the classic YuGiOh?
Janet: You get to do both, collect and play.
Q: Most of the questions people had during the AMA asked about the strengths of the project. So at this time, can we talk about your difficulties and challenges? What difficulties did you face developing the LOCGame project and how did you overcome them?
Mik: I would say the difficulty initially is to build a stellar team where every single person is very talented, eager to share knowledge with others, enjoys working in our environment and has a professionally suitable background. We did our best to bring rock stars on board.
Q: I see LOCGame is a competitive gameplay where we can use our strategy to win. But is it a solo gameplay or we can play as a squad also? And is there any way to communicate with players?
David: Currently squad and solo gameplay are not in the works for the initial release. Future expansion sets will certainly have story and solo play components if I have anything to say about it.
Q: Do you have a local community group? Or have a plan with a local community group? Do you know how to work? And how many are your official team members? Please explain.
Mik: We answered about our team members, currently 11; we do have local communities in Korean, Chinese, Turkish languages and will be having more in Spanish.
Q: I like to play games. When I saw that LOC is also a gaming NFT project, I was trying to download this game in the Play Store, but there wasn't the Legends Of Crypto game. Can you tell me when the game will be available in the Play Store and can I enjoy it and earn together?
Mik: The game will be available at the end of Q3! First you will see our NFT cards within a month. So stay tuned, you will be able to play it very soon.
Q: Your project is very important but it needs a large user traffic to be sustainable over time. What marketing strategies do you have planned to increase the validity of your brand? Are you planning a strategic partnership to level up your project?
David: I would like to see partnerships with big brand IPs for Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, Mass Effect, Dune, and many others. Time will tell if we can draw them in.
Q: Great AMA, so since we are still struggling to get crypto adoption, how are you planning to dominate the card game world?
Mik: We will be the first of its kind with unique and fun gameplay + amazing collectible cards. We will dominate. It is a matter of time.
Q: While you build your project, do you take into account community feedback and demands? What role does the community play on LOCG?
Janet: Of course, please join our discord: https://discord.gg/S4HDQ4rXjA
LOCGame (LegendsOfCrypto) links:
Giveaway Section
KuCoin and LOCGame have prepared a total of 21,000 LOCG to give away to AMA participants.
1. Free-ask section: 1,000 LOCG
2. AMA activity: 20,000 LOCG
Activity 1 — Quiz: 15,000 LOCG
Activity 2 — Price Guess: 5,000 LOCG
. . .
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