next »

[explodi]

Hello TIGsource, It's very nice to be posting here after lurking for so long...

My team and I have been working on this online RPG game we call 'Hammercoin'. Our main goals are

• to pay tribute to classics of the genre including Pokemon, Diablo, Ragnarok, and
  
• to make a game economy with Bitcoin, the magical money of the internet!!

The project started out after doing the BitQuest Minecraft server and finding out that using a cryptocurrency creates dynamics never before seen in games; We felt the next step is to create a stand-alone experience.

Hammercoin (like Minecraft) is also a voxel engine, but with a completely different gameplay, a top-down isometric view and a strong focus on combat, loot, markets and character development.

You can use Bitcoin inside the game to pay for armor, weapons and cosmetic items, but you can also sell what you found and earn money! Market prices are set by supply and demand so the scarcity/demand of some items makes awesome incentives to go out and find them.

Actually, all the items in the market are found by other players, and we never manipulate prices.

We believe this crazy experiment is great because it's a completely radical business model, that can be an alternative to the "pay to win" or "subscription" models for online RPGs.

Also, game money sucks! We want to inspire all other developers to use Bitcoin, a internet-native currency that's secure for players, open for developers, and holds a great value IRL! The ideas in this game are only possible thanks to this technology.

Our game is under very active development with expansions coming each two months. You can buy the game through itch.io and get all the future versions!



Click here to buy hammercoin for $10

And I'll be happy to answer all your questions on the game design, technology, bitcoin gaming or the bitcoin currency in general.

[explodi]

Update #1:

Hi friends! There's been a long time since the last update, mostly because we rewrote 80% of the game from scratch. After trying different (way too many) approaches to character and level design we finally decided our design principles.

We lost huge amounts of time and effort by not having a clear scope from the start so my advice to you is to decide very early in development what you want to do and how.

We reverted our desicion of having chibi-style big headed anthropomorphic characters to a classic dungeons&dragons style humans, elves, dwafs, etc. Why? First, we are big dungeons and dragons fans and the rules of the universe for this type of adventures are very clear and familiar. Inventing a whole universe with politics, technology and nature can be very fun but challenging: At the last moment we decided against it because we want to build a classic experience for hardcore RPG fans, and Bitcoin is already very hard to understand, and much harder if we add a complex world and story. So, next time.


The typical combat setting now will be dark dungeons, caves and mazes, and we'll be back to designing overworld stuff like haunted forests and crazier stuff soon.


Equipment can be bought and sold (in Bitcoin) with villagers. The combat and defense items are pretty much necessary to travel around dungeons, but since bitcoin can also be acquired as loot from monsters, it's easy to get some stuff to get started. The item system is designed to have epic rare items in the future that could be traded player to player via barter or bitcoin.


The combat system and enemies look and feel like similar games, but in higher level worlds it will be stranger and different. Next in our list is magic abilities you acquire by leveling up. It will be very similar to DOTA-style games with a twist.

That's it for now, If you want to join the beta test, you can do so here:

http://hammerco.in/earlyaccess

For now it's only available for those who pledge some Bitcoin to our development process. You can pay what you want, we don't care!
If you don't have access to bitcoin and want to play really bad, you can PM me and I can send you an account.

[voidSkipper]

I love the concept; games are always more fun for me when real money is involved.

It doesn't have to be even a meaningful amount of money, but I'd rather play a game of Monopoly where everyone puts in $5 worth of pennies than use the Monopoly money.

I don't currently have a bitcoin wallet, but due to some services I use doing away with PayPal, I've been thinking of getting in on it.

This might just be the push I need

[explodi]

I love the concept; games are always more fun for me when real money is involved.

It doesn't have to be even a meaningful amount of money, but I'd rather play a game of Monopoly where everyone puts in $5 worth of pennies than use the Monopoly money.

I don't currently have a bitcoin wallet, but due to some services I use doing away with PayPal, I've been thinking of getting in on it.

This might just be the push I need

Another thing worth mentioning is Bitcoin is a great way to account for in-game money with great security and privacy for users. Credit cards, being a technology from another century, is not internet native and there's thousands of frauds with stolen cards every day. So, for developers of "indie" MMOs like us getting credit card/paypal compliance and security is expensive and backwards.

So Bitcoin is a great "game coin" that allows us to focus on making a great game and not on accountability/security of a virtual currency of our own. Also, the Blockchain (the technology that powers Bitcoin) might be the way we store player's items in the future, so all assets are impossible to duplicate and free to trade between players without middlemen!

[stryfe]

Really nice concept, seems like the development is pretty solid! Following here.  

What are you using for networking btw?

PS: the "How do I get bitcoin?" bit of the site is a lorem ipsum yet but I'd like to read that when you have some content ready

[TonyManfredonia]

I always love when a game that's been MIA for months resurfaces. Seeing the dedication is always rewarding.

Love the new models by the way. Looks like a Voxel-version of Runescape

[voidSkipper]

Well, I took the plunge and bought a whole 5 (count 'em, five!) dollars worth of bitcoins :D

Felt like doing a drug deal, that purchase. Tense stuff.

Either way, got my confirmation email for the Alpha, looking forward to having a play around!

[chrilley]

Looks promising! I like the voxel art style you got going.

[explodi]

What are you using for networking btw?

We use WebSockets for networking. All of the game logic is server side running on a node.js application. I'm not sure if we made the right choices it's fast and we can use SSL. Most of the game messages are very simple though: walk to destination, attack target, launch spell at certain location, etc.

[voidSkipper]

Hi Explodi,

I got the email that my payment had been received and that I'd get a download link in a few hours, but it never turned up. Could you possibly check what happened there?

[voidSkipper]

I apologise. I did receive the email, gmail just stuck it in spam despite accepting the first email with no dramas...

[MattCaffrey]

I bought early access to your game, but it refuses to update. It is stuck at the updating phase.

[gochi]

I bought early access to your game, but it refuses to update. It is stuck at the updating phase.

Mine is updated till the progress bar is full, but is stuck with the message "Downloading latest build #447"

what should I do?

[explodi]

I bought early access to your game, but it refuses to update. It is stuck at the updating phase.

Mine is updated till the progress bar is full, but is stuck with the message "Downloading latest build #447"

what should I do?

Sorry about that guys. There was a launcher issue, and it's being updated. You can replace your old, buggy launcher with this new one and it should work:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vndkbn9e8equ1ys/hammercoin-win32.zip?dl=0

[gochi]

I bought early access to your game, but it refuses to update. It is stuck at the updating phase.

Mine is updated till the progress bar is full, but is stuck with the message "Downloading latest build #447"

what should I do?

Sorry about that guys. There was a launcher issue, and it's being updated. You can replace your old, buggy launcher with this new one and it should work:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vndkbn9e8equ1ys/hammercoin-win32.zip?dl=0

Thanks for the quick reply!
And the latest patch #449 works :D

[luckyluka]

Hello guys!

Tnx for the game.


I receive an error when trying to play the game.

"Couldn't get item prices"






any suggestions/comments?


Tnx

 

[Zukas]

Did I hear earn moneys while playing?  

I'm so in to support! Love the style and idea, just I wish I had a wallet with enough bits for at least minimal donation.

Though, two curiosity questions, how many $ is 200 bits and which engine do you use?

Edit: Okay, I done the math, it's almost nothing, any idea where I could buy bitcoins with paypal around the bit nominal?

[explodi]

Did I hear earn moneys while playing?  

I'm so in to support! Love the style and idea, just I wish I had a wallet with enough bits for at least minimal donation.

Though, two curiosity questions, how many $ is 200 bits and which engine do you use?

Edit: Okay, I done the math, it's almost nothing, any idea where I could buy bitcoins with paypal around the bit nominal?

The game has a 'market' where you can spend Bitcoin on items or sell for Bitcoin stuff you find (and in the future: craft) Some monsters also drop Bitcoin, depending on the level of the monster and luck.

About the Engine, the client part of the game is written in Unity, and our server side engine is mostly Javascript with node.js

The easiest way to buy bitcoin depends on where you are. If US, I'd say Coinbase where you can use a debit card.

[luckyluka]

Hello guys!

Tnx for the game.


I receive an error when trying to play the game.

"Couldn't get item prices"






any suggestions/comments?


Tnx

 

no ideas?

[explodi]

Hammercoin 0.8
Hi! It's been a while without a Hammercoin update but we sure were busy! Finally we nailed the last of our planned features for a release and we call this 0.8 update the "Desert update", here's what's new:


The island of Khan
Players now start in the island of khan, a desert world with hostile quicksand seas and underground caves. The world spans across different small servers and we plan to expand quickly in the coming months.


New controls and improved combat
We eliminated most of the mouse functions and all the player gameplay occurs on the keyboard. Moving now is WASD and we plan to support controllers too. We also have a more efficient network code and as a result combat feels much better and fun.


New graphics and sound
Most of the content are totally new textures, music, sound and models and the game's UI, cameras and overall interface was reworked.

You can watch a small teaser of the gameplay here:




We also are offering early access via itch. If you want to help us develop and the game before anyone else, you can purchase here:
https://megogame.itch.io/hammercoin

If you already have a game account please download the new launcher here:
https://hammerco.in/download_beta

Feel free to ask me anything about the game, bitcoin or game development in general.

Thanks for playing!