Aug 31, 2022
UNREAL - JULY & AUGUST 2022 SIPHER UPDATE
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Ather Labs’ Founder and SIPHER World Architect, Tin Nguyen, shares another update packed with juicy information about SIPHER’s Development and what’s new at Ather Labs within the past two months.
SIPHER Honored as TOP 2 in KPMG-HSBC EMERGING GIANTS report
July was an incredibly momentous milestone for SIPHER, as we were honored as Top 2 on KPMG-HSBC’s Emerging Giants in Asia Pacific 2022 report.
Check it out here!
6 Month Recap
Check out the video on the Tweet below to take a walk down memory lane and recap our last 6 months at Ather Labs.
Making a Grand Entrance
To us, growing up with games with epic boss fight scenes has drilled into us the idea that every boss must be badass. Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Nier Automata… you name it.
Bad-ass-ness not only in their form but in their way of entrance. So here’s our very first boss’ entrance. Let us know on social media what you think of it!
Peekaboo (Pun intended!)
Overview of Sipher Odyssey, in pictures!
We often get asked to describe Sipher Odyssey by eager fans, so we decided to create a few punchy graphics that would capture the spirit of the game we’re building. Please take a look and we would love for you to share it with your circles to help SIPHER reach a wider audience!
P/S: There’s a fun alpha 🙂
156 Talents and the Opening of our 3rd Office in Danang
Team-wise, we’re actively hunting talents as usual. The team scaled up to 156 full-time members and we’re still actively recruiting for more than 18 positions for experienced devs, game engineers, and artists. Here is our Career page, it would be valuable to us if you could spread the word to passionate talents in the gaming & web3 space!
“Go to where the talents are” and “Hybrid work is the future”, with these two mottos in mind, we are happy to announce the commencement of our 3rd satellite office in Danang in August!
Danang is well known for its great beaches, beautiful cultural sites, and great food. However, that’s not all. It is a well-known city with many great talents in tech, art, and especially gaming. Ubisoft & VNG, two big gaming companies have their 2nd HQ there.
These latest additions to SIPHER are instrumental to strengthening our teams and networks and to keep building & upgrading the quality of experience for our users — our Sipherians. If you happen to reside in Danang and want to join our growing team, give us a shout!
SIPHER Merch and Sculpture Claim Goes Live
We have also launched our First Batch of exclusive MERCH and Limited Edition Sculpture Claim for Eligible Sipher Neko Dutch Auction participants, sparking excitement and exuberance amongst our community.
Expect the Second Batch for claiming our exclusive MERCH to begin in September 2022. Stay tuned to Discord and our socials for announcements!
Sixth Vested Unlock is Up for Grabs
The Sixth & Final Vested Unlock of $SIPHER Retroactive Airdrop is also currently Live, concluding our exciting month-long Airdrop program!
SIPHER Second Round of Upgraded Pre-Alpha Playtesting
In preparation for our second round of pre-alpha and early alpha playtesting, we are planning to onboard individuals, groups, and gaming channels with a renewed focus on web2 influencers, shifting ourselves away from the controversial play-to-earn aspects and concentrating more on gameplay and the fun factors that are well known in web2 games.
Want to participate in our upcoming playtest? Register now at https://sipher.xyz/!
Introducing Ather Report
As part of our efforts to keep a pulse on what’s happening in the gaming and web3 world, we have been issuing this internal weekly report coined “Ather Report”.
Starting this month, we’re opening up the Ather Report for our community viewing. Right now, all the content is curated from third-party sources with little editorial work from our research team. In the future, we aim to introduce first-party articles written by our team, from game designs, and technical artists to smart contract engineering, to share our opinions and knowledge with the wider gaming and web3 community.
Please let us know if you have any recommendations and if you have great news that you would like us to cover in this report, please send it to our AtherLabs Twitter!
Mobile Focus for SIPHER
As we continue building the PC version of the game, our current priority is to release the Sipher Odyssey game on mobile platforms (iOS and Android) first. This will enable us to reach a much larger audience at the time of launch, especially since blockchain games have had a better reception on mobile platforms as compared to PC platforms.
Therefore, launching via mobile will give us an edge in terms of reach and reception. No need to worry if you’re a PC fan, as the PC version is currently under development alongside the mobile and should launch shortly after.
Express Yourself with Sipher.Tech
Sipher.Tech is Live, a Third Party Solution provided by our friend at Tribally, users could choose from a variety of playable characters, each with randomized traits that make them completely unique from one another, and users could express their style through highly customizable Sipher characters.
Our Community is Thriving
We have continued to foster a healthy and sustainable community on a weekly basis with participation prizes, such as Spaceship Building Contest, POAP Art Contest, Game Nights every weekend, and Poker tournament with Legends. Speaking of prizes, our Metakrew NFT giveaway for the community was rolled out successfully.
Partnership with Themetakey & Ganymede Metaverse
Our partnership with TheMetakey and the Ganymede Metaverse is brimming with success. The dream of NFTs interoperability and cross-game/metaverse implementation is alive and well and is materializing as we speak. We are proud to be one of the first to achieve this with satisfactory results.
What We’ve been Cooking up
By now, you must be extremely familiar with our star Siphers: the Inu and Neko. These Surrogates have been the front face of SIPHER ever since the beginning. Well, for the past few months, we’ve been refining another contender, one which you have all been eagerly anticipating.
A fearsome Surrogate whose strength is forged from the harsh and unforgiving red sand of the desert-like planet — Andor, a world of Stone and Battle, a world where strength is power.
Possessing the might of a tank and the force of a battering ram, this Surrogate doesn’t punch, it pulverizes, turning any foolish foe who stands in its way into instant pixel and digital dust. Anything and anyone would look puny standing next to it.
Sneak Peek of our Crafting System“To stop a bad guy with a gun, you need a good guy with a kick-ass alien-looking custom-made laser sniper rifle” - Sipher Mad Scientist
World-building continued
Enter the lush and expansive meadows of Sera. Named after its ruling God, the once bleak and barren planet is now blessed with joyous sunrays and blissfully populous faun and fauna.
It thrived under the blessing of Sera and as a collective gesture of appreciation, the Serian world is dotted with temples and altars to Sera and the sun.
Yet, in the shadow, underground, beneath the surfaces, mysterious creatures roam in the darkness, borrowing their power and blessings from the surface, awaiting for your Sipher character to explore.
Random Musing Across Sipheria
Sometimes, you just want to chill, looking at things making their way throughout Sipheria, and that’s cool too!
SIPHER Comics Platform Release!
Furthermore, ever since the first release of our official comics series Sipherian Tales — Gone Fishin’, Discord has always been the go-to place for our beloved NFT holders to enjoy some of our team’s most exhilarating storytelling.
Though we genuinely enjoy the sense of community, comradery, aesthetics, and user experience that Discord provides… it still leaves much to be desired. So, we’ve decided to give our comics some love and created a brand new platform as part of our (also recently revamped) Sipher.xyz website.
Here’s a quick preview:
And yes, it’s only for NFT holders, so grab one of our 20,000 exclusive Genesis Sipher NFTs (INU or NEKO) and connect your wallet now!
Ending August in Style with a Fireside Chat
Towards the end of August, we hosted a Fireside chat with our World Architect — Tin Nguyen, and host 0xGuru. In this Fireside chat, Tin and Guru had an epic discussion about our upcoming Sipher Odyssey game, which included topics such as:
- Core Gameplay of the Sipherian Odyssey
- Customization of Gear & Weapons
- World Building & Epic Bosses
- Guild Wars
- Time-Limited Tournaments
- Upcoming Merch Claim
- Switch from Unity to Unreal Engine 5
- Early Access Alpha Playtest Registration
- Other major alpha leaks
Want to learn more about these topics? You can watch or listen to the Fireside Chat below!
Parting words
July has been great, August will be shaping up to be a hectic & exciting month. Lots of late nights and overtime were pulled by many team members across the boards, kudos to them all, we would not get to this point without our amazing team.
Going forward, we expect that game development updates will be a little more sporadic as we get back into the gameplay-testing stages, working closely with playtesting groups both in person and remotely. This will require our 100% focus so please forgive us in advance for this. As such, we have decided to change our Dev Update schedule to every two months. So you can expect another big Game Dev update in October!
Lastly, as our Studio is deeply involved in the web3 space, we must keep close tabs on the large macroeconomy. There are no indications that show the next 6–9 months we will see great economic recovery, and gaming is definitely affected as a matter of fact.
Knowing this in advance, we as a Studio will always be prepared for the next many years of challenges worldwide. From a run-way point of view, we are in a good position for years ahead. Our full team is dedicated to crafting the best gaming & entertainment experiences and through that, bringing value to our ecosystem.
We want to wish you, our readers, supporters and community members well, and remember, it might get worse before it gets better. However, we will persevere through it. Thank you to all our backers who’ve been with us since the beginning & continue to follow along our journey. Let’s keep building.
Take care and until next time!
P/S: If you’d like to stay up to date with our news, click here
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Tin Nguyen
AtherLabs Founder — SIPHER World Architect