Jun 24, 2022
JUNE 2022 SIPHER UPDATE — “WE ARE ATHERLABS”
Our World Architect (CEO), Tin Nguyen, shares yet another SIPHER Development Update. “We’ve recently revealed our gaming & web3 tech studio’s official name: AtherLabs”
- TL;DR
- Build your Spaceships!!!
- Gameplay
- Guns
- World Building & Lore Crafting
- Dopamis
- Andor
- Sera
- Moonbase Station
- Shop Shop Shop Shop!
- Shop Keepers & NPCs
- 🐻 Market
- Stay safe, stay interested, and let’s continue building
- But wait, there’s more!
- Appendix: Collection of articles and Tweet threads on Gaming, Metaverse, and Web3 Gaming
TL;DR
- Our team has continued to expand as we’ve continued recruitment, bringing us to 156 full-time members. With passionate engineers, game designers, and artists in our team, we’re in a really good position to continue crafting the grand World of Sipheria.
- Ather Labs, our gaming & web3 tech studio’s official name, was recently revealed. Please give us a follow at https://twitter.com/AtherLabs! Check out our website here. We’ve always been here to build dope stuff in web3, and now we have a proper name to back it all up!
- We also launched our Sipher Tiktok channel, please follow us here!
- We are working towards our Alpha release. This will be a feature-rich version of the game that is expected to include the full game loop (both with the core gameplay and the meta progression loop — such as character unlocks), leveling, memories progression, weapon crafting & progression, and a few game modes such as our “Player-vs-Player-vs-Environment” (PvPvE) game mode.
- We expect to release an updated pre-alpha sometime in September. This build includes the improved base gameplay experience of our three characters: INU, NEKO, and BURU.
- We’ve continued to make progress with our metagame, namely the economy’s design and the effects of a multi-token economy. Turns out, a multi-token economy is much more complex, which warrants us to be extra careful when it comes to designing a sustainable economy.
- Last month we commenced full production of two additional playable characters. This includes the design of their 3D models, unique clothing sets and weapons, animations, and VFX. We’re really happy with how they’ve turned out and we think that you will really enjoy the diversity of these characters in terms of playstyle and character design!
- A sneak peek of an upcoming sub-race belonging to the 4th playable character is expected to release in Q4. Hint: “small things come in small packages!”.
You can view all past updates here: Sipher Development Update
Build your Spaceships!!!
Surely you have seen our recent news updates about the Sipherian Spaceship crafting feature going live! We hope you liked the experience and that you’ve built your favorite Spaceship!
We’re thrilled to say that we’ve also enjoyed watching the banter and trading activities between our community members! Have a look at what some of our community members had to say:
We have a few things planned for the Spaceship utilities within the Sipherian Odyssey game (trinkets and pets are only a couple of the ideas we’ve been working on). We are also thinking about how Spaceships could come into play within the other game modes in the World of Sipheria. Regardless, you will certainly need Spaceships and their parts to progress further in the game. So you might want to open your Lootboxes because it’s time to hunt for those sweet, sweet rides!
Gameplay
Gameplay is 🤴🏻 (King). Content is 👸🏻 (Queen).
Thanks to the feedback from our pre-alpha playtesters, we have decided to revamp our melee attack gameplay. The goal is to achieve more fluidity in the attacking animations and movement, allowing players to feel “in control” and “with intent” while performing combo attacks. Even small changes like these are important to us. This is why our team is constantly tweaking the formula for micro-improvements.
We believe that it’s worthwhile for us to nail these combat mechanics early on. This way, we can leverage the melee attacks for our future characters, since it is an intended core element of our game’s combat mechanics.
Once we’ve completed these updates and added them to our pre-alpha build, we’re very likely to begin our second round of pre-alpha & early alpha playtest programs. Please stay tuned and get ready to sign up for our playtest programs at AtherLabs or Sipher websites. That is if you want to have a chance of being included!
Stay tuned to our socials!
Guns
Being a looter-shooter game, wicked cool weapons are at the top of our minds. Check out some of our working designs below. Each variation comes with different stats and memory boosts, so yes, the combinations for theory-crafting will be massive!
World Building & Lore Crafting
The World of Sipheria is intended to be large and engaging. Dopamis and Andor, two of our lore-rich Sipherian worlds, are moving along in terms of art production and design. We’ve also made early progress towards the concepts of our third and final world that will be included in the first Season of the Sipherian Odyssey game mode.
Without spilling too many details, here are some work-in-progress images from our awesome concept artists.
Dopamis
Andor
Sera
Moonbase Station
The Moonbase Station, which is the Nexus hub for all Sipherians, has started to look alive after all the progress made on the design and modeling of its different sections.
Finding quests, trading, crafting, bantering, or simply jamming out in the metaverse — you might just find all of these activities at the Moonbase.
The Moonbase will be filled with citizens and creatures, some of which have also been under development. You can expect to see them strolling around the place from time to time, and some of them may carry interesting quests or items that you can acquire!
Shop Shop Shop Shop!
A big part of the Sipherian journey is the exploration of vastly different cultures and worlds. Shopping is no different. You can expect to see and visit some of these shops floating around the Moonbase. They will progressively be open for business as we move on to the next season!
Shop Keepers & NPCs
Can’t have ’em shops without ’em NPCs! Take a wild guess on what these NPCs will barter with you for.
🐻 Market
Many economic indicators suggest that we’re headed to a prolonged bear market. We have witnessed significant destruction of value in the stock market along with cascading liquidations of large financial institutions within the crypto space. Traditional stock & bond portfolio investors are deep in the red, and crypto & tech stock investors are much deeper in losses. Overall, sentiment is heading towards an all-time low. This time is extremely unfavorable for risk-on assets, such as technology and crypto.
Since our inception, our goals have always been hyper-focus on making great and entertaining games that focus on the “fun”. Games that will attract many players, regardless of their affinity towards web3. This has always been clear to us, but now more than ever.
As the hyped interests in web3 gaming temporarily subside due to the state of the market as well as the crash of crypto prices, we believe that gaming studios that put an emphasis on creating fun games have a much better chance of finding success in terms of traction and revenue as the gaming audiences have always been, and will be, here to stay. Some more knowledgeable Investors even theorize that gaming is recession-resistant.
At AtherLabs, we always make plans to be well-capitalized for years. We did not invest or loan our treasury to any CeFi Banks that are the subject of liquidations and/or bankruptcies. We believe that having a strong financial foundation is key to survivability and a greater chance of success. As long as we can survive post-winter, the return of crypto and web3 gaming are in the cards.
That being said, we expect the capital market to slow down significantly, as sales will be hard and fund-raising will be very tough. Thus we’ve taken a closer look at our costs and are cutting as many expenses as possible, all while being pragmatic and ensuring that every dollar allows us to continue building towards an exciting future ahead.
Stay safe, stay interested, and let’s continue building
A bear market of this magnitude is extremely stressful. Please stay safe, and take care of your mental health and financial wealth.
We hope that the tough sea makes tough sailors and that many of us will be more vindicative through these trying times. Regardless of the state of the market, we are still always actively looking for passionate talents to join us. If you love making great games and have a passion for gaming, please check out our **Careers Page!**
A wise man once told me that we have a finite time on this earth for building, living and loving, so let’s spend that valuable time towards crafting something amazing and worthwhile!
But wait, there’s more!
Check out the latest Technical Pre-Alpha Gameplay Overview from the SIPHERIAN ODYSSEY we prepared for you. Enjoy!
Disclaimer:
The content and images contained are all works-in-progress. As such, they are subject to changes.
Appendix: Collection of articles and Tweet threads on Gaming, Metaverse, and Web3 Gaming
Konvoy |🎮| Gaming: Is It Recession-Proof?In general, recessions have a tangible impact on daily life through more disciplined consumer spending. People not only… mailchi.mp
Games and blockchainPreface: Usually, for my blog posts, I just write stream-of-consciousness rambles, and don't even bother proofreading… polynya.mirror.xyz
Breaking the Trance: Crypto GamingJune 7, 2022 Too many founders are in a trance and the broken premise goes something like this: "For years, gamers have… www.mechanism.capital
Games with a Thousand Faces - Ran Mo's BlogThe promise of blockchain for gaming sometimes feels like a fever dream-something more emotionally felt than logically… www.ranmo.me
From One To Many 🚀
Enter Sipheria & be a part of our 350K worldwide community
Sipher Website: https://sipher.xyz
Sipher Official Links: https://linktr.ee/sipherxyz
We are actively hiring!
If you ♥ gaming and making great games, join us at Sipher: https://careers.sipher.xyz/