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SkyWeaver
SkyWeaver is a free-to-play collectible card game (CCG) developed on the Ethereum blockchain. It is an NFT game launched by the Horizon Blockchain Games, providing its users with utilities such as owning, trading, and gifting game-based NFT cards. Skyweaver offers accessible gameplay designed for both competitive and casual players.
Overview
SkyWeaver is a free-to-play worldwide competitive trading card game that unifies the different perspectives of online and physical card games. SkyWeaver, built using blockchain technology, provides users with an easy-to-play card game, which can be personalized as digital assets. Users can win and trade these digital cards with similar functionalities to physical cards having utilities - within and without the game.[1][2]
SkyWeaver is a player versus player browser-based game, making the gameplay experience accessible for its users, anywhere and anytime. According to the gaming prospects for its users, by winning battles and ascending the termed "SkyWeaver ranks", users can earn 'new cards' (NFTs) all of which can be utilized for gameplay and some of which users can trade.[5]
Skyweaver cards are categorized into three levels of cards- basic card, silver card, and gold card. Built atop the Ethereum sidechain Polygon (formerly Matic Network), Skyweaver makes ownership, authenticity, and trading of its Card games available within the platform's store. [6]
Features
SkyWeaver has the following key features:
Free to Play
SkyWeaver is a free-to-play game, which places no demand on its users for payment to stay competitive. By playing the game and honing the user's skills as a SkyWeaver, such users always have the opportunity to win and earn cards that impact gameplay. SkyWeaver belongs to its players.
Open, Secure, Transparent
The SkyWeaver's ecosystem is powered by blockchain, allowing its economy to be open, secure, fair, and transparent. With each card securely registered on the Ethereum blockchain, users can track their cards’ rarities. Users' cards are securely in their deck, with playable features.
Dual Deck Combinations & Building
SkyWeaver comes with an in-game deck builder for users to customize their playstyle and build the deck of users'. The deck leaderboard lets users see which decks perform best.
Non-Rotating Gameplay
Users' SkyWeaver cards are eternal, which means that users will never rotate cards out of play.
Trading Universality
By playing SkyWeaver and ascending the leaderboards, users can win new cards that become their property. The players can play with the cards or trade them with other players. The SkyWeaver Shop is a Peer to Peer (P2P) Decentralized Exchange (DEX) built right into the game. The Skyweaver shop is a place where users can acquire cards of interest and trade cards for exchange.
Users can also freely trade their cards on other exchanges like OpenSea and Rarebits or gift their cards to friends.
Customized Playstyles
SkyWeavers (or players within its gameplay) can choose from four different playstyles, better known as prisms. Each prism offers its users a different deck type and access to different creatures and spells. The first four prisms include Heart, Wisdom, Strength, and Agility.
Users can choose the prism that best represents them, or combine two prisms for more gameplay possibilities.
Each Sky creature and spell come from one of eight different elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Metal, Mind, Light, and Dark. Different abilities are associated with each element, and users (named as 'SkyWeavers') will require utilizing their mana to summon creatures that battle with them. By winning battles against opponents, users earn new cards and win the allegiance of creatures and spells.
Wallet's Security
Each SkyWeaver card is securely registered within the user's personal Ethereum blockchain wallet. Users are the ones with access to this wallet. Horizon Blockchains games cannot access any cards or take them away. The cards themselves are Blockchain assets that exist forever, providing its holders' liberty to either play with and trade them. The Arcadeum arcade and wallet were developed so users can easily manage the digital cards that they win and accumulate by playing SkyWeaver. [7]
Gameplay & NFTs
Creating an Account
Users interested in starting with Skyweaver are to:
- Open a browser and navigate to their website.
- Push the start button (which will require an Ethereum wallet. Users can use MetaMask to maximize security)
- Users will need to provide a username and the early access code that will be given by the developers.
- After successful login, users can learn how to play from, the game rules, or proceed to click 'start match' to play a sample game with no rewards.
- Users can select competitive, then to discovery, to start to be matched up with an opponent to begin a real opponent game. [8]
Game Story
SkyWeaver games take place in an alternate reality called Sky. Users are known as Skyweavers. Skyweavers are game creatures who traveled to this other dimension to explore, play, and battle with other Skyweavers' Characters.
As users battle with others, they acquire resources from Sky, which also allows them to learn how to control the units that inhabit it. Over time, as skyweavers play and compete with one another, Sky itself evolves and becomes something greater.
Game Features
Skyweaver gameplay has the following elements-
Heroes
SkyWeaver, players control a special character called a Hero. If this character’s health goes to zero, the player loses. The Hero is a fully functional unit. It has attack and defense stats, and it can even attack other creatures or the opposing Hero. Even if a player has no cards on the board, he can still attack other creatures or players using his Hero
Attached Spells
Creatures in SkyWeaver have the ability to carry attached spells. These spells behave just like spell cards. The player can activate an attached spell by paying its mana cost. Each unit can only have 1 spell attached to it at a time. If a card causes a unit to gain a new attachment, the old attachment goes away.
Units on Board
Players would be required to onboard units. Each player can have a maximum of six units on his/her side of the board at a time. If a card would cause a new unit to enter the board on his side, the card simply cannot be played.
This feature is intended to cut down on board clutter and prevent cards from becoming unreadable on mobile devices.
Automatic Discard
Skyweavers (Players) can maximally have 9 cards in hand at a time. If an event or action causes the player to have more than 9 cards, the oldest card that he drew gets shuffled back into his deck. Players cannot choose which cards to discard. If the player wants to keep a card that such player drew many turns ago, the player must play cards to keep his hand from going over the limit.
Unique Keywords
SkyWeaver has many unique Keywords, which are a staple of collectible card games (CCGs). Some combat keywords, used on SkyWeaver cards include- Wither, Lifesteal, Banner, Guard, Stealth, and Armor.
Enchantments
In SkyWeaver, a player can place enchantments on enemy cards. But these enchantments can be removed if the owner of the affected card pays the mana cost of the enchantment.
Thus, negative enchantments can easily be removed. If a player removes an enchantment though, he is slowed down by the mana cost this incurs.
Prisms
SkyWeaver (NFT) has prisms that cards belong to, which are more like having colors of magic as in Magic. When a player builds a deck or starts a game, the player must choose 1 or 2 prisms to use in his deck. If such a user chooses 1 prism, his deck must be a minimum of 20 cards. If the user chooses 2 prisms, his deck must be a minimum of 30 cards.
Mono-prismatic decks will draw the same cards more often, which could provide an advantage. On the other hand, decks with more than one prism will have more strategies to choose from. So players must weigh the benefits and disadvantages of each when deciding how to build their decks.
Beginning accounts only have access to Strength Prism decks. Other prisms become available as the account gains levels.
Skyweaver's Prisms
Types of Prism | Availabiilty & Levels | Specialties |
---|---|---|
Strength | available from the beginning) | Strength Focuses on powerful units, damage buffs, and damage spells. Good for “aggro” decks. |
Wisdom | unlocked at level 5 | Focuses on healing, card-drawing abilities, and board clearing mechanics. Great for “control” decks. |
Agility | unlocked at level 10 | Emphasizes “sacrifice” mechanics such as spending life or discarding cards to gain an advantage. |
Heart | unlocked at level 15 | Uses the graveyard to recycle creatures and overwhelm opponents. |
When players participate in matches, they win cards based on the prism of the deck they are currently using.
Card Economy
SkyWeaver (NFT) has three levels of NFT game cards including basic cards, silver cards, and gold cards.
Basic Cards
Users can unlock the basic cards by completing matches, accumulating XP, and leveling up. At launch, Skyweaver's availed 500 cards for users to unlock. Users can use these basic cards to build a deck that suits their game style. All basic cards can be unlocked completely for free, which means that any user can maximize playing SkyWeaver, building decks, and participating in competitions. These basic cards, are Basic cards are not tradable as Non-Fungible Token (NFT).
Silver Cards
The silver card is a tradable Non-Fungible Token (NFT) version of the basic card. Users in possession of a silver card can sell, trade, give away, collect and use these cards at the user's discretion. There are four differences between the silver card and the basic card including-
Silver Cards | Basic Cards |
---|---|
The silver card has a shiny silver frame instead of a purple basic card frame. | Not Shiny. |
Silver cards are tradable, which means they are your property and you can trade them in the market or between friends. | Basic cards are not tradable. |
Silver cards can be obtained by ranking first on the leaderboard weekly; buying from other players in the NFTs market, or winning conquest competitions. | Basic cards can be unlocked for free by playing games and earning XP. |
Users can exchange 1 silver card for 1 conquest ticket. | Users cannot exchange the basic card for a conquest ticket. |
GameMaker's Card
Horizon Blockchain provides initial liquidity to the market. The first small batch of silver cards is to launch the market and allow players to purchase silver cards. In order to increase the background, the developers aim to distribute 100% of these silver cards to the community. [9]
Gold Card
Skyweaver's NFT gold card is a trophy version of the card designed when users win all three games in the conquest. The gold card is tradable and has all the functions of a silver card, but has a gold frame and limited supply. The Skyweaver's Gold NFT cards are rare trophy cards with no traffic in the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market as silver cards. [10]
Card Types
From the combat function, there are three kinds of functional cards Unit (unit), Spell (spell), and Magic (enchants).
Unit Cards
Unit cards are permanent until they are defeated or consumed by another effect. Users can identify them by the polygons of the inner card frame. Units have separate attack and life pools, which can be further strengthened or reduced by various means.
Unit cards have five attributes:
- Mana cost: The mana required to play this unit from your hand.
- Attached spell: Some units have spells attached to them. These are like any other spells and have their own mana cost, as shown in the upper left corner. As long as you have mana, they can be used in your turn, even the turn you call the unit. You pay the displayed cost from your own mana pool.
- Abilities: Most units have one or more special abilities. These can be keyword abilities, such as armor and banners, which are shared by many units. Or these special abilities can have unique effects, such as Mighty Steed’s ability to provide armor to your hero (see below for more details).
- Attack: The attack power of the unit. This is the damage it will cause when it is attacked/attacked by other units and/or opponents’ heroes.
- Health: This is the damage a unit can take before it is defeated and sent to the discard pile. The damage to the unit is permanent. For example, if a 3 health unit takes 2 points of damage, it will only have 1 health before leaving the game or being healed.
Spell Cards
Spell cards are instantaneous effects that can change combat in many ways. For example, they can permanently enhance the attack or life of a unit, immediately destroy or dust the unit, summon several units at the same time, provide life to the user's game hero, destroy specific targets, etc. Once used, the spell card will be discarded.
- Mana cost (mana cost): The mana required to use the spell from your hand or from the unit it is connected to.
- Skills (abilities): When the spell is used, it will take effect immediately. For example, the rose water spell in the image above will give your hero +6 health the moment you use it. Also, it will apply +1 mana on your next turn.
- Magic is unique because they are only found attached to (casted) units or heroes and have an effect on their “casted” units or heroes-for example, magic imprisonment prevents their magical features from attacking, and magic shields will protect them The magic unit is protected from harm.
Elements
Many cards in SkyWeaver are “elemental.” These cards work well with other cards of the same element. There are 8 elements in total: Air, Dark, Earth, Fire, Light, Metal, Mind, and Water.
Each element has its own theme for game mechanics. For example, Air cards often have the stealth keyword or the shroud enchantment, making them difficult to target. And Earth cards often have keywords guard or lifesteal or the enchantment roots that slows enemies.
Some elemental cards can search for cards of the same element. Other elemental cards have inspire effects that trigger when cards of the same element are played. Building decks with many cards of the same element is a key to winning.
At the same time, not all decks need to be mono-elemental. Rainbow element cards can be used to bolster a deck that contains cards of multiple elements. Rainbow cards become more powerful based on the number of cards a player has in his graveyard, hand, or on the board.
Skyweaver's Market
The Skyweaver market is a peer-to-peer market where players can trade and buy cards directly in the game. Here, users can buy silver and gold cards directly from other players. However, users will be able to sell the cards they own. This is an open player-driven market, which means that the price of cards is not determined by the horizon, but by the players.
Gaming Modes
Discovery Mode
The discovery mode in Skyweaver is the beginning section, the majority of its players start. In this mode, the player first chooses a prism. Next, a random deck is generated with cards from the chosen prism. The player is then matched up against another player who is also using a random deck.
The emphasis in Discovery Mode is on gameplay skill and luck. A player cannot gain an advantage in this mode by having a large collection of cards. Discovery Mode is free to play, and players earn cards by participating in matches. If a player takes part in enough Discovery Mode matches, such player can potentially build a deck to play in Constructed Mode for free.
Constructed Mode
Once a player has gained some cards from playing in Discovery Mode, the player can choose to build a deck from his/her own collection and participate in Constructed Mode.
If the player does not have enough cards to build a legal deck, such users can choose to have the remaining spots in the deck filled with random cards. By doing this, players with small collections can still compete with the cards they own.
Unlike Discovery Mode, users (players) who participate in the Constructed game Mode earn card rewards. Those who participate as Skilled deck builders prefer Constructed Mode since it provides them an edge over less-skilled ones.
Play-to-Earn Mode
The play-to-earn mode is a contest rewarding gameplay within skyweaver. Being a strategy game, the player who can reach the top of the ranking will get the most rewards. There is a season at the end of each week, and these players will get tradable cards that they can sell or use in their next battle.
'Conquer' is the next level of competition provided by Sky Weaver to its players. If any player loses, such will be out of the game and win once or twice and get a tradable silver medal. Users are to win thrice to unlock a rare and tradeable gold card that they can sell or use in subsequent battles.[11][12]
Company
Horizon Blockchain Games, the organization behind Skyweaver, has developed a number of protocols and transaction infrastructure for the Ethereum blockchain. Beginning from January 2018, Horizon Blockchain launched its Skyweaver HTML5-based digital collectible card game in 2019 with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) - a couple of years before NFTs explosion. [13]
Horizon Blockchain Games also co-authored the ERC-1155 token standard for putting virtual game items on the Ethereum blockchain, and they built the infrastructure to simplify the ownership, transfer, and exchange of these items. It has executed multiple audits of its systems and incorporated blockchain superpowers into its video games. [14][15]
Funding
Horizon Blockchain Games has raised a total of $13.3M in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on July 29, 2021, from a Seed round. Horizon began by raising $3.75 million USD from investors, led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture fund, which initiated its studio’s first title, SkyWeaver, which was launched alongside development on the Arcadeum, a platform for other indie developers to launch their own games.[16][17]
Other Projects
Sequence is the Web3 wallet of the Horizon and Skyweaver's platforms that provides a seamless user and developer experience for Ethereum, NFTs, Web 3.0, DeFi (Decentralized Finance), and decentralized applications (dApps), allowing any web application to integrate with blockchain in two minutes. Sequence makes it easy for users, developers, and companies to access and build the next generation of Internet economies and experiences.
Team Members
Horizon Blockchain Games' core members includes blockchain analyst, experienced developers, game developers, Meta-Game Designers, social media specialists, and 2d-3d designers. Peter's the chief architect behind Horizon. The team members include-
Name | Designation | Description | Link |
---|---|---|---|
Peter Kieltyka | Chief Architect | Having co-founded both NuLayer and Pressly, he's passionate about creating awesome teams and powerful products. He is a gamer, coder, and an Open Source and decentralized evangelist, Pete's committed to building a better world. His favorite game is Quake III Arena. | [18] |
Ian Ha | Head of Operations | Ian manages company operations so team members can focus on what they do best: Bringing games to life and crypto to the masses. He is in data and analytics, digging up insights that help guide Horizon's company strategically. His favorite game is Settlers of Catan. | [19] |
William Hua | Chief Scientist | William develops a great deal of the innovative architecture used by Horizon for our platform and games. A globetrotting wizard in fourth-dimensional mathematics, he expands the universe through numbers and equations. He also has a decade's experience as a software engineer. | [20] |
Daniel Racca | Head of Design | Daniel spearheads the user experience of everything Horizon through design thinking and collaborative ideation. Directing a solid aesthetic across our games, he is a witty dreamer, adventurer, and a true nerd gamer. His favourite game is Castlevania SOTN. | |
Michael Sanders | Chief Storyteller | Michael tells the Horizon story through narrative, lore, brand, and marketing. His life revolves around love and play, and you’ll often find him meditating in a handstand, trekking through the jungle, or dancing in the desert at Burning Man. His favorite game is Life. | [21] |
Deborah J. Marfurt | Chief Financial Office | Deborah is the financial lead at Horizon Blockchain Inc. She was a leader of McKinsey’s Private Equity & Institutional Investors practice and formerly held several executive positions within a $35B listed company. Deborah brings a decade of corporate finance, strategy, value creation, HR, and operations excellence to Horizon. | [22] |
Philippe Castonguay | Director of Product | From researching computational neuroscience to building decentralized systems, Philippe loves solving problems. At Horizon, he focuses on making games as user-friendly as possible while leveraging the strength of distributed ledger technologies. His favorite game is Dota 2. | [23] |
Michael Yu | Blockchain R&D | Michael is a full-stack software engineer, a fan of open source and all things JavaScript. He created and sold one of the earlier card games on the Ethereum network. At Horizon, Michael helps build a new engaging game economy through decentralization and cryptocurrency. His favourite game is Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. | [24] |
Ari Lotter | Creative Developer | Ari builds both the game logic that lays the foundation for Horizon's games and the beautiful effects were seen on the Skyweaver's screen. An avid cyclist, amateur musician, and budding biohacker, he loves building compelling and visually pleasing interactive experiences. | [25] |
Corban Riley | Game developer | He is a game developer, whose favorite game is River City Randsom. | [26] |
Salvatore Grosso | Meta-Game Designer | Salvatore is a creative thinker who dreams up creative incentive models to keep players engaged. He has produced several games across a wide range of platforms. | [27] |
Hanny Duong | Director of Marketing | Hanny has deep gaming industry knowledge with near decade-long experience marketing AAA games including some from the Batman Arkham, Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, Watch_Dogs, and Far Cry franchises. | [28] |
Marcelo Suplicy | Lead Community Manager | Marcelo is a long-time footsoldier in this enormous war called gaming. A frustrated astronomer, weekend historian, and all-around geek, Marcelo helps the community with its products. | [29] |
Tomasz Dysinski | Lead Game developer | Tomasz is a computer pilot who turns paint strokes and key-strokes into art. In real life, Tomasz enjoys painting, climbing, sailing, and roller-blading. | [30] |
Maciej Lisiewski | Backend Developer | He is a BackEnd developer. His favorite game is Planetside 2. | [31] |
Lauren Westlake | 3D/2D Artist | An inspired and passionate artist working in the video game industry for 4 years and recently plunging into freelance work. Most of her skills revolve around designing and modeling props, weapons, vehicles, and creatures. She also dabbles quite a bit into illustration and visual marketing. Her favourite game is Shadow of the Colossus. | [32] |
Coulter Baker | Game Designer | Coulter is fixated on all manner of card games, with an innate love for their artwork and strategies. He works on many aspects of Skyweaver including design, art requests, and gameplay. He also performs QA testing, card reviews, and documents strategy and design considerations. | [33] |
Agustin Aguilar | Director of Blockchain Research | From game developer to mobile developer, and ending up as one of the first Ethereum smart contract devs, Agustin's work lets us build new and amazing tools. He believes that synergies are better than features, both in code and games. | [34] |
Tristan Maurice | Social Media Specialist | Tristan has gained interest in games since childhood and has made it his career to promote games like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs. At Horizon, Tristan promotes Skyweaver and her vision, and engages the community within its content. | [35] |
Ashavari Joshi | Junior Community Manager | Ashavari assumes her role with a positive voice in the Skyweaver's community. A singer-songwriter and jack-of-many-trades, Ashavari spends her free time making YouTube videos, writing songs, dancing, singing, and streaming on Twitch. Her favorite game is Alice: Madness Returns. | [36] |
Chad Nehemiah | Software Engineer | Chad is is a Software Engineer that used his problem-solving skills to do that. He is a full-stack developer who specializes in Mobile experiences but loves to innovate with whatever tools he is given. | [37] |
Renato Giacomini | Lead Artist | Renato brings perspectives to the Skyweaver gaming system by crafting artworks that provide the visual foundation for the game. | [38] |
Partners
SkyWeaver has secured strategic partnerships with the following financial-based, blockchain-specified organizations:
- Coinbase
- iNovia Capital
- Digital Currency Group
- Polychain Capital
- Golden Gate Ventures
- Initialized Capital
- CMT Digital
- ConsenSys
- Regah Ventures. [39]
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