Transcript: Metaisland team discusses upcoming action-adventure metaverse game

Metaisland CEO Nicolas Choukroun, blockchain developer Ilya Nenilin, and marketing manager Sanni Muhammed recently joined the Neo Live AMA series to discuss the team’s upcoming 3D open-world game. Participants in the AMA shared rewards from a prize pool comprising 10 Neoverse blindbox NFTs.

Metaisland will be a multiplayer open-world action-adventure game that will include Neo alongside other blockchains in its gameplay environment. Within the platform, players will be able to swap the game’s native ISL token between supported blockchain networks. Ultimately, the development team intends to support in-game assets and characters represented as NFTs across multiple chains.

In the AMA, the team members discussed their experience in the gaming industry, the broad overarching view of the metaverse, the complexity of building a blockchain-based game, how they plan to integrate Neo into the platform, how play-to-earn mechanisms are intertwined with the game, and much more.

The full transcript is below:

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John Ricci (Neo Telegram admin): Hello, I would like to thank the members of the Neo community for joining me today for this AMA event.

We are happy to have Nicolas Choukroun, Ilya Nenilin, and Sanni Muhammed from Metaisland here with us today.

Metaisland is a metaverse application with a unique universe and brilliant gameplay. It is a franchise tailored for crypto at the core, empowering decentralization, aiming at disrupting social networking, entertainment, gaming and television. Metaisland has gaming mechanics that can be compared with the best AAA games products, but not only that, it supports blockchains, play-to-earn and offers an alternative to regular gaming and social networks. It is realistic and aims at PC / Console markets. 

MetaIsland creates a virtual economy where the players can own, rent, tip, spend crypto, stake, and select their character with NFT. It also brings art into the game with high-quality music and visuals. More importantly, Metaisland is designed for the masses, accepts cash purchase. It is based on monthly subscription. Our ISL token is the fuel of the Metaverse engine and is needed in order to run a Metaisland. With its franchising system, Metaisland can scale without limit.

Nicolas Choukroun (Metaisland CEO): Hi everybody!

Q1. Who are you and what is Metaisland?

Nicolas: I am Nicolas Choukroun, a veteran game developer. I have created and shipped five games in the 8-bit and 16-bit area, worked with Ubi Soft, partnered with Michel Ancel (author of Rayman) when they were starting, and achieved a AAA success with Fox, Mindscape, which got on the first page of PC Gamer US and UK, and was adventure game of the year.

I’ve also been programming crypto since 2016 and have created three crypto projects. One is a unique blockchain with a stratum server, a mining pool on PC/MAC, and Unix wallets: Kryptofranc and Franc.

Metaisland is a unique Metaverse with a different vision than the others. First, it is a real crypto economy, with many complex mechanisms to make money, tip players, use NFT, staking, and more. Users need to eat, drink and shop to play and survive. There is a full nature environment with weather, rain, animals, and day and night.

We accept payments from both crypto and credit cards to pay for the subscription to play the Metaverse.

Our business model is similar to Netflix, apart from the fact that we are giving multiplayer entertainment. This business model does not leak our tokens, and every Metaisland is a franchise purchasing its rewards on the market. This way, we can scale at infinity without depleting our token reserve.

Q2: What do people think that the Metaverse is? And how is Metaisland different?

Nicolas: That is a very interesting subject – we see this word everywhere, ad nauseam. But so far, there is no real metaverse existing that can genuinely represent a definition. Most companies are trying to recycle their failing business by changing their name to Metaverse. That is the case with many projects that have no universe attached to them and are just standard GameFi games. It is also the case with many VR projects, supermarkets, and brand-selling projects. I think all the future metaverses will be attached to a well-defined universe, for example, the world of Tolkien, the World of Dune, and similar fiction series.

I’d like to introduce Ilya, Ilya, our blockchain master. He is working on Neo integration, for instance.

Ilya Nenilin (Metaisland blockchain developer): Metaisland is an entire franchise with its story, characters, and its own universe. It is also a complete simulated economy and a social system. Users can make friends and engage in dialog with others. In Metaisland, you can manage your ID and be a totally new individual. Metaisland is toxic-free and is an alternative to gaming and television. It is a co-op game where you must help each other maintain the island to enjoy a good play-to-earn revenue. Metaisland, by its concept, is totally unique and ahead of the competition, visually and in terms of features.

Q3: What market is Metaisland targeting, and who are its competitors?

Sanni Muhammed (Metaisland marketing manager): Most games are designed for a mobile phone because these projects want to make a quick buck with minimum effort. We are targeting the high-end PC/console market. We have no known competitors targeting this specific market. The PC/console market is equivalent to the mobile market and represents about US $36 Billion per year in cash sales.

Nicolas: If you look at the market, all the games are for mobile. We got these conversations with big exchanges, and they didn’t have a PC gamer to test the game. This told us that we are alone in this market, and we think that is huge.

Q4: What is the current development of the Metaverse?

Nicolas: We are a total of 18 people working full time on the development. It is a very complex project because we are simultaneously doing a AAA game, social networking system, and crypto economy. Some things are going in uncharted territories, and we need to find answers to problems that have no documentation whatsoever.

Ilya: The most important features are already working, The visuals are here, and you can visit the island and spend hours on it. You can find crypto and send it to your wallet, and we are adding support for Neo as part of our cross-chain bridges, which currently work with BSC, ETH, NEO, and our token, ISL. The missing element is the design of the gameplay itself and the multiplayer. We are playing the game internally, and you can check the videos we publish regularly.

Nicolas: Actually, the gameplay is working. What is missing is the final location of objects and characters. The Metaverse is more of a sandbox with many features already working. Because it is a truly open world, we need to create and test mechanisms that can work in a non-scripted environment. It is quite challenging.

Q5: How are you handling play-to-earn from within the game? And does the platform have NFTs?

Nicolas: Play-to-earn is very simple. You find some crypto crystals and convert them to WOK in your inventory. With these WOK tokens, you can purchase stuff in the shops, eat, drink, have fun, and tip other players.

Ilya: Then you can convert these WOK to BSC, ETH, NEO, or ISL (our token) and send them to your wallet or an exchange address. We have tons of NFTs, all giving unique features. Our NFTs cannot be lost or broken, which is unique in the Metaverse. People who do not have the money can rent our NFTs with the play-to-earn money they won while playing the game.

Sanni: Additionally, players can stake (rent a shop) or lock crypto in our liquidity pools to get more revenues. We support most Defi protocols, but in a very entertaining way. For example staking: you rent a shop. Everyone can understand. It is crypto for everyone.

Nicolas: Regarding our tokens – we are using two currencies. The token that will be listed in major exchanges is called ISL. Then, inside the game, there is the WOK, the internal stablecoin. So that when you buy beers, it always costs 30 WOK, for instance. We are bridging WOK to Neo directly, and we can already pick up crypto, convert it to WOK, and send the token to a Neo wallet. So the hardcore stuff is already working.

Q6: What can Metaisland bring to the world?

Nicolas: A lot more than we can imagine in reality. Our motto is “Reality sucks; go to Metaisland.” If you think about the global political situation, the energy crisis, COVID, inflation, and so on, people need an escape. Metaisland is realistic, simulated, play-to-earn, and a non-toxic alternative to television. I think that when the project is close to being finished, a lot of people will enjoy spending time in MetaIsland rather than being brainwashed and lobotomized by advertising and fake news.

What about spending some time at snake beach, for example? Better than listening to the news about Ukraine in a loop.

Or swimming in the Ocean to find some crypto crystal that can be converted to NEO coins?

Or helping your friends to fight these mutants who are threatening the Island. Your NFT can help others.

Or have drinks with your friends in Nova bar and listen to music.

All of these are screenshots from the actual game. No CGI.

Q7: Will the ISL token be a NEP-11 standard token? Is the plan to primarily build on Neo,  or other blockchains as well?

Nicolas: The ISL token will be on Ethereum. But, we are bridging the Metaverse with a limited of partners, Neo being one of them. You can already find crypto in the game, redeem it, and send the play-to-earn result to a Neo wallet.

Q7: What is WOK-OS?

Nicolas: WOK-OS is our backend. It is from where the profiles are managed and the crypto is invested. It is a complex website but it is accessible from inside the game too. Here is an example of the terminal in-game.

Q9: Where can I buy Metaisland NFTs?

Nicolas: The NFT are not available yet, we are doing the contracts. We have nine collections of seven factions and two type of badges ready. We are testing the 2D NFTs and 3D NFTs on TestNet. You will also be able to rent them from us, or propose them for rent to others.

Q10:  How do I customize my character on the metaverse with NFT?

Nicolas: You cannot customize your character, but you can purchase pre-made characters that have different RPG characteristics, like Force, Speed, Mana, Life, and so on. Then, you can swap characters in-game depending on what skin you want.

Note: Some edits have been made for formatting and readability.

The full AMA can be found at the link below:
https://t.me/NEO_EN/251551