Q: Can you tell us about the biggest problem or downside you have seen when working with the OmiseGO SDK?

Radek: We haven’t used OmiseGO SDK prepared by wallet team yet. We used omg-js in Plasma Dog implementation. We implemented libraries integrating Plasma API in C# and C++ for MMoU and internal project we work on. So we think it would be cool to be a part of a team designing and implementing C# and C++ as counterparts to omg-js.

Q: How familiar are you with Tendermint / Cosmos? Are you doing something about “spooning”? How many developers (number) from Hoard team is also contributing to Plasma/OmiseGo ? DEX mechanism : The DEX module — any developers? Pegging mechanism /A module called Peggy exists. Is it a true bridge to Ethereum and production ready?

Radek: We are familiar with Tendermint and even we were considering using Tenderming / Cosmos Hub for Hoard but we’ve decided to use solution which supports exits to Ethereum main chain. With this feature items owners will be able to move their belongings to Ethereum chain or to external exchanges working on Ethereum or any other layer two solution.

Now we have two developers working very close with OmiseGO team on Plasma MoreVP. We plan to build bigger team which will work also on game item exchange module on the top of plasma MoreVP.

Q: Congratulations for ‘My Memory of Us’ the game looks solid. I noticed the game will be available on steam, will the game utilize both the Hoard & steam wallet or simply just Hoards one? Kinda confused about that one.

Malf: Thanks! :) For now we are planning to use Hoard wallet only. Hoard wallet stores NFTs, supports Plasma, whole profile transfer and we will be constantly updating its features.

Q: Have you had any game developers or publishers approach you guys yet?

Malf: Yes, we are tightly cooperating with Juggler Games and another small indie at the moment. We are also in talks with 4 other game development studios. Additionally — several smaller indie devs expressed their interest, so it’s getting better and better :)

Q: Why would game developers want users to have “true” ownership over digital assets. Xbox one on launch had restrictions on used games because game developers make no money of the second hand game market. Game developers see this as a loss of revenue and generally look down on the second hand game market What’s your feed back from game developers in general? Do you see this as a up hill battle and once enough games start using it the rest will follow or are game developers now more accepting to the second hand market and the re-selling of digital assets

Malf: First of all — most of the game developers does not even care about blockchain yet. The first answer is “Crypto is kinda scam or Ponzi scheme”. After several minutes of introduction into blockchain possibilities they are switching into “Wow! That makes sense! When can I start using this?” :) They are interested in monetization of secondary markets as they may implement fees on trades or rental of items that gaining the value with usage of blockchain-stored history.

They are interested in interoperability between their games and cross-referencing between their games or even between different studios. And they are obviously interested in fresh design and features ideas. So, we are constantly working on blockchain-augmented game designs to evangelize them about blockchain in computer games and how Hoard can help. …and it’s going better and better I’d say :)

Regarding platform owners — well, I would answer: as long as they will be treated respectfully and their business may grow on this — there shouldn’t be a problem. But of course it’s something totally new and needs a lot of work.

Q: Cheaters ruin a lot of modern multiplayer games , games on the blockchain will be cheater free , or is it more of an exchange layer plugged into the backend of the games for transactions?

Cyryl: I don’t suppose they will ever be cheater free :) A good cheater might try to hack server to obtain its private key or try to cheat to the server because of the faulty protocol (like our colleagues have done with PlasmaDog recently ;) and obtain some tokens without actually playing.

Blockchain is certainly a next step towards secure and trustworthy ownership. At least players won’t lose their tokens (as long as their private keys are safe that is) which is a huge step forward. In the case of Plasma, players always have a possibility to exit to the main Ethereum chain with their belongings even if Plasma operator is compromised. Of course we need to provide a good UX for this scenario. Some of that is scheduled to be shown in the next PlasmaDog update.

Hoard team is well aware of cheating in games. We were involved in implementing anticheat features for games like Dark Souls, Tales of Zestiria or Split Second and cheaters always found ways of ruining the efforts (sometimes because of the technology, sometimes because of faulty protocol, usually because they have access to the executable). There is an idea to move whole logic to blockchain but we would need to wait for that to happen a long time. There might be different options though like hardware enclaves which in conjunction with blockchain should elevate security to another level. But this is a completely different topic we are also investigating at Hoard.

Q: What do you think of a project like Enjin who seem to be a direct competitor?

Malf: We respect them. There are several similarities between our projects, but of course we have our own ideas of how some things could be done and we are proceeding with implementations. From the general perspective — the more companies bringing insight and interesting games/features/ideas/items into space — the better. We all gonna meet in Metaverse :)

Chris: We’ve taken a different approach from Enjin in terms of scalability. We partnered with OmiseGO to leverage Plasma, and Enjin has made the decision to develop their own sidechain. Hoard’s mission is to optimize for True Ownership, and we believe Ethereum and Plasma provide the highest level of security for users to maintain that.

That said, the Enjin guys are great. I’ve chatted with them before. We basically align on the vision of making blockchain games a reality. We believe their ERC1155 proposal is a reasonable design. We try to stay pretty solution agnostic once True Ownership is achieved, and so we are creating plasma solutions for all the NFT standards, including 1155, 721, 721x, and 998.

Q: Could games simply patch to implement some benefits of using Hoard, like carrying over storyline choices of one game into a sequel, or carrying over some equipment gotten in the sequel to the prequel?

Chris: Yes they could. And you just touched on one of my favorite use cases for blockchain in games: extensibility across sequels/prequels! Just like you described, players could absolutely carry items from one title to the next.

I think it would be especially cool if games designed Easter Eggs in the early franchise installments that can only be unlocked with a token from its sequel. Designs like that will breathe new life into “old” titles. Each time a new game is released players could return to the original title with keys they acquired in the newest installment to unlock secret features or gameplay.

I think the whole concept of sequel interoperability will probably be the gateway to the metaverse. Studios will get a taste of how linking games together will drive major network effects, and they’ll begin to experiment with connecting titles not in the same franchise. Probably with partner studios at first, but then more decentralized coordination systems will emerge on their own for studios to opt-in to ad hoc collaborations. When this happens the mythology of games will begin to exist separate from any individual game. And we will begin to experience unprecedented compounding effects of mass storytelling.

Q: Which and how many games you have already developed…?

Malf: We, as a team were involved in many different porting projects — moving games from one platform to another (for example PC to Playstation). We were working on most of known game engines, graphics, audio and networking systems used in game development studios, optimizing performance, adding platform specific features, frequently designing new gameplay modes and UX solutions. We developed the last version of Super Street Fighter IV: Ultra — you may still play this version on Taito machines in Japan :) Or if you are more into the Dark Souls flavor — you may check Dark Souls: Remastered — we were responsible for this version as well :)

…and the (almost) full list of titles below: