Today we welcome the CMO of Undeads metaverse – Ash Hodgetts (@ashgame). Guys, I’m sure this AMA will be one of the most interesting AMAs we have ever hosted!
Let’s start with the basics, Ash. Please introduce yourself. Who is the Undeads team?
ASH:
Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time out of your lives to discover more about Undeads Metaverse, we have been inundated with questions – we really appreciate it.
My name is Ash Hodgetts, I am the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the Undeads Metaverse.
Previously – Director of Marketing & Publishing at Blowfish Studios, an Animoca Brands subsidiary. Where I was in charge of the marketing for Phantom Galaxies as well as many other titles – traditional games and 2 unannounced licensed web3 games.
Before that, I was a Marketing Director at Gameloft, where led Gameloft’s first Apple Arcade games to market – Ballistic Baseball (Within the Top 25 Apple Arcade games for 2020) and The Oregon Trail – #1 Apple Arcade game for 2021-22
ASH:
I co-founded and ran my own game studio in the US, developing PS4 games.
Another noteworthy game I worked on as lead marketer was Larian Studios Divinity 2: Ego – which as you know led to the widely popular Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2 games.
I’ve been in games marketing since 2000 but before that was in the arcade game industry, working with my brothers and Dad in the family business making arcade games.
I have also released my first solo game Droid Trivia, on Xbox & Switch. Now Im working on my next game. This keeps me intune with development.
I also hold an MBA and business degrees.
BIC: Sounds impressive! And what about the Undeads recent achievements?
ASH:
We successfully sold our first minting in June, during these unprecedented times. The post-mint floor price held at around 500% initial FP for a while.
We have also announced our partnership with Immutable – more to come soon.
September will see the release of our Undeads Runner web game, which will enable Undeads NFT holders to earn rewards. Stay up to date with this and more by following on our Twitter but most importantly join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/undeads
BIC: Please tell us more about the Undeads Metaverse.
ASH:
Undeads Metaverse is a survival online RPG with building, resource gathering, PvE, PVP, breeding and more. What’s fun? that’s a matter of perspective:
I’m personally a strategy gamer, I love building bases, strategizing the best base offensive & defensive positions and counter-measuring enemies.
You might prefer more PvE gameplay and try to avoid PvP or unlike me, not bother with strategic planning.
Other players might love the breeding of new zombies and using them against their enemies and seeing how the perform in surprise attacks.
When we make games, especially online games with large player bases we need to consider many different player archetypes. The collectors vs the explorers etc. And part of my job is to be the voice of the player. Myself and the marketing team work with the game developers make it the game for you, the players.
We’ll be ramping up marketing soon, releasing more details leading up to launch, so I don’t want to give too much away but if you want to keep up to date I recommend joining our discord, twitter and telegram accounts.
In addition we are creating a VR metaverse experience where you can come hang out, play some games – like pool/snooker, bowling, fishing, play some poker all while being immersed in a VR world. VR is definitely an underappreciated gaming web3 genre. You can see more info on the VR games on our website.
BIC: And what are the security measures that will be in place to protect users’ data and assets?
ASH:
We have partnered with Certik and other security partners to protect data and ensure contracts are secure. We take cybersecurity very seriously. For those of you who don’t know CerTik. The are considered one of the top auditors in the world and is a pioneer in blockchain security,
The Certik audit is part of our 360-degree cybersecurity strategy, which works in concert with our partner RedScan, the cybersecurity division of Kroll.
We expect to release more on that in the future.
BIC: 🔥🔥🔥
I believe it’s the most interesting question for traders & investors. What are the opportunities for your users to earn money in the Undeads Metaverse?
ASH:
Breeding – Women Zombies https://undeads.gitbook.io/undeads.com/undeads-metaverse/breeding
UDS rewards from playing
Loan offers with our partner https://app.arcade.xyz
Win Bluechip NFTs finding the secret Zombies https://undeads.com/winearn/bluechip
BIC: Zombies can be bred to create new offspring. To avoid hyperinflation of Zombies there is a maximum amount of times a Zombie can be bred before it is sterile: every woman can give birth to up to 5 kids. There are 80% men and 20% women in the collection. Women have also a 20% chance to give birth to a “female”.
Gosh, it sounds like a serious government program 😅 Cool!!!
Can you tell us about your production partnerships?
ASH:
We work with several high-value partners to ensure Undeads Metaverse is a true AAA title. For instance we use several Warner Bros production areas, one is Wabi Sabi Sound who are renouned for creating AAA audio, worked on our previous trailer and we continue to work with them on production. There is an interview with them here: Interview with Bryan Watkins – Warner Bros., Los Angeles
These days, metaverses and play-to-earn games are not as hyped as they were in the past, but some projects have managed to survive and are still doing quite well. Let’s consider FLOKI as an example. We’ve watched them build their own metaverse, and their utility token has started being traded on various exchanges. So the question is: what do you think will be the main feature of your project that will help it live a long and “happy life”?
ASH:
Each game/metaverse has to come up with something that is special. We are constantly designing, balancing and improving on the game throughout production. That special something is an acumulation and balancing of many aspects gameplay and game economy.
It would be wrong of me to say oh “this one this is amazing and will change everything” when that “something” would be quite different in 12 months. As we continue with production a LiveOps plan will be finalized, which is how games remain relevant and keep players coming back, growing game & ultimately token value.
BIC: I heard that Undeads is investing heavily in the game’s graphics and animations, sound design, and music. And the game is also loaded with built-in entertaining VR games for true metaverse and virtual reality fans. Could you share images or videos of what the game will look like?
ASH:
We are actually nearing the completion of a visual pass, or known as a beauty pass, unfortunately the dev team are reluctant to release any new images or videos just this moment, no matter how much I pleaded lol. Join our socials and Discord because we’ll be releasing some visuals in the next week or so. You can see older visuals inside our Discord and on Twitter.
BIC: Looks awesome! The only thing is, I’m terribly afraid of movies and games about zombies … 😂😂😂 it seems that our ama session is a sign that it’s time to overcome my fears
BIC: What should we expect from Undeads team in the near future? Airdrops, sales or something like that?
ASH:
There’s a lot of exciting things planned in the near future, including airdrops and (maybe another minting ) The Undeads Runner is coming in September and will be huge. It’s quite fun and I’m sure zombie fans will find it super satisfying to play. We have done quite a lot in the time I’ve been with the Undeads Team – and this is just the beginning!
BIC: Cool!
Now let’s move on to questions from our community that we collected in advance. I know you’ve prepared cool prizes for the authors of TOP-5 questions – 5 AIRDROPS (20$ each)!
ASH:
There were a lot of great questions, unfortunately I can’t answer every one. If you would still like your questions answered, please join our discord.
BIC: OK, the first question is from @Rasonnn
I see some differences between traditional gamer and nft gamer. How does the UNDEADS.COM platform connect this to attract more traditional players?
ASH:
There are differences between Xbox, Playstation, PC and Switch players. There are differences between PC and mobile. Differences exist between gamers in Australia vs China. Its my job to identify those differences and determine strategy that appeals to these different groups. Yes many gamers are weary of NFTs but we saw similarities to when mobile games first came out – I was lucky enough to have been involved when that shift happened also.
BIC: The next one… by @apple_zzz
What stage is your game currently at? Have you had a testnet? Is there a version we can play or experience the game?
ASH:
The main game “Undeads Metaverse” is well into production. Large games take time to develop. You won’t be able to play a demo at the moment but Undead Runner will be released soon and you can play, earn and enjoy that game in the meantime.
BIC: @amirzakirr asks:
Do you guys have any plans to partner with other projects that has more like the same visions as yours ,if so what do you plan to benefit or what is your expectations from these partnerships?
ASH:
We are always on the lookout for high-value partnerships and projects to collaborate with. Right now we are focused on building the game. As we progress news on these types of partnerships would be announced at the right time(s)
BIC: The 4th question was asked by @Lunapers
Not only but also a lot of projects are currently looking at Web3 and metaverse NFT games. So, my question is What benefits does the players have in playing Metaverse Games? And what will encourage them to enjoy it instead of traditional games?
ASH:
Players are the heart and soul of every gaming ecosystem; without them, these studios would cease to exist almost overnight because nobody would be buying or playing their games.
The problem is that mainstream gaming houses widely disregard gamers’ time and money, and they’ve proven this time and time again.
If a mainstream gaming developer decides to shut down your favorite game, the new-age multiplayer architecture where game assets and servers are hosted in the cloud means you don’t have the option to keep or play what you paid for.
This scenario became evident recently after the powerhouse gaming studio Activision announced that the original version of the Call of Duty: Warzone would shut down by September 2023, leaving many of its player base furious.
BIC: The last question is by @Yua235
At the moment, all tokens go down in price even with great partnerships, hype,marketing, and working products etc, So what the challenges doed have and the plan to make your
@Undeadscom project strong popular? Are you see it as an opportunity while the current market decline?
ASH:
Current market volatility for us is irrelevant, we are financially backed and we are in this for the long run. The issue with many past projects is they treated their game and token independently – when infact they are codependent.
This makes for an interesting in-game and real life economy tether than needs to be well-thought out and checked by experts. We use trusted groups like Machinaions and others to help with economic balance. We can’t see into 2024, so we need to stay on the trends and remain cutting-edge.
BIC: Cool! That’s it, guys!
Ash, thank you very much for your time! It was a great AMA!
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