Vision & Pillars
The world of Sparkadia is a diverse melting pot of cosmic beings, ordinary people, and bizarre creatures, all unified under the central mission of finding their Spark and impacting the universe in their own positive way. As citizens of Sparkadia, this mission applies to each of our players as well.
Sparkadia places emphasis on the power gaming as one the world's most greatest unifiers. The hub world model is designed specifically to increase player expression (avatars) and player interaction (virtual vs text). By itself (i.e. a standalone social world/metaverse), these outcomes are difficult for many players to fully embrace, but when put together with engaging games, players suddenly have the ability create bonds through shared interests and collective gameplay experiences.
Simply put, it's like sitting down at a new cafeteria table and discovering you all like the same anime!
With the advent of Web3 came a new wave of game economies, many focusing almost exclusively on the ability to earn and very little on the ability to actually enjoy playing in the first place. Often times, the desire for the ownership economy and the earning elements actively detract from the game as certain design elements need to make 'room' for these systems.
Sparkadia's decision making tree is simple because it always starts with a single question: "What is best for the fun of the game itself?" It focuses first and foremost on entertainment value, not financial value. Game design sacrifices are not made simply to cram DeFi and earning into spots where they should not be.
In tangible terms, this means that in a competitive genre like a MOBA, there are zero on or off-chain elements that affect gameplay (that means zero pay-to-win). In another genre such as an idle RPG, there are on-chain elements that do provide gameplay benefit. In simple terms, "blockchain only where it makes sense" and most importantly, Sparkadia will never put gameplay behind a Web3 wall (In fact, players can experience every bit of our games without ever using Blockchain! See Accessibility)
Web3 and Blockchain can still provide a great deal of value outside of earning. Our economy is linked, with each spoke ultimately connecting to the greater ecosystem as a whole. Blockchain allows for a single inventory and progression system for players that works across the ecosystem. Playing one game can net rewards that work in multiple games and player's are consistently progressing at the ecosystem level regardless what game they play.
Finally, asset ownership is just flat out cool. Many games such as World of Warcraft, DotA2, and Counterstrike have shown (unintentionally for WoW!) the power of unique assets that players can buy and sell. We want players to have a vested interest and attachment to their growth within our economy and be directly rewarded for their involvement. The key is to never have that involvement dictate the way they play our games.
Let's face it, today's gaming landscape is becoming more and more toxic by the day, with raging and blame becoming the norm. Sparkadia believes gaming should be a community, a space where all ships rise with the tide and a place where all can feel welcome.
Many games have tried to combat toxicity by implementing behavioral systems and while Sparkadia will come equipped with those, it approaches the solution to this problem in a more indirect way. Simply put, Sparkadia is centered around the idea that happy games equals happy gamers. It believes that barraging players with an array of uplifting, optimistic experiences will in turn result in empowered, more optimistic players.
Our belief is that gaming will be the tool that onboards the next 100 million users to blockchain while also believing that blockchain is the next evolution for game economies (similar to free-to-play 20 years ago). These two beliefs synergize, but require a certain set of priorities to truly come to life.
First and foremost, games within the Sparkadia system will NEVER require any sort of crypto purchase (let alone a non-crypto purchase) to play. All aspects of gameplay will be directly accessible without spending a dime.
Secondly, Sparkadia is highly focused on reducing friction through the user onboarding process. To that end, when creating a 'Sparkadia Account', users do NOT have to hook up a wallet or know how to use blockchain. In fact, our games are so accessible that users can play our games for hours without even realizing that blockchain is integrated. (Note, for the blockchain aficionados, we do provide the ability to hook up your own personal wallet)
If traditional gamers are going to ACCEPT blockchain games, it starts with reducing the barriers to entry, both financially and the amount of knowledge required. (and of course, ends with having truly fun games, which we've got too!)