ICYMI: League of Ancients and Anantarupa Studios Partnership AMA — Recap & Winners
Just last week, we posted up our AMA contest shortly after we announced our partnership with Anantarupa Studios. We expected that many of you would be curious, but we were truly taken aback by the whopping amount of 700 question submissions within a day! Unfortunately, we couldn’t answer all of them, so we hand-picked some of the most frequently asked questions from the responses.
On Sunday (20th March), we concluded our AMA Session in our Discord channel with a full house! We know that some of you didn’t manage to get a seat, but don’t worry! We’ve got you.
In case you guys missed it, here’s a recap of the AMA session. We will also be uploading the video recording of the 1-hour+ session on YouTube later, so please stay tuned if reading is not your thing.
Without further ado, let’s go!
Date: 20th March 2022 (Sunday)
Time: 8pm UTC+8
Platform: League of Ancients’ Official Discord
Host: Alejandra (LOA Community Lead)
Guests: Dwayne Ong (LOA Project Lead), Diana Paskarina (Anantarupa Studios COO), Gavin Liu (LOA Game Development Lead)
Out of so many game development studios, why did LOA choose to partner with Anantarupa?
Dwayne: We received multiple proposals from different game development companies around the world that desired to work with us to publish LOA. We decided to go with Anantarupa as they met our key criteria, sharing the same passion and are aligned with the vision of LOA, which is to strive to provide the best MOBA gaming experience whilst enabling everyone an equal opportunity to earn while playing the game they love. Anantarupa has a great track record and is extremely experienced in developing MOBA and VR games, and we see them as a good long-term partner that can enable us to achieve the LOA Metaverse roadmap ahead.
How will this partnership help the LOA community?
Dwayne: If you look at Axie Infinity, it took them 3 years to develop a game to get to where they are today. To properly build a robust MOBA game engine, it can take anywhere from 3–5 years because it is a lot more complex than the typical “turn-based” game. In each game session there will be 10 players connected using different heroes, and the game engine needs to ensure that the heroes are well balanced so that the game is fair, and not have one hero be significantly stronger than the other. By leveraging Anantarupa’s years of experience in “Lokapala”, we can fast-track the game development process and avoid the common pitfalls and mistakes made by other MOBA developers. At the same time, our dev team can focus on what they do best, which is building the Web3 layer on top of the MOBA game engine, while our art team can focus on developing quality assets that bring a richer experience for our NFT holders.
Anantarupa Studios is LOA’s first game development partner. What makes this partnership so significant?
Dwayne: LOA will go beyond MOBA and possibly become the largest Metaverse GameFi project in BNB Chain in the years to come. We need to work with a partner that understands emerging markets like Southeast Asia. ASEAN has a diverse population of over 660 million people, with a massive market of young people who play MOBA games and seek opportunities to play to earn. Axie Infinity did extremely well in the Philippines market, and LOA will be better.
The LOA team works extremely well with the Anantarupa team; we immediately fell in love during our first meet up as we realized that we did not have any language barriers or cultural differences that stand between our love for gaming. Such chemistry is extremely important for the game publisher and game developer, and allows us to fully leverage on each other’s strengths.
When did the LOA team and Anantarupa Studios start working together on game development?
Dwayne: Started working this month and frequently communicate on a daily basis. Both teams enjoy brainstorming and working in bringing something new and fresh for LOA gamers. Stay tuned!
Last year, we saw the gameplay teaser featuring Atalanta and the community sentiment wasn’t very good as it looked like a copy of Lokapala. Will there be a clear differentiation between the two games moving forward?
Gavin: Most definitely! As you can see, the map elements are designed with “Ancient Realm” flavor. The game assets will be totally different from Lokapala to make sure our players can enjoy the full LOA experience. Our heroes have their own unique backstories and in-game interactions, giving players some insights to the rich lore of the Ancient Realm. We also envision that these heroes could be featured in other games or even crossovers with other IPs, fulfilling the true metaverse concept. Be sure to follow our social media platforms and we’ll reveal more content as we develop the game.
Everyone likes MOBA Games with high quality graphics, and wish to have something similar to Wild Rift, MLBB or even better in the official game launch. Are the graphics going to look exactly the same as the Leonfist highlight videos you’ve released, or will that change?
Dwayne: Rome was not built in a day. We know we are a much smaller and younger company compared to giants like Mobile Legends, which are backed by a huge war chest with thousands of employees. Despite the huge odds against us, we believe that with the support of the community as well as the many new talents that have joined us because they believe in the decentralization movement, we will grow exponentially in the coming months. We launched the LOA website about 5 months ago, and never in our wildest dreams did we expect to achieve 500k social media followers and 150k NFT capsule purchases. In the short span of just 5 months, the team has grown from 10 people to over 200 people working on the project — including the game dev team, outsourced partners, Anantarupa Studios’ team, our beloved community moderators and more.
Gavin: With the way we are growing, and with the continued support of the community, we will undoubtedly achieve world-class quality in time. Do you guys remember what League of Legends, Mobile Legends, and DOTA first looked like when they were launched? Yeap, they weren’t the prettiest games at the time, but they were fun. They’ve come a long way over the years, and we are confident that we will ascend to that level eventually, as we have no doubts that our game will deliver the same level of engaging gameplay right from the outset.
Was the original hero art and gameplay design developed by different teams?
Gavin: LOA’s original heroes were designed by our core team, and we continue to work closely alongside our collaborators to keep the art quality consistent. We are also working hand-in-hand with Anantarupa on the game designs and asset integrations.
Tell us the story of how your team wound up developing the first crypto-based NFT MOBA game? Why choose a MOBA project and not a different game genre?
Dwayne: Like many of you, I spent a good chunk of my childhood playing MOBA games and getting nagged by my parents for wasting time and money. I’m sure lots of you can relate too! With that experience in mind, a few of us got together and came up with the idea to build a MOBA game that gives back to the community and rewards players for the time and effort spent on the game. Today LOA is designed to allow players to have full control and ownership of their assets, and provides players with the potential to generate income while enjoying the game they play. With LOA, fruitless grinding will become a thing of the past.
League of Ancients is very similar to Mobile Legends and DOTA in terms of gameplay and map design, will there be a possible copyright conflict with regards to this issue in the future? What are your counter measures to prevent it?
Dwayne: Mobile Legends is a copy of League of Legends, League of Legends is a copy of DOTA, DOTA is a copy of Warcraft. No one company owns the MOBA genre; while the gameplay loop is similar, each title has their own unique points which captivates the audience — and so will we. I believe that we will be part of the MOBA game revolution that makes the game more fun and highly anticipated. League of Ancients will have its own unique lore and vast world to dive into, while our heroes will provide fun, engaging, and unique gameplay to keep players hooked.
Anantarupa Studios already has its own MOBA. While this confirms its capacity to develop LOA, it may create a conflict of interest. Lokapala and League of Ancients are competitors. How do you plan to handle this?
Diana: Lokapala and League of Ancients are not competitors but more like collaborators. The business model of both games are different — League of Ancients is running on the blockchain while Lokapala is solely an entertainment product for now. Even if one day Lokapala transitions into a blockchain game, it will have different tokenomics and mechanics. Like Dwayne mentioned earlier, while both are from the same genre, they are different games and it is for the players to decide which they enjoy — they might even like both!
What will differentiate this game from other famous MOBAs with millions of supporters who can also pivot into the Metaverse and play-to-earn model? For example, Mobile Legends has already shown interest in the crypto space with the launch of their NFT collection.
Dwayne: I guess the biggest difference between us and Riot or Moonton is that we give back 80% of the game’s revenue to the treasury, which will be translated into some form of rewards back to the token holders. For most game companies, the profit goes straight into their shareholders’ pockets, but LOA passes the value back to long-term token holders by reinvesting revenue back into the development of the game. When you play League of Ancients, you won’t bleed your wallets dry buying skins that are account-bound in perpetuity — these skins belong to YOU. They are YOUR assets that you can sell and trade at any time, so the time, money, and effort you spend does not lead to a dead end in the developer’s pockets. Everything you invest eventually comes back to you.
We’ve rarely seen high quality play-to-earn games so far. Games like Axie Infinity and Pegaxy are very popular but the gameplay is honestly boring. Will League of Ancients be able to break the mould and actually be a fun and sustainable game? How?
Dwayne: Dota has been around for 20 years, League of Legends for at least another 10 years. We see MOBA as a game genre that is extremely sustainable and still growing — the gameplay loop and strong multiplayer aspect of the genre is undeniably compelling. There are more than 300 million active MOBA players monthly, and the main reason it is so successful is because it has an esports ecosystem behind it. The competitive spirit and ever-growing demand of having new heroes makes the gameplay more and more interesting as the game matures.
When I did some research about the partnership I found that the team took 1 month just to create 1 hero, so how is it possible for the game to launch in just a year?
Gavin: It would have been quite difficult to do so without strong partners and collaborators. Thankfully, Anantarupa is very experienced with the MOBA genre and it’s easy for our team to discuss ideas with their team on a day-to-day basis. I’m working with our artists to complete the game assets while Anantarupa would help us with game engine integration. This gave us an extra boost of confidence to set our launch date this year in Q4.
In addition, building a game is not a linear process. Just like building a house, we spend a large amount of time ensuring that the foundation is well-built, thus ensuring the stability and longevity of the house. In the same way, producing the game requires the groundwork to be perfected before we can move on to developing more assets. So while it may seem slow to those unfamiliar with the game development process, things will speed up considerably now that the blueprint of making and implementing heroes is solidified. In the coming months, you’ll be able to look forward to more and more new heroes, so stay tuned!
Now that Anantarupa Studios joined the team, can we expect an earlier launch of the Beta? I’m sure lots of players are excited to try this game!
Gavin: Did you say earlier? We’ve set our goal very early on and we’re working hard to make it happen as planned. Making it arrive earlier may be a bit out of reach at the moment. I myself can’t wait to share you more game dev updates in the coming weeks and months! We’re all very excited to see the completion of the project, both Anantarupa Studios and us. And all I can say is, don’t forget to hold on to your beta capsules if you want to join in the closed beta test!
Is there any chance for heroes from Lokapala and League of Ancients to battle in the metaverse of heroes in the future?
Diana: It might be possible, but for now Anantarupa Studios will be focusing on the development of League of Ancients. We might discuss this further down the road about bringing Lokapala heroes into the metaverse, be it as a new hero or in the form of a new NFT Skin
What is the team focusing on developing at the moment?
Dwayne: Basically, right now our next milestone is our marketplace. I think many of you have seen how our UI looks like already. Building the game is really important, but really good tokenomics, structure, and strategy are also important. I will tell you guys that the LOA token will play a very important role as we launch the marketplace — we want to ensure a proper substantial liquidity to support the project and stabilise the price. We are focusing a lot on development and building right now, and I think that the team is working really hard.
Gavin: What I’m focusing on now is the delivery of the base game, obviously. To ensure that the game works, and then ensuring that the assets hit the quality benchmark that I’ve envisioned. The community has expectations so I have to make sure that it looks good. Currently, I’m finalising all of the voice recordings for all our heroes, and I would say we are 90% there already — we just need to integrate it into the game. I will share more content in the months to come, but today itself I think there is a lot to look forward to!
Collaborations and partnerships are some of the most important cornerstones to help improve adoption. Can you tell us about your current partners, plans for partnerships and what everybody stands to gain from these partnerships?
Dwayne: LOA is a Metaverse franchise that can be easily integrated to different game engines — that means that NFT holders can use their NFTs to play in different games in the future. Our focus for now is to build a success story with the partnership with Anantarupa. We have already received many partnership proposals from other game genres — some of which are quite large game companies. I do not want to jump the gun but stay tuned and watch this space!
Yay, you guys made it all the way to the end! Are you guys excited for what lies ahead? We know we are!
We’re ecstatic to be working alongside a partner which shares the same vision as us— which is to build a MOBA title that can empower our players and make the play-to-earn dream come true for everyone.
LOA X Anantarupa Partnership AMA Winners
Now, the moment everyone’s been waiting for. The 5 questions chosen to win 100 LOA Tokens!
And the winners are *drumroll*:
- Christopher Abueg
- Zestiria
- Ezwan
- Asybel
- Suzie
Congratulations! And thank you all for submitting all these great questions to us. The LOA team will be looking forward to the next session with you guys.
If you would like to find out more about League of Ancients, visit our website at www.leagueofancients.com, and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/loa
