We’ve got some brilliant projects within our partners and want to tell you more about the founders and teams behind them. Regularly, you can learn more about specific projects through our interviews and post any questions you may have further down in the comments section.
In today's interview, we spoke with Radu Armaziu, VP of Operations at Cantina Royale.
Hello Radu, thank you for your time. It's a pleasure to discuss the upcoming development update for Cantina Royale! Before we start, can you please tell us about yourself and your background?
First of all, thank you for having me. I’m always happy to discuss Cantina Royale. As for me, most of my career has been in the online privacy and security space, working for companies like CyberGhost VPN and Kape Technologies. This is where I first got accustomed to blockchain since it was generally the same users who were interested in both topics. I’ve always been passionate about gaming as well so when I heard about a project that combines both I jumped at the occasion.
Can you give us a general overview of what Cantina Royale is before we discuss the new and upcoming features?
Cantina Royale is a top-down tactical multiplayer shooter that aims to introduce Web3 gaming to the mass market. Of course, that is easier said than done but this has been our goal from the start. The barrier of entry in Web3 games is much too steep compared to Web2 and everything we are doing with this game is to bridge that gap. By using Verko's technology stack users are able to simply download and start playing and earning without any prior crypto knowledge directly from the App Store and Play Store. Cantina Royale is easy to pick-up no matter your background.
Ok, it's time to dive into the update! We know that there will be new characters and that you are introducing a 'Talent System.' Can you tell us more about these?
One advantage of having a live game is that you’re able to make better decisions when it comes to the next features that you’re adding to the game. In addition to this, there are certain elements that we were missing in order to compete with the most popular games out there and that’s how the new characters and Talent System came into play. We wanted to give each new character a distinct playstyle and give players the opportunity to experiment and choose how they want to play the game. These new characters will each belong to one of three distinct roles: Soldier, Tank or Assassin. The talent system comes on top of this, giving players more flexibility in customizing their characters while at the same time giving everyone a chance to experience all the available game mechanics. As players progress their characters they will be able to assign talent points in different categories. Depending on their playstyle they’ll be able to focus on aggressive, defensive or utility oriented talents.
The whole weapon mechanics will also be changed. Can you expand and tell us more about what you will be implementing?
Yes, we are working on a major overhaul of how the entire weapon system works. Weapons will now become an integral part of the metagame. Players will be able to craft new weapons, progress, and level up their weapons, and get new weapon collections by participating in the game and even get their hands on more exclusive collections from tournaments and events. For the gameplay itself, we want to give each weapon more of a unique look and feel. Besides refactoring some of the existing weapons, players can look forward to brand-new weapons with unique mechanics that we believe will provide more opportunities for different playstyles.
Can you give us any other alpha about the new update? And most importantly, when do you plan to release the update?
It’s important to mention that this will be a major update, and it will come with many changes in the way the game looks and plays. The goal was always to create a game that was easy to pick up and hard to master, and we did achieve parts of it. The current live version provides an easy sign-up process and a highly competitive scene; however, it doesn’t provide enough chances for new players to get accustomed to the mechanics before they start playing against highly competitive players. The major release also aims to fix that and provide new players more opportunities to practice and improve their skills.
As to when we plan to release this major update, experience has taught us not to provide an exact date so early in the development process, but we can say that we’re on track to finish development by May of this year. Once development is finished, it’s all about polishing, QA, and making sure all the weapons and mechanics are balanced. We keep the community updated weekly on the progress in our Discord and Telegram channels.
Thank you for your time, Radu, and the exciting insights! Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Well, I’d like to add that the entire team in Cantina Royale is excited about the upcoming major release, and we hope the community is as well. We’re also excited by what MultiversX is doing and look forward to their upcoming launches. It’s a great space; we couldn’t have picked better partners for our journey and goals. For anyone already involved with Cantina Royale or looking to learn more, in-depth feature breakdowns are coming soon, and we believe those will paint a clearer picture of the result.
Last but not least, thank you to the EGLD Community team for having us and always supporting our project.
Thanks a lot for your time, Radu, and best of luck with your project!
