Gala Games, Flare, and Bitrue are happy to announce a three-way partnership to advance the interests of gamers globally through announcing that Gala will be integrating with the Flare Network. This will make Gala’s in-game assets represented as Non Fungible Tokens (NFT’S) mintable and tradable on Flare. Gala Games has been making waves in the blockchain gaming space, with two world-record setting sales of NFT items for their upcoming MMORPG Mirandus, and is building a reputation for moving quickly, delivering on promises, and working to support the gamers.

“In the traditional gaming world, the secondary market for in-game items is a $50 billion market, and that is with the downward forces of Terms-of-Service violations and massive counterparty risk. We want to change gaming forever by giving players ownership of their in-game assets, allowing them to freely trade them as they see fit.” says Gala Games CEO Eric Schiermeyer.

Currently, Gala Games is working primarily with assets on the Ethereum blockchain, but this presents various inefficiencies due to the costs associated with interacting with the Ethereum network. “We have been talking to a broad number of second-layer solutions which will enhance our user experience because we believe that the best blockchain is one which is invisible to the end user,” says Gala Games CMO Jason Brink. “We want to allow users to choose between a variety of second-layer scaling solutions in a way that makes Gala Games platform-agnostic. For us, it is about the players and we believe the future is multi-chain.”

“In-game assets (the NFT’s) should belong to the owner and only to the owner. This would allow them to be bought and sold, used as collateral for loans or wrapped into any product that can be conceived. We believe that gaming assets are becoming as tangible as any other and can be a new and important way to earn money from enjoying gaming and could form a major new use case for DeFi.” says Hugo Philion, CEO of Flare

“Both Gala and the FLR-IOU underwent initial listings on the Bitrue cryptocurrency exchange, where they were strongly welcomed by the platform’s enthusiast community. Bitrue have expressed delight at seeing the cooperation of these two projects, and eagerly anticipate the future results that their highly sophisticated teams can deliver. They have pledged to continue supporting both of these projects for the future, and will soon create a GALA / XRP trading pair to allow their users to more easily access the Gala ecosystem.” says Curis Wang, CEO of Bitrue.

While both the Gala Games and Flare teams are working on integration, it will likely be some time before minting to the Flare Network is available for Gala Games users.

There is a book by well-known engineer, Henry Petroski, called “The Pencil.” In this book, Petroski outlines how the modern world ended up with the pencil and what exactly it takes to make said writing implement. It is all well and good to be able to pull a pencil out of your knapsack to scribble a note, but entirely another when you think of every single person that was involved in the process to create the pencil you hold in your hand.

As we have said before, we intend Mirandus to be a simulation of the world, but the better word might be simulacrum. Mirandus is a smaller-scale representation of a larger and very idealized medieval fantasy world. This is an important fact to remember as it informs literally every single aspect of the game’s development. In the development of Mirandus, we are seeking to avoid making the world feel “constructed,” and would instead rather create the system of rules upon which the world itself evolves and then put players into this world.

This is especially important when we consider how various things work in the world of Mirandus. For example, we are very commonly asked questions about crafting. How does crafting work in Mirandus? Lets take the concept of operating a simple forge.

The description of a simple forge is: some heat and a small anvil help provide village basics.

What does this MEAN? Well, in the case of a small forge, what do you get? What exists within this structure? The best way to answer this question is to look at what exists in the “IRL” world. A small forge would have a collection of tools, an anvil, a barrel for quenching, an area to keep stock iron, a small forge which would be fueled with coal or wood, and a set of bellows to stoke the fire.

What could you make in a simple forge? The description says “village basics” but what does this mean? In a late medieval town, a local blacksmith would work to make simple farming implements such as axes, adzes, tongs, shears, horse shoes, belt buckles, and some small decorative items for use around a village. In times of war, they would produce some of the simplest weapons to equip levies. If there was a particularly skilled smith, they might produce some armor or more advanced weapons, but that is only in the event that the smith himself was spectacularly skilled, having spent a lifetime learning his craft.

However, even when a blacksmith made a sword, it depended not just on his own abilities, but rather the abilities of the entire village. The forge would be fired with either coal or charcoal, which would depend on the efforts of a a woodsman, miner, or charcoal burner. The hilt would be wrapped with leather, which would depend on the work of a tanner, which would take raw skins from either a huntsman or butcher and turn it into leather.

This type of analysis can be scaled to look at other buildings within the Mirandus ecosystem. We conduct deep research into each type of building before we include it in the world, making sure that it fits into the ecosystem. There is no such thing as an “unimportant shop.”

Much like Town Star, which is a simulation that represents an idealized farm world, Mirandus represents an idealized medieval world. Some of the same basic concepts which serve as the underpinnings of Town Star, such as an interconnected ecology of forces impacting the output of various industries, will also be present in Mirandus. Things such as deforestation, overhunting, or pollution may have an impact on the overall productivity of a farming or ranching hamlet. Some tasks in these locations may be performed by NPCs, but at the end of the day it will be up to the player characters to shape the world of Mirandus.

At the end of the day, it is up to YOU, the player, to build the world of Mirandus. Studio Director Michael McCarthy is creating a world in which the deeds and services provided are interlinked and depend on one another, and woven into the natural world. Mirandus is being built to appeal to a wide variety of players. Whether you want a fast-paced adventure game, a farming game, a crafting game, or, at the highest levels, a kingdom management economic simulator, Mirandus will have a niche for you.

Note on New NFT Sales: For the time being we have halted NEW additions to the Gala Games Store until we have completed some additional tech which will distribute the “debut” of an NFT in the shop around the world, so that even if you are in a timezone on the other side of the world, one of the four listings in the store will be visible to you. Roughly 25% of the total available for sale will be listed every six hours, on a schedule which will be published in advance.

Regarding NFT Pricing: We are also in the process of “normalizing” the NFT pricing in the store. This will result in a standardization of the pricing schedule for NFTs that is somewhat normalized to their scarcity and utility in-game. When a new NFT is released, it will be listed in the store for 24 hours at a discount, at which point in time it will be priced at the same level as other NFTs with similar scarcities and utility. As Mirandus comes closer to its testing phase, these prices will be increased at regular intervals based on the number of NFTs sold. We consider the introductory pricing — which all NFTs currently sold would fall within — an “early-adoption bonus.”

Today, the Butcher Shops were minted! Check your nodes!

A LOT of big news coming soon! Stay tuned!

One of the central pillars of the Gala Games ecosystem is the Gala Game Node. As we begin to push forward into releasing new node updates to bring consensus voting online for node owners, so that they can help make choices to guide the ecosystem development, we also wanted to explain more of how the node system itself works currently. This post is also meant to address some questions commonly asked by people wondering whether they should join the Gala Games Node Ecosystem.

The BEST place to learn about the Gala Games Node Ecosystem is in our Discord, at GalaGames.chat. There, in the #gala-nodes channel, there is always a lively discussion of the node network.

How do I buy a node?

Nodes can be purchased here in GALA, ETH, or BAT. If you do not have an account yet, you will need to create one in order to see the prices in ETH and BAT, as they don’t show up until after an account has been created.

Today, in Discord, we promised that today’s Mirandus Monday release would change your perspective on the World of Mirandus. As it turns out, we meant that LITERALLY. Feast your eyes upon the first-person view of the world of Mirandus, in the Hall of the Minotaur King!

“When we think about what it is like to have a real adventure simulator,” says Studio Director Michael McCarthy, “we believe that the only way it can be truly immersive is to make the view first person.”

To be part of the world, you must see it through the eyes of your character. From this perspective, what might be a simple challenge from a top-down perspective, takes on truly monumental proportions.

The divide between ‘I want my character to go on an adventure,’ and ‘I want to go on an adventure,’ is critical. With Mirandus, we want to create a world that you can sink into and be an active part of. A first person view is incredibly important to this feeling, allowing you to see through the eyes of your avatar — so that YOU are the one performing the actions, rather than a slightly interested third-party observer. We want you to have ownership of your in-game assets so that you can experience them on a personal level. A Homestead (which is now sold out!) isn’t just a house — it is YOUR home. It can be decorated with art YOU own and used to store YOUR arms and armor. You can use the simple cook fire to cook YOUR food and grow a small garden in YOUR plot. Or…when you look out the window of the highest tower in YOUR citadel and look out over YOUR kingdom, you will see a whole new world.

While we are going for a first-person player experience, certain aspects, such as property management, may also have an in-game top-down experience. In the end, our goal is to create an immersive view, and sometimes a strategic view is needed for certain instances.

Today is National Milk Day!

In celebration of National Milk Day, some node owners will see some dairy-related NFTs in their Treasure Chests today! Watch for these dairy-related shops, as dairy is going to be an important part of several crafting loops!

Potion-related Shops Sold Out in 4 Minutes!

Following our AMA last Friday, Potion-related shops sold out in four minutes! This is a record and it totally broke our store. We had intended to reserve 50% of the potion-related shops for later, but the purchasing flurry more than overran our total supply and we ended up needing to refund hundreds of orders. We are actively working to improve the shop experience so that supply is tracked based on pending orders, not just completed blockchain transactions.

Town Star AMA this Thursday!

There will a Town Star AMA this coming Thursday! It is your chance to be present at an awesome announcement, learn about the next bot, see the future of Town Star!