Extended Play Test

For the last week, the Spider Tank Project (final title TBD) has been the hottest thing happening in the Gala Games ecosystem. On Wednesday July 14th, there were a couple community tests of the fully playable Alpha MOBA. Hundreds of concurrent players battled it out with their Spider Tanks for the first time. It was beyond epic. In fact, it was so amazing that the Gala Games team decided to extend the play test through the entire weekend!

That’s right. All weekend long members of the Gala Games community can download and play this incredible game. Just beware that once you start playing, you may not want to stop. For the download link to get in the game, visit the Announcements channel of the Gala Games Discord Community and find the link (with instructions) announcement from Bitbender on July 14th.

Beautiful Shiny Tank Skins

The Alpha Executioner Chicken Tanks from the last couple days may have flown the coop, but you now have a brand new chance to get the first limited edition skins in the upcoming game: Noxious, Gridlock, Arcane, Overlord and Alpha Gold.

You read it correctly. The price for all remaining skins will double when the timer runs out, so you may want to make up your mind quickly.

Golden Perk Tank Skins

The most observant of you may have noticed that while there are 6 Tank Skins pictured in the cover image, there are only 5 available for sale in the Gala Games store. That’s because every member of Gala Gold will be receiving one.

On July 18th at midnight PST (7am UTC July 19th) a snapshot will be taken. Every member of Gala Gold at the time of the snapshot will receive the Uncommon Sentinel Skin, which is not available for sale but IS pictured below in all its glory.

Look how it shines!

This is just another example of how it pays to go Gala Gold. You’ll get exclusive sneak peaks, special Discord perks, even bonus NFTs from time to time! To upgrade to Gold, visit THIS LINK when signed into your Gala Games account.

Now get out there and put this extraordinary new game to the test!

It’s time for another dive into the unique Mirandus-Themed Town Star Skin Packs! This time, we’re going through the first pack of the set by sharing some stories and showing you some never-before-seen shots from the creation of these beauties. While they may look like relatively simple aesthetic upgrades, a ton of work went into the development of these skins. This gives our team an awesome opportunity to show you an inside angle of some of the fascinating in-the-weeds toil that brings video games to life.

Skins as NFTs — A Revolutionary Idea

In the traditional gaming world, skins can sometimes be a “hard sell” because of their exclusive focus on the visual aspects of gameplay. This idea is out the window when gaming skins become blockchain-backed NFTs.

Current Town Star Skin listings on Opensea

These skins are transferable. Instead of being forbidden by some unsightly list of lengthy terms, trading of Gala Games NFTs is encouraged and facilitated through Opensea. This is one of the pillars of Gala Games’ player empowering mission.

These skins are worth something. Instead of a kiss-your-money-goodbye kind of purchase, you can rest assured that your Gala Games NFT skins will still be worth something. In some cases, it’s even possible that these NFTs may trade in the future for more than they originally cost.

These skins come with something extra. In each pack, an exclusive 1/10 Dragon Voucher is included. Players who collect all 10 Dragon Vouchers will become the proud owners of a Dragon Familiar in Mirandus! Unlike the followbot pets in some games, these Dragons will have multiple layers of functionality, empowering and enriching your gaming experience.

Digging In — Mirandus-Themed Skin Pack 1

Pack 1 started with the most basic units that are first experienced in the game. At the beginning of each Town Star game, you’ll have a Farm House, a Silo, a Builder House, a Wood Shed, a Well, and some fields. Mirandus-Themed Skin Pack 1 gives most of these original buildings a fresh makeover, plus one of the others that you’ll need to get quickly as you progress: The Storehouse.

Farm House

These old thatched roofs may be a little tougher on the maintenance and a lot more flammable, but luckily there are no big bad wolves threatening to blow your farmer’s house down in this fairy tale. The bright yellow makes for a chipper and rustic feel throughout your town, and the medieval version of the house is a fine place for the Mirandus-themed farmer and his family.

The hat was a crucial piece of clothing in the Middle Ages. The modern farmer may wear a trucker hat to support his favorite brand of heavy equipment and to keep the sun out of his eyes. The ancient farmer wore a hat to keep his head warm, or to protect himself from insects, rain, sunlight and more. Hats were worn by all men in the Middle Ages; many farmers wore a basic cloth hat called a coif, which covered the head and tied around the shoulders. This is the type of hat sported by our Town Star farmer friend. Below are a few alternates for the medieval farmer that didn’t make the cut.

Silo

With no advanced industrial building methods available in the Middle Ages, keeping harvested crops safe and dry was a matter of life and death. This is why silos were built so carefully, and why so much care was also taken in the development of the Mirandus-themed Silo skin. Pictured below is the first round of Silo candidates.

Eventually the choice was made for the wood planked roof of option IV, probably due to its steep slant and enhanced ability to keep water out of the silo. Still, a few more details remained undecided.

Michael McCarty is the one who made the call to go with the red textured body for the silo, because this art was made before the addition of T. Eilliot Cannon as Town Star Director. There was the medieval Silo in all its glory!

Woodshed

In medieval times, wood was not stored as cautiously as crops or goods. The primary goals with wood storage would have been keeping the wood dry and allowing it to cure properly while avoiding rot. This is why in the Mirandus-themed skin below you’ll notice that the walls are incomplete. Only a foolish woodworker in the Middle Ages would have wasted more wood than absolutely necessary on the building that stored his wood. The thatched slanted roof works perfectly for keeping rainwater off of the stored wood.

Well

The original well in Town Star is an incredibly simple construction of stone. While it requires wood to build, the wood is not visible in the final product, so it can be assumed that the wood was used to put together the internal mechanisms allowing the well to fetch water.

For the Mirandus-themed skins, the well was redesigned into a more fantastical fairy tale sort of well, complete with a roof and a water bucket on a coiled line. There were originally two different options: One with no roof and a pulley system for the rope and bucket, and the other with a side crank that raises the bucket by wrapping the rope around a horizontal pole. The latter was chosen as the final skin.

Storehouse

The medieval Storehouse had a very interesting journey of development, with several discarded options before the final consensus was reached. It was decided that the first two options (pictured below) fell short of Michael McCarthy’s impeccable authenticity standards. This was most likely due to the flat roofs that too closely resembled the Town Star Storehouse we all know.

After revisiting and researching authentic storehouses of the Middle Ages, our art team came up with several more options, all of which added variety and authenticity. The Town Star team decided on the first Storehouse pictured below, giving the classic building a completely fresh feel.

Next Time

Remember, you can pick up these Mirandus-Themed Skin Packs now in the Town Star store, but they’re limited in quantity! Only 2000 of each pack has been released, and subsequent sales are TBD in both date and price. The absolute best time to start securing your Dragon Familiar is now!

In an upcoming Behind the Skins, we’ll be diving into Skin Pack 2. This pack contains the beloved Mirandus Chicken Coup, complete with our now famous friend, the Pecksecutioner. We’re also prepared to show you several chickens that didn’t fit the bill. Here’s a little taste…

Jungle Safari Chicken, I presume?

Get your Mirandus-Themed Town Star Skin Packs while they’re hot, and stay tuned for some more inside looks in our next Behind the Skins post, coming your way soon. Good luck this weekend on your Town Star builds!