With all the exciting growth and nonstop action of the last several months throughout the Gala Games ecosystem, time has flown right by. In a flood of new players, new projects and new possibilities, we nearly overlooked an important decision still waiting to be made. The original $10,000 GalaCon Hackathon has three finalists remaining. Initially, this was intended to be in a video interview format, but due to a recording error we needed to revert to a text-based interview. Originally, there were four finalists but one did not reply after repeated contact attempts.

Now as we look forward to our huge live event, GalaCon, it’s time to make a choice that will award one of these promising projects with $10,000 toward the development of their game. Please note that the winner of this Hackathon is NOT being added to the Gala Games platform in any way, nor will they be branded as a Gala Games game.

The winner will receive a $10k grant to use on further creation and development of their game.

You’ll find more in-depth rundowns on both of these games at THIS POST from March of this year.

Over the Water

Castaway: a Pirate Survival MMORPG

The first of the two finalists was introduced back in late March as Untitled Pirate Game. This MMORPG is being created by a small team (currently just 3 people) with great ambitions to become an incredible open world adventure of exploration.

Questionnaire Answers

When did you first begin exploring this idea?

November 2020

What are your most crucial development goals that are currently being held up by lack of funding?

Additional Developers for the game, assets, and music.

Does your game have the potential to appeal to massive audiences?

Most definitely, the game has a genre that is massive. (MMORPG Survival)

On a percentage scale, how complete is your game?

30%

What is your mission statement?

Create the games today that will live to see the future.

How will your game empower the players of the world in a new way?

It will listen to the players and make sure it knows its community. Without the players there is no game. We want to focus on developing the game around the community.

Is there anything we should know about your background or experience that would make the Gala Games ecosystem more inclined to choose your project?

I have managed crypto projects before so I am not completely new to the scene. I also am a Management Information Systems major, and have been running game servers for over 10 years. I also have experience in Unreal Engine and Agile Scrum project management to get this project done.

As a red morning sun started to rise over the calm Ligurian Sea, a young adventurer named Jimmy lifted his head from the sack of grain that he had made his pillow the night before. Last night had taken a turn for the worst after a brave roulette spin cost Jimmy the rest of his travel money. Thanks to some crumbled euros and loose coins scattered throughout his pack, he had found enough to buy a bottle of something stiff (the drinking age is 18 in Monaco). Now as the previous night’s memories came back to him one by one between headache pains, Jimmy noticed the empty bottle lying next to him amid bits of fish carcasses.

“The boat leaves at dawn,” Jimmy suddenly remembered, hoping he was not already too late. Somehow last night between beach staggering and a brief live performance with some street buskers (Jimmy played the spoons), he had concocted a brilliant plan: Get a job, earn some honest pay, and for God’s sake, don’t lose it again in some gamble. The bucket drummer from the busking group said he was leaving bright and early on a fishing boat, and that the crew could always use more able-bodied workers like Jimmy. Jimmy had never been on a fishing boat before, but he figured it would be the perfect way to earn some money to get home. He knew the townsfolk were probably worried about him, and they were certainly missing his speedy and all-too-convenient neighbor deliveries.

Jimmy jumped to his feet, and with a mad crick in the neck, he took off toward the ship, which fortunately had not yet departed. “C’est l’enfant cuillère,” Jimmy’s bucket-drumming friend shouted from the deck. The announcement was met by an explosion of manly laughter from all over the ship. Apparently news of Jimmy’s percussive spoon talents had reached the crew. He was welcomed aboard, and not long after, the boat was headed out to open sea.

Jimmy had a lot of questions about his new job, especially now that he could no longer see the Monaco shore. His bucket drummer friend was named Claude. Claude spoke very little English and Jimmy’s French was less than conversational, so for his answers he turned to the captain of the boat, a British sailor named Sir Neville Falswain. Sir Neville wore a cocky smirk that showed off his multiple gold teeth. His blue coat waved in the wind like a hero’s cape as he stood like a pirate character from a rum label, master of his domain. As Jimmy approached the captain, the high morning sun’s light reflected from his uncovered glass eye, blinding Jimmy for just a moment.

“What have you gotten yourself into, lad,” the captain laughed in Jimmy’s direction without taking his good eye off the horizon.

Jimmy was nervous, but he felt an odd sense of trust for the grizzled skipper. He imagined the other sailors had great respect for (and a healthy fear of) this man. Jimmy was well experienced in being laughed at, so he responded boldly. “What are we out to catch today, sir?” His voice only cracked 2 or 3 times while speaking, so better than most of his verbal interactions.

Captain Falswain found no amusement in Jimmy’s question, but looked directly at the boy, then said, “Fortune and glory lad. Fortune and glory.” He continued to stare Jimmy down for several seconds, sizing him up and hopefully (for Jimmy’s sake) making a favorable assessment.

Finally the old fishing boat, called the Renflouer, reached its destination in the open waters of the Ligurian Sea, the northernmost branch of the Mediterranean. After piecing together information from the rest of the French-speaking crew, Jimmy had discovered that this crew would normally fish for tuna, but today another animal was on everyone’s mind: A narwhal. Narwhals are indigenous to lower arctic waters and rarely find their way this far south, but across the treasure-hunting underground of Europe fascinating stories were circulating of a particular wandering narwhal. That was the narwhal these fishers turned treasure hunters were seeking.

Not only would this narwhal be the only one in Mediterranean waters, but it would be recognizable for an especially peculiar item of decoration: A durable cloth map, pierced firmly to the base of its 3-meter spiraling tusk. The stories say the map leads to one of the largest treasures ever known. No one could say how the map ended up impaled on the tusk of a narwhal, but stranger things have happened in the seas.

As day turned into night, the Renflouer crew continued looking for the elusive narwhal. More days went by, and Jimmy watched as the sailors’ beards filled in like untrimmed bushes. Jimmy has never been able to grow a beard himself; he hoped the others wouldn’t notice. The ten mates exchanged stories, laughed together and sang traditional songs as each day they combed the waters in search of a unicorn of the sea.

The Renflouer’s tracking expert was a veteran of the Swiss armed forces named Maxime. His special system for luring the narwhal involved submerging a large air horn looking device and making a horrible noise beneath the water’s surface. According to Maxime, the noise would repel all underwater beasts in the vicinity except for narwhals, who would be driven into a fury and drawn in attack to its source. Captain Falswain had paid Maxime handsomely for his strangely specific narwhal tracking skills. He had also outfitted the bottom of his boat with a thin layer of lightweight steel, which all the sailors hoped would prove impenetrable by a narwhal’s tusk.

Finally one morning after nearly a week at sea, lookout spotted a narwhal in the distance after one of Maxime’s underwater noise blasts. It was furious, thrashing and splashing quickly through the water directly toward the boat. “Brace for impact,” shouted Captain Falswain. “This is our fellow!”

About 30 meters out from the boat, the narwhal suddenly vanished beneath the choppy water and there was a silence that seemed to go on for several minutes. The sailors looked about each other’s faces curiously, wondering if they had scared the beast off. Moments later their curiosity was answered as the largest narwhal they ever saw launched itself from the water off the Renflouer’s bow. Its head shook wildly in every direction as it began to sail through the air over the sailors’ heads. Everyone saw plain as day that the legends were true. There, firmly attached to the 5-meter narwhal’s forehead was a worn piece of parchment covered in mysterious markings.

The fearless captain was the first to action, leaping for the narwhal’s tail and grabbing its caudal fin. Claude and Jimmy then threw themselves at the beast, which emitted a loud shriek of annoyance but was barely slowed in its flight. If enough of the mates could just grab hold, they could stop the narwhal’s jump before it hurdled the boat. It took every last one of the crew to slow the momentum of the jumping creature, and finally it came crashing down onto the deck. Expertly dodging the flailing tusk, Maxime went straight for the map as the rest of the crew held the massive animal down. He ripped it loose from the narwhal’s face and nearly impaled himself as he slid the map up the tusk.

Jimmy watched with wonder, daydreaming about buried treasure as the crew continued to wrestle with the beast until it was safely back in the water. Nobody noticed when he picked up a torn piece of cloth (a corner that was separated from the map during the struggle) and quickly pocketed it.

Captain Falswain staggered toward Maxime and moved to snatch the map from his shaking hands. Jimmy swore that he saw a paused moment of high-stakes standoff between the two men, but Maxime gave up the map. The captain held it toward the sun and cackled wildly with a newfound power that almost sounded like madness. “What’d I tell you mates? Fortune and glory!” He slapped the map down onto the deck and studied it for a moment. His satisfaction quickly turned to rage as he noticed the crucial corner of the map that was missing. “Without this piece we’re barely further than where we started,” the captain fumed.

The Renflouer solemnly headed back toward the Monaco shore, full of silent sailors. The captain looked suspiciously from one mate to the next, wondering if someone had double crossed him. Jimmy pretended to sleep, hoping that nobody had seen him shove the missing corner of the map into his pocket. He wasn’t sure why he did it, but instinct was now telling the young delivery boy to lay low and hold onto the map’s missing piece, at least until he was safely back on land with cash in his pocket.

One thing was now clear to Jimmy. His vacation may be nearing its end, but his adventure was just beginning.

It’s time to show off some more exclusive Mirandus-Themed Town Star Skins, and today we’re digging into the contents of Pack 2. In this series, we’re sharing behind-the-scenes details, alternate art and creation stories. Basically we’re giving you an inside look at some of the most intricate and interesting details of the video game creation process, so enjoy!

The Dragon Familiar

As a gamer, when you hear the word “skins,” you may usually think of a lot of fluff with no real value. Thanks to the power of blockchain ownership and NFTs, we’re putting such preconceived notions to rest. These NFT skins are simply another way that Gala Games is able to return value and power to you, the players.

In addition to each skin being a limited supply NFT that can be traded on Opensea or transferred between accounts, these packs are giving you an opportunity to have a Dragon Familiar of your own in the world of Mirandus. All you need to do is collect all 10 Dragon Vouchers! You’ll find 1 Dragon Voucher in each of the 10 Mirandus-Themed Skin Packs.

This Dragon won’t be just for show, and it won’t simply follow you around like some familiars or pets in other games. The Dragon Familiar will play a strong role in your adventure, providing assistance and utility in multiple TBD ways. The bottom line is that you never know what treacherous dangers will be in store when you at last go adventuring in the fantasy world of Mirandus. It couldn’t possibly hurt to have a Dragon on your side.

Now with In-Game Bonuses!

Additionally, deploying your Mirandus-themed Skins in Town Star will give you an incredible in-game boost to both worker speed and production! The more packs you use, the greater your bonus will be! For more information on the in-game bonus, check out THIS POST!

Digging In — Mirandus-Themed Skin Pack 2

In Pack 2 you’ll find some more reimagined Town Star buildings that will be crucial to your success in any weekly competition: Chicken Coup, Fuel Storage, Oil Pump, Lumber Yard and Paved Road. Also found in this pack (as an extension of the Chicken Coup) is the hero that we all deserve: The masked chicken aka the Pecksecutioner, aka the Eggsecutioner!

Chicken Coup

What do foxes, coyotes, bears, hawks, owls, weasels, opossums, badgers, raccoons, bobcats and wolves have in common? Like humans, they all like to eat chicken. Even in the Middle Ages, keepers of livestock had to protect their birds from all sorts of predators day and night. That’s why the Mirandus-themed Chicken Coup is similarly fortified to the modern Town Star version. Every farmer and rancher knows that if you keep your chickens safe and sound, they’ll produce eggs more plentifully.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the ideas that went into the redesign of the chicken itself. The chicken may be the only character unit included in this pack of skins, but it will make an incredible addition to anyone’s Town Star collection. Clearly the art team knew that the stakes were high, because they first submitted 8 different options for the Mirandus chicken.

The team broke off into smaller groups and private meetings to deliberate. Some of the chickens above (such as the jungle safari chicken and the feathered hat chicken) were easy to eliminate from consideration, and others were harder. Led by Art Director Warren Marshall, the art team dug deep and went back to the drawing board, coming up several hours later with sore, sweaty hands and 4 final choices. One of them was destined to be the chosen one.

Fuel Storage

With the direction to make every Mirandus-themed equivalency as authentic as possible, our art team had a tough time coming up with a solid concept for the fuel storage. Obviously there were no oil-based fuels in the Middle Ages. Instead, “fuel” meant wood or coal, things that provided energy when burned. Finally, our artists imagined what liquid fuel storage would have looked like in medieval times and arrived at something similar to corked whiskey barrels. There were a couple different choices presented, and the one chosen favored one large barrel over three smaller ones.

Oil Pump

The oil pump in this form is anachronistic for the medieval time period, and while crude oil already had various uses in different parts of the world, they would be difficult to depict in any recognizable way. Documentation on the earliest known oil wells is found in Chinese records from around 300 AD. In the 9th century Middle East, petroleum products such as tar were refined and used to create pavement. It was not until the mid 1800s that petroleum was refined into paraffin and kerosene and the Oil Age truly began.

Our Mirandus-themed Oil Pump came out as a slightly redesigned all wood version of the modern oil pump that we all recognize.

Lumber Yard

There’s not much interesting to say about the Lumber Yard. Here it is, effectively storing lumber with a fresh Mirandus theme!

Paved Road

Throughout a Town Star weekly competition, the Paved Road becomes a crucial component of any player’s success. Certain industrial buildings must be placed next to Paved Roads, but most importantly, all your workers travel faster along these roads.

Throughout most of the world during the Middle Ages, paved roads meant stone roads. As mentioned above, tar-based pavements were used in some regions, but only where oil was naturally easy to find and harvest. For medieval Europe, roads were built of flat-sided stones (cobble). When applied to your Town Star build, these cobblestone Paved Roads come together for a beautiful old time look.

Mirandus-Themed Skin Packs are currently available in the Town Star store, but only in limited quantity, and there is no telling how long they will last. In this first (and lowest priced) wave of the packs’ release, only 2000 of each are available. Future sales and releases are TBD in both date and price, so right now is probably your cheapest chance to fill your collection and collect all 10 Dragon Vouchers.

Next time we’ll dig into Pack 3, from which you’ll absolutely love the Bakery and the Express Depot. Good luck on all your Town Star builds. May these skins bring you luck and tide you over for Mirandus, the incredible blockchain MMORPG that we’re all waiting for!

GET YOUR SKINS HERE!