Happy Birthday, VOX!
The unique collectible “Avatars that DeFi” created by Gala is turning one year old, and it’s only the beginning.
On August 10, 2021, Gala took a gamble and launched something new — a limited series of 8,888 provably unique avatar NFTs. After several months of brainstorming, prototypes, experimentation, and copious amounts of caffeine, the team joined a livestream and waited with bated breath to see what the community would think of this project that was so different from Gala’s other endeavors. Eight minutes after the sale opened, all 8,888 were sold out. The community had spoken: VOX was here to stay.
A year later, it’s time to celebrate and look back to where VOX started… and where we’re going!
What We’ve Been Up To
Since that initial drop one year ago, we’ve been hard at work here on the VOX team! On December 6, 2021, we launched our second VOX series — Mirandus. From dragons to halflings, this series paid homage to one of Gala’s biggest upcoming projects, allowing our team to really push the limits of our creativity.
AMC’s The Walking Dead VOX was then released in March as our first major VOX partnership. Working closely with AMC Networks, our artists spent hundreds of hours researching and testing before finally settling on the TWD VOX Series 3 that we know today.
In May, VOX participated in May Mayhem by distributing Adventure Packs to the wallets of VOX holders in anticipation of our first launched VOX title: VOX Odyssey. These Adventure Packs are the first step on the amazing journey of Odyssey! Ranging from common to epic, these packs gave our community a first peek at the resources needed to journey through Odyssey and build the world of VOXverse! Dragon scales, golden eggs, and… jars of pickles? Wonder what these ancient resources might possibly be used for?
We also had the opportunity to get to meet many of our community members in person at our June Summer of Soul event which took place during NFT NYC! Partygoers had the opportunity to fish for Souls, search for their SOULmate, rock out to some jamming tunes, and try some VOX-inspired food. Plus, did we mention that we got to push the VOXFather into the pool? Ah, fun times!
In July, we launched our newest project: VOX Souls.
Where We’re Going
Launching this month, VOX Odyssey is the first of several projects focusing on the uniqueness, versatility, and utility of the VOX ecosystem VOX Odyssey is a text-based Discord-exclusive game in which players can send their VOX on adventures, direct them to collect resources, and uncover a deeper metanarrative involving a secret chicken society, multiversal travel, the clash of different philosophies, and… pickles. The game is currently launching in beta to a small group of testers before soon opening to VOX with souls and then to all VOX holders.
But what is the point of VOX Odyssey? Although Odyssey is a standalone title, the resources, stats, reputation, and skills gained in Odyssey have a distinct use: VOXverse. VOXverse is the upcoming epic metaverse from the mind of Will Wright, creator of The Sims. The experiences you have within VOX Odyssey will directly affect your experience in VOXverse and can help better prepare your VOX for VOXverse.
However, even before VOXverse releases, the resources from VOX Odyssey will have special utility. Launching thoon, the VOXverse World Builder will allow you to start buildingVOXverse before it launches. However, building in this tool will require resources that can be obtained from VOX Odyssey and the resource packs dropped to wallets earlier this year.
With launching VOX Odyssey, releasing VOX Souls wrapping, and unveiling the VOXverse World Builder, one might think that the VOX team has their hands full over the next few months, but we still have a lot of secrets up our sleeves!
When we first launched VOX, the slogan for VOX was “VOX: Avatars that DeFi.” We’re still hard at work behind the scenes fulfilling that original slogan. Although we can’t share too much yet, there are exciting things underway as we look into the future of both VOX and DeFi. Stay tuned!
When we look back over the past year, it’s crazy how far we’ve come. Yet, it’s even crazier to realize where we’re going! With two games, some insane partnerships, and Series 4 coming up (and no, we’re not allowed to spill the beans on what it is… The VOXFather would feed us to a hungry dragon if we spoiled it!), VOX is only revving up from here. Buckle your seatbelts, and come along with us on what is sure to be another incredible year!
Fun Facts
- The first VOX ever rendered was a farmer. Sadly, it was not selected as one of the final 8,888 VOX for Series 1.
- The metadata for the Town Star VOX was all written out by hand.
- When creating the tech behind VOX, IndiaVenom rendered all the VOX on his computer… meaning that he would have to check it every few hours (even overnight!) to make sure that it was still working. The team came up with a better solution for Series 2, much to his relief!
- The original design for the Party Hat for Series 1 VOX was almost as tall as the VOX themself. It had to be significantly shortened to make sure that it wouldn’t be cut off in the images. Sadly, no pictures remain of the Party Hat in its original glory. Rest in peace, ridiculously tall Party Hat.
- The most favorited Town Star VOX on OpenSea isn’t a bot or an animal. It’s actually Trucker VOX #6052!
- The most favorited VOX from the Mirandus series is the Blue Dragon VOX #2054. It is also the best-selling VOX to date, having changed hands on the secondary market for 389.55 ETH!
- The Mirandus Dragons weren’t in the original plan for the Mirandus series drop. Roughly a week before launch, Benefactor mentioned that he was excited to see the dragon VOX… After several days of frantic art and fevered programming, the dragons we all know and love came into being.
- Due to time restrictions, roughly 30% of all the designed outfits for Mirandus VOX never made it to the final VOX drop.
- The programmers spent more time on the Series 3 birds and dogs than any other VOX due to a weird glitch that would delete voxels and leave holes in their models.
- Every outfit, color, model, and accessory for each VOX were named individually by the Gala team.
- The first ideas for what would become VOX Odyssey were brainstormed in October 2021 at the first in-person meet-up of the VOX Team.
Happy VOXiversary!
The VOX team is honored that you have chosen to empower us by being part of the Gala community. We can hardly wait to show you everything the VOX future has in store for many years to come.
