Does Illuvium have what it takes to succeed?
As we inch closer to the full launch of Illuvium I want to delve deeper into the 3 major products and if they contain the longevity that is required to retain players.
Damn April went by quick, we are kicking off in May and we have 3-4 key events all arriving this month. I want to keep everyone informed but I am also going to take the time to further explore the real potential behind Illuvium as a video game. I have gotten more into mobile gaming recently and looked internally at what I find enjoyable in video games. Extrapolating that out into Illuvium is important for me to uncover weak points in the ecosystem and better understand what I expect from the games full release later this year.
Here is what I will be covering in this newsletter:
Overworld PB2 and Illuvium Zero Season 1 | what you need to know
Illuvium Beyond partner D1sks are coming soon, how should we prepare?
Does Illuvium have enough to keep players hooked? Does it need to wait longer before release?
We will cover all of that here and more so please keep reading. I am excited to share this journey with you.
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Overworld PB2 and Illuvium Zero Blueprints!
We don’t know when these are happening but Illuvium Zero Season 1 is slated for late May and Overworld PB2 is expected at any moment.
The next beta for the Illuvium Overworld will have a lot of major updates coming to the game. The biggest of these is by far the addition of 2 new regions that TSG assures us are both much bigger than Crimson Wastes. More importantly they will both feel truly unique which is something I can’t say I’ve felt in video gaming in such a long time. Even when games update their existing content or add new areas to explore they often feel like more of the same, this is largely due to quests and progression points returning in recognisable patterns as you continue your journey. Although we cannot experience refreshed gameplay loops with the new regions, a suite of 28 new Illuvials and added movement mechanics should have a major impact on the game.
We will also get our first taste of Morphopods and the new overload mechanic to keep things more interesting and engaging. Although I don’t expect this will make the Overworld more repeatable it will certainly have a major impact when Illuvials and other items are NFTs. For those who aren’t aware, the overload mechanic will make an outer zone begin to close as you reach 80% of your energy consumption. Although I don’t think this is overly impactful, if the zone closes fast enough it can definitely impact your ability to get that last bit out of your run, especially if you are hunting for Illuvials.
As a bonus, Grant added some Illuvials to the overworld for a mini photoshoot. They won’t be added to the game for the public beta launch but you can see that they fit right in.
The next thing on the agenda is the long awaited Illuvium Zero Season 1. This will begin once a reset of everyone’s land plots is completed and will be the last reset until the final reset before the launch of the public beta. The large reason for such a long delay is mostly related to bug fixes and adjustments. Although I never expected Illuvium Zero to be in a perfect state before season 1 some key things needed to be rectified to avoid game breaking bugs that could have a massive impact on someone’s wallet and create even more issues for the team in the future.
Alongside this, certain things need to be double checked so that people aren’t able to game or cheat the system and most importantly the game needs to be better prepared for IOS users. Apple threw a curveball last year by heavily restricting the terms for adding NFT based games into their ecosystem and Illuvium was forced to adapt. On the bright side it looks like the team has come up with some major improvements including a way to play the game on IOS devices. You can see the latest update from Julien below.
Lastly it looks like blueprints won’t be far away once Season 1 is underway. The initial plan was to be able to mint them on-chain shortly before the launch of public beta but now it seems much sooner. This will allow us to see how the market reacts to these new NFTs and may just dictate a better understanding of the value land will have as the Illuvium ecosystem continues to grow.
What are partner D1sks in Illuvium Beyond
Illuvium Beyond might feel done and dusted for some but for many it has just begun and partner D1sks may prove just how much staying power it has in the broader Illuvium universe.
Although we don’t know who the partners are yet, Kieran has assured the community that they already have several locked and loaded for future partner D1sks sales. But when will the sale be happening? It has currently been slated for release before the end of wave 1 which means it’ll be in the market sometime in May. As for the partner itself, many in the team have hinted that they are a large player in the world and not necessarily a web 3 brand. As you can see Nick has been hinting in the discord.
But what is an Illuvitars partner D1sk. We are hazy on the exact details but TSG has hinted on Augment that they are Illuvitars that come pre-bonded with accessories. By extension this likely means that we won’t be able to bond them with further accessories but the community does not have the exact details yet. What is exciting is that this won’t be a singular Illuvitar. It will have expressions, finishes and rarities just like the rest of the collection further placing emphasis on the collecting aspect of Illuvium Beyond. As you can see from Nicks comments below they will have unique treatment across the board.
The most important detail you need to know before this new product is that sILV2 won’t be usable. Given the product is in direct partnership with an entity outside of Illuvium, sILV2 doesn’t make much sense in terms of their side of the deal. Since sILV2 is burned all of those sales would be 100% for the benefit of the DAO and make partnership terms particularly difficult. What then becomes important is having Ethereum available in your IMX wallet for this sale. All of this will be announced and explained ahead of time so there is no rush.
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Does Illuvium have enough to be successful?
I have gotten addicted to a really basic game recently and its making me re-evaluate what it means to have a strong core gameplay loop.
Many may know that I am not very big on mobile games and I will explore the reasons why right below. However this topic has come to mind because this past week I have become addicted to Marvel Snap. Given my hatred for mobile games I tried to isolate the reasons this game makes me want to play and what they could change to make me want to play it more. It turns out the reason I got hooked is the exact same reason it has been frustrating me this past day. It ties in healthy progression mechanics with a fast paced and addicting competitive PvP element.
However I have started to abandon it because their drip feeding progression mechanic of unlocking new cards as a reward for simply playing has been hit with a major time gated mechanic that wasn’t prevalent for the first week or so of gameplay. It initially felt like I could endlessly play and continuously uncover new cards and build new decks just by playing the game. However like most mobile games it has to lock it behind a time gated system so that it can maximise retention and prevent you from ever completing it. What’s ironic is the allure of unlocking new game mechanics randomly made the progression fun and interesting. However once this slowed down significantly it became extremely painful given I could unlock 3-4 garbage cards before finally unlocking something useful. A fantastic and interesting progression loop instantly become pure pain and agony.
As I began to reflect on this retention hack gone wrong, I wondered if Illuvium could suffer the same fate. Realistically there aren’t many Illuvials and you don’t need more than 30 to fully experience the PvP elements of the game. Sure there are large amounts of cosmetic items, vast regions to explore and lots of other items to engage with.
But is it truly enough?