Interview With Cloud925 Of SteemKnights

Hopefully you guys noticed that we have a new Steem based game coming to the market in just a week. SteemMonsters have been very successful and SteemKnights want to do just as well. Let's see what their creative director has to say about their game!

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Question: Hello there @Cloud925, hope you are doing well! I think we should start with something simple. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and what is SteemKnights?
Answer: Hi Kralizec, I'm fine thanks. Sounds good to me. Well about me there is not much to say I guess. My real name is Lukas Anetsberger and I am from lower Bavaria, Germany. I started to work programming in 2012. Since 2018 I added consulting for SAP projects to my portfolio. The passion for games escorted me since I was a child. I nearly loved it to dive into fantasy worlds or just playing simple games. Last year I met my two colleagues @mwfiae and @mrbandler and they shared my passion for gaming and we wanted to establish something new and big in the gaming market. This is how fivefingergames came to life.

To Steemknights then. Steemknights is the first project in our own company. The idea is to start with small projects because we are only 3 guys by now and get bigger and bigger. The core principle is: play 1on1 with another player, invest steem and get rewarded for playing/investing. That sums everything up I guess.

Question: What was the initial inspiration to create SteemKnights?
Answer: That is a good question. Therefore we needed a small project, which we could bring to life very fast. The smallest games I could imagine were Chess and Rock, Paper, Scissors. So I tried to combine these to games to one easy game. That is the story of SteemKnights

Question: I will admit that your game does seem almost overly simplistic. Couldn't this perhaps pose a problem for the longevity of SteemKnights?
Answer: Yes you are right. The game is very simple but this was on purpose for the first version. We needed something small and easy that everybody understands. And as you can see in the roadmap on our website https://steemknights.com/? we have several more ideas to make this game even more strategic and fun. But for the first run, we need to check if the users like the core principle.

Question: I have seen that you have plans for tournaments and a more than 1v1 play mode. But its actually the core principle of just rock vs. paper vs. scissors that seems overly simplistic to me. Are you considering having more than just three types of units? That is a fairly low number of units and optimal gameplay strategy can be devised pretty quickly with such a low number of possible interactions.
Answer: Actually there that is something we would see in the "New Game Mode(s)" section of the roadmap. Theoretically, it's possible and we thought about an option to do this, but there is nothing concepted yet. And don't be fooled, the strategic elements are more than the first look shows. The whole strategy is built on positioning and choosing. But you will see if you get it in your hands.

Question: Your project is kind of special for Steem. You came with an almost ready project - the announcement came just a week before release. Do you consider this to be a benefit or a negative? You guys don't have that much time to do much marketing and games without marketing do have a tough life.
Answer: I get your point, but I think it is positive. The response we got until now is more than we thought it would be and the players can't wait to play it. As this was our first project as a team, we had no idea how long it will take to ship it. And I think it will be more positive to have less time for marketing than breaking promises/deadlines.

Question: Could you try to explain the earning system a bit more? Referrals are quite simple, but as I understand it, people will not be using Steem directly to bet in SteemKnights. Instead, they will be using Knight Emblems, which is going to be a separate token I assume.
Answer: Sure. There you misunderstood us. You can play for free, just for fun. Or you play for steem. And here we have several lobbies with fixed Steem Bets ( 1, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000 ). Of course, if you win one battle you get the pot - a small fee for us which will be separated in an amount that goes in the payout-pot and one part goes to us ( we have to live from something :wink: ). For every game you earn a certain amount of Knight Emblems, which are not a token btw, but an in-game currency from our game. The Knight Emblems decide how much you will get from the pot at the end of the day. And there are some in-game boosters you can buy to get more Knight Emblems for a game.

Question: So, correct me if I misunderstood somewhere. If you play a game with a bet and you win, you just get the Steem immediately. Except for a small fee which is divided between you guys and people who hold the in-game currency called "Knight Emblems".
Answer: Let me give you an example. If you start a game for 100 steem, the pot for the game will be 200 steem in total. If you win you get 180 steem. We have a difference of 20 Steem left. 20% (is the amount the goes in the daily pot) from 20 Steem ( 4 Steem ) land in the next payout pot and 16 Steem go to us. And you get 10000 Knight Emblems. The loser gets 5000 Knight Emblems.
The idea is to build a daily passive income.

Question: These numbers are official or just created for the example?
Answer: You mean the percentage?

Question: Yes, for how much goes into the daily pot and for how the pot gets distributed between players and you guys.
Answer: This was an example with the official numbers, yes.

Question: Okay, I will admit that the 80 % of the pot going to you guys seem pretty high to me. If the community doesn't like these numbers, will you consider changing them?
Answer: We do not get 80% of the game pot. Only 10% - 20% for the daily pot. Or did I misunderstood you? And of course, if the player base can not live with this we might change this in the future. But again, we have to live from something and want to do this full-time for you guys any day.

Question: Not 80 percent of the pot for the individual games, but the daily pot. You said if it is 20 Steem then 4 Steem is divided between the players and 16 goes to you guys.
Answer: Yes okay that is correct. But I do not think that this is that high actually. There are the Knight Emblems which get you Steem from the pot on a daily basis. And if we stay in our example you will get 80 Steem instant + the daily rewards for your Knight Emblems. We think that is fair.

Question: And the Knight Emblems, those are consumed at the end of the day or are they something you retain?
Answer: They retain always.

Question: And in what ways can those be acquired except for gameplay?
Answer: Knight Emblems are rewards for our game only so they can only be acquired inside the game for gameplay.

Question: Okay then, I think that answers all the questions I have for now. Is there anything you would like to add? Something important that you think Steemians should know about SteemKnights?
Answer: Not especially for SteemKnights but for fivefingergames. Maybe you could write that SteemKnights is just the start of our journey. We have several games in mind, creating our own tokens, add new monetizing ways and plans so that new users can get more easy in contact with steem.
That would be all from me and us.