NFTStudio24 interviews Mason Richman, the Founder and COO, producer, and creative director of Psychedelic Games, who talks about Blockchain technology and overall, how Web3 and blockchain technology offer exciting opportunities for the development of Psychedelic games.
In this interview, Mason talks about what led him to pursue his career in the NFT working as a 3D animator in the entertainment industry. He also shares his valuable insights on the Blockchain industry and how Psychedelic Games adapts this Web3 Blockchain technology to enhance the gaming structure all over the world and make it more interesting through Blockchain.
Mason’s journey into Web3
Mason Richman has extensive experience in the field of animation art as well as event production. He has worked as a modeling producer for big projects such as the Golden State Warriors NFT. Currently, Mason is leading a team of artists and developers to build video games using Web3 technologies
According to Mason, he was previously working with an event company, which he also owned. However, due to the COVID break, the events stopped. That was the time when he got associated with NFTs as he was looking around for opportunities in art direction.
Mason started Psychedelic Games with his brother, Devin, who had a deep interest in exploring game development and Web3 technologies. Together, they are now building well-designed gameplays with high-quality characters and other artworks.
During the interview, Mason passionately discusses his deep interest in crypto and blockchain, emphasizing how these technologies are revolutionizing the global gaming industry and driving its overall development.
Psychedelic Games: The Leading Web3 Game Development Studio
Psychedelic Games is a fastly-growing game development studio that aims to create innovative AAA games on blockchain, powered by a Play-to-Earn model and community-driven ecosystem. So far, the studio has launched a few games such as Golden Tides, Metasports, and the Bounty Hills (coming soon).
The company focuses on taking the emergent technology from Blockchain and applying it to traditional video games. Things like Integrating blockchain infrastructure, creating in-game asset tokenization, establishing ownership and item trading, engaging the community, and addressing scalability and user experience are in focus.
Golden Tides: Embark on a Real Treasure Hunt
Golden Tides is a flagship Psychedelic Games. It is a pirate MOBA video game where players travel to the enormous, “multicultural Archipelago of Golden Tides” in search of REAL monetary treasures.
Players can choose a character and sign up for a free account to begin obtaining rewards like valuable in-game stuff, unique heroes, crypto treasure, and more. As they advance, players can purchase ship NFTs to access PREMIUM servers with larger stakes.
Joining various crews, players from around the world set sail into the unknown to test their survival and cooperation skills. A strategy, adventure, and social interaction-focused online multiplayer experience is provided by the game.
Unique NFT-based gameplay elements are introduced in Golden Tides, along with a robust in-game economy that makes use of the utility token $DOUBLOON and the governance token $GT.
Players can organize into crews, take part in exciting sea battles, and go on the quest for treasures. The game also has two kinds of servers, Premium and Free. Mason talks about the concept of setting sails on a Premium server on an auction.
“In this 80 percent of the ship sale price is returned to the user and 10 percent goes to the team that destroys the ship and then 10 percent goes back to the game for more treasures.”
On a Free server, each crew member will receive an equal portion of the loot, with each player taking home 25% of the total looted currencies. The fairness of the rewards for all participants is ensured by this equitable distribution because there is no appointed captain to receive a larger share of the loot.
“It’s just a unique feature that nobody else is doing and we think that.. like the more it’s simple but it’s still the layer of complexity like a traditional video game.”
The game also has its upcoming utility token $DOUBLOON. According to Mason, it is an in-game transaction token that will serve the function of helping gamers buy NFT and other stuff from game stores. Furthermore, when the gamers find the treasure, the currency is probably going to be in $DOUBLOON. Mason hopes to see more and more gamers try out the game. He and his team have spent hours designing the perfect gameplay for everyone.
Balancing the gameplay experience and earning potential for users
Psychedelic Games aim to follow the traditional business model for gaming. Mason also says that the gameplay structure is quite similar to that of Fortnite yet different as well. This allows players to easily know the controls and specifications of the game.
Source: Twitter
“The biggest difference between us and Fortnite is that if you’re gonna spend money on our game on skins we’re gonna let you resell your skins and retain that value, we think the best thing in Web3 is to give people the power to control their assets,” he says.
Advice to the new artists pursuing careers in Web3
Following our conversation regarding Psychedelic Games, Mason also shared his experience as an artist. He suggests that artists should learn AI technology to advance their skills. He has also encouraged artists in his own studio to use Mid-journey to produce various ideas.
“It’s very difficult unless you’re already a very famous artist to go attack Web3, you know it’s more about creating the best product right now than trying to get rich quick.”
How 3D modeling in NFTs is different from the usual animation:
Mason says 3D modeling in NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and traditional animation share similarities to some extent. According to him, the whole process of creating 3D models is just like the traditional way. However, in the case of NFTs, the model is built on smart contracts and stored on the blockchain.
Web3 games like Golden Tides allow users to own these high-quality 3D characters as digital assets. For artists, NFTs are highly empowering because they can directly sell their work in the marketplace and also earn royalties.
NFTs frequently highlight rarity and limited editions. With NFTs, artists can produce a constrained number of copies or distinctive versions of their 3D models, giving collectors access to unique works.
NFT-based 3D models can be built to be interactive, allowing users to modify, explore, or experience them in real-time applications like virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) settings.
Traditional animation generally focuses on pre-rendered sequences.
Factors preventing mass adoption in Web3:
Based on recent sources, Web3 is still far away from mass adoption. NFTStudio24 discussed this issue with Mason to hear about his observations.
The main factor that is preventing mass adoption is that they’re not enough great games that are putting a lot of money into it to build a Web3 product that everyone wants to play. Mason says that they’re people who know how to retain value and that it’s all not a scam.
Traditional gaming systems provide a superior user experience compared to Web 3.0 platforms, requiring advancements for reputable gaming platforms. Web3 has the potential to completely transform the game industry. Still, some elements are still lacking or under development.
Mason highlights that the games need to follow the Free-to-Play model first to encourage people. This will allow them to try out the gameplay before they invest any money in it.
Socials:
Website: Psychedelic Games
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-richman-81a9b763
