Snail Trail AMA #2 — Technical Deep Dive with Shy & Orexr (Co-Founders)(Recap)
Snail Trail AMA #2 — Technical Deep Dive with Shy & Orexr (Co-Founders)(Recap)
In this AMA, we will be joined by Snail Trail Co-Founders, Shy and Orexr. to cover the project at a high level. The focus of this AMA will be the business development, vision, road map, and post-IDO plans.
Dave| Avalaunch
Hello and welcome everyone to the sequel to our most epic AMA in recent memory and that of course was Snail Trail. Here to melt the ice now that it’s been broken comes a couple of new guests in @orexxr and @shyildiz, both co-founders of a game that is to intrigue, captivate and maybe even scintillate but enough of my yakking, let’s boogie. How are you doing?
Orexr| SnailTrail
Hi! Doing great, nice to be here. Thanks for having us. Hope everyone doing great as well. We are really excited to be here.
Shy| SnailTrail
Hello everyone ?
Thanks for having us.
Dave| Avalaunch
Good to have you both, co-founder and co-founder. As is now pro forma let us begin with some perfunctory introductions. Can you briefly tell us about yourself, your background, education and your experience?
Orexr| SnailTrail
I’m orexr, one of the co-founder of Snail Trail. I also have a background in computer engineering and I was working in several different industries across Europe, including carsharing and ecommerce. I got into building games quite early in my career and worked on several game projects on the side. Besides that I am nerding out on computer graphics.
Shy| SnailTrail
I am shy, one of the co-founders of the Snail Trail game. I am a Computer Engineer with a background in cryptography and secure protocol designs.
Before Snail Trail, I was a software team leader at one of the biggest defense industry companies, designing and developing security products for the military and government agencies.
Dave| Avalaunch
Since this is a technical AMA, we’d love to hear more about your team and their experience.
Shy| SnailTrail
We graduated from the same class of the university and always had a dream to build a game company.
Over the years, we worked in different jobs and areas in the software industry but gaming was always a passion and a side hustle for us. We are very hardcore gamers ourselves and created a small community during our gaming adventure.
Once we decided to build the Snail Trail, we knew what we needed and immediately asked our trusted circle, close friends, people from the gaming community and four networks whether they would like to join this journey or not. This was back in October. Our team started to grow.
Right now we have 12 people in our team including us. 2 Founders (Also devs), 1 Design Lead, 1 Designer, 2 Frontend Engineers, 1 QA Engineer, 1 Marketing Lead, 1 Sound Engineer, 1 Software Engineer, 1 Community Manager, 1 Copywriter.
Dave| Avalaunch
How long has Snail Trail been in production for, were there any particular challenges you’d like to tell us about?
Orexr| SnailTrail
We started the project back in September and launched our first version of whitepaper, social accounts and website. During this first phase, it was just us, working on the ideation and the initial planning. Throughout the months, our team grew bigger and bigger and the project started to gain shape.
Most challenging part was us and some of our team catching covid at the Avalanche Barcelona Summit. It delayed our whole schedule for nearly a month. Glad that we have absolutely amazing partners who helped us to reschedule everything. Normally this IDO was planned 1 month ago, but here we are.
Dave| Avalaunch
Good to hear. I know we’ve been in talks since back then and indeed it has been a long time in the oven. There are 4 performance traits that make up the core of Snail Trail and you have delinated them remarkably well. Can you give us a high-level overview of these mechanics?
Shy| SnailTrail
Yes the 4 performance traits that make up the core of Snail Trail are Family, Class, Generation, and Adaptation.
A snail’s family is determined by its genetic makeup. Each snail has a genetic sequence of 20 genes and the most dominant gene in the sequence will determine the snail’s family.
The 5 snail families and their gene are as follows from rarest to most common: Atlantis (X), Agate (A), Milk (M), Helix (H), and Garden (G). These are the most important traits for a snail’s speed and can be targeted with breeding!
A snail’s class is also a contributor to its speed and racing performance. There are 7 classes: Genesis, Master, Expert, Apprentice, Initiate, Novice, and Special. Genesis and Special class snails are minted to specific players during specific time periods. We just sold out our Genesis mint a few days ago. The rest of the classes are available in-game through breeding as well as the Laboratory in the near future.
The generation of a snail represents how far down a snail is from the first ancestor on its family tree. It is the least important among the traits that contribute to a snail’s speed. Genesis snail’s can have a generation of 1–5.
There are 6 different mathematical formulas built into the mechanics that can determine a snail’s generation. When a snail is born, one of those formulas is randomly selected and each has a set probability of being selected. The least probable formula to be used in calculating the offspring’s generation is the most desirable. It gives the lowest possible (more superior) generation number between the two parents.
Finally, each snail adapts to their environment in a unique way. On average, a snail will perform better in racing conditions that align with their adaptation.
Snails are born with 1 adaptation but can adapt to up to a total of 3 environments in its lifetime. Each snail adaptation is completely random. In the near future, players will be able to use Adaptation Potions with the Microwave in the Laboratory in order to change its adaptation. Adaptation Potions are granted to active players at random and will have the ability to be sold on the Marketplace.
Dave| Avalaunch
I feel like you’ve been asked this before many times over. ? It is impressive. The level of thought and thoroughness has gone into it. Too many projects launch without this level of thought and maturity and users are left wanting (not to mention investors) so kudos for that. NFTs are becoming an integral component for many blockchain-enabled games. Snail Trail indeed includes this technical feature to enable users to customize their snails. Can you tell us how this integral customization contributes to Snail Trail’s core value?
Orexr| SnailTrail
We are very strong believers in decentralization and blockchain technology. It’s compelling seeing how gamefi has picked up steam and I’m excited to see it blossom even further in the near future. Owning your own in-game assets was never possible in the past with legacy gaming.
As we look forward and integrate these beliefs into modern blockchain games, it’s important to give the players the best experience. This not only includes gameplay, but experience with their assets as well.
We want to give players the ability to fully customize their snails because in reality it is their snail. They can name them and in the future will be able to visually customize some parts. It gives it a more personal feel and aligns with the values of decentralization & ownership.
Dave| Avalaunch
In a day and age where everyone seems to be lifting everyone else’s ideas and attempt to brand it, let’s remove some murk. There are several systems that would differentiate Snail Trail from its competitors. Can you describe how the Racing and Reproduction systems work and how their role fits within the play to earn structure?
Shy| SnailTrail
Currently we have two different types of races: Daily Missions and Competitive Races.
Daily missions are free to enter and all players are rewarded from the prize pool in relation to their race placement. These rewards are dynamic according to our slime token emissions schedule so players are limited to the number of Daily Missions they can join each day.
Players can join unlimited Competitive Races, however they require an entry fee using the slime token. Only the top 3 racers in these races are rewarded from the prize pool. How a snail performs is calculated based on various racing traits (as discussed before), coefficients and randomness. Players should experiment with their snails to find or breed the perfect ones for racing.
Superior traits make a snail better on average, however it does not make a snail strictly better than another one.
In Competitive Races, snails will have an ELO Ranking that defines their expected outcome in a race this way similar snails will compete against each other. ELO Ranking is adjusted after every race when the actual outcome is compared to the expected outcome.
With our Incubator mechanic, players can target specific traits by breeding new snails.
Snails are hermaphrodites meaning owners can choose the gender of their snails each breeding cycle
A female snail can reproduce once per breeding cycle. A male snail can donate his genes up to 3 times per breeding cycle. Male genes can be either sold on our Genes Marketplace for slime tokens or used directly by owners in the Incubator.
For example, a snail owner may breed twice with two of their female snails and sell the last use on the market. If a player owns a female snail they may choose to reproduce with their own male snail or purchase desired genes on the Genes Marketplace to breed with.
To produce a new offspring will require a $SLIME Incubator fee. This fee is dynamic according to the gene and protocol coefficient.
Superior genes will be more expensive.
The protocol coefficient is determined by the current game demand of the Incubator as well as the inflation of the snail supply. If demand is high, the coefficient will increase to incentivize slower inflation.
Dave| Avalaunch
I think @FireStorlvl speed typing record is still intact but you all move with a quickness. Good to see the daily missions are free for everyone and that there’s, generally, a lot of flexibility given the potential of combinations between traits and types. Were there any particular technical aspects that were challenging when building the various layers that make up Snail Trail as one of the most competitive racing games built on Avalanche?
Orexr| SnailTrail
Years of coding improves our speed of typing for sure! ?
Creating a software product is always challenging in all of its aspects. Everything needs to be perfect to make a good impression on the stage because once you go live you really cannot return.
We always believed in releasing every bit of the project together and that’s why we worked so hard over the past 7–8 months. Last week, we started with our fair mint. 4901 unique addresses minted 7400 snail NFTs.
This week, we are heading into our SLIME IDO followed by Dexalot Discovery & Live Trading. Once the token is available to trade, we will be launching the game. This week will be a bit challenging but I hope with the support of our amazing community it will be another success.
Dave| Avalaunch
The success of the NFT sale was surprising to many but we saw it coming and Dexalot discovery is shaping up so well done for that and a hopeful harbinger of future success. Are there any interesting developments underway that have not yet been added to the current roadmap but will play a role in its future adoption?
Shy| SnailTrail
We had a lot of questions from people asking if we will offer renting options.
Renting will be a great alternative to owning Snails for people who want to explore the game. We have planned a system around it that we did not announce yet, and it will provide more features around renting.
There are new game modes on the roadmap that we will be introducing, but there will be even more coming on the table that will heat up the competition between the snails. ?
We are hoping to add more dynamics with these new modes and believe that players will have fun playing with the new modes
Dave| Avalaunch
When do we expect to see the full version of the game? How soon can we expect to interact with the mobile version, will this have the same features available as the Dapp?
Orexr| SnailTrail
Mobile support was planned to be added in the last quarter of this year.
however, considering the growth of mobile usage, we wanted to improve the experience for our players from the beginning on.
We think it is crucial to have mobile support so that more people can easily access the game from wherever they are.
Thus, the game will have mobile support from day 1!
Dave| Avalaunch
How did the team decide to build on Avalanche? What was your experience like being part of this ecosystem and contributing to its expansion?
Shy| SnailTrail
In the beginning of this journey, we were trying out games on Ethereum and suffered heavily from the gas prices which was frustrating at some point. In the meantime, we started to invest in Avalanche and really liked the experience and what it offers to the users with affordable gas prices and fast transactions. After some months developing the game, we have been reassured that we made a good decision. The Avalanche community is very supportive and we are grateful to be part of this ecosystem.
Dave| Avalaunch
final question from this section — What do you envision, Snail Trail to look like in 6-months to 1 year from now?
Orexr| SnailTrail
We designed the game and the economy for a long journey, 6 months to 1 year is relatively short term compared to our target.
But in that range, our aim is to be the most played game on Avalanche!
On the development side, at that time we will have our isometric(3d) racing view, laboratory, microwave and shop features completed with an extra game mode.
@Ceyda_040 asks — What type of benefits does “Snail Trail” expect from investors and partners?
Shy| SnailTrail
Our investors and partners bring a lot of value to the table rather than just the money. They gave advice to us about the tokenomics and the general economy of the game, they connected us to great people in the ecosystem to build Snail Trail. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with them in building an amazing race experience and plan to build more awesome relationships along the way!
@CryptoKhangng2 — I know it comes up a lot but what mechanism does the team feel is the best to sustain long term game economics?
Orexr| SnailTrail
It comes up a lot indeed, but we are glad to answer it again ?
We have multiple mechanisms built into the game with the long term horizon in mind.
The ones that stand out are the dynamic Incubator fee and the dynamic rewards system.
As mentioned before, the Incubator fee changes based on current demand. If there is high demand to breed snails, the fee will increase to reduce inflation.
We also have future updates like the Laboratory that will combat inflation, but it will be mitigated right away.
The Daily Missions races have prize pools that adhere to the slime token’s emissions schedule. This economic design has been thoroughly thought out with a forward looking approach.
And of course, we will be constantly monitoring and optimizing the game as we receive real-time data points!
@cryptotrung — We can breed our Snails once a month in the #SnailTrail game. As a result, the number of snails will increase as players continue to perform these actions. Wouldn’t the value of Snail #NFTs be affected as a result of this?
Shy| SnailTrail
Of course, like any other economy if the supply outgrows the demand, materials tend to lose value.
However, there are several mechanics planned to keep the NFT inflation on a healthy level.
Firstly, we have a protocol coefficient which basically is a difficulty for the game’s breeding system. From day 1, it will limit the breeding at a growth ratio of 1.2 per month. This ratio can be adjusted over months with prior announcements to the player base.
Another mechanism is Laboratory, overtime there will be less favorable snails, which will be much cheaper than the rest. Players will be able to scoop these snails and burn them to create better snails in-return.
Ofc, this mechanic was planned to be released after a certain degree of snail population
Other than these we will have few game modes where burning will be provided as an option. ☠️
@BangRd5 who wants to know — How will “SnailTrail” keep production and demand in perfect balance for their market and asset values from plummeting?
Orexr| SnailTrail
Snail Trail is a game with a single Utility Token. We don not like the approach of creating more assets without fulfilling one’s potential.
Everything that will be built around Snail Trail will add value to SLIME.
Price action is something that the market decides, like any economy there will be good and bad days. However, in the long run we are targeting to create something unique and fun.
@26Akunpribadi — Unique project name, where did you get inspired by your project name, sir?
Shy| SnailTrail
Well, the name came up pretty quickly when we decided on Snails. When we found it, we pretty much loved it since it is also really easy to remember. ?
Telegram
Is your project a community only for English speaking an countries or for users not of other languages?
Orexr| SnailTrail
Right now our website is only in English however you can find the international channels in our Discord to discuss furthermore abour the project.
Since I can give an alpha, I picked this question because we have some localization coming up.
We will be supporting Japanese, Portuguese and Turkish when we fininalize the tests around it.
We are looking forward to support more languages in the future with the help of our community.
What is the Best way to follow All your Upcoming news and updates? What are your plans in coming Future?
Shy| SnailTrail
We use Twitter and Discord actively. Following Twitter and #announcements channel on Discord is more than enough.
subnet is now popular on avalanche. Will you consider to build Snail Trail subnet? ?
Orexr| SnailTrail
Subnets are getting popular indeed. It is on our radar, however we are focusing on the game launch and other improvements that we can provide to our users.
We tried to design the game to be efficient however we will be monitoring the cost of it and take action if necessary.
??During these days, be a Multi-chain platform is an obligation to be considered a competitive project, so can you explain who how many chains are you able to support?
Shy| SnailTrail
We developed Snail Trail as an Avalanche native game from scratch. We intend to keep it that way. But we have some plans to direct peoples attentions from other chains to our chain ?
When snail trail will integrate and use chainlink vrf for better result on breeding?
Orexr| SnailTrail
While we were implementing our features, Chanlink VRF was not available and we had to tackle that challenge with our own solutions. We will be looking into it when they deploy the feature on mainnet for sure.
Dave| Avalaunch
Another successful survivor of not one but two AMAs with a raucous and demanding community. You have not only survived but dare I say you’ve thrived. The Snail Trail representatives that took on this challenge have been absolute rock stars and we appreciated having you.
Thank you for your time here today @orexxr and @shyildiz
Orexr| SnailTrail
Thank you for having us! Thank you for all the questions as well. Please visit our Discord if you would like to discuss it furthermore!
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Snail Trail AMA #2 — Technical Deep Dive with Shy & Orexr (Co-Founders)(Recap) was originally published in Avalaunch on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
