World War Tez: Where It Takes GUTS To Win

Introduction To The Guts Gaming Interview

Over the last month, we have seen tremendous growth and development in the Tezos tokenization space. The excitement continues to mount as new token distributions are announced almost daily in the form of airdrops, token sales, and contests. Fear of missing out (FOMO) has gripped the Tezos community.

Hashtags such as #Tezdrop have dominated our Twitter search boxes this week as we all struggle to keep up with the latest airdrops that are often exhausted within a couple of hours.

In an effort to get to better understand the goals, motivations, and plans behind some of these rising Tezos token stars, we decided to go straight to the source by reaching out to the token developers.

As a fan of games, especially battle-type RPG games, I was especially intrigued by the recent announcement of the new Tezos oriented game called World War Tez.

As fortune would have it, a representative from the Guts Gaming team agreed to have a virtual interview with me to discuss some of their plans related to World War Tez, and their goals for a broader gaming ecosystem that will be based around Tezos and the GUTS token.

Tokenomics are an important element of any new token release, so I have included a bit of background information about the GUTS token. According to the GUTS website, the total supply of the GUTS token will be 1,000,000, and the initial circulating supply is 100,000.

The token sale will:

“take place in stages, with more supply being pooled with $XTZ and offered in each”. 35,000 $GUTS have been pooled on Quipuswap, starting at a 1:1 ratio with $XTZ (@ 4/29/21 11:00AM EST 2 $XTZ = 1 $GUTS) and they “are in discussion with further liquidity providers, and also offer OTC sales.

The remaining 900,000 $GUTS “…will be distributed over time as rewards for in-game activity, to provide liquidity, staking, used for airdrops, promotion, incentives, listings, development and hiring, etc”.

I am honored to meet with some of the brilliant people that are building on Tezos and I hope that you enjoy this interview with the representative from GUTS GAMING as much as I did!

The GUTS GAMING Interview

First off, thank you so much for taking the time to do this virtual interview!

With all the recent activity in the Tezos tokenization space, I thought it was important to get to know some of the people behind tokens, so to speak.

I’ve been a big fan of games since Pole Position on the Commodore 64, so I’m naturally very curious about your soon to be released World War Tez!

The name seems to be a tip of the hat to World War Z, but the characters that you have presented so far seem to be a mixture of historical/mythological and fantasy. Can you tell us about the setting for the game?

Yes, you can imagine the setting as more as a mix of modern-day Earth along with a medieval/fantasy element, so it’s nothing like World War Z.

You will see real-life locations as the territories you can battle for control of, but many characters/avatars will be represented by emblems that are more fantastical.

How would you describe the gameplay?

We plan to launch in multiple stages. As our goal is to ship an app that people can play asap, the first MVP will have a relatively basic interactive front-end. So instead of thinking of it as a “video game” powered by a game engine, think of the first version as more of a web app with RPG elements.

Players will be able to battle to conquer real-life locations (and perhaps imaginary Teziverse ones) by fighting other players. The winner of a battle will be decided by a combination of the player’s character stats, any power bonuses they may have from conquering territories, holding $GUTS, or special items.

Players can purchase unique avatars, of which only one will ever exist, that will represent their character and be displayed on any territories they have conquered along with their character info.

Players can only own one avatar at a time, and they will be tradable in-game after acquiring one. They will be available for sale from within the game, and some are also being assigned early to large $GUTS buyers.

As time goes on, we will overhaul the UI in stages, from a basic interactive web dApp to a fully-fledged animated interactive game.

How does Tezos and your Tezos-based token GUTS fit in with World War Tez? Without getting too technical, how does the game interact/interface with the Tezos blockchain?

Every action that users can take is tied to the Tezos smart contract. If you want to train, that’s an entry point on the contract. If you want to battle, that’s an entry point. If you want to sell your avatar, that’s an entry point, and so on.

We want it to be fully decentralized so that everything happens on-chain. We are first and foremost Tezos lovers, so World War Tez will utilize both $XTZ and $GUTS.

Players may purchase avatars to represent their character with $XTZ as the default, and limited special release avatars and items will be bought with $GUTS.

Players can also increase their stats by holding $GUTS, which can give them a boost to win battles and have a better chance of becoming champion of some territories. Avatars will be tradable amongst players using $XTZ in-game.

How can one participate in beta testing the game?

We are currently testing the game with a local front-end on Edonet smart contracts. After some more finishing touches and improvements, we plan to soon deploy a version of that front-end for the public to test on Edonet.

We have a line of people that have already volunteered to test, and are always happy to have more! We will notify everyone when it’s ready, but for now you can contact us and let us know if you’re interested.

Assuming all goes well, we plan to launch on mainnet by the end of this quarter.

On your timeline, you mention that you have another game that you are planning to release in Q4 2021. Can you give us any hints about the nature of this game?

We have a few smart contracts we have been playing around with as potential ideas, but we have not yet settled on which to prioritize as our second game, the team is still debating and working on multiple projects at once.

Also, if you have any ideas for a game you’d like to play, we love to hear it!

How do you envision the $GUTS /Tezos ecosystem in 5 years, particularly as it pertains to your games?

I envision a Guts Gaming ecosystem where each game has elements that tie in with the others.

Your character, status, items, etc in one game may affect your gameplay in another. And of course, $XTZ and $GUTS will be used in them all, with different use cases for each.

Thanks again for taking the time to discuss GUTS with me. I’m not sure if the term “guts” has the same meaning in all parts of the world, but it implies courage as I understand it.

Bringing GUTS and World War Tez to life in the Tezos ecosystem is a testament to your courage and I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors! I hope to be playing your games for years to come!

Follow the $GUTS team on Twitter here.

Follow World War Tez developments on Twitter here.

Follow developments on the $GUTS webpage here.