It is an amazing that modern websites are capable of doing what used to take a separate software that had to be installed via a CD or DVD when I was a kid. This is accomplished through,
- Development of better web technologies
- Improved internet infrastructure at affordable pricing
- Moore's law (hardware improvements)
When I was a kid, "But Can It Run Crysis?" was a meme. Few years later I managed to play it (with most settings at low) and a few more years later I bought an even more powerful laptop. I didn't spend much money on a laptop because I was not intending to play any recent AAA games or do any work such as video editing. Everything was working fine and I know it can play AAA games from a decade ago on low settings.
Reduce some of the effects and add some occasional lag and it would reflect my experience with the game. You can take a look at @bulldog1205's videos to get an idea of how Soulkeep gameplay look like.
What I experience after selecting 8X speed is comparable to a 0.5X speed or worse. It is fascinating how oddly inefficient browser games can be. I'm finally considering buying a new laptop to deal with this problem. After all this time, it was a browser game that pushed me to upgrade my device!
Nightmare Pack Opening Results
Although the game is developed and owned by Double Coconut, many parts of the game are tightly integrated with @splinterlands and can be accessed at https://soulkeep.splinterlands.com through Web 2 or Keychain login.
I have not seen Double Coconut push the game to the public. The feedback received by early investors on HIVE will be used to further improve the game. Due to the lower player counts, the early players are able to take home large amounts of SPS and other Rewards.
I decided to open all the Nightmare Packs at once and combine the Cards. I was not expecting to be unable to see the animations at any decent speed. I don't have the best impression on the back design of the Cards. The Cards themselves on the other hand look great IMO.
Relive The Pack Opening
Since the transaction itself is on the blockchain it is easy to verify and share results. By clicking on the link above, anyone can use @splinterlands UI to check out what I my experience. This can be a very powerful way to showcase experiences of various players in an easy to share manner that doubles down as a part of the onboarding experience.
Best of @splinterlands + Improvements
The way Cards and their Leveling system was designed is brilliant and has been copied by many games across cryptoshere. There will be many parts that are intuitive and familiar to the old players of the collectible card game (CCG). What has been improved is the tutorial. There is the right amount of hand holding required to get players familiarized with Soulkeep without requiring them to read the documentation.
I did not manage to go far with the Tournaments. I tried the game few minutes after the launch. There were many others who joined later and my rand did not earn me any Rewards.
I did manage to get a hang of the game and completed 4 out of 5 Gateway Levels for League 1. I don't want to advance too far too soon. Tournament Tickets start at 2 DEC and doubles for each subsequent Ticket. I have been told that it is 10X higher for League 2.
Celene Presale Airdrop
I participated in the a Presale a long time ago and it has been a long time since the Packs were available for purchase directly form the developers. Although the price of Packs have risen against $HIVE, the low price of $1.42 is far below what the Nightmare Packs were intended to be sold for.
Althouth I had wanted to purchase 500 + Bonus Packs, I could not afford it at the time. The current price of Celene on the market is $269 for Regular Foil and $1,148 for Gold Foil (with only 12 Cards in circulation). Even if Nightmare Packs were directly purchasable again, most players will use the secondary market due to savings. Becoming eligible for Hero Airdrops is the biggest incentive I see for directly purchasing Booster Packs.
We are starting to see good times in @splinterlands again. Soulkeep is well received and can be considered a good game even by the standards of traditional Web 2 gaming standards. Double Coconut did a very good job and @arcadecolony may soon have some great news. Moonkarts Pack Opening is live and rewards should come before too long. Invennium is doing good under the leadership of @aggroed. We have hope for the future. Make sure not to be too hopeful and HODL too much.