Mar 7
Could Zamka become a Chess-like DCF competitor?
Preface: This project came to my attention as it was co-founded by a fellow Aurorian and I have had private conversations with him about their goals for the game.
Name: Zamka
Chain: Solana
Supply: TBA
Mint Price: TBA
Mint Date: TBA
Twitter: 1K, https://twitter.com/game_zamka
Discord: 2.1K, https://discord.gg/zamka
Whitepaper (v0.1): https://alkaline-source-7bd.notion.site/Zamka-Litepaper-1a89ddbf4f014ce482ae89cb285a6918
Zamka is a fun & small real-time PvP Strategy game. It is played on a 10x10 chess board, dressed in a coat of utopian dream-locations. The team consists of 5 enthusiastic university students who aim to deliver a quick, but exciting game experience where players have full control over the actions and strategy choices during a match-up.
Team
As mentioned above, we are looking at a compact and young team of 5, who are currently only known by their online nicknames. Which should immediately raise a red flag if you’re doing thorough research. The team counters this by building a working version of their game first and raising funds later. This tells me the team is doing this after-hours and wants to show off a working product before asking people to trust an anonymous team. I would also suggest you read their Team-page, which has some genuine, light-hearted background stories.
Gameplay
A game of Zamka is played on a board of 10x10. Each player has control over 4 carefully selected Zumons.
Standard: This game mode puts your Zumons in a fixed configuration on the board. Each player takes a turn moving a Zumon with a Queen-like move derived from Chess. Once the move has been made, the Zumon will shoot a ‘nade’ to another square with the same moving options as a Zumon placement, essentially destroying the targeted square. This will limit both players movements quickly and the player who is able to make the final move wins the game, earning the winner the opponents wager and leaving the loser empty handed.
Shatter: While similar to the standard mode, in this mode the board will be symmetrically generated using a random algorithm to destroy a number of squares before the game starts, bringing a RNG element to the game.
Art
This is where Zamka is already shining. Their base Zumon is ready and has shown numerous outfits filled to the brim with nods to popular geek culture. While the sneak-peeks and funny tweets made me laugh several times, the previews of the chessboard is what get me really excited. Instead of using the classic black & white tiles we all have come to love, the play field got a glow-up that definitely appeals to the eyes. While nothing groundbreaking is to be seen here, they have worked out their own unique flavor already.
Roadmap
The project is clearly in its early stages and building an audience in the ever-growing web3 P&E environment is no easy task. This will be a hurdle that they’ll have to overcome. Especially since the team is not over promising anything and taking their time to build and work-out the best mint approach. What makes it even harder is that I believe there is not much of an existing development budget. It’ll be hard to start up weekly giveaways or engage in marketing opportunities without some cold hard cash at hand. But their enthusiasm might just cover for all that.
Somewhere during Q2 2022 is where Zamka aims to deliver their first beta version of the game and where the team would like to switch over to regular updates consisting of new maps and QOL improvements. Based on the funds made during mint, the team will aim to expand during this phase.
Competitors
So why does Zamka view DegenCoinFlip and similar projects as their closest competitors?
1) The wager system is practically the same. You put in a bet and come out with double or nothing
2) NFT holders will receive their fair share of in-game fees
3) The games short length and low learning curve should attract (degen coin) flippers who are aiming to increase their odds of winning
4) Zamka takes away the gambling element and makes it a skill based game like poker
My Take
Ever wanted to be early? Zamka is a good bet. There haven’t been any giveaways, airdrops or anything, so you didn’t miss anything just yet. The team is very clear on their vision and shows multiple sneak-peeks every week. It’s hard building a big community, but once this starts rolling it can go fast and who knows, maybe there’s a WL spot on the horizon for being early and contributing.
