Indie Game Spotlight: Blankos
This week’s Indie Game Spotlight is all about the act of creating. Blankos Block Party is a massively multiplayer online (MMO), base-building, party-creating, friend-challenging, 3rd person collectibles game that allows players to collect and take care of Blankos characters while building fun, open-play block parties. Oh, and it also involves blockchain technology. Phew. You can even invite and challenge your friends to different contests for different skills.
We were able to grab Jamie Jackson, Blankos’ creator and Chief Creative Officer, to discuss Blankos and the general future of gaming.
What's the inspiration behind Blankos?
I guess there are two big inspirations behind Blankos. I am huge vinyl toy fan, I've been collecting for over 20 years and the entire vinyl toy world inspired me on this game. The coolest thing about using Blockchain technology for me is that we are able to create truly unique collectibles, which are provable. What’s more, we can create worlds for you to actually play with the Blankos and modify them! The other is player connectivity. People from all over the world will be coming together to create new ways to play. I want to build an open world experience with Blankos, as I want our players to define how they can play and what the world they play in can become.
Blankos is made up of a pretty impressive team. How did everyone's experience in the video game industry drive the game?
Between us, we have worked on, created, and directed some of the biggest gaming franchises of all time. Beyond that we have the breadth of experience across all levels of game design and creation. I started out as a junior artist and worked my way up, so I have seen every single level of what it takes to make a video game on every platform since PlayStation. We have seen it and been through it, we know what we know and more importantly, we know what we don't know and that helps us build the best team in the business to bring Blankos to our fans.
Are there any stories to how you created some characters or levels?
I recently moved to Seattle and had just moved into my new house. The internet was being fitted and they tripped some fuses and the whole house went out, so I couldn't get my machines up and running and I was kinda stuck. So I grabbed an actual pencil and a pad, and went for coffee. I was sketching some ideas and watching the world go by with my dog, Gabe. His head suddenly cast this weird shadow and it gave me an idea for a shape, so I sketched it out. that sketch went on to be the main shape for Blankos.
How is blockchain technology used in the game?
We are using the technology to allow us to create truly collectable, unique characters and assets that are probably so. This is huge as it allows us to work with artists, designers and even notable creators to make one-off Blankos characters. This makes things very desirable and very collectible. We are also using the tech to help us with the “Blankos Blender”, this is a cool feature that allows players to modify their Blankos by blending Blankos and other items to create new Blankos characters that can also be one-of-a-kind.
How does this change the game for the video game industry?
For me it's simple. This tech allows us to truly prove who has something, if it is the only one in the world, and who got it first. Can you imagine if you can now truly prove who was the first person to claim a certain achievement first? That is incredible!
Blankos will be released first on PC and Mac in 2019. Want to know more? Make sure to check out their website here.
