Duelist King is a New NFT Blockchain Card Game with Promising Gameplay

With online card games such as Gwent and Hearthstone taking up a large chunk of the video game market, it was only a matter of time before blockchain-based card games would start gaining traction. The added value NFTs bring to players could give players an extra incentive to play games like Duelist King, where players own the NFTs of the cards they play with.

Recently, the HackerNoon community spoke to Nicole Nguyen, the founder of Duelist King to learn more about the project.

This Slogging thread by Limarc Ambalina, Zaeem Shoaib, Amy Shah, Mónica Freitas, Nicole Nguyen and Jack Boreham occurred in slogging's official #gaming channel, and has been edited for readability.

Limarc AmbalinaSep 30, 2021, 8:46 AM

Hey everyone please welcome Nicole Nguyen the founder of Duelist King, an awesome up and coming Blockchain card game that I had the pleasure of demoing.

Please feel free to ask her anything about Duelist King, Blockchain games, game development, nfts, and anything else that comes to mind!

Limarc AmbalinaSep 30, 2021, 8:46 AM

Thanks for joining us Nicole I'd like to hear your explanation of just what Duelist King is and what sets it apart from normal online card games like Gwent or Hearthstone as well as how you differentiate yourselves from competitors like Splinterlands?

Nicole NguyenSep 30, 2021, 3:36 PM

About us:
Powered by in-house Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), Oracle and Random Number Generator, Duelist King offers dual values for investors from token utilities and card sales (projected at roughly 40 million USD). 

Duelist King aims to transform the way people play, participate and earn in card games through top-notch game play, asset designs and advocacy for the sustainable future of Win2Earn.

Differentiators:

In short our differentiators can be recapped as follows:
- Absolutely randomized, verifiable and fair distribution infrastructure infused with gambling excitement through mystery box offering
- Playable demo available ready
- Top-notch game designs and game play in progress
- Last but definitely not least, community empowerment.
- Advocacy for #Win2Earn - encouraging people to Enjoy - Engage - Earn from the game for a more sustainable business model and earnings model for the community

We do not just engage the community as gamers but collectors, designers and investors are more than welcome. Also our community members can get to vote and pick their favorite game play, game design and also propose how the game operations should take place.

This will follow the DAO governing model that we have designed for Duelist King and also can be leveraged for other gaming studios who wish to pursue the fair distribution and community empowerment features that we advocate.

Also our team are domain experts in blockchain and also gaming side so I believe you have every reason to be bullish about us.

Zaeem ShoaibSep 30, 2021, 8:49 AM

Welcome, Nicole!
I would like to ask how and in what ways the advent of Blockchain technology has changed the way developers now approach starting development on a game that incorporates that technology as opposed to traditional games?

Nicole NguyenSep 30, 2021, 3:40 PM

this question might be best addressed through our platform https://www.dkdao.network/

We built Duelist King as the first showcase of DKDAO - the ultimate platform for blockchain gaming. We offer no-frill solutions for gaming studios and developers from tokenization, fundraising, DAO governing model to other infrastructures. I think the most powerful feature of blockchain is to allow crowdsourcing for projects especially in gaming sector to pull together a vast array of resources from development, financing to community engagement (also the most powerful of all). Also blockchain game functions in a more decentralized and user-centric fashion vs. distributor-centric model in traditional games.

Amy ShahSep 30, 2021, 10:58 AM

Nicole Nguyen Welcome! I am sort of confused by blockchain....How would you explain Duelist King to someone like me?
Also, do you think the future for NFTs is particularly bright?  If so, why?
Also, what draws you do game development as a career? Do you have some prior experiences that have shaped your interest in this field?
Thanks so much for your responses! So excited to learn more about your company and game.

Nicole NguyenSep 30, 2021, 3:44 PM

Amy Shah I think the core values of Duelist King can be recapped in fair distribution, different playmode/earning models for gamers and engagement of creators, gamers, collectors alike.

NFTs are increasingly finding its use cases and utilities in a number of industries like gaming, arts and collectibles. Adding metaverse effect, the sky's the limit for NFT growth as a whole new emerging business instead of a contender to the traditional space.

We aim to issue our cards as NFTs used in game as assets and also collectibles with more rare NFTs. So I believe we have real use cases with our NFTs and we have a big base and funnel to provide utilities and offerings for newbies, mainstream gamers and those who can afford more rare NFTs and collectibles.

I've chosen blockchain as my career in the last 5 years - gaming is one of the first areas ripe for disruption back in 2016 and now with NFTs, gaming is poised to be the top area for blockchain adoption. My experiences for newbies is definitely get as much exposure as you can - talk to people, join community, get your voice heard and never stop learning. Only in blockchain do I feel alive and grow at an exceptional pace 😄

Mónica FreitasSep 30, 2021, 12:38 PM

Hi Nicole Nguyen. You organized the first Vietnam Blockathon. How would you describe that experience? And how do you think such events can inspire the next generation of blockchain innovators?

Nicole NguyenSep 30, 2021, 3:48 PM

Mónica Freitas Vietnam Blockathon was the first blockchain hackathon in Vietnam back in 2017. There was lots of sweat and tears for sure since we were the first to educate the market and the community through groundworks and real projects. But the feeling of being the first, the PIONEERS is just out of this world - and it can propel you to new heights that you can never imagine when taking the first step.

I believe we need more activities like that - with specific and real practitioners and projects to showcase how we can actually change ourselves and change the world with blockchain.

Practitioners in NFT gaming space encompass not only gamers but also artists, creators, developers and investors. We are doing some arts creativity contest at Duelist King with a number of partners to demonstrate real use cases of NFTs and how indie artists can actually reap the benefits of this daunting and robust space.
https://medium.com/ludena-protocol/duelist-king-digital-nft-art-competition-start-on-october-4th-in-korea-with-ludena-protocol-833202b1e54c

Limarc AmbalinaOct 5, 2021, 6:06 AM

Thanks for your thoughtful responses Nicole Nguyen. I've played the demo and can vouch for the animation, beautiful card design, sound effects, and more. However, one thing I'm worried about with every card game (not just DK) is how often big card games on the market foster a pay-to-win economy. "If I just buy the strongest cards, I have the strongest deck and no one can touch me"

Does the gameplay mechanics and rules of Duelist King anyway offset pay-to-win and reward skill and strategy over who has the biggest bank account?

Nicole NguyenOct 6, 2021, 4:40 AM

Limarc Ambalina thats a really great question. Our cards are distributed randomly so it doesn't mean you can buy powerful cards at your own will. All cards are sold at a flat price of 1 USD in a box of 5 cards. You still can definitely pay to buy the more powerful cards on the secondary market but you need to be more strategic with your pocket as they are not cheap at all 😄
Our game economics do offer more earning opportunities and incentives for people who challenge others and participate in tournaments and battles. Also any upgrading option would be reset prior to tournaments to make sure people can participate on equal ground. The only way for you to climb up the ranking ladder is to duel against people of the same ranks so make sure you play your card rights and engage in the game as much as you can!

Jack BorehamOct 5, 2021, 7:55 AM

Hi Nicole Nguyen, thanks for joining us. What do you think about the future of NFT’s? Do you think they will take off and become mainstream? How long do you think this will take?

Nicole NguyenOct 6, 2021, 4:44 AM

Jack Boreham Since joining the blockchain space in 2016, I believe NFTs are some of the few trends that will be here to stay.

NFTs are increasingly finding its use cases and utilities in a number of industries like gaming, arts and collectibles. Adding metaverse effect, the sky's the limit for NFT growth as a whole new emerging business instead of a contender to the traditional space. Another important implication of this trend is increasing cross-chain collaboration - the NFT and metaverse so far have opened up significantly more crossover development and community development efforts and I think this is very healthy and conducive to further growth of the whole industry.

There are still lots of things that need to be done on the onboarding, payment, and solution to expedite NFT adoption but I believe it's a matter of time till that becomes a reality. NFTs have started going mainstream and by next year I hope we can entice much more adopters.

Mónica FreitasOct 5, 2021, 8:05 AM

Nicole Nguyen Thank you for your answer. How do you think we could get more people outside of this "blockchain world" and even the gaming world, to get interested? How can we translate the meaning of blockchain in a way that seems valuable for someone foreign to these topics?

Nicole NguyenOct 6, 2021, 4:48 AM

Mónica Freitas this is a industry wide challenge, however gaming is among the most popular catalyst for blockchain adoption. Personally I think it has a lot to do with specific use cases, simple onboarding for users and also the user experiences in game. From the last conference I've been to, people have been talking about the issue of lack of education, unpolished game play and designs and lack of user-friendly onboarding for mainstream audience. Once these challenges are addressed either by existing blockchain gaming startups or traditional gaming studios, blockchain can manifest itself as the underlying solution to games and people will hardly notice the difference between blockchain gaming and traditional gaming.

The key value is still user's experience - the more we can enhance game UX the more valid blockchain use cases are to the audience.

Limarc AmbalinaOct 6, 2021, 6:19 AM

Very happy to hear you've thought about the competitive aspect Nicole Nguyen! What have you got in the pipeline in terms of development? There is a demo out now, but when do you imagine the full game to be released?

Nicole NguyenOct 6, 2021, 9:05 AM

Limarc Ambalina Upon receiving feedback from our partners and KOLs, we are fine-tuning the game play and game design so the Player vs. Environment feature will be ready early next year. Till then we are planning to do 2-3 rounds of card sales plus community activities like game play voting/art contest so people can gather a decent deck to try out the game and engage with the project.
Make sure you follow our social media and check out our upcoming designs and game - our first NFT offerings of 250,000 NFTs have been sold out in less than 45 minutes 😄

Limarc AmbalinaOct 6, 2021, 9:07 AM

That's awesome and where can people join said community activities? Can you drop us the links?

Nicole NguyenOct 6, 2021, 9:41 AM

Limarc Ambalina our news feed have been jammed with activities, AMAs and other community activities. Please make sure you are not lagging behind 😄

✅Website: https://duelistking.com/
✅Twitter: https://twitter.com/duelistkingnft
✅Telegram group: https://t.me/DuelistKingNFT 
✅ Discord: https://discord.gg/6HzQR7Mf

Limarc AmbalinaOct 7, 2021, 12:42 PM

Thanks so much for your thorough responses and your time Nicole! We hope the best for Duelist King and hope we can do more collaborations with you in the future.

Nicole NguyenOct 8, 2021, 3:36 PM

Thanks everyone for a very energetic AMA - looking forward to more collaboration in the future.

Don't forget to check us out on Twitter and Telegram at @DuelistKingNFT and stay up-to-date with Duelist King!

This article is part of The Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with The Sandbox.

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