Monthly Recap - May 2023

May has been a big month of developments for the Pixelmon ecosystem. There has been significant progress on the product side and game development, including the awaited launch of our Evolution 2 Pixelmon. Let's dive into the updates and highlights from this month!

Product

Our product team has been hard at work on various fronts to enhance the game’s user experience and expand the products within our ecosystem. Here are the key updates:

1. Ideation and creation of art for upcoming new reward types are underway, offering users exciting possibilities for future incentives.
2. Wireframing and finalising UI/UX flow for the new soft staking incentive system are in progress, promising enhanced engagement for Pixelmon holders.
3. Coding and implementation of new smart contracts are being developed to optimise and streamline the Pixelmon ecosystem.
4. Improvements and additions to the website UI have been made to ensure a smooth and user-friendly browsing experience.
5. The first Pixelmon merch, the NomNom Plushie, was successfully launched on May 17th, selling out within 15 minutes and showcasing the strong demand from the community.
6. Ongoing art development and progression of new merchandise  designs continue to expand the range of collectible merchandise available to our holders. 

Pixelmon Ecosystem Developments

One of the major highlights of May was the launch of Pixelmon Evolution 2 (E2) on May 1st. This significant update brought a new element of growth to the Pixelmon ecosystem through the Serum Burn process. Here's what you need to know:

The Serum Burn process allows Pixelmon Genesis NFT holders to evolve their assets into E2 Pixelmons. This evolution brings Pixelmons to life with unique animated art and offers a range of perks, including licensing revenue, chances to win E3 serums, and L2 copies of the NFTs for in-game use, among other unannounced rewards.

The community has responded positively to the E2 launch, with several notable evolutions capturing attention. Notably, @SolHazmuut's tweet showcased appreciation for the E2 Pixelmons, particularly highlighting the design of CherryBomb, which is now their favourite

non-dragon evolution. Additionally, @killjoynfts achieved an exciting milestone

by evolving his Grailon into a Grailshield, demonstrating the active participation and impact of community members in the evolution process.

Beyond the community, Pixelmon's evolution has garnered recognition in the broader Web3 space. @Mintify highlighted our journey and acknowledged our resurgence following a 60% acquisition by @Liquidxstudio and the release of their Strategy White Paper, readable here.

Notable milestones and statistics reveal the enthusiasm within the community. The most evolved Pixelmons currently are Borg and Berg, with 37 evolutions each. Slyth follows closely with 34 evolutions. These evolutions amount to over 30% of the Serum distributed supply being burnt, demonstrating the engagement and commitment from our holders.

To evolve your Pixelmon, you can head over to our Twitter thread on How to Evolve Your Pixelmon!, or read our Pixelmon Evolution benefits article and Evolution FAQ for more information.  

Trainers Update

The development of Full-Body Trainers has been progressing steadily. The team is dedicated to delivering the best possible Full-Body Trainers, which involves creating animated backgrounds for each one. This meticulous task has been more time-intensive than expected. However, the higher rarities have been completed, and the team is pushing forward to finish the rest in the coming weeks.

A Trainer Burn event occurred on May 15th, 2023, which burned all the unclaimed trainers. A total of 30220 trainers were burned, leaving the current total supply of Trainers at 7,000.

Game Development - Hunting Ground

On the internal game development front, the Pixelmon team has been dedicated to enhancing various aspects of the open world game. Here's a summary of the key developments:

Design:

• Reworking the WS8 design is scheduled for the upcoming week.
• Workstream 10: Resource Gathering is in its first versions.
• Early proposals for World Construction, Procedural Content Generation, and Neighboring World are being explored.
• Combat Game Benchmarking research and initial ideas are underway.
• Quest brainstorming and gathering feedback for UI/UX improvements are in progress.

Development:

• Windows and Android crash fixes have been implemented to improve stability.
• Bug fixing and polishing of Hint Placement tools have been carried out.
• Ongoing research and development in performance testing, localisation, world partition, quests, locomotion rework, and audio implementation.
• Work in progress on audio integration and necessary systems is being conducted.
• Project cleanup is currently underway to optimise the game's structure.
• The hunting timer feature is in development, enhancing gameplay mechanics.
• Extensive technical documentation in Confluence ensures clear communication and knowledge sharing among the development team.

Art:

• Continued exploration of social hub styles in concept art expands the visual possibilities for the game.
• Environment work includes dressing zones, converting meshes into foliage, lighting first passes for night mode, and fixes on tree tops to enhance the immersive experience.
• Tech art contributions, such as temporary and permanent hunting hints VFX, lighting tweaks, and tests on procedural generation tools in Unreal Engine 5, are underway to add visual polish to the game.
• Skinning and rigging of a total of 44 characters are being carried out to ensure smooth animations and interactions within the game world.
  
  
  

Game Development - Battle Arena

Our Arena Brawler game is now in early access for closed alpha testing, and we're excited to share the latest developments. You can find videos of the game on our Twitter or within our Discord. Here's a recap of the progress made in programming and designing:

Programming:

• Created damage categories to provide appropriate feedback for attacks and skills based on the damage inflicted.
• Improved the push behaviour with acceleration and disallowed Pixelmon from performing any action during pushback.
• Enabled the override of pushback behaviour for each attack or skill.
• Implemented camera shake and the ability to use damage categories to determine camera shake intensity.
• Added camera aiming for skills, with easy selection of 3aiming types for all skills.
• Developed a tool for runtime updating of Damage Information, facilitating the setup process for designers.

• Projectiles are now released or destroyed upon hitting the ground, with the option to introduce a delay for specific releases.
• Enabled the choice of actions that apply delays to projectile releases, while keeping the collider disabled to prevent potential issues.
• Implemented HP bar shake utilising damage categories.
• Allowed the override of VFX duration, resolving issues with the Tatsumaki ultimate.
• Fixed the release of predicted objects, resolving problems related to keeping projectiles in the scene when they should be released upon spawn.

Fixed:

• Disabled battle UI of the local player when affected by the stun effect.
• Addressed issues with delayed effects that weren't properly timed.
• Activated the skills UI at the start of the match.
• Fixed malfunctioning AI block actions.

Designing:

• Polished and fixed bugs in all skills to ensure consistent functionality, VFX, and SFX.
• Tweaked ultimates, including Goloid and Borg, for better performance.
• Made miscellaneous improvements to combat mechanics.
• Adjusted health, base attack values, and power-up durations and values.

• Made changes to magnetization, attack speed, hitboxes, and cooldowns of basic attacks.
• Balanced HP, attack damage, and combo cooldowns.
• Adjusted Pixelmon skills and ultimates, including damage, area of effects, and cooldowns.
• Implemented and synchronised various VFX, animations, and hitbox elements for skills and ultimates.
• Aligned pushback and camera shake with damage categories, with a few exceptions to maintain balance.

We're dedicated to refining the gameplay experience based on user feedback during the closed alpha testing phase. Stay tuned for more updates as we progress towards the full release of our Arena Brawler game!

‍

Pixelmon x Spirit DAO Partnership

Pixelmon has partnered with Spirit DAO to bring their comic characters into the Pixelmon game. Spirit DAO's IP will be integrated into our upcoming open-world RPG, offering players unique experiences. The partnership includes rendering Spirit DAO's comic characters in 3D, allowing players to use them as exclusive Trainers to catch and fight alongside their Pixelmon. Additionally, Spirit DAO's famous Wukong Beanz IP will come to life as a fully animated and ultra-rare Pixelmon creature that players can discover and battle in-game.

To unlock these exclusive benefits, players will need to hold a Pixelmon NFT along with a SpiritDAO comic, Azuki, or a Beanz asset. The Pixelmon x Spirit DAO partnership brings the world of comics and gaming together, offering holders a mix of storytelling and gameplay. 

For more information, check out this Tweet  announcing the partnership. 

‍

Looking Ahead

Following the successful launch of Pixelmon Evolution 2, we are excited to bring you the 3rd evolution in the coming months. We’re also looking forward to the community's response to our new art and other developments in our ecosystem.

The overwhelming demand for our debut merch, the Nom Nom Plushie, has inspired us to explore additional character options for future releases and hopefully this is something we can begin sharing with everyone soon. As we continue to prioritise game development, both in our Hunting Grounds and Arena games, we remain dedicated to providing an exceptional gaming experience.

‍In the meantime, we encourage all Pixelmon holders to explore the E2 evolution process. For more information and the latest updates, subscribe to our newsletter on the Pixelmon Website and follow us on Discord and Twitter.