Pixelmon Spaces with Hong, avatar collection lead artist (30/09/2022)

On 30th September, Pixelmon held a Spaces event with Giulio (Pixelmon’s CEO) and Hong, the main artist on the upcoming avatar collection, available to all Pixelmon Holders.

‍

Artist Reveal

Hong created the art for the upcoming collection. He has over 17 years of experience in the gaming industry. He is currently the Principal Lead Character Artist at Blizzard, having worked on both Overwatch 1 and 2. His most recent characters were Overwatch 2’s Kiriko and Kitsune.

‍

Find out more about Hong on either his Twitter {https://twitter.com/HclDesign} or view his previous work on his ArtStation {https://www.artstation.com/hcldesignworks}.

‍

Airdrop

More about the upcoming ‘mystery’ airdrop was finally revealed on this Spaces. The next airdrop will be a collection of avatars known as Trainers that can act as a traditional PFP but are also so much more. The collection will feature 546 unique traits including 20 exclusive full-body outfits and 40 unique weapons.

‍

As well as being a PFP, these avatars are also fully rigged, rendered full-body 3D assets. Holders will be able to download the source files of their trainers to use anywhere in the metaverse and across different platforms.

‍

Trainers will also be the main in-game asset used for exploration and as playable characters in the Pixelmon openworld.

‍

Trainer Utility

Trainers will be eligible for future airdrops of in-game assets, such as what we’re referring to as peripheric land (Fractional ownership to the game’s open map).

‍

Pending the release of our in-game token, both the aforementioned plots of land and the avatars will be stakable for token yield .

‍

How To Get a Trainer?

To access a trainer you need to first of all hold a Pixelmon creature NFT (https://opensea.io/collection/pixelmongen1) and then you need to access our training platform https://staking.pixelmon.ai and prepare by training for both sound and animation . Once you have obtained the animation and sound upgrades you will be able to train for Affinity, affinity is one of the key Pixelmon creature stats viewable as on OpenSea filter to the collection.

‍

Note: if you do not own a Pixelmon creature yet do take note that while purchasing your training period will be shortened by 2 weeks if you purchase an already animated creature, 4 weeks if you purchase an already animated and sound ready creature and that if the affinity stat of your purchase is higher than the average your Affinity training period could be as short as 4 weeks (vs as long as 7 weeks for the lowest starting affinity levels).

‍

All training is done via gasless soft-staking, the NFT remains in your wallet and training will only be interrupted if you transfer it. For more info on soft staking see this article.

‍

Once your Affinity has reached a high enough level, you will be able to claim a Pixelmon Trainer NFT that is tied to the rarity of your Pixelmon (ranging from common to mythical) — the claiming mechanics will be released soon.

‍

Elite Trainers

Our current avatar collection, consisting of 20 Elite Trainers, will receive their airdrops without having to train and will be of the highest rarity tier (above mythical) at a date that will be announced soon. You may access our current avatar collection here.

‍

Q&A Section

When can we see a sneak peek?

Currently, there are some silhouettes of male and female characters on Twitter. Every trainer is not just a trainer but a collection of attributes that will also be in-game gear. We will post sneak peeks of the attributes, but we want the first person to see a full trainer to be the person who is the first to complete the affinity staking. This is when we’ll see the full rendering detail and full model.

‍

Do we need a trainer for each Pixelmon in the game?

You can use one trainer for multiple Pixelmon, but there will be in-game relationships and interactions that are tied to each tribe. Therefore, there are benefits to owning a different trainer for each tribe.

‍

How will combat work with the trainers?

There will be two combat modes; the first, a Pixelmon combat mode, will be an evolution of the arena where you can fight Pixelmon against Pixelmon and capture them. This mode should later transition into the more competitive and esports stage of combat. Trainer combat will be the second stage, where there are non-capturable enemies, but it’s a defense mechanism against pure uncapturable enemies in the world.

‍

What’s your software choice, and is there a reasoning behind it?

Hong: We decided to use Maya instead of Blender as it gives us a lot more opportunity and flexibility in the pipeline with animation and rigging. Everyone on our team and people who have been in the space for a long time praise Maya for how well it works with rendering and game design in particular.