I have a hard time keeping track of when the Splinterlands AMA is every Friday, haha. I bet there are others like me, who show up late or miss it altogether. But I'm pretty good most of the time. I pop in on most Fridays, and occasionally I end up sharing a bit of the creative process or even some "sneak peeks".

My wife @raynie wasn't home when I popped on the Discord chat to discuss NFTs and what's new behind-the-curtain. There's probably lots of people who wish they could have listened in. Or they think to themselves, "I'll just listen to the video recording. Hmm...where do I find the video recording? I don't remember...uh...".

And then Life goes on, and you just...miss it. All the cool discussions and insight and previews.

Well, it occurred to me that the least I can do is share my small contribution. At least, that's SOMETHING, right? A tiny sip of water to hold you over until the next AMA?

I try to keep a firm lid on what we work on most of the time. However, if something gets shared in the AMA's, I might as well share those images in their proper context.

INTERMISSION: WAX LAND SALE

Before I continue, a quick interjection. Wow, the Land Sale on WAX is pulling in some decent numbers, eh? It's about the halfway point (the sale only lasts 24 hours), but last I checked, here's what I saw:

PLOTS:

TRACTS:

REGIONS:

12 more hours to go, but Regions are halfway gone, Tracts are almost sold out, and Plots are almost half sold.

A quick glance at the Splinterlands shop page shows a little over 50K plots remaining. We started off with a total of 150k. So we're about 2/3rds to the finish line! How much you wanna bet that once that last third starts dipping low, some serious FOMO reignites?

Anyhoo...let's get back to the Sneak Peeks.

BRAWLS

Let's start off with Brawls. The next major update to the game will include some pretty exciting features that support guild vs guild combat. The first phase will hopefully launch sometime in the next month, but don't quote me on that. Anything and everything is subject to change (including ETAs, haha).

We're calling it Brawls version 1.0, and it will basically include one additional guild building (The Arena) and the ability to participate in 3-day long Brawl sessions where a whole bunch of guilds enter the arena at the same time and go nuts.

Here's a glimpse at the Arena screen:

I think I've shared glimpses of how Brawls will work. If I haven't, then I know cryptomancer (top notch Splinterlands Developer) has in Discord. So here's a reminder:

The two existing buildings (Hall and Lodge) will be redesigned to match the new building(s). We'll be introducing beautiful landscape artwork by @shinoxl that incorporates a fluid parallax effect on scroll. The overlay of a vector building will change and become more impressive as guild members level it up.

In order: Hall, Lodge, Arena, Barracks, Store.

LAND EXPANSION PROGRESS

Before we go full throttle on the various artwork elements, I often collaborate with artists to determine the best path forward. This usually includes sketches and concept art.

For example, here's some of the brainstorming ideas for buildings that extract elemental magic (mana) from land that is rich in energy. We also had to conceive of buildings that would store the raw mana.

The first real taste of the Land Expansion will be implemented as soon as it makes sense. This will basically be a way to convert Claim Tokens into actual plots within the world. Although you won't yet be able to do anything with the plot, it will still be cool to see where your plot is specifically located. I can only imagine the marketplace activity as players rush to trade, buy, and sell plots to strategically position themselves, either for community or geographical (land type) reasons.

During this stage, I'd be surprised if any plots are left for sale on the Splinterlands website. Looking at a map view, it will be visually clear as day that plots on Praetoria are LIMITED...and that even the largest whale with the most land probably doesn't have ALL the land types they want in the exact locations they want. It's gonna be a mad frenzy to prepare for actual Land Gameplay.

Most players' default starting view will likely be at the continent stage. They will view the entire continent of Praetoria. Player-occupied Regions will be scattered across the land with healthy space between them. This serves two purposes: (1) It allows us to focus on the most geographically DIVERSE points of the continent and (2) It adds a community dynamic. Traveling to another Region will be similar to that of making one's way to another city or town. In the future, it is my hope that the "in between" areas will eventually be full of mystery, quests, campaign modes, raids, and alternate methods of play. The possibilities are endless!

It is possible (not finalized yet) that maybe you'll be able to perform certain "worldwide" actions for all your owned plots from here (for those who don't want to micromanage each plot individually), but we'll see. I'm still working on the specific UX.

Much like Google Maps, you'll be able to zoom into a specific Region. The map will enlarge, fade, and suddenly you'll be looking at a large grid view of individual plots that reflect the characteristics of the map behind it.

There will be 1,000 plots within the grid, keeps/castles highlighted, and Tracts outlined.

But wait! We're not done zooming, haha!

Selecting a specific plot will bring you down to "street level"...or in this case, "tree level".

From this vantage point, you'll see the building being constructed and review the resources being harvested. The landscape and building will be similar in style to that of the guild buildings we previewed up above.

Although we didn't go any further in the AMA, I did point out during the call that players WILL be able to zoom in even FURTHER by actually going INSIDE the building. But we'll leave that for a future AMA once we're ready to share that.

I hope this helps those who weren't able to make it on Friday.

If you enjoyed the recap, please leave me a comment to know that it's worth doing more of these posts each time I contribute something in the AMA. If so, I don't mind tossing these out whenever I'm called upon to share.

Disclaimer: Everything I say in this post is my opinion and perspective (not Splinterlands the company). In addition, all estimations, guesses, and projections are subject to change. All the planning and design is also subject to change.