The location for this dev stream was the official Blankos Twitch.tv channel.
Twitch stores the broadcast for a while, but it will expire at some point. As long as it's still around, it can be found here:
Mythical staff appearing in the broadcast:
Josh Park - Community Manager
Anish George - Product Leader | Games, NFTs & Blockchain
Adrienne "Rizzo" Daniel - Lead Producer
Josh Foreman - Senior Level Designer
Information regarding some of the items from Q1 in the roadmap:
Blanko Brawl:
Blanko Brawl is a new elimination style mode coming to Blankos Block Party. Starting with a team based first round, the winners progress through, and the losers are eliminated. After the team round, the remaining players then take each other on in FFA parties.
Brawls are likely to be 2-4 rounds long. If player numbers are low at any time Brawls may skip the team based round and go straight into FFAs.
Rewards will be given based on amount of progress, whether progressing to the next round or being eliminated. Rewards will be in the form of Moola, XP and gumballs.
A new Accolade system is being introduced. This will be in the form of earning Pins, based on achievements during matches. (e.g. 3x headshots, being #1, making the top 3, etc.)
There will be additional rewards granted for reaching the final round.
Blanko Brawl will go live on 23rd March 2022. There will be a one week acclimatisation period with no Party Pass or NFTs to earn, which will then be followed by the ‘Blanko Brawler Party Pass’ (on 30th March?). (There will be no Happy Hour for this acclimatisation week. Whether it would return later, was not mentioned.)
Blanko Brawler Party Pass:
Starts on the 23rd March 2022. Features 3 Blanko NFTs, and accessories.
Martial arts/pugilism/sports themed.
Also animal themed.
(This section was cut short to finish up on the Boss Dino Gem Rush info, and not returned to.)
Gameplay Changes:
Shooting has been made more accurate. Based on the philosophy of making the game appeal to a broader spectrum of players, some changes are being brought in. Josh Foreman talked of that spectrum, with slow, strategy gameplay at one end, and fast, twitch reflex gaming at the other. He sees Blankos as being at the faster end of that spread, and said the aim with some of the upcoming changes is to move Blankos closer to the middle. The main change that this has prompted is with the jump mechanic. (Though there will also be a major change to flight mechanics.)
The ‘double jump’ will be replaced with a ‘drift jump.’
Rather than a full height jump, and then another full height jump from the air, the ‘drift’ second part will give the player a second or so to be specific about where they choose to land.
The intention here is to make the Blanko feel more under control for more of the player base, and to help with pacing. It is also hoped that the change to jumping in particular will help to make more styles workable for party builders. (Not needing to have huge walls/canyons or bottomless pits to keep players from completely breaking the maps.)
Jetpacks and gliders will no longer be accesories with different flight mechanics.
All flight accesories will have two modes. A jetpack mode, which will be toggleable to a hover mode.
There will be an additional mode made available for Vibe matches.
As well as the current type of vibe (poly vibe), there will now also be the ‘single’ vibe. The new vibe will not be available for any other players once the first player has claimed it.
Though there is another addition of melee weapons, the first being a bat, and vibes can be ‘bonked’ out of other players. The bonked player will be stunned, giving the bonker time to claim some of the released vibes.
Along with these changes to the vibes themselves, there will also be a new build item, the vibe generator. Which will pump out clouds of vibes.
Information regarding some of the items from Q2 in the roadmap:
General work on improving the game experience:
Improving the UI/UX in the desk and shelf, the upgrading system, and menu navigation.
Onboarding and easing new players into the game.
Crew related changes:
Providing reasons to collect, upgrade and Gem Rush Blankos. Adding sorting and tagging options in the shelf. Providing bonuses and rewards based on the make up of the player’s collection. Improving the in game chat system Adding purpose back to the Junction, including holding events.
ETH Bridge:
Progress on this was delayed due to some issues with fraud, which have now been solved.
The next set of bridgeable Blankos will be ready to go by the end of March.
General ETH bridge access for almost all quantity locked Blankos will be available by the end of April.
(Anish: “We also have something that may happen on Opensea in the future, in that time frame.”
(The reaction from the rest of the presenters suggests this was not meant to be said.))
Information regarding some of the items from Rest of 2022 in the roadmap:
(There are only five items showing in the ‘Rest of 2022’ section of the roadmap, but they each have multiple systems in play.
A lot of what will be happening will be directly building on the work talked about in the Q1 and Q2 sections of the roadmap.)
NFT Lifecycle systems:
This is in the ideation phase, and needs fleshing out. It also needs to be certain that there is scalability.
Working on adding value in various ways to Blankos and Collections.
Introducing ‘burning’ systems. Providing players agency in converting items.
Burning outcomes are determined by rarity, theme, etc.
Rarity may be defined by supply, EX15, Gem Rush, Theme, etc.
Why work on this?
To add value to for those playing and collecting.
That is the intention, though currently at the high level thinking phase.
In Game Events and Social 2.0:
Lots of improvements and additions coming.
Looking to match the ‘gold standard’ of social interaction available in other games.
More details on this will be provided during Q2.
Looking to start Season 1 before end of year.
Certain pre-requisite deliveries have to be made first.
Cool partnerships slated for Q2/Q3.
More Gem Rushes.
Including overlapping Gem Rushes, and potentially different vectors for Gem Rushes.
Providing agency to players by having multiple Gem Rushes active at the same time.
Allowing the choice of which, if any, to pursue.
Other Upcoming Events:
Boss Dino Gem Rush:
There’s a new toxic water build item coming to the game. Boss Dino has got some of that on him. It prompts him changing for to Gem Mint via Mint… New trail effects and SFX will be included on the Gem Rush Blankos. “You may see money coming off him.” At GM15, the cape flight accessory is unlocked. The Boss Dino Gem Rush begins on the 17th March.
Community Crew Event:
Design a Blanko and have it be made and put in the game.
“jdn will be posting a blog and templates.”
Community Team, Production Team and Design Team will vote on their favourites.
Vote on a top 5, and share it.
Community then voting to order the top 5.
1 month to get your design in.
Participation rewards available (500BB and 2x gumballs.)
Designers of top 5 get first 5 minted. Winner also gets #6.
Mint numbers #7 to #20 will be held for future giveaways.
(The rest will be a free drop via Twitch? May stream to showcase design. Drop around that time.)
Related Accessory will also be a reward for the top 5.
Full details can be found here on the official Blankos blog/news feed.
Dev Q&A:
Prior to the dev steam, there was a Q&A thread open in the official discord. At the end of the stream, a selection of the questions were answered. I’ll write an additional post with the Q&A that was covered, and also list the rest of the questions from the discord thread that the devs didn’t get to. Hopefully they can give answers to all of them somewhere soon.