It’s been an incredibly busy but productive few months here at Hash Rush. As we’re nearing the launch of our first publicly playable alpha, we thought that it would be a great time to give you an update from the Hash Rush co-founders and give you a look on how we have progressed.
The Hash Rush Alpha
The best way for us to start this update is to talk about our upcoming alpha. As you might have heard we are currently hard at work preparing for a public alpha that will start on the 31st of July and run until the 28th of September.
The best part is, the alpha will be open to everyone! If you want to take part all you need to do is register via our website.
Game Development
Let’s start by looking at our progress in developing the game. As you know, we ran a playable pre-alpha towards the end of 2017 and while we were really happy to bring you the first iteration of our game, Hash Rush still needed a lot more work. So, since then we have been working non-stop to build and improve every aspect of the game, from graphical upgrades to the combat system, and the marketplace.
Combat System
Let’s start by talking about our combat system. In an earlier article Highlights From the Hash Rush Event Build you may have noticed that we introduced two combat units for the Ernacks, the Warrior and the Slingshooter.
The idea behind our combat system is that we want to implement a variety of units and enemies, allowing our players to take multiple approaches to each situation. Sometimes encounters with hostile units will be pretty easy and can simply be completed with brute force, but other times our players will need to take a more strategic approach in order to emerge victorious.
The Marketplace
Another significant element of the game that you can expect to find in the alpha is the marketplace. Our marketplace will serve as the central trading hub, allowing every player to trade with each other, or to purchase items directly from the game.
To help you understand the marketplace and the general economics of Hash Rush, our Community Manager, Tenzin, and our Economist, Jethro, are working on a special edition of the Dev Blog, so be sure to read that once it’s published!
Graphical Updates
The Hash Rush art style has always been a strong point for us, from the concept art phases all the way to the game implementation. However, that hasn’t stopped us from improving our textures and models since the pre-alpha.
If you want to see all the latest screenshots, we recommend that you follow our Instagram page in English and Japanese as our marketing team keeps them update with snaps from the latest version.
Live Events
Attending gaming conventions and meetups are a part of every game company's DNA, and we’re no different. Some of you might have met us at Hyper Town in Riga and Casual Connect in London.
If you didn’t get a chance to meet us at those events, don’t worry! We’ve got a jam-packed convention calendar for the rest of 2018 and will be touring the world from Europe to Asia showcasing Hash Rush to the world!
New Hires
Creating a game takes a lot of time and effort. So to keep up our momentum we’re constantly bringing in new and talented people to work on Hash Rush. We’re busy interviewing all of our new team members, so be sure to keep watching our Medium and Steemit blogs to learn about our new hires.
Ethereum, POS and Scaling
We’re always asked what our feeling towards Ethereum’s move from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) is, so to finally give you all a straight answer, it would be either ‘awesome’ or simply ‘finally’. We really believe that PoS is the future of Ethereum and we’ve had a long time to prepare for it. That said it’s understandable that for a network as large as Ethereum, changing the core protocol will take time, however we are very eagerly waiting for, and anticipating the change.
On the matter of scaling; as a game, we do know that using the Ethereum Blockchain as it is would present us with several problems, from scaling to the price of using the Ethereum network (price in transaction gas fees). For that reason, we’ve been working hard with our Blockchain developers in VZChains to create a custom network for Hash Rush called the Rush Network. The next edition of the Hash Rush Dev Blog will explore the Rush Network, how it works, and just why it’s so essential for Hash Rush, so be sure to keep an eye out for it.
Finally, we really want to be clear that as the Ethereum network evolves, so do we. When we first started to put Hash Rush together, the idea was mainly around mining rewards. However, as Ethereum prepares to move to PoS, we do not see why we cannot have staking rewards as well. One idea that was floated around our office was the option to allow players to stake the crypto crystals that they mine from the game, so that might be something for you to look forward to. We’re in the process of testing out staking, but to find out more you’ll have to stick around to see! After all, staking is all about being patient.
Ultimately what we want to say is; we’re open to anything that will make the game more enjoyable to both the gaming and crypto communities.
And finally, as with our last update, we want to thank you all for your support in making this project a reality. We truly hope that you will enjoy the alpha, and can’t wait to hear your thoughts about our progress and the game.