In the latest episode of Bitcoin Builders, Brett Banfe, Community Manager for Bitcoin Association, spoke with Mozza about his game the Legends of Uzarn. In the interview, Mozza explains his professional background, the development process of Legends of Uzarn as well as technical details and unique features enabled by building on BSV blockchain and, of course, the game itself, its rules, mechanics and strategy.
Inspiration and game design
Legends of Uzarn is a digital trading card game that combines elements from Magic The Gathering and Dominion. Mozza states that it has a 65% Magic the Gathering influence, while the remaining 35% comes from the deck-building game Dominion. Players of both games will instantly recognise this fusion, as it draws on the classic principles and mechanics of each game.
However, the game also has its own unique twists, with new rules and strategies. As it is built on BSV blockchain, it has an innovative approach regarding its infrastructure that allows players to handle the game in ways that have never before been used in card games.
Basic infrastructure and innovative gaming features
Legends of Uzarn is a digital card game that allows players to own all of their virtual cards and credits. To play the game, a user has to create a new wallet or connect an existing wallet (e.g. via Handcash). The wallet is non-custodial and serves mostly to hold the assets that a user acquires throughout the game. It is free to play.
The handling of cards as virtual assets allows players to effectively own all of their virtual cards and credits, independent of the platform. Should the game ever be discontinued in its current form, players would still retain all of their collected assets, which could be transferred to other platforms and potentially preserve their value. Moreover, the game’s blockchain technology provides transparency, allowing players to know exactly how many of each card are in circulation, giving them confidence in their virtual investments.
Furthermore, a market has been opened where users can purchase and sell cards, with plans to also offer card packs and cosmetics in the future. New features also include a lightweight client and the option to view historical games on the blockchain, users are now able to have a fully transparent and public gaming experience.
Building on Bitcoin
Mozza is an experienced software developer who has worked in both corporate and start-up settings, building many projects and applications. This provided him with an edge in developing the platform itself. However, before building Legends of Uzarn, Mozza had little to no experience in Bitcoin.
Due to this, Mozza initially faced difficulty, but with time and effort, he was able to understand the technology and develop a protocol which allowed the game to reach its desired level of scale. Mozza found the experience to be invaluable and was amazed by the power of Bitcoin’s UTXO model. He recalls the ‘aha moment’ when he started to understand the UTXO model:
‘But once that moment clicked in, I figured out how it worked. I was like, Wow, this is actually quite powerful.’
With a deeper understanding of Bitcoin, Mozza was able to develop his own protocol for running Legends of Uzarn for the game’s needed scale.
Playing Legends of Uzarn
Mozza also explains the game mechanics and the basic outlay of the game with the five different colours a player can choose. Each colour comes with its own theme and set of strategies. Yellow is referred to as “Royal,” and is great for buying powerful spells. Blue is excellent for card draw decks and combos.
Green is known as “Nature,” and is filled with annoying and powerful creatures. Red is fast and has a lot of damage spells, which makes it great for the early game, but is less strong in the late game. Finally, purple is a bit of a curveball, as it is difficult to play, but provides traits from all the other colours.
In the video episode of Bitcoin Builders, Mozza also takes Brett through a demo of Legends of Uzarn and plays a round with him. You can watch the full episode below: