Parallel NFTs: The Future of Augmented Reality Games
The tech world is rapidly changing and with that change comes disruption of the status quo. Blockchain technology is championing a large part of this disruption. Cryptocurrency, NFTs, and Web3 currently utilize blockchain technology. Parallel is a gaming project that is using NFT and Blockchain technology to build something that is really dope. In addition to revolutionizing the gaming world, Parallel is giving people a chance to own the art attached to the project. This article delves into Parallel projects basics, an overview of how the game is played, and everything you need to know as a beginner either in the NFT or Parallel world.
Table of Contents
Parallel
Parallel is a Sci-Fi trading card game franchise. The franchise is currently utilizing blockchain technology through NFTs. Parallel NFTs are on the Ethereum network and these NFTs give players and collectors real-life ownership of their assets so they can choose to hold on to or sell them. Most games out there do not give players this kind of value. The game is currently in development and is expected to be released in 2022. At launch, the game will be playable on computers, and after there is going to be an Android and iOS version. Augmented Reality (AR) is also one of the ideas that the team has. The goal here is to be able to own physical cards, wear AR glasses, and use your physical cards in a game against an online player. The technology for this is slowly being developed, but it may become a reality in the future.
Game Story: The Story of the Five Parallels
This story takes place far into the future…Humans have used up most of Earth's resources, Nature tried to replenish what is being wasted at an alarming rate but one thing became clear. Nature was tired. After supporting generations of human life, Earth has nearly lost its ability to support civilization. Resources and Energy became very scarce. Scientists all around the world were called upon to save the planet. This was known as The Event. But time was running out, in their haste to find a way to save the planet, they tried to create a new source of energy that was harvestable. This did not end well. What was supposed to be Earth’s salvation became Earth’s damnation. The energy that was created instead had high levels of radiation that quickly spread around the globe.
The available options became clear, leave earth or die in it. The battle for humanity to leave earth started. The remaining time and resources were spent on building space vessels that can carry them to another planet. Full of uncertainties, humans chose three different destinations. One spaceship was to go to mars, one to Jupiter’s moon Europa, and one to the far reaches of the asteroid belt in the known solar system. Earth was left to its devices, the people left behind in it were faced with the bleak fate of succumbing to radiation and dying. One became many and Life in multiple parallels began.
As each parallel of humanity adapted to their new home, millions of years passed, the earth began to heal itself. It eventually became a planet that is once again full of pure harvestable energy. The way of life that was destroyed unlocked the next technological age. Earth is now safe for all life. The parallels detected earth evolution and they all sought to harvest this new energy for themselves. Meeting together face to face for the first time, each claimed their sole right to have the Motherland(Earth)…because they are humans.
Clashes were unavoidable and the result is still unknown. The multiple parallels that humans evolved into are:
Earthen
They were the ones left to die, but they didn't become victims. They became Earth’s survivors. As Earth evolved to start healing itself, they were rewarded with connection to earth’s natural forces. When the evolution was complete, they could control nature the way they can control their limbs. As the other parallels came back to control earth once again, they became its defenders and they wielded nature’s forces to protect the place they called home. They are the Earthen.
Marcolian
They landed safely on Mars and became Mars colonizers. They sought to create a way of life that didn't have the mistakes of their previous home planet. They are scientifically adept. They are technologically advanced in robotic automation and Artificial Intelligence. They developed drones that will do all their manual work for them. They built a civilization that was better than what their ancestors had on earth. As their beautiful and ideal city grew. so did their egos. They are hell-bent on proving their scientific supremacy by claiming Earth and the possibilities that the Priming has opened up. They are the Marcolian.
Augencore
They are the space dwellers, instead of colonizing another planet they chose their spaceship to be their new home. They fortified and augmented their ship with the resources they were able to mine. But the ship wasn't the only thing they augmented. Living in space dealt with their fragile human bodies so they adopted mechatronic and bionic technologies, adeptly changing and enhancing their bodies with brutal precision. Their limbs, organs, and body parts were transformed into sophisticated machines. They barely had flesh, yet they were still committed to their comrades. They are hardened survivors united by duty to their ship, and by a fierce loyalty to each other. They believe man and machine should be one…and they want to see earth down to its elements. They are the Augencore.
Kathari
Colonists of Jupiter’s moon(Europa) were forced to eat genetically engineered mass-produced foods, which rendered them infertile over time. As a result, they turned to cloning as a means of preserving life. They soon saw genetic modification as their salvation and set out to improve the human genome. The Kathari are physically flawless, both in terms of ability and appearance. They’re as beautiful to look at as they are austere and synchronized. Despite their preference for a gentle and delicate manner of life, they are fearsome and precise in large numbers. Even in their ordered perfection, they ache for the chaos of uniqueness, and wonder if Earth now holds the answer to a natural — but purified — method of creating life. They are the Kathari.
Shroud
They used to be the finest earth had to offer. Long before Earth’s demise, the New Dawn was sent into the depths of space. A mission motivated by hope for humankind to begin a new chapter on Kepler-1649c. Scientists, farmers, explorers, intellectuals, artists, and even warriors were among them. Everything humanity would require to establish a new home in another world. That was their hope, but they were faced with disaster instead. As it sucked them in, an undiscovered singularity tore every atom of the ship and its inhabitants apart. They did not arrive at their target, but they did venture into territory that no human has ever imagined. They will never be the same again. They’re proxies for the black hole that gave them life. They are the Shroud.
Choose the future of humanity. Choose your Parallel.
Parallel Gameplay
Parallel intends to offer both digital and physical trading card gaming experience not just to players but also to collectors as well through Augmented Reality(also known as metaverse). Check out this video to see a parallel artifact in the real world. The first thing you need to do to play the game is to build your deck. A deck is made up of one parallel and universal cards. universal cards do not belong to a single parallel so they can be used with any parallel of your choice. Your deck should consist of 40 cards. To build your deck, first, pick one out of the five parallels.
Your individual deck includes — Cards from a single parallel(you cannot use kathari cards with shroud cards) and universal cards. You have to keep in mind that you can only have one copy of legendary cards and for common, uncommon, and rare cards; 3 copies are allowed. Details of what legendary, rare, common, and uncommon cards means will be shared in card details. Each player will have a life total, and the goal is to reduce the other player’s life total to zero. Players begin with 30 lives based on the current information now. Check this article for more details of parallel gameplay.
Card Details
Parallel cards can be broken down into rarity levels. You will find the edition size on the lower left of the card and a colored line that shows what rarity level the card belongs to. Look at the picture below to see each color line and the class they belong to.
Common cards edition size usually ranges from 52,000 to around 1500. Common cards that have an edition size of 1500 are Common Special Edition cards.
Uncommon cards usually have edition sizes ranging from 10,000 to 1000. Uncommon special edition cards have an edition size of 1000. which mean only 1000 of them were created.
Rare cards have edition sizes ranging from 3,300 to 500. Rare cards with the edition of 500 are Perfect Loop and Special Edition.
Legendary cards have edition sizes ranging from 900 to 250.
Prime cards are extremely rare. They cannot be used in competitive play. They are mostly masterpieces, art cards, collectible card backs, etc. They have edition sizes ranging from 500 to 1/1. 1/1 cards have only one of it ever created, there are no copies of it. You will notice that cards like this don't have any edition size attached to them.
SE cards are designed to have a unique appearance in-game. There’s also the possibility of them being redeemed for physical cards in the future. They’re not as common as their non-SE counterparts. They have edition sizes ranging from 1500 to 250.
Perfect Loop(PL) cards are animated. They have the same rarity level as SE cards. They are more aesthetically pleasing because of their animation that is in a constant loop. They have edition sizes ranging from 1000 to 500
Asset cards are Concept Art Cards, Prime Keys, The Core. Catalyst Drive, Overclock Keys, Galaxy Keys. Details about them can be found in the prime proposal when it is released. Their edition sizes are from 1500 to 250.
One thing that is consistent with parallel cards is the amazing artwork of each card. Kudos to the art team — Oscar Mar, the Art Director, Nacho Yagüe, the Character Lead, Oscar Cafaro, the Vehicle Lead, Chris Bjerre, and Dhenzel Obeng. Some of them have worked on some of your favorite games including Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell, as well as developing gaming visuals for Blizzard, EA, and Ubisoft.
Pack Drop Details
The very first NFTs that the team sold are collectively known as Presale 15(PS15) cards. During the presale event, the cards were sold from the website and there was an auction on Opensea for the most powerful card in the parallel ecosystem -The priming. The auction was won with a bid of 26eth and the priming card is now worth a whooping sum of 1,000eth. The presale event was on March 25th, 2021.
Pack Drop 1(PD1)
PD1 took place on July 31st, 2021. Parallel used a pack release system to release the cards. Pre-minted cards were stuffed into packs. The packs were then sold on a first-come, first-served basis via a URL that was made public shortly before the drop. This process significantly reduced the gas-wars that are common in the NFT space, allowing more people to enter crypto and Parallel. Basically, after you reserve the number of packs you are interested in, you have 24hours to pay after a confirmed reservation. Cards are sold in three-pack tiers (Core, enhanced, premium) costing 0.01eth, 0.1eth, and 0.2eth. Details of these pack tiers can be found under PD2
Pack Drop 2(PD2)
PD2 took place on October 30th, 2021. The core pack contains four cards in total. From the image below, the most likely card you’ll get from a core pack is a Standard Rare, but you also have four chances to get a Common Special Edition [SE] or higher. Core packs are designed for players who want to collect in large quantities. This is because the Core pack contains 3 Tier 4 cards and 1 Tier 3 card.
Enhanced pack has 3 cards in it and it was sold for 0.1eth per pack. An uncommon special edition[SE] or perfect loop[PL] card has the highest chance of being opened in an Enhanced Pack. It contains 2 Tier 3 cards and 1 Tier 2 card.
There is only 1 card in a Premium pack. This is a Tier 1 card. The cards in it are 1% of the 1%. Extremely rare and worth huge buckets on the secondary market. You have a 54% chance of getting Legendary SE (250 supply) and a 46% chance of getting a card from the Prime category, which includes the game’s rarest cards such as concept cards, Prime Keys, Catalyst Drives, and Masterpieces.
Pack Drop 3(PD3)
PD3 is scheduled to take place around January 2022. The exact date hasn't been announced. But here are a few things you need to know to participate in the next drop; Make an account on the Parallel website, and link your wallet (Use MetaMask and don’t use Brave browser). The link to the landing page for reservations will be on Twitter and discord at 5 pm est. You can only access the reservation page through this link. Depending on how many packs you want to buy, fill your wallet with ETH. This isn’t a need because you’ll have a 24-hour window to make purchases, but it’s preferable to be prepared. There will be a max reserve button if you intend to reserve the max (3 of each) pack. That is 3 core packs, 3 enhanced packs, and 3 premium packs. You also have the option of selecting any number of packs that you want as long as the max number per pack in a 5 mins window is 3.
Parallel is doing a very incredible thing not just for the NFT space but also for the gaming ecosystem. Their tech and art are top tiers. So whether you are a player or a collector, you will be able to kickstart your collection in Pack drop 3. You can find me on Twitter, when I am not talking about NFTs I would probably be talking about Data Science and Machine learning.
PS: I participated in PD2 and Paradigm shift drop and it was exciting, I am anticipating PD3 with bated breath. I might even start taking keyboard speed lessons. I can tell you for a fact that the drops don't last up to 5 mins due to high demand. So make sure you are at alert and start reserving when the link is dropped on Twitter and discord. May your pulls be prime amigos…
