As people from around the world woke up this past Saturday to go touch grass, spend time with friends, and take part in other weekend activities, Otherside Deed holders were at home getting ready for their very First Trip. Here are my personal impressions of The OtherSide’s First Trip tech demo!
I would also like to give a big thank you to tropoFarmer , who was kind enough to share his thoughts on the event with me!
Break On Through!
The First Trip is part of The Otherside ’s Voyager Journey that served as a technical demo for The Otherside experience. It took place on July 16, 2022 at 12PM EST and was only open to Otherside Deed holders in the US and Europe. For those outside of these locations (or unable to attend), The Yuga Labs team set up a livestream where Otherside Deed holders could connect, authenticate their wallet with an Otherside Deed NFT, and still qualify to receive a “benefit” for participating (more on that later).
The demo, like the two previous stress tests, started out in this white infinite expanse where players were introduced to a 40-foot tall Curtis, learned the controls on how to navigate through the tech demo, and then introduced to a large Koda named “Blue.”
From there a portal opened up in the middle of the room, and 4,500 players descended into The Otherside. Players dropped into a lush green, swampy area called, you guessed it, “The Swamp.” The wood plank docks and swampy waters could only mean one thing: that we were in The Otherside location for the Bored Ape Yacht Club .
Traversing through The Otherside is pretty easy. Players can simply walk, or they can take jump pads that launch them to different areas around the map.
At this point, players were directed to an outdoor amphitheater called “The Sphere” where they were given the task of saving Kodas, and from there, the adventure was underway!
Mission Structure and Gameplay
The missions involved your basic fetch-quest where players would go around the map saving Kodas, returning to the Sphere, and then heading to a new area called “The Obelisk.”
After interacting with the Obelisk and completing the mission objectives, Curtis instructed players to take a group selfie. At this point, it appeared the tech demo was pretty much over. We were wrong. From here, a giant Evil Koda appeared, and players were directed to take it down!
Even though the gameplay mechanics are nothing impressive at the moment, it was interesting watching 4,500+ players working together to achieve a common objective. I would’ve been just as happy to watch Blue and the Evil Koda fight it out themselves…
However, it was a nice touch to have everyone use the jump pads to collide with the Evil Koda. It’s important to note that there were no HUD displays or hints or other mechanics such as help systems or move sets for the 4,500+ avatars.
You can watch some of the action on tropoFarmer’s VOD .
As tropoFarmer mentioned, “It would be great to see some semblance of what the gameplay loop is going to look like in the future.”
The event itself was an on-the-rails narrative experience similar to how Fortnite runs their events. As future tech demos take place, it would be nice to see how Yuga Labs and Improbable plan to tie in the major gameplay elements that will shape The Otherside.
Looking Towards the Future
While we wait for future tech demos we can stare at KEEZi.ETH’s art and imagine what the future of the Otherside might become. The general consensus from those participating in the event was definitely promising. A short teaser trailer was also played which gave a small hint as to what we could expect in future voyages:
In addition to gameplay, one thing tropoFarmer wants to see in future tech demos is the ability to use and play as his Ape. It’s amazing to see how indistinguishable certain people are from their PFP. I know I already associate a lot of the people I see on Twitter with their NFTs, and seeing that in-game would definitely lend itself to the immersiveness of The Otherside.
For participating or watching the tech demo, all Otherside Deed holders who connected their wallets had their NFT metadata updated and received a piece of an obelisk as a reward.
Nobody knows what these obelisk pieces will do in the future, but it’s a nice way to incentivize participation. For those who missed out on the first obelisk piece, Otherside’s Official Twitter page has mentioned that there will be more opportunities to grab the first piece in future tech demos.
Closing Thoughts
For a tech demo, the First Trip left me pretty impressed and hopeful for what the future of The Otherside will bring. Experiencing 4,500 players with virtually no lag, spatial audio, and multiple actions happening on stream at the same time proved to be a successful outing for Improbable’s M2 tech.
Finally, the storytelling elements and voice acting of the characters within the First Trip also made the experience more enjoyable and showcases exactly why Yuga are such great storytellers.
Time will tell if we are looking at a Web3 game that actually has some legs, but for now, we can look forward with great anticipation to the upcoming trips into The Otherside!
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