Meet the artist behind Faded Monsuta

So as I go deeper into the NFT world I keep discovering some great new projects and the funny thing is there work is cool but this artist has big dreams for his project and the future of it but Il let the artist himself tell you that .

Hey

Hey how's it goin!

Good and you?

Yeah man, got 50 new characters that are gonna be in the 2nd pack just finishing the setup for the pack comin out on the 20th, woot woot! just about to start making the goofy trailer for the project.

https://neftyblocks.com/c/fadedmonsuta/drops/116518%2B116519

Oh cool . Do you make trailers a lot for the project?

Just for the pack drops for right now. As the game gets built out and as we get closer to Q4 there will be gameplay trailers just for the sale of showing progress to those that are following. Now that we have 100+ cards already made, proper testing can get done, so our main focus for a month or two after this pack drop will be focusing heavily on game production and smart contracts being implemented. First simple ones for the website to check your inventory, wallet login, and once the game comes out there will be crafting, token rewards and other things that will need smart contract integration as well . Which as of right now it’s just me, so pretty much consumed with learning all this stuff as a do it yourself solo act just been fortunate enough those that are following the project are cool with a stoner artist, Some of them run their own projects and are involved with multiple others. Making awesome friends in this space has allowed me to gain the proper knowledge to get the ship this far, but we are at that point where it’s time to turn things official and take some large steps that should help announce to TCG and NFT enthusiasts that we are here!

What will the game be based on?

It will be a turn based game with elements of popular games and adding some of my own twists to it. No spell cards, no trap cards, to start with there will be 200 unique Faded Monsuta split between 8 Monsuta Types. There will be 4 Monsuta Classes to begin with, the 5th has been announced since the beginning and will be the first meta-strategy changing event for the card game. Balancing these classes and types to maximize their potential with the 6 revealed Playable Monsuta CardSharks will be pivotal to anyone that wishes to hold the title of Grand Faded Monsuta Champion. There will be vanilla cards, but more than half of the Monsuta will have abilities that will make CardSharks question every turn.

So how did this all start?

I had been involved in the NFT space for about 2 and a half months, starting with Upland. I then found the WAX Blockchain shortly after as well as some amazing groups that had loads of projects in them, from art to games. I had always wanted to make a trading card game and pixel art seemed to be gaining popularity, so I made a Pokémon fan art piece, just for fun. I included an NFT of the piece in an Upland Auction hosted by a group now known as MetaVerse Corner. People thought the image was funny since it was a weed themed Charizard with with the title of Tokemon. At first I thought maybe that would be the route to go, but last thing I wanted to do was fight Nintendo and Pokémon in a legal battle involving copyright laws revolving around parody. So I wondered if I could create a unique weed monster that was something on its own entirely. I had always wanted to create my own Trading Card Game and have always thought that weed theme games tend to stick to simple “grow a weed tycoon” format. So I thought it would be a fun idea to kill two birds with one stone and create the most wild, fantastical world that stands alone on its own. Once I finished the first Faded Monsuta, Bilbo Bongin, I couldn’t stop laughing at it. So I showed some close friends and family and told them my idea. Soon after that I had developed the gameplay concept, the types, the classes, made the first of each of the 8 Monsuta Types and the world/economy that would be built around the game to ensure a healthy flow of in game currency.

Wow so out of a random drawing your whole project was created where you involved create before NFTs?

Bilbo Bongin was the second NFT I ever made. It’s why our collection looks so sloppy for Series One, I have just continued forward, step by step. I’ve learned how to use certain tools that have made the collection process simpler and have a style of pixel art I can call my own. It’s become easier and easier to create new characters as I learn more and more, and now it’s time to tackle the game source code and smart contract integration to get us whitelisted and verified as a game collection on Atomic Hub. It’s been a process I’ve always told folks that are coming in, that it will be a long haul, but that we will keep on moving and that I won’t be charging an arm and a leg during this incredibly early development phase. There will be a big drop with tins, starter packs, private mines, flats and all that good stuff, but that will be the stuff that comes once things have been tested in beta and we can ensure the best possible experience for the Trading Card Game Community. These promo cards will have the boosted staking function they will have once the game goes live as well as act as the playable cards. These cards don’t have moves, hp, attack or tetra cell cost because there needs to be proper testing to ensure abilities are balanced between types and Monsuta CardSharks. Once those playable cards get ripped open, that’s it, no ban list, not limited list, every card in circulation will be usable and we won’t be nerfing/buffing cards abilities once their final forms are created.

Even after the game goes fully live, these promo cards will be the highest value staking cards as a massive thank you to those that decided to join us during the most volatile time of the collections existence. A thank you for taking a chance on a crazy artist with passion for work ethic and producing something epic! Which is funny since they will be the cheapest drops we have. But to me it makes sense to reward those that are willing to be here so early on.

What is the process of creating each NFT?

When creating a New Faded Monsuta, I ask these questions before I ever start filling in the pixels: - What is the name of this Faded Monsuta(other than zongs, all Monsuta are named after strains, perc types or slang terminology) - What abilities will this Monsuta possess - What is their tie to Tokesylvania(what is there lore story essentiall) Determining these factors helps me decide the construct of the character: which colors I will select, the expression my character will have, what accessories they might use, etc. Then I start with the outline of the character and follow it with layers for background, accessories and facial expression. after my character has been made, I make my selection of background colors that make the character pop a bit. Then after the picture is made, it is off to creating the template for the NFT!

What programs you use for creating?

I started on and continued using PixilArt, its a fun community and people share amazing works of Pixel Art. Not to mention you can create regular pixel art, layered pixel art, gifs as well as sprites for game development there

For game creation, Unity is what we are going with. Just makes sense with a 2 dimensional world. The main focus is to create a fun and addictive game. We likely won't be blowing anyone's mind with stellar 3d graphics anytime soon.

How long does NFT take to create?

It depends on the size of the drawing, the shapes you want to create and the level of detail you are creating inside of said shapes. A simple character could take an hour if I'm in the groove. A difficult character or a huge backdrop with a massive canvas can eat up most of my day.

Do you favorite NFT that you have made?

Probably Bilbo Bongin, as goofy and dumb as these weed monster are, I fell for the idea of Faded Monsuta when I looked at the completed Bilbo Bongin picture. The art has gotten better since then and my toolbox for techniques continues to grow, so of the newest ones I'm particularly fond of Sammy Sky Stroller, but I doubt I'll have one that I ever love more than Bilbo Bongin!

Has there been any collabs in the project?

Yes there has been, we have a staking partnership with Wombat Dungeon Master! While the game gets built, I wanted the early adopters to have some chances at getting their investment back. By playing Wombat Dungeon Master and doing runs, players earn contribution points. The more runs you do, the more contribution you get. The more contribution you get, the more points to cash out at the end of the season are accrued! 100k points = 1 USD worth of WAXP. On top of the more passive earning, there is the opportunity to get packs and other NFTs out of daily chests provided by Wombat Dungeon Master that usually go for a decent bit of WAX or can be used to increase your passive earnings!

We even have our own NFT added to the chests, known as Wesley Wombat that will be findable come Season 3 of Wombat Dungeon Master, May 18th.

Have you done any NFT collabs?

We've done a couple promo NFT collabs, with Wombat Dungeon Master and Metaverse Corner(they were known as Upland Marketplace at the time). We also will have a collaborative NFT going down with Frazel of The Online Inn as well as making a Promo NFT for LEFTHouse in the Faded Monsuta style of Pixel Art.

Is there a dream collab out there for you?

So hard to name one, but in terms of new partnerships, would really love to collab with Warsaken. They have an outstanding card game with beautiful art/cards. I’ve had the honor of talking with their team in the past and think that it would be hilarious to find a way to do an NFT collab, but we will certainly be throwing our hat in the rings to become staking partners for their 2nd season! I respect creators that have a strong passion for their projects and that team has passion in spades!

Would they be your favorite NFT project to collect?

They are, Other than Faded Monsuta, my 2nd largest holding is Warsaken, I'll be streaming their game on my Twitch Channel to promote their project. With how much work has gone into there project, I bet on them because I would most like to see them succeed. For me it isn't about the investment in a Warsaken NFT, it's about believing in a project that could help shape the space as we know it to open the door for other amazing, legitimate projects to fill the WAX blockchain NFT space!

What's been the best part of doing your project?

That is a tie between making the characters and building the community. Both just fill me with this awesome energy; I love fitting in each character like a new piece of the Faded Monsuta Puzzle and our community is filled with amazing people that rarely have a bad thing to say. I obsess over my collection, so I love answering questions of new people coming into the Discord that want to know more about the game, especially when they ask questions you could only ask after reading our extensive whitepaper. This project isn't a "wait and see" sort of deal, I am constantly tinkering with the concept every day, thinking years in advance for not only the game economics, but the story and game immersion details as well. I want people to forget about life for a minute when they play Faded Monsuta, and one of the best ways to do that is by telling a fun/good story!

What been the hardest part?

The hardest part has been keeping the project the right size. Eventually we want the world to have heard about Faded Monsuta, but with how heavily advertised drops were getting hit and flipped by sale bots, it made more sense to get real people as the base of our project. Building to 600+ people in the discord with over 1200+ unique holders of Faded Monsuta NFTs has been difficult to do with only real people that are actually interested in the concept. It is a player driven market, which means that unless things are released in a solid fashion, our collection could look like one of the many pump and dump charts out there from the big boom we saw starting in April 2021. This was where projects would go from thousands of transactions a day to hardly even 10 transactions a day within a month of the concepts first big pack release. So we started in other communities I became a part of and trusted. We have grown slowly and by word of mouth, not spending a single dollar on advertisements of any kind. We are the well kept secret of the WAX Blockchain and Faded Monsuta is just now starting to come into the light, and it has been hard to keep the lid on for the past 10 months. But it is becoming time to open our doors to the world. We were never really hidden, but you definitely had to search around to catch wind of Faded Monsuta. Now we have a core group that will likely be around for the entirety of the games existence!

Keeping your project out of the crosshairs of groups/bots that would exploit it for even a small financial gain seems to be one of the trickiest parts of this space for sure.

Of course can I ask what is the solution to stopping bots?

There is no stopping bots, only slowing them. We often forget bots are run by people, and any captcha or other process can be done manually by the person and then once inside, like a trojan horse, the bot gets turned on and the account begins to wreak havoc. I think it is a combination of multiple things. One is that in the past we had just a singular drop with a timed whitelist that was manually dropped after the time limit expired. This meant that for the beginning hour or so of the first two drops, bots would look over the drop at first glance since they weren't on the whitelist. Next would be the fact that we haven't advertised the project other than word of mouth. Twitch Streamers(specifically a group known as the No Sleep Gang, introduced to me by Gameboy_Ali and Drabs587) give out many promo cards for us and have massively helped spread the word. The Upland Communities I was a part of as well as Metaverse Corner helped get the word out to the Upland Community. Going on awesome shows like The NFT Action News(was actually the first show that ever gave us air time) helped put my face out in the open so people know I'm real and putting my eggs in this basket. It isn't a project that guarantees massive gains, money for days, or anything like that. It is a project that preaches about a slow and steady process where we do things the right way and build a successful economy around a game that people actually want to play. Not just a money printer with a few things you can spend your token on. Which that kind of thinking isn't what many flippers with hoards of bots are trying to pick up/take a risk on. So instead, we got real people that really dig the concept and want to see this thing get built!

Have you brought anyone into the NFT world?

I have! Both intentionally and unintentionally. Loads of Upland folks hadn't branched into the WAX blockchain before our project(albeit Upland is an NFT-driven game), I've brough family members into the NFT world and even had random folks show up to our stream for marbles and end up getting an account! As a matter of fact one of my friends asked me about getting his hands on one and I'm walking him through the process of getting on the WAX Blockchain so he can get into NFTs for the first time. Bringing people to this space feels like one of my callings at this point!

Fair play what you like to do to unwind?

Love playing video games with my kids. They definitely enjoy video games like I do and I’ve been gaming since before I could walk. I pretty much think about my game all day then play games to unwind! But it’s really fun to see the next generation fall in love with what you did and get to relive those first experiences with your kids.

Tell us something random about you?

I was a national champion wrestler in high school, but oddly enough I won state at a different weight class than nationally. While weighing 205 pounds I actually took home the gold at a state level in high school while wrestling in a weight class that capped out at 289 pounds. I’ve always been a fighter and I always will be!

Wow . What your family think of the project?

They think it’s me. I’ve always been someone that seeks out the new and exciting in all different manners of life. They know I’ve enjoyed making others laugh and happy since I could talk. They are glad I have a place that truly suits a weirdo like me!

Where is the best place to keep up with the project?

The Discord! It's where all the Monsuta CardSharks hang out and I'm in there multiple times a day and often am answering questions of new comers! That or we are playing one of the Discord games/messing around in the Shenanigans Channel. We also have giveaway trains at least every weekend to give folks chances to get their first Faded Monsuta NFT completely free!

https://discord.gg/fBY5ssGr5J

https://twitter.com/FadedMonsuta

where can we buy your NFTs?

Our drops are currently happening on NeftyBlocks https://neftyblocks.com/c/fadedmonsuta/drops/116518%2B116519 this is the link for our most recent drop. Our NFTs can also be purchased via the second market at Atomic Hub, NeftyBlocks or NFTHive.

https://wax.atomichub.io/market?collection_name=fadedmonsuta

Any chance of a competition for the readers?

Sure, we do loads of giveaways, could do something like first gets one of each rarity and each place after gets one less rarity, for example: 1st: Legendary, Mythic, Rare, Uncommon, Common 2nd: Mythic, Rare, Uncommon, Common, Common 3rd: Rare, Uncommon, Common, Common, Common 4th: Uncommon, 4x Common 5th: 5x common

So before we finish up is there anything you would like to add?

Nope that is it! Come check us out and see for yourself if Faded Monsuta is your style! All are welcome to come partake and we always support doing your research on a project before hoping on board!

Love it bro oh if you ever fancy coming on are show drop us a message .

Right guys I am giving 2 of his NFTs away of Twitter so If you want to enter check out the link below .

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1533194539917352965?s=20&t=McWheTjB3sFAC77OYRvEqg