It’s Monday and another Polker ama. I hope everyone has had a good weekend and is looking forward to the coming week. Just give it a few minutes to allow people to join. There’s quite a lot of questions that have come through so I will do my best to answer all of those. And yeah, if anyone is joining live, feel free to ask. I will also do my best to answer them too. But let’s just give it a few minutes and then I’ll start with the questions that have come through over social media.
Okay, let’s have a look at what’s come through. The first question is from Rager. I’m not sure if we’ve had a question from you before, so thank you for sending this one through. The question itself has come up. So, this is just saying not sure if it’s been mentioned, but has the team ever considered to be a member of Neo Tokyo? Pretty much every project is inside, and this could offer lots of benefits and corporations and future development.
This is something I’m actually actively looking into at the moment so yes, I will try and get that set up before the end of the month. I know that the ecosystem has been growing quite dramatically. I haven’t, to be honest, been paying a huge amount of attention to it personally but I have gone in and have checked. You are correct. It is something that we should have set up a bit earlier, but we’ll have that one done as soon as possible. It has been a consideration, and we will move forward with that. So as soon as it’s set up, we’ll obviously put an announcement out and add that to our links on Linktree as well, so anyone who is hanging around on there we’ll be able to participate.
The next questions came through from Pu_rush. It’s the obvious question, probably the question that is on everyone’s mind that it’s going to be the same answer I gave last time. When can we expect the mobile app release?
That’s the first part of this question. I’m still hoping for Q1. I don’t see any reason why not. However, you know, but I just got my fingers crossed that that’s where everything at the moment is on track. There’s not been any blockers, so hopefully nothing comes up between now and the end of next month, and we should all be all good for that. However, I do need to be aware that we have things that do come up. That is unfortunately, the way the world works. So hopefully, everything goes smoothly, and we’ll be on track for having it out during next month. But yeah, that’s the situation we are in now. Hopefully nothing comes up between then and the end.
What percentage of the code language migration has been completed?
We literally had a meeting about this. Probably was that it was like three hours ago. So we were just going over the last bit. I literally asked the same question because I’m not a developer, so I can’t read the code, so I asked for it in a percentage, and I was given 90–95. I was gonna guess it was around 80% complete, so we’re probably actually closer to completing it than even I thought, which is really positive. But yeah, so that’s the number I was given. I have complete faith that that is the right number. So, we’re closer than expected. I know that there are some difficult bits still left to go but they’re not impossible. They’re just things that, you know, potentially may take a little bit longer than some of the earlier bits, but we’re near the end, which is definitely positive.
And then another question from the same user here. Are there any new changes in the mobile app like tournament modes or new systems?
There’s not going to be a huge number of changes in the mobile app, other than the way that it’s going to run much smoother. The NFT deposits, withdrawals, and the actual full gameplay will be very functional and very simple to use. So, from the tournaments themselves, they’re not going to be on the initial release — that I definitely can confirm — but the play to earn model and actually being able to deploy, use, withdraw and earn the accessories, actually equip/unequip the accessories, all of these features will work really smoothly on the mobile app. So, I’ve tested them already, a lot of them. They are already working so it’s going to be a much more functional, actual blockchain game, but unfortunately, no, it won’t have the tournaments at this point in time. So sort of feature-wise, it’s not going to be hugely different from how the UI is — slightly different but from the usability side, it is actually going to be a much better experience for users actually playing the game.
Are you going to create any NFT-related group to educate, engage, claim, win NFTs? Since the game is completely NFT-based or should it be a community initiative?
This is a good question. It’s not something we directly considered. Obviously, all our NFTs are intellectual property. They’re all characters. There is a story behind all of them as well and actually written on the NFT. You can read the story behind each character. So, I do believe that we will try and sort of be using them outside of the game in a community manner. The exact way that we will be trying to run that, I’m not completely sure yet. So yes, this is something that we will be doing. However, it’s not the priority now since at the moment people can’t really be earning the NFTs and actually seeing what they are. As soon as we get the NFTs in circulation and people are actually changing them, owning the accessories, then we’ll definitely try and build a community around why you should be having the accessories, what the benefits are, which characters are doing what, and actually build that up. So as soon as the game is running and people are actually using it, then that is definitely something that we will start setting up.
And then a community favorite. Thank you, GP, for the questions again. The first one is, how are you planning on beating competitors?
Now, this is an interesting question because from my perspective, we don’t have any direct competitors. I mean, if you look at Decentral games, they have Ice Poker. I wouldn’t count them as a competitor. We literally co-sponsored an event in LA with them year before last. We know the Ice Poker team. Our models are so different that I don’t see them as such. They are a play to earn poker game where you are earning tokens and using, buying the NFTs to access the game and to get the benefits. They’re a great game, a great team, and a great product. However, everything they have is such a different model from where we are that I wouldn’t consider us competitors. If you’re looking at poker platforms, obviously we’re non gambling, so most of them are non-competitors. And then there are other social casinos, which are poker platforms where you’re not actually gambling money. You can look at WSOP, you can look at Zynga Poker — also great games, not brilliant gaming experience maybe. Graphics-wise, we’re using Unreal Engine 5, so it’s a much more immersive experience. The others I actually would guess that they’re built in Unity. I haven’t checked that but they’re very simple games and it’s a very different experience again. So, I’m not too worried about that. How are you planning on beating competitors? We kind of have a very niche market as we are fully gaming experience built around poker, whereas the others are, either more crypto experience or more poker experience. We’re sort of sitting in a different space on that. So personally, I’m not too worried. Obviously, people will choose what they want to do but personally I think that we don’t have a massive issue on that one.
What challenges do you think you’ll face the most during this bull market?
The bull market is a strange time. Everyone here, I would imagine, has probably been around a while. I recognize most of the names on this call, and I know that a lot of our community on Telegram, Discord, Twitter are people who have been here from the last bull market and through the entire bear market, which says a lot. Obviously, we’re bringing a lot of new people. The issue with bull markets from a company’s perspective is that people aren’t looking at your company whatsoever. A lot of people are just looking at the token. They don’t even know what you’re doing half the time which is why we had a parabolic run with the pack, our token in 2021. This has not at all to do with what we had at the time. We didn’t even have a game out. It’s fun. Obviously, it will bring a lot of people in now. I think we’re in a much better position because we had no way for retention before. It’s not like they could register and play the game. Whereas at this point, all the new people who come will be able to register, make an account, download the app, log in. So, as the hype sort of fades away, I think that our retention rate will remain higher. And also, obviously for those who are here for the token, which I understand that a lot of you are here for both, it puts the token in a better position too, because it does mean that many people are buying. They don’t have a reason just to throw it away at the end because there is a product and there is actually something for them to do. So, I do see that they are always challenging times in a good way. It’s a much better challenge than a bear market, which is a negative challenge but it’s also not always easy either. In the end, the positives will outweigh the negatives, but yeah, it’s a cautious time.
What do you think makes the Polker Team and the product unique and special?
I covered that earlier — the fact that what we’re actually building is unique and is a very niche market product. And it’s not the only product we intend to be doing either. We will continue. We fully intend to be releasing mini-games with full play to earn token opportunities. Also, one of the things we tried — to stay personal, things like this AMA. We’ve communicated throughout the entire bear market what we’re doing. I do understand that there have been delays, and we’ve always been open and honest about the fact that, we have probably bluntly, we have fucked up, and that’s obviously not something that we would like to do. It’s not something that we intended to do. But well, we’ve always tried to be transparent and honest with the situation. We’ve continued building throughout pretty appalling market conditions with obviously very tight funding. And it hasn’t always been easy either. I think if you look around, a lot of projects have either disappeared or even if they’re kind of still there, there’s no one from the team communicating anymore. So personally, I think that makes us unique and special. We’re not the only ones. There are plenty of companies that are doing it too, but there’s not a huge amount. So, I do feel like from a community perspective, for projects I’m invested in or that I would like to follow, it’s nice to be able to hear from the team and to know that they are still actively working and communicating with me. So that’s why we try to do what we would like if we were on the other side. So hopefully it’s appreciated. If it’s not, I’m not going to apologize, but I’m sorry that you feel that way on that one.
I’m just going to answer one last question, and then I will answer the people who are asking live here. The final one from GP was what is your adoption plan and goals for Q2, Q3, and Q4?
There’s quite a lot of things that we intend to be doing so it’s a very good question. Obviously, we need to be able to port the game over to iOS and to Mac. It’s something that is not a huge number of users computer-wise, desktop-wise. For the gaming side, we’re looking at around 9%. It’s a big enough number of people that we don’t want to exclude from phones. Obviously, depending on where you are, but especially in the US is a much larger percentage of people so we don’t want to be excluding that. So that is something that we need to be looking at as soon as the Android version is out. It shouldn’t be taking too long. There are some different things that need to be done. You can’t just port the game across, but it’s not as complicated as rebuilding it or anything like that. We’re looking at other things we can do with PKR. There are some cool ideas that have been floating around, brainstorming recently, so I don’t want to say anything about those. As soon as I have more clarity, I will mention them in one of the AMAs, probably before I announce them anywhere else. But yeah, after that, we have a whole year of fun things to be coming out, so we’ll be pushing a lot more features into the game. But we’ll also be hopefully pushing out and starting to have a look at how some of the mini games are going to sort of proceed from here, so you’ll be able to see them develop, and hopefully get a taste of what is to come. But yeah, token wise, there are some other cool things that we will be changing and game wise as well. So once the game is out, obviously we need to start some more marketing again. The crypto sentiment is switching, so we’re in a transitional phase. You can just tell from even from the AMA, just the number of people who are here has been increasing over the last few weeks, the last few months, to be honest. So, I think it’s going to be an exciting time but I’m not going to say too much right now. We will be putting in a new roadmap out, but also before that’s done, we need to confirm what’s on it. So, it’ll be the same as what I can’t say right now. Um, we’ll be updated online too.
There is a request to speak from Rezuz. I have approved that. If you’d like to ask a question.
Rezuz: Hey, how are you going?
Conor : Not bad. How are you doing?
Rezuz: Pretty good, pretty good. Um, so I have a question, and then I have two suggestions. Is that okay?
Conor: Yeah, that’s completely fine.
Rezuz: Okay, so basically, I’m having some trouble understanding what is the main difference if, for example, a company like Zynga Poker or someone else who decides to basically make their own token and make their own ecosystem, what is protecting the investment? And what’s, like, what’s the major differences between you and other companies?
Conor : I don’t know if you played the game on the desktop. Our game is built on Unreal Engine, so it’s a full gaming experience. It’s more of an adventure. It’s an adventure game, basically. And it’s built around poker. So, I mean, obviously we have the same backbone, which is the program. Zynga’s focus is solely on poker. You know, you’re not leveling up. You’re not being able to earn anything. We don’t earn any tokens within the game. You’re playing to earn the NFTs. The NFTs are your actual dealer on the table. You’re deploying them. You’re earning benefits. You can access all the accessories you earn. They will appear in the game, but if you withdraw your NFT, they will also appear on, say, OpenSea or wherever you’re looking. So, this is so different. It is true. I mean, theoretically, Zynga could decide to completely copy this model. I would be very surprised. It’s so different from them that it’s not a risk for them to have us. And it’s not really a risk for us to have them. So it’s true they could release a token but then this is like ice poker. And the others, they are play to earn poker games, but they’re also not really what I would consider competitors directly.
Rezuz: All right, got it. Okay. Thanks for the response. I have two suggestions to make. So the first one is actually trying downloading the game, and it seemed like a lot of work to do just in terms of the amount of steps. So, if you could take it down to maybe 2 to 3 steps, kind of like in an Adobe program or something like that, where you just click next, next, next and everything pops up. I think that would really, really increase the user experience and make it much more available for people that don’t really understand computers.
Conor: Could I just ask where you are downloading it? Were you downloading it directly from Epic Games?
Rezuz: No, I was downloading it from the website.
Conor: Okay. So from the website. Maybe we need to make that clear on the website just to use Epic Games. It’s much easier use of the web. Some people don’t like using Epic Games. They don’t want to make an account. So, we have the option to download it from the website. For people who didn’t want to do that, however, if you go to Epic Games and just type poker, you can download it directly there and install it. It’s a much smoother experience. But yeah, if that wasn’t clear on the website, I can change that. So, I do appreciate the suggestion.
Rezuz: Yeah, absolutely. And the second one I think is, I don’t know if I’m just blabbering here, but it might be wise to do maybe a lite version of this where maybe you don’t have all of the features and all of the whole experience, but it can run on basically every computer. Because the first time I downloaded it on a work computer and I didn’t have a graphics card in, and it was like three fps, you know, because it has to be a decent graphics card to run it. So, yeah, I don’t know, but that’s, that’s just another thing that came up.
Conor: Yeah, I think that is something that is going to be an issue with computers. Running any game on Unreal Engine 5 is really graphics heavy, so probably what we will do is once we have the Mac and iOS out is try and have a web browser version as well. That way it doesn’t matter what computer you have. The graphics obviously will not be as good, but it will enable anyone, anywhere in the world with an internet connection to play. So we did try this once before, but I think if we do that as our fifth step, it kind of gets around what you’re saying as well.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate it a lot.
Rezuz Cool. You too. Thanks for the questions.
Conor: And we have, it’s definitely not Christmas, but we have questions from Christmas, so you should be able to speak. Christmas, if you do have questions. I don’t know whether it just didn’t work or whether you canceled that. Just pop your hand up again. All right. I’m going to assume that there are no questions there. I will just say, if anyone does have a question, pop your request in now so I can answer them.
If not, well, good. Keep putting questions on social media. If I’m not answering them, then Tanya, who is here, her manager will also be answering. You might find some others too. If you do want an answer on an AMA, just let people know and we’ll pop the question in for a couple of weeks’ time. If not, we’ll answer it then and there on whichever social media, Telegram, Discord, Twitter. Email us; we are always checking. Oh, Christmas has requested to speak again. All right. I think you can speak now.
Conor: How are you doing?
Christmas: I’m good, I’m good. All right. My question is, you know, many games, don’t support mobile, and that reduces the attraction of many players around the world. So, my question is, can I play your game on both PC and mobiles?
Conor: Yeah. So, at the moment it’s only on windows, and it’s slightly limited functionality. But yeah, in around a month, five weeks time, then it would definitely be on mobile as well. So that by the end of this year at least, we’ll have all mobile platforms, all computer platforms and multiple games out. So yeah, you can play it from both phone and from desktop. Not at this point in time, but surely.
Christmas: All right, all right. Thank you very much for the response. No worries.
Conor: Cheers. Christmas. Also, I like your username. Definitely not there yet, but we’ll get there soon. Well, have a good week, everyone. Like I said, pop questions on social media. We do have some cool things coming up shortly. Trying to think if it was this week or next but keep an eye out. And thank you for joining in and we’ll speak to you again very shortly. See you, guys.
