A few weeks ago, we talked with Renegade Comics creator and puzzle maker, Cosmic Postcards. We put together some of our favorite moments from the interview below. For those of you looking for all the juicy details on the Renegade Runner universe, watch the full clip here.
Who are you and what do you do?
Cosmic Postcards is a brand of ours where we create alternate reality games. This is something that in the past we’ve done in real life. We’ve made games in cities around the country that are kind of interactive multimedia puzzles. When we started to get into what’s possible with the blockchain, NFTs, web3-integrated websites, we said, ‘this is actually something that lends itself to the type of game that we like to play.’
I would describe it as part interactive art exhibit and part alternate reality. This particular project we are piggybacking off of original IP that is from an NFT project called Chain Runners. Chain Runners is a 10k PFP project that essentially created this universe of dystopian cyberpunk hackers. The Renegade Runners and Renegade Comics is an offshoot of that universe where we’re exploring some of the characters there and playing with folks that find their way into our universe along the way.
How do you go down this road? Where did you start with this puzzle?
I don’t want to divulge too much about the previous puzzles because some of them are still in action, but if you could imagine walking into a coffee shop and seeing a flyer on the pin board there amongst all of the local offerings, classes, guitar lessons, and whatnot, there may be a nondescript flyer there that says, “Are you looking for something? Call this number.” By the end of it, you would’ve visited potentially numerous physical locations and interacted with folks that may be playing the game, or they may actually be actors that we’ve hired along the way.
What is the Renegade Comics angle?
We’re a social club and a side quest game within the Chain Runners universe. There are leaders within the sect and groups that operate independently. We do try to bring them together when there are larger initiatives/games that we have to play. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you think you’re trusting a fellow Renegade Runner, but they’re actually a Som Knight. That’s just the world we live in in Mega City…
How do you collect revenue?
Our project in particular we view as an art project first and foremost, and a social club within the guidelines of Mega City. So we’re nonprofit. The revenue that comes into the Renegade Runners universe goes back into creation. For every 500 tokens, we build an issue of the comic book, a heist, and a 3D asset.
What’s the plan when it comes to using Darkblock?
What’s incredibly powerful about the Darkblock platform is…I mean, besides the API access, the fact that it’s immutable on Arweave, which is incredible; plug-and-play in terms of the viewer…it’s the token-gated access. Community, art, and all these things that NFT people say that they’re into NFTs for…like, whatever. Ultimately, the most powerful thing about NFT is this [token-gated access]. Token gated access adds real utility to NFTs. When you start to play with this [Darkblock], you just realize all the different possibilities of real-world applications. For us, as game makers and puzzle makers, it’s super powerful because we can customize the content based on the tokens that people have in their wallets. So for Renegade Comics Issue #1, what that means is — and I don’t think we’ve indulged this anywhere — is hidden within the text, so we can stay compliant to Mega City guidelines and ordinances. There also may be codes to unlock mints for 3D assets. To not divulge our identities and connection to any potential theft, or connection to stolen or hacked assets on the SOMNET network, it makes it very easy and convenient for us to pass along that information to our users without publicly divulging that we’re doing so.
I couldn’t recommend it enough to creators or builders that are out looking to build with Darkblock. The support from the team was phenomenal. The communication from everyone that we dealt with…we wouldn’t have been able to do this without y’all. So we really appreciate y’all collaborating with us on this.
Big thanks to Renegade Comics for not only taking the time to chat with us but for using our protocol on their project! Go check out their website, or join their community on discord/twitter.
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