Hi Chieftains!

Since the release date of Soulmask, we have met many Chieftains with enthusiasm and charm, their support and love for Soulmask have added a vibrant touch to our community. Their enthusiasm has inspired us to share their stories of encountering Soulmask with everyone.

In the first episode, we have chosen Wak4863, a YouTuber who specializes in the Survival game guides. Meanwhile, his unparalleled love and passion for Soulmask have led the development team to undoubtedly recognize him as Soulmask's most enthusiastic star players..

Hi Wak! you know, we have been looking forward to doing one of these interviews for you! So as per usual, could you perhaps introduce yourself?

I'm Wak4863, I'm a pretty humble guy, I describe myself as "just a guy who plays video games and shares my experience on YouTube and Twitch." It's the community that makes me important, not that other way around. I love helping people find hidden things in games and exploring interesting mechanics and then sharing them in video form on my YouTube channel.



I also stream to Twitch and YouTube, my stream are much more relaxed then my guides are but I still try to answer everyone's question when they ask during my streams.



My favorite games find a balance between reality and fantasy. Real enough that is it believable, but with enough fantasy that I don't feel like I could just do it in real life. I think games that find this balance are the best games and if they also don't teach you a lot it's an added bonus for me because I love to explore and find things myself.

Soulmask definitely finds that balance for me, and I have been enthralled with the game play, the mechanics and the fact that I have a huge world to explore and share with my community.

We remember the theme song video you made for us before the release, ALL OF US watched it, it was awesome! What kind of idea was it that made you want to go ahead and make the song?

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The song is a passion project, I like keeping my finger on the pulse of what is going on with AI generation tools. I LOVE Soulmask it’s my number 1 game for the coming future. So when I found the AI tool to generate song I decided to make a song about Soulmask. Taking inspiration from the story about the mask and your journey through the game I wrote lyrics and then uploaded them to the AI software and the Soulmask Anthem was born. I like to make guides but I also just like to make entertaining videos from time to time and it was just felt like a perfect match.

Yeah, I've seen that you're really into using AI to do some cool stuff! but as a whole, you're very focused on the guides type of videos, what was the trigger that made you decide that you wanted to go into the guide type of content at the time?
And also, what do you think are the challenges of making guides for survival games?

I think the lack of knowledge about games was what started me on this path. I was searching for information and couldn't find it, so I had to find it myself and with putting all that all that time into figuring it out I thought it would be perfect if I shared that information with others around the world.



Challenges for making guides for most Survival games is time. Understanding systems and testing can be very difficult, especially when you are working with a lot of variable. Finding a way to remove as many variables as possible is one of the major hurdles. Having an admin panel in the game really helps with this.

It seems that, for you, the comments from people in the community are the biggest motivation to make guide videos, how do you think about the gaming community?

Without the community there is no reason for my channel to even exists. This is why I am just a guy playing games and making guides for YouTube. As a guide channel I rely on the community needing to know what I have to show them. So yeah the questions from community are very important to me and my process. I like to say, I don't know what other people know or don't know, so having a window into what they need to know is really beneficial to my process.

Back to Soulmask, I'm curious as to what was the starting point of your meeting with Soulmask? What were your impressions of this game when you first played it?

In November of 2023, I was contacted via email ,In the email there was a trailer for the game. Watching the trailer I saw some really intriguing things that I thought were too good to be true. I responded to the email and was sent a key to check it out. I think I had access to it for 3 days, I didn't fall in love with it the first time I played it. Probably because I didn't make it that far into the game that first time. But I did think it had good mechanics for what I did see, and I wanted to see more.



I have been part of I think 7 tests prior to the Early Access release of Soulmask. I think in the 2nd or 3rd test I really fell in love with the game, I realized that even in an Alpha stage the game was miles ahead of a lot of other survival games that were on the market already. Sure the game needed polish but the core mechanics were there and I felt the progression was properly set up to be challenging and rewarding.



I will say, Being able to have a tribesman for each job is really awesome in my opinion. I have one for fighting humans and creatures and another that I use when I want to do mechanical dungeons. I love chasing huge damage numbers and I love having unique tribesman for the job. Tribesman in Soulmask are a living breathing weapon or tool with stats and personalities of their own.


*Wak's Tribesmen.

I have also found that I am more careful when playing as a tribesman because no matter what there is more risk to playing as one. the risk has caused me to be a better player. more calculated in my approach to fights and challenges. Meticulous about timing blocks or dodges and dissecting each fight move by move.

You've just mentioned that the game has characteristics that are far ahead of many other survival games on the market. Which ones do you feel are those?


The automation system is one of the mechanics that was and I think still is miles ahead of other games with automation and other survival games without it, and I know even without being told that there is more coming. The balance is something that I have not seen done so precisely in other survival games, usually I am able to find a way to cheat or cheese something in the game because the devs didn't think the way a player does and when we get ahold of the game we are able to exploit things the devs missed.



That was not the case with Soulmask. I think the idea of having the tribesman being a class and the mask also being a class is really unique and far better then just picking a bunch of stats to dump into your character and that is really just scratching the surface, there is also the red crystals and the mask upgrades that can make your character more powerful. All these things combined show me that the devs had a full vision of the game from start to finish when they started letting us check it out.



I'm curious, what's the craziest challenge you've done with your friends in a survival game? How did you guys overcome that?

Early on when I start playing the game a friend of mine and I ended up dying to a Panther, we didn't have anything special but we didn't want to leave our gear there. We would spawn in and run to our death from the panther over and over again. We were determined to get our loot back. We figured out finally that one person could bait the Panther away while the other one got their loot. We probably died 20 times trying to get beast hide armor and stone tools back. But being resilient is part of what Survival gamers are all about.

I did a solo challenge a week ago when I was livestreaming. The challenge was to fight the Sabertooth with no armor and just stone dual blades, I was not allowed to heal in the fight. I don't remember how many times I died trying to do it but it was a lot. I did finally kill the Sabertooth without armor and with only stone blades. It was a fun challenge to be victorious in.



I also had a challenge to make it through a whole Barracks without alerting more then one person at a time. I did this with a fellow streamer. Figuring out a path to get through the camp silently and unseen was really fun. We were not allow to use the mask that makes you invisible. But after failing at the first camp we tried a second camp and we were able to accomplish our goal.



I've done other fun challenges in other games but these challenges stick out in my mind right now.

EPIC! What would you recommend for our game at this stage? This is really, really important to us.

I think the most important thing right now for Soulmask is making sure that the story about the character is very clear so that people understand what the gameplay is going to be like. I know there is some conversation about this topic happening now, but having the description of the gameplay is extremely important.



Beyond that polish and balance is extremely important now that the game is in public hands, for example the mammoth boss likes to leave it's arena and reset. This can be frustrating for people, fixing things like this are very important for the player base.

Finally additional content and mod support. Mods can be scary to approach because you never know what people will create but hand in hand the mods can keep a game alive long past it's prime. I think the sooner you support modders in their creations the larger the modding community will be and the stronger that relationship with the community and the dev team will be.

One last question: anything to say to new players of Soulmask?

New players should walk into the game with the understanding that they need tribesman to be truly successful. While you can complete the content with your main character I consider that playing the game on Hard mode, which can be a challenge, but if you are struggling you should try a tribesman to even the playing field.


*The home Wak built with his friends.

They should also know that the game has deep roots in reality. For example you can have your tribesman retrieve resources from a box and use them to craft an item on a bench, which in it's own way is crafting from inventory, but it is different from what people think about when they hear that term, craft from inventory. Another example of being rooting in reality would be how fall damage is increased based on how much you are carrying. If you think about the systems in Soulmask and apply real life to them you will be more successful. The fact that these systems are based on reality give the game a very unique outlook on survival systems.

A final note from someone with over 700 hours of playtime in Soulmask, if you give the game a chance, be prepared to drop every other game you have been playing. Soulmask has a way of grabbing your attention and I find myself not wanting to play any other games.

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Final words:

Wak, as the first star player of Soulmask, means a lot for us. Here are some words from our community staff and developers:

After game EA, everything happened so fast and felt unreal, sometimes I couldn't help but reminisce about the moments when I chatted with Wak day and night about game suggestions and video contents while Soulmask was still unknown. Thank you for your contant support, this has been a marvelous journey. I am excited to witness the next chapter of Soulmask with you in the future. ——Vox

I really hope that I could have a chance to drink with you, Wak! I especially appreciate your efforts in introducing and sharing our game with the public through your own influence when we were still unnoticed. This friendship is priceless. Thank you for all you have done for Soulmask! —— Matthew

In the future, we will introduce more special Soulmask Chieftains like Wak, including our community volunteers, and the special achievement collectors... But we believe that regardless of the titles they have, they all possess a commonality: the boundless love for Soulmask, just like all of you!

Maggie

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