Exclusive interview with FSL co-founder Yang Rong about the birth of “STEPN GO” and its prospects in the Japanese market

"STEPN" is a popular Web 3.0 game that established Move to Earn.

We interviewed Mr. Yawn, co-founder of FSL, which released the follow-up title “STEPN GO,” about its features, future prospects and its development in Japan.

What are the features of "STEPN GO", which was released in June, and how do you differentiate it from "STEPN”?

Yawn Rong (hereinafter, Yawn): The base is similar, but the content is different. First of all, in "STEPN", the energy needed to play and obtain the utility token GST was restored every six hours. However, the utility token obtained in "STEPN GO" is GGT, and you need to burn sneakers to recover it. Therefore, more sneakers are required than ever before, which I think is the biggest change compared to "STEPN". At the same time, the introduction of this mechanism makes it easier to maintain the value of sneakers at a constant level.

Next, "STEPN GO" introduced the "Haus System", a sneaker rental function. This will help users who are not veryfamiliar with Web 3.0. "STEPN" had challenges with user onboarding. Users had to purchase NFT sneakers and memorize the seed phrase of their wallet in order to play, which created a high barrier to entry for beginners. In addition to these, in order to start playing STEPN, you need to get an "activation code" from your friends, which is a referral code, so the path to playing is not simple. That's why our team spent a lot of time discussing this issue many times.

That's how we invented the “Haus system”. In addition, in STEPN GO, you can obtain an "FSL ID" using your email address, so you don't need a seed phrase. This has made it possible to significantly increase the number of potential users.

In addition, we have also introduced new social functions and interactive maps. Users can customize their 3D avatars and outfits to show off their individuality to other users on the interactive map. I believe this will also leadto increased user participation and become another fun part.

In addition, GGT is required to create costumes. This is also one of the mechanisms that can generate long-term demand for tokens. I think that Japanese users, especially those with a cosplay culture, will really enjoy it.

Currently, STEPN GO is holding "Alpha Draw" (June 17th to July 16th), which is a campaign where you can win three NFT sneakers by lottery. The alpha and beta tests will start after this campaign ends. They will probably have already started by the time this interview is published.

In addition, various features have been added to "STEPN GO". For example, we realized that the specifications ofthe mystery box also needed to be changed, so we developed and implemented "Raw Stone" in "STEPN GO". This affects "Luck", which affects the drop of the mystery box, so "Karma" and "Charm" have also been newly introduced from "STEPN GO". Karma is an attribute that affects the amount of rewards earned in the newly introduced player vs. player (PvP) mode, and the higher the karma, the more rewards you will receive. Charms arealso an element used to collect costume pieces needed to create costumes.

Q: Why did you decide to develop "STEPN GO”, despite the fact that FSL has already released "STEPN" and it has become very popular?

Yawn: We were originally planning phases 7 and 8 as version upgrades for "STEPN" in 2023. These areprototypes of "STEPN GO", so to speak. The phase 7 upgrade aimed to add additional features to deal with in-app economics, such as a new energy system and a fitness system. The fitness system aims to encourage people to develop a habit of regular exercise, such as rewards for continuing to exercise for more than 10 minutes a day. The phase 8 upgrade also aimed to implement additional social features, which we had not yet found a direction for at the time.

The concern at that time was that introducing new features one after another would have a major impact on existing "STEPN" users. In that case, we had to proceed carefully and not to confuse users by upgrading too much. However, we decided that it was impossible to achieve the vision and mission of "STEPN" while maintaining this balance, so we decided to develop "STEPN GO" as a new game. Going forward, we plan to gradually onboard "STEPN" users to "STEPN GO."

Q: What value does FSL intend to provide to users through the release of "STEPN GO"? Please tell us about your specific goals, such as the number of active users.

Yawn: We aim to provide long-term value, such as the fun of gamification, friendship, and a healthy body andmind. We believe that this can be achieved through the game structure and NFTs, but it is an element that is currently missing in "STEPN."

In addition, we believe that "STEPN GO" can increase the number of users by 10 times compared to "STEPN." In other words, we are confident that we can increase the number of users from 5 million to 50 million. If we arelucky, we may be able to acquire 100 million users. I think it will take about six to nine months to acquire 50 million users.

As I explained earlier, "STEPN GO" is also confident because we have simplified the Haus System and the preparation for starting to play. In the Haus System, a host user who lends out sneakers can invite five people to their house as guests. Guests can borrow sneakers from host users for about 2-4 weeks, after which they can choose to stay in the house or leave. If the guest chooses to leave, one invitation slot will open up. In that case, the host user will likely try to invite another guest user. This is because they need sneakers to recover their energy,so they need to earn more GGT. This will have a chain reaction, and as the number of host users increases, the number of users will naturally increase.

Q: Why did you return Gas Hero to beta version after its release in February? When did you decide to do so?

Yawn: Because the quality and quantity of NFT assets and the increase in the number of users becameunbalanced. Therefore, we decided that we needed to roll back to the time when there were no "Epic" and"Legendary" rarities and adjust the number of users so that people who are not native to Web 3.0 could play. If we had not taken this measure, we might have fallen into a situation where some users were dictatorial.

Currently, in the beta version, we are adjusting the balance so that the increase in the quality and quantity of assets is balanced against the number of users. Currently, about 50 new players are joining the beta version everyday, and I think that when it is released to the public again, it will be a game that everyone can enjoy.

Q: When do you plan to release the official version of Gas Hero?

Yawn: I don't know when it will be re-released, but the Gas Hero team is currently working on development,including new features. Many projects announce their planned release date, but in reality they tend to be delayed. We feel bad for our users who are waiting for it, so we will announce it when it is ready and release it in a few days.

Q: What do you and FSL think about the Japanese Web 3.0 market? Also, how does FSL plan to approach Japanese users?

Yawn: As you can see from the news that Sony is entering the cryptocurrency exchange business, large companies in Japan recognize Web 3.0 as an important sector.

I think there are two aspects to the nature of the Web 3.0 field in Japan. The first is that large companies tend tobuild infrastructure. This allows more people to develop in the Web 3.0 field.

The other is the existence of IP. Infrastructure development takes a long time. In the meantime, collaborating by utilizing IP such as anime and manga will lead to the spread of Web 3.0.

We also plan to proceed with an approach to enter the traditional Web 2.0 market in Japan through collaborationwith IP. Our goal is to bridge the two worlds of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The mixture of these two will provide good opportunities for both.

Q: Does FSL have plans to continue working with Japanese companies and organizations?

Yawn: Of course. Japan is one of our key markets. We plan to visit Japan again in August for the Web 3.0 conference "WebX" to explore opportunities for future partnerships.

Q: What is FSL's greatest strength?

Yawn: We are very practical and aim to solve problems from the root and permanently. We have the potential to make that happen.

We are also working on bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. We have been focusing on this for thepast three years. Our recent releases of FSL ID and "STEPN GO" are the result of a year of intensive research and development to bridge the gap.

In the past seven months, we have released FSL ID, "Gas Hero," and "STEPN GO," as well as a largepartnership with Adidas and an airdrop of 100 million GMT of our governance token, GMT. All of these have been realized very efficiently, and I think this track record is also a strength.

Q: What are the future prospects for "STEPN GO" and FSL's short-term, mid-term and long- term goals?

Yawn: Our short-term goal for "STEPN GO" is to gradually attract "STEPN" users to "STEPN GO" and gain high popularity worldwide, acquiring millions or tens of millions of users.

"STEPN GO" is not a single game, but a combination of two apps. The two are FSL ID and FSL's social platform "MoonBase”.

FSL ID eliminates the need for users to go through complicated settings, and it also helps with the loyalty program called "FSL Points" provided by FSL. Our mid-term goal is to carry out many

inter-brand collaborations after acquiring millions or tens of millions of users, gradually strengthen FSL ID as a universal login for Web3.0, and make FSL Points available for other services.

We are also currently focusing on the development of our AR service, MoonBase. The MoonBase is an augmented reality (AR) product that we aim to release on AR gear such as Apple Vision Pro. Our long-term goal is to use theGGT and costumes obtained in "STEPN GO" to utilize tokens and allow users to build virtual cities and interact at MoonBase. This is a worldview similar to the movie "Ready Player One". By that time, we hope that AR gear will be usable outdoors.

In this way, we will continue to value our users and create value over a long life cycle.

Profile

◉Yawn Rong

FSL Co-founder

Co-founder of FSL, a Web 3.0 product development studio, Yawn is responsible for conceptualizing, gamifying, and tokenizing strategies for various products developed by FSL. His work includes the innovative Web 3.0 fitness games STEPN and STEPN GO, the Web 3.0 social game GasHero, and MOOAR, an NFT marketplace.