We interviewed IC Aliens, who told us that the main advantage of the ICAliens NFTs will be the DAO and the ability to hold to earn and hold to win. They will provide royalties from the secondary market to minters and holders.
1. How would you describe your artistic style?
Playful, colorful, and unique. Most NFTs are plain characters against a dull background with various features added on. We strived to create an immersive world in each NFT, so even the background is part of the art.
2. What drew you to NFT creation rather than traditional canvas-based art?
NFTs give you the opportunity to explore the metaverse and to take advantage of the various tools for digital art creation. It’s just a wider universe to explore and provide opportunities for both creative expression and community building.
3. Are there any artists who have inspired you? What do you like about their work?
Picasso has always been a huge inspiration for me, not only for what he achieved but also for the way he did it. When he became renowned for creating something, he changed his approach, which I think is wonderful.
Gerhard Ritcher is another artist who inspires me. I adore his art and the way he employs color; it's remarkable.
4. What made you create NFTs?
It all started with ICelebrity. A family member was gifted & loved to draw in her spare time very detailed, life-like portraits. I couldn’t just sit and watch. I needed to do something about that. I was lucky to be one of the very early members of Dfinity pre-launch, so I was always up to date with all new projects being built on it since the beginning.
SPOILER ALERT! one of them was Toniq labs, and from here, I got my very first Cronic NFT with just 0.2 ICP (the current price is 30x) at the time, and the rest was history.
5. Can you tell us about your project?
ICAliens is a 10k NFT project that is creating an immersive world for our community. Our first goal is to sell the collection and get the ICAliens DAO started so our holders can tell us what they want to see, but we have plenty of ideas in mind to present to them as options. And just so everyone can see right off the bat that we take care of our own, every ICelebrity holder is getting a 1:1 airdrop of ICAliens.
6. How many NFTs will be minted? Can you talk us through the process of how you create the art?
The total supply is going to be 10,000 NFTs for this collection. However, only 9,786 will be minted as a part of our upcoming sale. We’re working on some special NFTs that holders will have a chance to win in the future.
As far as the process is concerned: our amazing artist crafts multiple layers for each unique trait, such as the hat, clothes, face, etc. Then we use an open-source program in such a way that the outputs are unique images with each possible trait from each of the given layers, and nothing is repeated.
7. Will Your NFT be able to breed, stake, rent, or ever be in a game?
We’re open to adding more plans in the future, but for now, the main advantage of the ICAliens NFTs will be the DAO and the ability to hold to earn and hold to win. We will provide royalties from the secondary market to minters, holders, and rare holders.
Plus, we will hold several sweepstakes that will reward holders with periodic giveaways. Also, anyone who buys an ICAliens NFT will help govern the project's future. Voting in the DAO is weighted, so the more you hold, the more your votes count. We want everyone to succeed, but we also think it is fair to reward whales for their considerable investment in the project.
8. What benefits do you think the Internet Computer has over other L1 blockchains when it comes to creating NFTs?
There are so many – where to start? Everything from sheer file size allowing artists to be as creative as they want to the low cost of creation, storage, and transfer of assets make the Internet Computer the only L1 blockchain that makes sense for up-and-coming creatives.
9. What other art have you seen that excites you in the Internet Computer NFT ecosystem?
We love Poked Studio. The bots are fantastic, and we look forward to seeing the GEN2 bots. We also like the 8-bit style on the IC Turtles. Our ICP Squad avatars are incredible, and we look forward to the game. And we have to give a shoutout to IC Project. The chimps are lovely – the more colorful, the better!
10. What excites you most about your launch, and which date is your launch?
Our launch date is the 14th of January. We’re super excited to see the turnout and get things going with the DAO as fast as possible. That’s going to determine everything else that happens in the future for ICAliens holders.
11. What advice would you give to anyone trying to enter into the world of NFTs?
Have a good team around you. Creating an NFT community is more than just one person can handle. It would be best if you had developers, artists, community managers, content creators – it takes an entire village to create a successful project.
12. Do you have further plans to work with ICP Squad in the future after this initial sale?
Working with ICP Squad is always on the table. You guys are essential to the entire Internet Computer ecosystem, so we hope to form a long-term relationship with your organization.
13. Can you envisage a future where the most valuable NFT space is on the Internet Computer?
Absolutely! I think once collectors on the Ethereum blockchain learn how easy it is to trade gas-free on the Internet Computer, we’ll see mass adoption. BTC integration will also play a significant role, allowing us to bring investors to the NFT world who have ignored other blockchains and stayed bitcoin exclusive.
14. Why do you think NFTs have become so valuable in such a short space of time?
People love to collect things, and this is easy to do from the comfort of your own home. At the same time, if you want to get together IRL and have a convention, you can. So it’s the best of both worlds.
15. Tell us about your team
John T, AKA Lazarus is the founder behind the IC Aliens project. Diva is our talented artist who is creating the most stunning visuals. Nanos, Nikk7774, KUKU, ashu.icp, and iamjatingoyal.icp are our mods, and they are spread out among our discord as well as our DSCVR and Distrikt accounts.
Without them, we wouldn’t have the vibrant and growing community we love so much. TESTFTES and jamesnine are our talented developers making sure the tech side of things is running smoothly. I think you already know our blogger, Freelance_Ghostwriting.
16. What advantages do you believe you have over other competitors?
We may not have the sheer numbers in our community that some others have, but we think that is because we have favored substance over volume. The 2,000+ community members we have are all very active, and they seem to have enjoyed the many games we’ve played leading up to the project launch.
We think this constant engagement and rewarding of our community will keep everyone excited and wanting to see where the project goes.
17. Do you have partners? Tell us about them
We’ve partnered up with Toniq labs for our project release, so you will be able to buy and sell our NFTs on the Entrepot marketplace and store them in your Stoic wallet. We’ve partnered with DSCVR to build our community on the Internet Computer, and we hope to keep building engagement there.
We’ve partnered with ICP Squad/Dfinity Community for promotions, and we hope to keep working with you for many years to come. We’ve partnered with Poked Studio and IC Turtles for community giveaways. And last but certainly not least, we teamed up with IC Project to have some of our NFTs auctioned off for charity.
18. Tell us about the challenges you face while building your project?
One of the most challenging aspects of our project was the team building/community building aspect - but it’s also one of the most important. Getting the right people together, getting them to work together, and getting them to perform well together is essential.
The project's scope must also be considered. I specified quantifiable goals as well as a timeframe so that they are not open to interpretation and so the project has a clear endpoint. The overview AFTER the project is completed is perhaps one of the most dismissed aspects, but we intend to follow through.
19. What are your short and long-term achievements and targets?
Our short-term target is to sell out quickly and get the project onto the secondary market so we can start distributing rewards to minters, holders, and rare holders. Long-term, we look forward to continuing to build the community, rewarding holders with rares through sweepstakes, and seeing where the DAO directs us to go in the future.
20. Give us some details about your roadmap
There is too much to go through it all here, and we’ve already mentioned quite a bit. Here’s a link to the full story on our Medium account
From what we have already mentioned, I would like to add that the four main rare categories are Pirates, Kings, Christmas Aliens, and Wizards. Holding them will also earn you a unique role in our discord. You can learn more on our website.
21. Any plan to move into metaverse?
Being in NFTs is being in the metaverse. Where it goes from the initial sale will be up to the ICAliens DAO. We’re open to partnering with other projects to be as immersed in the metaverse as our holders want to be.
22. Will your NFT be tokenized in the future?
Again, we will wait to discuss this with the IC Aliens DAO. We didn’t want to make all the decisions in advance. Otherwise, the governors would have nothing to determine about their own future. Just know that we are more than willing to add team members with various expertise if that is what it takes to reach the goals the DAO determines.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions 😊
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