Here we are, back with another interview! This time with Maxwell Logan from Ember a brand new social networking service designed for gamers.
Before we start, we’d like to thank Max along with the rest of the Ember team for participating in our interview and for answering all of our questions! Thanks guys!
/// Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about Ember! Could you please kick-start this interview by telling us a little about your company, yourself, and what Ember means for the gaming community?
My name is Max, I am the founder and creator of Ember, when I am not working on Ember I tend to be riding my motorbike, playing games or chilling with my dog! I am pretty set in my ways, I still consider the Gameboy Color to be the best platform.
Embers mission is to create a place for all gamers and content creators to go. When fully developed it won’t matter what or how you play, on what platform. Ember is for you.
What does Ember mean for the gaming community?
It could mean all manner of things! It could simply be a space for you to read gaming news, follow your favorite indie titles, streamers, artist, cosplayers or find other players and people who share your interests.
You could use it as a platform to host your own community such as a Minecraft server or Tabletop group, You could use it to promote your Indie title! Perhaps you own a shop and want to sell your products to your audience? We’re building so many features for the community.
/// Could you please give us more info as to what gamers can actually do with Ember starting today! As well as a sneak peek at what is planned for the future?
As of right now, in Alpha 1.5 you can
- Create and edit customize your profile
- Follow and interact with your friends
- Integrate services such as Twitter, Twitch, Steam, Mixer, Discord, and Youtube
- Stream from Twitch and Mixer directly to Ember, Add your Youtube video library
- Add your favorite games from our expanding database
- Create a “Writers Block” blog and post about your interest or perhaps write game reviews?
- Create and manage a community, for example; Minecraft servers, Esports teams, Tabletop groups, Indie Developer groups, Stream Teams and more
The future:
We’re always expanding our features, our next upcoming set of features are “Exhibitions” for artists, cosplayers, designers and other creatives to showcase themselves!
A brief overview of what to expect in the near future: Brand and eCommerce features, Dashboards and inbuilt avatar editor game, Huge Indie publishing section,
Inventory systems, Cross-platform multi-streaming and iOS /Android release!
We have a development roadmap (you can access here) which lays out exactly what is coming to Ember over the coming months!
There are even more features on the horizon and we are in talks with some pretty amazing brands regarding integrating their features into Ember!
/// One question our team had was, with so many things made possible on Ember, who exactly is your target audience, is this a service for content creators or consumers?
Honestly, It’s both…We’re creating a whole experience, your whole gaming identity in one place.
/// Roughly how many users are already on Ember, and how far do you plan on growing that number by the end of next year?
Ember is currently in closed alpha, which means we don’t push too hard to bring users in as we’re still in development. Embers has around 600 alpha testers.
As we approach open Beta and launch we will be hosting our launch event and inviting our partners to come along and speak!
Ember generally grows quite organically at the moment, we will offer further partnerships with brands and host events such as yearly conventions inviting all kinds of creators to showcase themselves!
If you are interested in checking Ember out, you can sign up now using the alpha code: edamame
/// Lastly, for the many developers who read Edamame Reviews, is Ember a great place for developers to share their games with potential players?
We are developing an entire section for Indie developers in our dashboard update! Ember is an indie project itself so we want to stick to our roots!
Developers are already making use of our community update which released just last week!
After signing up for the alpha and using Ember for a little bit, we have a few questions to ask you about the platform from an alpha user’s perspective.
/// As far as we can see, Ember doesn’t seem to have a news feed! How do users find the content they are interested in using Ember?
This will be addressed in our upcoming dashboard update, which will bring every Ember feature into one central place unifying the experience, including a feed to keep up to date with everything you follow on Ember! Your dashboard will also include a very cute and completely customizable avatar, you can use your shard balance to purchase cosmetics, items and more!
The lack of Dashboard is due to us being in closed alpha (1.5) but updates are coming!
/// What are Shards? And how can we get more?
Shards are Embers currency, you acquire them via upvoting if people like your content they will upvote you. You can use your shards in the upcoming avatar editor, purchase feature spots on Ember and more!
Ember shards can only be obtained via upvoting, they will never be obtained with real money.
/// For players and developers who can’t wait any longer, how can they sign up for the alpha?
Once again, if people would like to get involved with the alpha, we have created a code just for you: “edamame” Join Ember Today!
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