Weekly Alpha Gaming Metaverse Expedition (WAGME) #27 — 17 November
Shardbound raises $5m led by Bitkraft, Ethxy announces $1.6m pre-seed round to build a Telegram-based MMORPG and Parallel announces that its Open Beta will be released on the Epic Games Store.
👁️ Highlights at a Glance
🔥 Hot Take:
The continuous evolution of Autonomous Worlds is the DeFi moment of complete mindset shift from orderbook—> AMM, but for games. - Minion
🏆 Top 3 of the Week:
Shardbound, a multiplayer collectible tactics game built on Immutable X announced their $5m raise led by Bitkraft to continue building out their vision of merging collectible tactics gameplay with Web3 technology to deliver ownership to players. The game has since opened up pre-registration for their game and has been holding several alpha playtests.
Ethxy, a Telegram-based MMORPG, announced a $1.6m pre-seed round with participation from a16z, Orange DAO and several other investment funds and angels. Built by two degens as a hackathon project during EthCC, the team aims to stretch the boundaries of what’s possible through a chat interface by capturing the essence of a PvP flip and putting it behind a Telegram bot.
Parallel, a Sci-Fi inspired trading card game (TCG) announced that their Open Beta will be released on the Epic Games Store. The team also announced a list of items that are close to being shipped that players can look forward to.
🎨 Mints & Drops
Rumble Racing Star - Open beta launch (November 22). More
OVERWORLD - Worthy Whitelisted wallets mint. More
Shadow War - Agent NFT mint (November 21). More
Rumble Kong League - Alpha Test (November 17 - 20). More
Army of Fortune Metaverse - $AFG private sale on Artbitrum (November 16-24). More
🎮 Gaming Updates
Aavegotchi’s first battle royale game Spirit Force Arena is soft-launching on HyperPlay’s game launcher. More
AI Arena rundown of the latest AI developments. More
Aurory has big updates coming including avatar customization, land exploration, and full blitz combat. More
Aurory officially launched their Seekers of Tokane game alpha which is accessible to all Aurorians and early access code holders. More
AVALON, a web3 MMO built using Unreal Engine, releases pre-alpha in-game footage. More
Axie Infinity announces winners of their recently concluded Axie Game Jam 2023. More
Blast Royale has hit 200k installs on Google Play & App Store. More
Call of the VoYd v0.5.5 is out which has numerous bug fixes, Lightning Strike battles, and more weapons. More
ChronoForge has released their tokenomics and $RIFT token distribution. More
Cradles, a pre-historic ARPG game, has postponed their Steam launch to November 15. More
EthXY pushed out v1.20, which had to be split into multiple parts. More
Gaul, a fully onchain multiplayer sokoban construction game, has just released their demo. More
Gods Unchained will be adding support for Immutable Passport sign-in by early December. More
Kevin The Adventurer Season 3 Stats Update. More
Lattice has announced their own chain Redstone, a super cost-effective chain for on-chain games, worlds, and other ambitious apps. More
Mahjong Meta new Skill Cards have arrived. More
Mix Mob Origin announces the launch of their MixBots and Governance Token ($MXM). More
Moonfrost pushed updates on build optimization, NPCs, and character iteration. More
Nine Chronicles, the first fully onchain RPG, is launching in 5 days. More
Paladins DAO details on their free-to-mint experience for the upcoming SZN 1. More
Paladins DAO SZN 1 community pass mint is now live on Magic Eden on Polygon. More
Parallel has been approved for Open Beta release on the Epic Games Store. More
Petopia founder Corey Wilton teases on the release of their game on November 19th. More
Phantom Galaxies releases their official cinematic trailer. More
Pirate Nation Release #50 which covers new art on reload, Bleed now dodgable by Evade, Blind stops AoE damage, Great Relief tweak, and more. More
PixeLAW is now open source, and ready for users to start creating their own apps. More
Pixelmon announces partnership with Horizen Labs Ventures, a top tier Web3 advisory firm specialising in fungible token launches. More
Pixels introduced Pixels Reputation, a system to track users’ reputation score which could be increased by holding land, purchasing VIP, and completing quests. More
Seekers of Tokane by Aurory will be available on the Epic Games Store soon. More
Sorare NBA upcoming developments as the NBA season kicks into gear. More
The Beacon’s third dungeon is now live. More
The Forgotten Runiverse’s Quantum Gift minting is now live containing exclusive items to never be earned again. More
Treasure DAO introduced their Treasure Quests in Treasure Week, with a chance to win up to $10k in $MAGIC and NFTs. More
Zeeverse’s Stage 3 if The Weaver’s Quest is now live, with a chance to win the brand new white shell. More
ZTX releases their new website and avatar builder, player profiles and open beta coming soon. More
📚 Deep Dive
Game7 has unveiled an in-depth report, titled "State of Web3 Gaming 2023." This comprehensive report offers a unique insight into key ecosystem metrics, utilizing rigorous primary research methods. It provides a bird’s eye view of the Web3 gaming landscape from 2018 to the present.
JACL from Delphi Digital published a research titled “Bitcoin Gaming & The Power of Nano-Transactions” where he analyzed how Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is a massive unlock for mobile gaming and can change hypercasual monetization forever.
Ed from Avalanche gave a glimpse into their open playbook for gaming by emphasizing a strategy of depth over breadth by closely collaborating with gaming teams, offering advanced features for projects deploying on subnets and hosting various gaming initiatives to reach non-crypto audiences.
Maitham from Material 10 released their thesis on “Open Economy Gaming” discussing how the concept ushers in an era of free-to-play gaming without traditional monetization and the potential opportunities that it presents for both players and developers.
Wolves DAO delves into the pros and cons of launching gaming tokens, shedding light on both sides of the coin. On the positive side, these tokens bring about a range of benefits, including the enhancement of user acquisition incentives, generating hype and exposure, fostering player-owned economies that boost player retention, offering an alternative to traditional fundraising methods, and serving as a viable alternative to premium currencies within gaming ecosystems. However, there are downsides to consider, such as the inherent nature of seeking capital through token launches, which can be complex and challenging to manage, and the ever-present regulatory considerations that must be navigated in the evolving landscape of blockchain-based gaming.
In Daryl’s recent article, he shares his thoughts on Axie Infinity being a leading force in shaping the future of digital collectibles for its combination of innovative gameplay, financial incentives, continuous development, customization possibilities, NFT integration, and visionary leadership.
Mason Nystrom from Variant shares key insights for successful NFTs: Unlock post-mint utility, use strategic pricing models, simplify the crypto experience, prioritize user convenience, and embrace the finance-hobby fusion trend. These strategies foster a harmonious product-market fit in the NFT landscape.
Dayton Mills discusses Castaways' concise history, starting with the August 2022 launch of its alpha prototype. The team pioneered the F2O model and developed Castaways for mobile, achieving a top 10% ranking among adventure games in terms of player retention. This accomplishment signifies the readiness of their outstanding web2 mass-market game for launch.
Conglomerate, a contributor of TheCoreLoop released Weekly Onchain Gaming Roundup #8 covering 0xCitadel raising $3.3m, Loot Realms releasing their 'Immutable Arcade' Release of Loot Survivor, and Downstream’s Multiplayer Optimistic Updates.
Innovators: Projects bringing something new or disrupting the norm
Proba Protocol - Decentralized games powered by randomly executable NFTs (rxNFTs) and Chainlink VRF, and also built on Arbitrum. More
Game Makers: New studios, developers or titles entering the space
Petopia - An intense top-down roguelite shooter developed by Mirai Labs coming soon to iOS and Android. More
OPENSEASON - A third person shooter pinning various NFT communities against each other in a multiplayer battle royale. More
Solana Civ - A fully onchain strategy game inspired by Civilization, and built on Solana. More
LANIAKEA - Cross-platform MMORPG under development. More
CYBERZ - On-chain Idle Game taking over Solana in Q1 2024. More
Fractional Uprising Studios - Makers of NFT battle royale OPENSEASON. More
Tech Corner: Focus on infrastructure tools and platforms
Radon Network Guidance - An official community partner of Shrapnel to support the Shrapnel Network and empower creators. More
Zupass - An experimental personal cryptography manager, powered by zero knowledge proofs. More
Redstone - Chain for onchain games (plasma inspired alt DA chain), built by the Lattice team built on the OP stack. More
🧠 Closing Thoughts
“For those who build, invest, and play – remember, every game is a story waiting to be told and an adventure waiting to be had.”
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