CCP Games has raised $40 million in funding to make a new triple-A blockchain game set in the Eve universe.
The new game is a big project and that’s why Reykjavík, Iceland-based CCP Games went beyond its owner Pearl Abyss to look for external funding. Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) led the round, with participation from Makers Fund, Bitkraft, Kingsway Capital, Nexon, Hashed and additional participants.
This financing will allow CCP Games to build upon the discoveries of its research and development team to enable the full-scale development of a new triple-A title utilizing blockchain technology, said CCP Games CEO, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, in an interview with GamesBeat.
With key game systems developed on-chain, this new project will also leverage smart-contract blockchain technology, focusing on persistence, composability and truly open third-party development to create a new relationship between virtual worlds and players.
“Since its inception, CCP Games’ vision has been to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. Now, with advancements made within blockchain, we can forge a new universe deeply imbued with our expertise in player agency and autonomy, empowering players to engage in new ways,” said Pétursson. “This financing has marked an exciting frontier in our studio history as we begin our third decade of virtual world operations. We are humbled by the confidence from our partners in the development of this new title.”
Eve Online launched in May 2003. In September 2018, Black Desert creator Pearl Abyss of South Korea bought CCP Games for $425 million. It was a huge sum for a company running a game that has been around for almost 20 years and is still a big success. But this new idea called for outside investment.
Innovative Approach to Game Development
“CCP Games is a pioneer in virtual worlds and digital economies with 25 years of experience creating living sandboxes with unparalleled depth,” said a16z General Partner, Jonathan Lai, in a statement. “They’re a veteran team and we believe in their ambitious vision to deliver incredible player experiences at the intersection of best-in-class game design and blockchain technology.”
“The depth and nuances of EVE have become a frequent point of reference in blockchain gaming and we are therefore thrilled to support the team’s impressive vision of expanding the EVE Universe utilizing this technology,” said Makers Fund principal Alli Óttarsson, in a statement. “As a former employee, it’s a great personal joy to be reunited with CCP and to witness their continued passion for creating truly meaningful virtual worlds.”
“We’ve long marveled at stories of interstellar war, spaceships forever lost, and the constant challenges of staying ahead of emergent, sovereign play patterns,” said Bitkraft Ventures partner Carlos Pereira, in a statement. “Hilmar and the team’s experience is unmatched, and we’re excited to see how they use blockchain to let players dream further.”
Alongside independent financing, this new title’s production is separate from current and previously disclosed projects, including Eve Online, which is now in its landmark 20th year.
There are a lot of people who want blockchain games to stand and deliver. And 2023 is likely to be the year when we get some answers about whether high-quality games will show up using the technology.
Urvit Goel, vice president of games at Polygon, recently talked to games beat about how the blockchain protocol company is trying hard to make that happen.
“Specifically in gaming, 2023 will be the year that blockchain and gaming will be judged heavily on all of the promises that are being made about great games,” Goel said. “We need to start seeing some of those games. There will be enough to start making a determination about quality. A lot of these builders in stealth mode haven’t launched a product yet.”
He notes that Polygon has been at the forefront of Web3 gaming with its recent integration of the popular NFT marketplace Magic Eden as well as top games in the industry such as The Sandbox, Dencentral Games, and more.
While the collapse of FTX set the industry back, DappRadar reported that the Web3 blockchain gaming sector has seen continued investment north of $500 million between October and November, even after the FTX debacle.
“Our focus will be on helping these builders come to market, whether that is with broad tooling to make it easier to launch or new technology for scaling,” Goel said.
Goel joined Polygon about a year ago, diving into Web3 for the first time after a decade of service at Amazon in game-related roles. He serves as the head of games at Polygon, with the goal of driving the adoption of blockchain technology by game developers. He reports to Ryan Wyatt, who previously headed YouTube Gaming and now oversees all of the vertical industries at Polygon.
A $100 million fund
Goel’s job is to connect developers to technology and marketplaces to build better products. Polygon set up a $100 million fund to invest in Web3 gaming and other verticals, using a lot of its own money from when it raised a $450 million funding round.
Goel believes that the blockchain game industry is getting closer to being an adult. In its early years, during the bull run for blockchain and cryptocurrencies, people brought out very simple experiences that took advantage of the financial opportunity but were viewed as a bunch of noise by gamers.
With the bear market, Goel believes the “true builders” who have been working for multiple years are pushing through and removing a lot of the noise.
“What’s left is the high-quality builders in the space who are committed to building great and fun experiences for customers,” Goel said. “These are well-funded teams that have the runway to build great games. Or it’s large Web2 developers who have Web3 initiatives and can continue to build. I’m not seeing a slowdown.”
As for the competition among blockchains, he believes we’ll see many successful blockchains. He doesn’t view others as competition. Rather, the main task is to evangelize the tech so that more people are willing to adopt Web3 gaming. Different blockchains are trying different experiments.
“A rising tide lifts all boats because we are in this phase of the mission where there are a lot of trials,” he said. “We’ve seen what hasn’t worked quite clearly. And if we continue to go through the trials, we can find what it is that will work. It’s similar to how mobile games took off. We’ve only seen the first iteration. The number of chains out there is actually helpful.”
Recovery mode
Fractal and Polygon launch partners.
The FTX crash is definitely a negative event that is hanging over the industry, Goel said. He said it’s worth noting there is a difference between a centralized exchange versus true blockchain technology enablement. The fallout from FTX will take months to unfold, he said.
The $100 million fund is an ecosystem fund that focuses on multiple verticals including gaming, where the company deploys capital to game builders. The fund is still operational and the company is looking at the builders applying to it. Goel said the fund has made hundreds of investments so far.
“The thought behind it is there are a lot of Web3 native builders, and they need support and they need capital,” he said. “We are in a lucky position to deploy part of our treasury to help the ecosystem. It gives builders confidence to see we support them.”
Goel said blockchain games are already strong, as the number of active wallets has been consistently going back up in recent months. And games are accounting for a large part of all blockchain transactions, according to DappRadar.
“The sector is down, but it has held quite strong,” he said. “The thesis is that players are going to play games whether we are in a bull market or a bear market. The other piece is there are a lot of free digital collectibles ready to drive the top of the funnel.”
It reminds him of the early day of free-to-play games where players eventually started making premium purchases.
“We’re still in the early early stages of blockchain gaming. So if you zoom out a little bit, it’s like making predictions about mobile games back in 2000 [before the iPhone came along] That was hard,” he said. “The focus is on helping developers get to the market. Consumers will tell us what they like.”
Goel said he doesn’t think of various segments of the blockchain gaming population yet because the industry is still so small. There is a contingent of crypto-savvy blockchain enthusiasts, and there aren’t enough blockchain games on the market yet. Goel believes the game startups and indie studios will lead the way in blockchain games, as they’re the ones who aren’t afraid to adopt new technology.
And coming up with new kinds of games is better than launching the blockchain equivalent of a Call of Duty game, he said.
“I think you will continue to see a disproportionate amount of funding go into blockchain games,” he said. “I’m bullish for blockchain games. There are more shots on goal at the end of the day.”
Big challenges
Polygon
Of course, not everything is going swimming. Yosuke Matsuda, CEO of Square Enix, announced he will step aside and promote a younger executive to the top role in June. He was a big advocate of blockchain games and sold off the company’s Western studios to focus on new technologies. (It’s not clear if the new CEO will also focus on blockchain games). The number of active wallets in the blockchain is still pretty small. And the funding could dry up if the economic downturn starts to hurt companies even more.
The blockchain companies are also competing with each other for gaming customers, with ImmutableX poaching studios from both Solana and Polygon and so on.
Goel noted that some of the largest companies in South Korea and some of the largest gaming companies in Japan are still taking their intellectual properties into the blockchain space.
“We’re starting to see some of those dominoes fall. And then what’s that mean for Western game developers? I think that remains to be seen. But this industry is very global,” Goel said.
Meanwhile, the industry needs to improve its infrastructure, whether that is marketplaces, data analytics, wallets, or payment solutions. Game companies shouldn’t have to dedicate their internal staff to do that kind of work.
“We want to partner more closely with developers and help them,” he said.
Web3 games offer new opportunities for developers — but also new challenges. therefore, This article will cover the Web3 user acquisition challenges and secrets for games, along with tools and past real launch cases.
1. Free to play games
Free-to-play games are all about acquiring players at a reasonable cost and making sure the Average Revenue Per User (aka ARPU) exceeds it, producing a profit. Hence, this article we’ll cover everything about the CAC and LTV challenges and secrets.
Web2 businesses are all about investing less to acquire new users (CAC) than the economic value they produce (LTV), in short: CAC < LTV. This is better explained in the diagram below:
Firstly, let’s do a brief refresh of what these metrics mean:
1.2 CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost
This is how much it costs to get a new user and the calculation depends on the company setup. The most common way to calculate it is to divide costs / new customers acquired given a period:
CAC = Salaries + Revenue share + Fees / # of new customers
1.3 ARPU = Average Revenue Per User
This metric is the average amount of money generated per user over a period of time. Many companies use ARPDU for daily check on what is going on.
1.4 LTV = Lifetime Value
There are quite a number of ways that you can work this out. As a rough starting point LTV is calculated by multiplying ARPU by the average player lifespan (which you can work out from churn rates).
Consider this example: with an ARPU/month of $5 and a player lifecycle of 5 months, the LTV equals $25.
2. Web3 games user acquisition challenges
Comparatively with Web 2, in the Web3 world Wallet addresses are anonymous, all the previous logic changes completely. As a result, we can’t target users based on their social network profile, and this fact changes everything. We’ll cover in the rest of the article the Web3 CAC and LTV challenges and secrets:
2.1 Web3 games user onboarding introduces high friction
Generally, Web2 games introduce no additional friction to new player: just find the desktop or mobile game you want to try and start playing with a brief tutorial and a bunch of free coins.
Comparatively, the Web3 games customer journey is completely different: as you can see in the list below, each steps introduces friction to the user, increasing the CAC for the game:
Create your Wallet using an easy to use product (ie Metamask)
Do the KYC process (upload your ID, etc)
Fund your Wallet using your bank account or credit card
Buy Ethereum, USDT or MATIC tokens
Go to the Polygon Bridge, transform your tokens to MATIC
Buy the game token (for many games, users need two tokens)
Go to OpenSea, connect your Wallet, learn how to use it
Learn about the game NFTs using Youtube or Discord
Buy your first NFTs
Access the game, connect your Wallet and start playing
In case you are wondering how this User Experience can improve, Constanza Caballero, UX Lead at Mighty Block has written about this topic.
2.2 User segmentation
A common practice for Web2 companies to acquire users is to define their Ideal Customer Profile and then segment their paid campaigns to find more of them.
The web2 customer acquisition funnel
As shown above, this strategy is possible because users sign up to social networks and search engines using their personal information and perform activities that are a clear sign of their interest.
Segmenting user profiles in Web3 games (and any web3 company for the purpose) is not possible because the analogous to the user profile is the Wallet address (an alphanumeric string).
Web3 Look-a-Like audiences?
Lookalike audiences could be a key strategy for web3 GTM strategies
2.3 Measuring Lifetime Value
Free To Play games are used to calculating the economic value of their paying users, also known as “Lifetime Value”: they have the revenue per user in a long period of time and can calculate an average aggregated revenue per user over time.
Although at first sight it seems simple to calculate a web3 LTV (for example calculating inflows vs outflows of an Address), once one puts more thought into the problem, it becomes clear that calculating economic value entering or leaving the game can be ambiguous and confusing.
The relationship between fiat inflow, outflow, Advertisers and a Game Economy
Hence, I believe some questions that will need to be answered to calculate a standard LTV across the gaming industry:
Should the NFT marketplace fees (ie: OpenSea) be considered in the LTV calculation?
Should the LTV consider only Fiat purchases for game tokens or NFTs?
Should the DeFi token pools (ie: Sushi swap pools) be taken into consideration?
Should asset prices (ie: NFT floor) be taken into consideration to calculate an LTV over time?
My opinion is that the industry will have to agree on what is to be included into the LTV and what is not: a new standard for the Web3 version of the LTV.
Finally, I believe we’ll need tools to help us track all of this activity to calculate the LTV correctly (new article focusing on this coming soon).
2.4: Acquisition channels
Generally, Web2 companies are used to acquiring users through a mix of well established platforms:
Google Search
Youtube
Tik Tok
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Discord
Reddit
All of these platforms allow marketers to segment their campaigns with personal data (user location, age, gender, etc) and user activity within the platform (Post View, Likes, Shares, Video engagement, etc).
The challenge for Web3 games is that the “Web2 segmentation data” is not so relevant. For example: how do you create your campaigns for a new Web3 RPG game when Instagram won’t show 1) if the User has a Wallet and 2) if the user has shown any interest in Web3 games?
Also, some Web3 companies are trying to segment Addresses based on their past activity in the blockchain, emulating Facebook’s Look-a-Like algorithm to send highly targeted Airdrops to be redeemed in the game, acquiring a new user.
Lookalike audiences could be a key strategy for web3 GTM strategies
To me, it’s unclear if approaches like this will work, although this strategy seems similar to the already successful Web2 user acquisition strategy.
Finally, as any active OpenSea user can testify, if you are interacting with DeFi protocols or just swapping tokens, your Address is a target to receive lots of Airdrops (aka the Spam of Web3) as you can see in this OpenSea account:
The Web3 spam: a view of all the NFTs sent to an Address without it’s consent
Free mint as a user acquisition strategy
One trend that was very strong during 2022 was Free Mints. It is true that selling 10,000 high priced NFTs in 15 seconds was one of the most important reasons for a lot of teams to start developing a blockchain game.
However, everybody realized how unsustainable that was since you needed to justify the incredibly high prices of those NFTs.
The F2P (Free to Play) model was there from the beginning for every game developer, but it seems like everyone was waiting for one successful example which came with Digi Daigaku.
3. Conclusions
We have finally covered the Web3 CAC and LTV challenges and secrets throughout the article. Do you see any other important challenges and differences between Web2 and Web3 games that we missed?
This is obviously an open topic, and the gaming industry will evolve these metrics as new products are launched. I expect to see new standards defined, new tools created to measure accurately and a new set of best practices iterate Web3 games.
If you’re interested in blockchain technology, gaming and then our podcast is for you!
Listen to experts in the field discuss the latest developments and future potential of using blockchain, the latest news related with blockchain technology and the gaming industry.
Tune in to stay informed and ahead of the curve in the world of blockchain and gaming:
Episode 7:
If you’re interested in learning more about decentralized identity in Web3, then you won’t want to miss our latest podcast episode. We have an expert guests who share their experiences and insights into the potential of decentralized identity.
In this episode, you’ll learn about the benefits of decentralized identity, including increased privacy and security. Our guests also discuss the practical applications of this technology.
Whether you’re a developer, entrepreneur, or simply curious about Web3, you’ll find something valuable in this episode. So be sure to tune in and discover the potential of decentralized identity for yourself!
Episode 6:
Check out our latest podcast episode featuring the CEO and founder of Mighty Block. In this episode, we dive deep into the world of web3 and the future of the business ventures in this exciting new space.
Episode 5:
Recommended for gamers and those who want to learn more about this world! How have video games evolved to web3? What is coming in the future? In this episode, Sebastian Perez (Tech Lead at Mighty Block) and Uri Chami (Solidity Developer at Mighty Block) discuss these topics.
Episode 4:
In this episode we talk with our guest Milton Berman, WakeUp Labs founder and CEO, about the process through web2 to web3
2022 was a year of unprecedented events for the cryptocurrency ecosystem. With Diego Gurpegui Improve-in Co-founder and CTO we took a look back at the most important events of the year.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are the world’s most popular blockchain networks. We discuss with Diego Gurpegui Improve-in Co-founder and CTO about the differences and benefits of each one.
Episode 1
In our first episode we talkwith Emiliano Canedo (web3 researcher and digital artist) about Ethereum: The merge, the history and the future.
Def blockchain games are also capable of having their own native crypto tokens. There is no centralization involved in the trading of these tokens.
What are DeFi Games?
Decentralized and finance are the words that make up the term “DeFi.” The games operate decentralized, as the name might imply. Every transaction made during the game is recorded on a public blockchain. These games typically use NFTs to represent in-game items and follow a play-to-earn business model. The market in the game, as well as any other marketplace like OpenSea, is where non-fungible tokens can be bought. Within the game, the NFT assets can be traded.
Defi games are also capable of having their own native crypto tokens. There is no centralization involved in the trading of these tokens within the game. Players can profit by staking their holdings thanks to this. The in-game currency can be used to buy in-game items. Consider Minecraft or the well-known board game Monopoly, but with blockchain technology. The game’s economy runs entirely independently and without interference from any higher authorities.
Here are the top 5 DeFi Blockchain Games to watch in 2023
Illuvium
Star Atlas
MOBOX
X World Games
CyberKongz
1. Illuvium
Open-world fantasy battle game Illuvium was created on the Ethereum blockchain. Illuvium, which is frequently hailed as the first AAA game on Ethereum, aims to entertain casual gamers and die-hard DeFi fans through various collecting and trading features. The game combines elements of PVP combat and open-world exploration. Players have the option of exploring the vast game world or assembling a team of formidable beasts.
2. Star Atlas
A grand strategy video game with a space theme that uses the Solana blockchain is called Star Atlas. It is a massively multiplayer metaverse set in the year 2,620 in the far future. In order to produce video games and visual experiences of cinematic quality, the gaming platform uses Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite. Players on the Star Atlas metaverse can exchange, acquire, and create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the Star Atlas universe, taking advantage of an economy that replicates the tangible nature, right of ownership, and worth of real-world assets. It ranks among the most played Defi games.
3. MOBOX
MOBOX is a stage that is driven by the community and gives users power by rewarding them for their participation and enjoyment. GameFi, the new revolution in free-to-play, pay-to-win gaming, is made possible by the MOBOX Protocol, which combines the best elements of yield farming DeFi and gaming NFTs. MOBOX is a stage that is driven by the community and gives users power by rewarding them for their participation and enjoyment. To create GameFi, a truly Free to Play and Play to Earn ecosystem on the BSC ecosystem. However, MOBOX has developed a ground-breaking system that unites the best of DeFi Yield Farming and Gaming NFTs.
4. X World Games
X World Games was founded in 2019. It is a decentralized gaming ecosystem built on the Binance Smart Chain. Players and creators can acquire the X World Games (XWG) tokens through a number of cutting-edge games. It is a multiplayer builder game where anyone can buy and possess digital dream cards, gather and create exciting items, and make new friends through community and battles. There are four parts of the X World Games ecosystem for users and creators. However, they are the game itself, a marketplace, a card creator, and a card collector.
5. CyberKongz
On March 3, 2021, the digital artist myoo unveiled the gorilla-themed CyberKongz NFT collection. However, he went on releasing 1,000 “Genesis” Kongz for a mint price of just ETH 0.01. People quickly realized that pixelated Kongz made ideal profile pictures. Also, it gave the project some energy. The Kongz has grown in popularity from being NFT profile pictures to a mature community project with various use cases and niche characteristics, which has increased their value and created a significant buzz about their potential development. Those who own Cyberkongz gain access to private groups, airdrops, and alpha. It is a play-to-earn NFT game.
The gamified expansion of its Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem involves minting a free Sewer Pass to play a game called Dookey Dash.
Introduction to the Expansion and Free Sewer Pass Mi
Yuga Labs, the creative studio behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has announced an expansion to its non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem that starts with a free mint and a skill-based game.
The unique drop, which involves multiple steps, begins on Jan. 17 with a free mint for existing Bored Ape Yacht Club/Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders called Sewer Passes. These tokens are the key to unlocking a skill-based game called Dookey Dash, which opens for gameplay on Jan. 18.
Gameplay and Rewards for Sewer Pass Holders
Dookey Dash will be playable to anyone who holds a Sewer Pass, including those purchased on the secondary marketplace. Holders are able to play the game an unlimited amount of times, with the goal of receiving a score higher than 0 to validate their Sewer Passes and “transform them into a mysterious power source.”
The results of this wacky process will reveal itself on Feb. 15 when Dookey Dash gameplay ends.
“Sewer Pass holders will compete for the highest score and earn their new power source,” BAYC wrote in a series of tweets on Wednesday. “The highest single-run score on your specific Sewer Pass and accompanying wallet that achieved the run will determine what it reveals.”
The team also hinted that whatever is revealed will “evolve throughout 2023” and will be used in future “battles.” You can read a long explanation of the mechanics of the game here.
The Otherside and the Narrative Experience
It’s clear that this new NFT mint, which began with a silly and NSFW animated video on Dec. 21 called “The Trial of Jimmy the Monkey,” is part of Yuga’s broader plans to develop an interoperable metaverse experience called “The Otherside.” The platform will allow players to own land and turn their existing NFTs into playable characters.
“All of the projects that we have are deeply important to us,” Wylie Aronow, one of the co-founders of Yuga Labs, told CoinDesk in an interview last month. “Wherewe see the Otherside is at that intersection.”
According to the road map of Yuga Labs’ latest project, NFTs created from this month-long experiment will be part of a narrative experience called “Chapter 1” at a later date.
The World Cup is here and at Mighty Block we love football. As most of our team is Argentinian (me included) and we cannot help our fandom for our national team. We’ve been waiting and preparing for this event for months and we created a betting smart contract football game for it, exclusively for Mighty Block’s team facilitated by blockchain technology on the Polygon blockchain with a smart contract. How did this project came to be? Follow me on this adventure as I tell you the tale of this game and how company culture helps to build amazing things while having fun and being responsible.
The “prode”
During the World Cup it’s very traditional that every group of friends would have a ‘dealer’ that would organize what we call ‘Prode’. This is basically a betting game that consists in everybody submitting their guesses on match results and some type of point system is set up, for example:
10 points if you guess winner and scores
7 points if you guess winner and one of the scores
5 points if you guess winner but not score
2 points if you guess one score but not winner
0 points otherwise
This same person gathers money (the same amount) from everybody. After all matches have been played, the group gathers, the ‘dealer’ shows the results and rewards the winners (usually first, second and third places) with all the money gathered.
This system is heavily dependent on the ‘dealer’ keeping everything orderly and transparent, usually this ends up with discussions about rules, points, how much money was gathered, if the dealer changed any result, etc. This leads naturally to:
Ban this type of betting in a professional setting (since it can create issues between the team) or change the dynamic of the game, where the company funds the reward and there’s not betting per sé.
Ban the ‘dealer’ from participating in the betting.
Even when all the above happen, there is still a sense of distrust in the dealer after the game ended.
As the World Cup was getting closer and closer and everybody at the office started gossiping about the players, the news (and even one of our coworkers went to Qatar himself!) a light bulb went on. What if we make this heavily centralized and ugly betting game into a trustless system facilitated by Blockchain and Smart Contracts? (A smart contract football game!)c.µ.
Just like that, our minds started running, we were thinking of ways to make this happen. How would it look? Where do we take the results from? Do we use an oracle? How do we split the reward? What would happen if there is a tie?. As programmers we could not help our anxiety in any other way than coding the damn thing.
We spent 4 hours making this solidity Smart Contract in the dirtiest way possible, following no guidelines of clean, scalable and sustainable code. After all it was an MVP of a joke, we were not planning to really do this, right?
Ok, let’s back up. How did we end up here? Why on earth are we working on an MVP of a joke instead of working on our clients needs on company time?
Mighty blocks culture policies
At Mighty Block we take culture very seriously. A very important exercise was done approximately 6 months ago, were HR gathered ‘the most important thing that you value from a teammate’ and distilled a list of core values that we as an organization value.
At first sight, it doesn’t sound at all special. Just another set of empty words that nobody follows. Well, this is where Mighty Block makes the difference.
You can read more about that process here, but TL;DR, the HR team listed the things that we REALLY value, not just a poster on a wall, these are the things that we want to keep and grow:
Quarterly face-to-face workshops
Mighty Block is a fully remote company, we have teammates all around the world yet once a quarter we try to meet face-to-face. Our HR team makes a great effort to make this week as productive, fun and fulfilling as possible. These meetings really help to spark inspiration and to show our new team members how we put into practice the core values. It’s not forced indoctrination, rather it’s simply making how we work transparent to the whole team and since our core values express that, the newcomers can sense and learn that.
What does all of this have to do with the ‘Prode’ project? Well, everything. Our ‘real’ project (the one our client was paying for) was under control and the client was happy with our productivity at the time. We were not crunching nor under a lot of pressure. On the other hand, we were sure that if the Prode project failed, nobody would tell us off, it would go against most core values and if we succeeded building the Prode and found ways to circumvent all the issues, Mighty Block would support us and facilitate all the resources needed to make it happen.
It was a can’t lose type of situation
Only in that state of mind can you make progress in a relaxed, healthy, fun and productive manner. It was not only important, it was the key for being able to make this project a reality, otherwise it would have been a comment, a joke, a thought, but never a real thing.
The smart contract was just the beginning
Writing the smart contract was just the beginning of our adventure. After this rush of adrenaline and inspiration we had a rough, untested and dirty smart contract that did the thing. We had a Prode v0.1. After making sure that no big barrier would prevent us from making the World Cup Prode a reality, we pitched our smart contract football game idea with HR, they loved the project and we started thinking on what else we should add. Ideas started flowing, adrenaline went down and we planned our next steps.
How to make this work in a professional setting? The smart contract plays the ‘dealer’ role here, so that helps a lot but also Mighty Block funded the prize. So no betting, just a company game.
Uri and Boro coding
But interacting with a smart contract is a very annoying thing, we needed a frontend and that’s where the rest of the team comes to play. Most of the development of this project happened in the span of 5 days, during one of our quarterly workshops. While Ignacio and I were writing (and now testing and refactoring) the Smart Contract, the rest of the team heard our conversation and started asking questions, everybody was excited to try it!
Julian, our frontender, was one the excited coworkers, he offered to build a frontend for us. He had no experience making a dApp, so it was a learning experience for everybody involved. I helped to connect the frontend with the Smart contract while Ignacio was finishing tests and HR was deciding the proper prize.
During Julian’s process he had questions about UX, Constanza, our UXer, helped with that.
Juli working on the Smart Contract Football game frontend
Overall it was a team project, a great experience not only for building the technology and then playing with the game we created on real time during the world cup, but also a bonding experience. Next time I have a question I’m more confident asking Constanza, Julian or Ignacio. The whole team sees this vibe of having fun and building stuff together, and wants to join in, the best example of this is our participation rate of 95%, almost the whole team played the game. This is a positive feedback loop that we need to nourish and nurture, that’s our philosophy, that’s why we have core values and that’s why we do what we do.
Despite the FUD, blockchain games surged in active users in September, while God’s Unchained cracked the top 10 in terms of total NFT sales volume of all projects (Cointelgarph).
User activity on blockchain gaming decentralized applications (DApps) surged in September, with a host of games posting significant increases in the number of active users.
According to data from DappRadar, seven out of the top 10 games in terms of the number of “unique wallet addresses interacting with dapp’s smart contracts” increased over the past 30 days, with all of the top five games being in the green during that time frame.
At the time of writing, the DApps registering growth in the period include Web3 gaming platform Gameta, and blockchain-based games Alien Worlds, Solitaire Blitz, Benji Bananas and Splinterlands, Farmers World and Arc8 by GAMEE.
In a Sept. 27 blog post, DappRadar noted that eight of the current top 10 blockchain games are mobile-first, which could eventually “bring millions of users to the blockchain,” noting:
“Dapp games like Gameta, Benji Bananas, Upland, and Trickshot Blitz let anyone with a mobile device earn crypto with little prior knowledge, investment, or risk.”
“Using daily activities like hyper-casual mobile games as a hook ensures users find fun once they interact, while solid tokenomics can encourage everyday use and retention,” it added.
DappRadar said one of the possible reasons for a rise in popularity of blockchain games despite the bear market, is the idea of “bleed in the bear and run in the bull:”
The biggest uptick in users came from Animoca Brands’ Benji Bananas (Polygon), which saw a 2016.54% increase over the past 30 days. Notably, this game was a Web2 mobile app until March this year. Animoca then introduced play-to-earn (P2E) elements via the Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated Ape Coin (APE).
While it is unclear what specifically saw the number of Benji Bananas users increase by so much, it did host a P2E gaming event this month that offered a series of valuable in-game NFTs to the winners.
Out of the top 10 games, only Axie Infinity, Trickshot Blitz and Upland saw decreases over the past 30-days.
The increase of blockchain gamers this month comes as publications such as Bloomberg note in a Sept. 28 article that the highly correlated NFT market trading “frenzy is almost dead.” It points to overall NFT trading volumes dropping 97% since January as evidence of such.
As Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu pointed out via Twitter on Sept. 30, purely looking at the metric of NFT sales volume doesn’t necessarily paint the whole picture in NFTs or gaming.
Siu highlighted that NFT prices have generally declined in accordance with the price of their paired assets such as Ether (ETH), while many games — that don’t often grab the headlines — require NFTs that are relatively cheap. He instead emphasized that user activity and the number of people entering Web3 is where the focus should be.
Gods Unchained breaks 10 top NFT sales
Meanwhile, NFT-based card battle game Gods Unchained has seen its NFT sales volume creep into the top 10 in NFT sales volume over the past 30 days, according to Cryptoslam.
Gods Unchained has seen a 373.25% increase over the past 30 days to sit at $10.8 million at the time of writing. This marks the first time the game has seen NFT sales top $10 million since January, and after a very slow February to August period.
Reasons behind this could be due to discussions of a “Season 2” upgrade to improve the game and lore in the works and GameStop offering free NFT packs to Pro members this month. Meanwhile, an esports tournament with a $70,000 prize pool was also announced at the start of this week.
Gods Unchained has also seen a significant increase in active users over the past 30 days, gaining 28.50% to sit at around 14,180 according to DappRadar. The game still has a long way to catch up to the top 10, however, as its user count places it at twenty-eighth.
The Walt Disney Company has announced the six companies that will be joining the 2022 Disney Accelerator.
The Walt Disney Company announced the six companies that will be joining the 2022 Disney Accelerator, a business development program designed to accelerate the growth of innovative companies from around the world. This year’s Disney Accelerator class is focused on building the future of immersive experiences and specializes in technologies such as augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence (AI) characters.
“For nearly a century, Disney has been at the forefront of leveraging technology to build the entertainment experiences of the future,” says Bonnie Rosen, General Manager of the Disney Accelerator programme.
“The Disney Accelerator is thrilled to be part of that legacy, and with our newest class of companies, we look forward to furthering our commitment to innovation and continuing to bring magical experiences to Disney audiences and guests for the next 100 years.”
The 2022 class is as follows:
Flickplay, a Web3 social app that enables users to discover NFTs tied to real-world locations that they can experience and share via AR.
Inworld allows users to create interactive, AI driven characters for immersive experiences.
Lockerverse is a Web3 platform that empowers creators and brands to tell culture defining stories and deliver unique access and experiences.
Obsess is an experiential e-commerce platform that enables brands to create immersive 3D virtual stores on their websites and on metaverse platforms.
Polygon is a scalable blockchain network that allows developers and enterprises to build Web3 experiences.
Red 6 is an AR company that has created a patented headset and interface that works outdoors in dynamic, high performance environments.
