It seems like there are new on-chain games every day. Through this series with Iskra, I'll be reviewing various on-chain games that are released or available for playtesting that month. Please keep in mind that my thoughts on these games are very personal, and if you have a favorite on-chain game you'd like to see me review, please let me know on Twitter @samoyedali.
What The Kart by Oh Baby Games has gameplay similar to Mario Kart and uses CT influencers as characters. The community is active, and we're curious to see if they'll license more CT Influencers and turn them into collectibles, or if they'll create their own original IP.
Oh Baby Games' first game, What The Kart, is a Mario Kart game with a few twists.
Crypto Twitter (CT) influencers as characters
A customization system for karts
New modes like ghost matching and player-made bounties.
The first round of alpha testing took place from July 1-3, and information such as which chains will be used and the launch timeline are not yet available.
Pasteur "Pas" Tran (https://twitter.com/passytee), CEO of Oh Baby Games, the creators of What The Kart, previously founded an Australian-based game studio called Mana Wings. Mana Wings worked with big game companies like Activision and Ubisoft, most notably on Crazy Fishing VR. Oh Baby Games raised $6M in seed funding on January 31, 2023. Lead investors include Synergis Capital and eGirl Capital, with participation from gmjp, Merit Circle DAO, and Kevin Lin (Co-founder of Twitch). In addition to What The Kart, Oh Baby Games is also working on two other games, Rugpull Guys, inspired by Paul Guys, and Platform Fighter, inspired by Super Smash Bros.
The overall gameplay is very similar to Mario Kart, with drift boosts, flying items, and a variety of characters and maps.
Personally, I think the fun ultimately comes from the fact that you get to play a kart game while controlling some of the influencer characters you're used to seeing on Twitter. For example, picking up Inversebrah and blasting items at Cobie or beating CL. This can be very appealing to CT addicts like me, but I think people who aren't familiar with CT might not see much of a difference between it and Mario Kart, or might even think it's worse. As a side note, there are tons of different CT influencers as characters, including CL, inversebrah, ansem, cobie, 3LAU, and Tetranode.
Here's a gameplay video from @DantheOPMan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVUr7pznOck
Aside from the use of CT influencers as characters and the fact that the game has received funding from Web3-friendly investors, it's hard to see any connection to Web3. However, in one particular article, when discussing Oh Baby Games' business model, they mentioned cross-game collectibles.
If it is a digital collectible, it means a collection of NFTs that are compatible across Oh Baby Games' games, but I wonder if they will license existing CT influencers and collect them, or if they will create their own original IP.
(A $6m bet to mix crypto and traditional gaming | Source: Tech in Asia)
In the case of Oh Baby Games, there was no mention of its own token, and no mention of its internal economic model. Based on the nature of the upcoming games, it seems like it would be more beneficial to simply allow users to purchase skins and digital collectibles through credit cards, USDC, or ETH rather than building their own economic model through a native token.
If you look at Oh Baby Games' Discord server, you can see that it has a fairly active community, with 49 boosts and various stickers and emotes being used without any giveaways or events. Even during the alpha testing period, the #alpha-testing channel was great for getting feedback, patching in real time, and answering questions.
In the case of Oh Baby Games, CT influencers often appear as characters or join as angel investors, so it seems that many people, including me, naturally learn about and are exposed to Oh Baby Games through these influencers.
(Source: Discord)
As someone who enjoyed Mario Kart as a kid and is addicted to CTs, I found Oh Baby Games' What The Kart to be enjoyable enough without the need for token incentives or complicated economic models. However, it's unlikely to be an instant hit with people who don't know CT. It would be great to see more CT influencers as characters, and it would be nice to see a variety of fun skins for each character in the future. It would be nice to be able to purchase without tokens, with a card or PayPal, or with USDC or ETH.
Rhascau is a FOC (Fully Onchain) strategy racing game created by Minters World that uses the Arbitrum Nova chain. The game is played by rolling dice to move units, and can be played by up to four players. The game also uses a "burner account" that is stored in the player's browser to reduce UX friction and process transactions for gameplay. The game is constantly evolving through an active community and feedback loop on Discord.
Rhascau is a Fully Onchain (FOC) strategy board game created by Minters World that uses the Arbitrum Nova chain and was officially launched on July 5. As of July 31, the game has generated approximately 114K transactions and has received an impressive response from the community, with the total number of matches exceeding 250 in less than a week.
The main team members of Minters World, the team behind Rhascau, include CEO @stokasz, game designer @FarathonMW, and full-stack developers @DevGhinter and @grzyslaw. Minters World launched their own 10k PFP NFT collection prior to Rhsacau's launch, and while they don't have a clear utility, they seem to have advantages such as early access to the game and in-game item airdrops. According to their website, they are planning to launch a new game called Battle For Blockchain in 2024, but no information about the game has been released yet.
Rhascau is a board game for up to four players, with a normal mode and a winner-take-all winner-take-all Ethereum mode. Players move four units each, and the objective is to complete a full turn and return to the starting point. Generators act as dice, and special abilities can be used to eliminate opponent units or gain extra turns. New units are placed on the board when the generator rolls a 1 or 6, and can be removed when they land on a space containing an opponent's unit. If you don't act for 24 seconds, you go AFK and another player can take your turn.
After playing it myself, I found it to be a fun game to play casually. Of course, it's not without its drawbacks. The game doesn't have a lot of strategy depth, and the slow pace of the game can make it feel a bit tedious. However, the rules of the game are easy to understand and intuitive, so even first-time players can enjoy it to a certain extent.
On-chain logic
Rhascau's code is available on GitHub, and everything from managing ongoing games and players, moving units, using skills, and even sending emojis is implemented on-chain. In a board game like Rhascau, one of the things we need to look at is how to generate random numbers. Rhascau uses a commit-reveal scheme, where the rollDice function commits to a hash value of the player's current block number+1, and the makeMove function reveals the value after the block arrives, and then generates a random number again from this hash value, which is then divided by 6 and added to the remainder by 1 to be used as the final generator value. Since the average Arbitrum Nova block time is around 0.5 seconds, this process takes less than a second.
Burner Account
In principle, everything you do in the game requires a signature, but Rhsacau eliminates this UX inconvenience with a burner account. When you first access Rhsacau, you sign to create a burner account that is stored in the player's browser and sends transactions while playing the game on your behalf. Since the burner account is stored in the browser, if you delete your cookies or use a different browser, you'll need to create a new buner account.
I'm actually curious about the exact mechanics of how the burner wallet sends and processes transactions on behalf of the user, but I haven't found any information on it. If anyone knows, please let me know!
While it is expected to have its own token called $MINT, it is still unclear how it will be used. Based on the information that has been released, it appears that more $MINT will be earned by placing higher on the global leaderboard. As far as we know, the protocol's own business model is a 2% fee on the rewards taken by the winner in Legendary mode.
Currently, most Discord members are players of the game, and the server has a total of 14 boosts, which indicates a fairly active community. Since it's a multiplayer game, it can be difficult to get people together, but Discord is constantly organizing match events every few days to make it easier for people to get together and play. Also, the recent patch 1.1 has been impressive in that they have been very responsive to user feedback on the #feedback channel.
Overall, Rhascau breaks my stereotype that FOC games are inferior in terms of UX and boring in terms of gameplay. The UX is very good, even when compared to regular games (I may be biased because I've already played Avitrum Nova), and the gameplay is more than adequate for casual enjoyment. Of course, there's a lot to like. For starters, it's not available on mobile, and the boardgame-style gameplay can feel tedious and slow. However, based on my personal experience and the numbers, I think it's safe to say that Rhsacau is a successful start to the Minters World.
Frame Arms Girl: Dream Stadium is a 3D subculture roguelite game developed by Kotobukiya, LoadComplete, and Line Next and published on the GAME DOSI platform. FA Girl offers a good mix of strategy and hitting gameplay, as you beat each dungeon on a map with a character of your choice. However, the lack of a story and NFT strategy have been criticized by the community, especially as the large supply of NFT items has led to a drop in overall NFT prices. The game itself and the strategy for selling NFTs need to be improved, and a major marketing push is needed to address the existing issues and attract new users.
Frame Arms Girl: Dream Stadium (FA Girl) is a 3D subculture roguelite game produced by Loadcomplete and the first game title released on the LINE DOSI platform. The official launch was on July 6, and naturally, it uses LINE's Finschia.
The main players involved in FA Girl are Kotobukiya, who provided the IP, Loadcomplete, who created the game, and Line Next, who handled the publishing.
First, Kotobukiya is a well-known Japanese figure maker that created the Frame Arms Girl series, which became quite popular and successful, selling over 500,000 figures in about a year and a half and reaching the #3 spot on Amazon Japan in 2015. The IP goes beyond just figures, with an anime and comic in 2017, and the characters have made occasional appearances in other games prior to FA Girls.
Loadcomplete is a game developer founded in 2009 whose most notable previous game is Crusader Quest. Crusader Quest is a 2D dot-based mobile RPG that has surpassed 25 million global downloads, but announced in early October that it would stop updating for the last time.
FA Girl was released through LINE's GAME DOSI, which appears to be the part of DOSI that handles Web3 games on LINE Next's all-in-one NFT platform. Starting with FA Girl, it appears that two other games are in the works, Project GD and Sweet Monster Guardian. Both games are already selling NFTs, although the exact details are not yet available.
FA Girl is a traditional roguelite where you pick a character, a map, and pick tiles on the floor to beat each dungeon. The gameplay doesn't seem too physically demanding, but it was difficult for me. On the strategic side, you'll need to find the right mix of supporter cards and E-units that you can equip to each character, as well as pick and choose your attribute items based on the monster's attack pattern. At the end of each tile is a boss monster, and defeating a three-tier boss counts towards your ranking score.
Personally, I found the gameplay to be satisfying because it's not too difficult to control, and it feels good to hit, even though there are some repetitive elements to it.
FA Girl is a typical Optional Cosmetic Mints (OCM) game where only some items such as skins, support cards, and E-Units are NFTs, and users can trade NFTs on the GAME DOSI Marketplace. However, FA Girl's NFT strategy leaves something to be desired.
The game launched with 1200 initial NFT skins for sale, but these skins were essentially just color changes, so it's hard to evaluate their quality. In addition, a free airdrop gave away a common skin, Wind Blue Gourai, which was tradable. As a result, too many of these skins flooded the secondary market, which negatively impacted the overall NFT price. Announcing the sale of secondary NFT skins when the price was already down made the community's reaction even more negative, and we've now paused the sale and are taking a wait-and-see approach.
There is no token-based economic model for the game.
The total number of boosts for the GAME DOSI discord containing FA Girl is 8, which is a relatively small number considering that there are approximately 380,000 members. In light of this, it is reasonable to assume that FA Girl's community is made up of members of the existing DOSI community. Despite the fact that the game uses a well-known IP, Frame Arms Girl, it could have benefited from a more sophisticated game and marketing strategy around this IP to attract new users.
The aforementioned strategy regarding NFTs, the lack of a story, and the unfavorable treatment of existing DOSI CITIZEN holders have not been well received by the community. It is not easy to improve this situation in the short term.
FA Girl is an OCM game with an interesting IP, and the gameplay itself is interesting and satisfying within each dungeon. However, there are a couple of things that I was disappointed with, the first being the lack of a story in the game, and the second being what they are doing with NFTs. With a great IP, developer, and publisher, I think they could have done a lot better.
Gran Saga: Unlimited is a PC MMORPG game developed by METAPIXEL that utilizes blockchain elements such as Proof of Play, but without affecting the core game loop. METAPIXEL has an active community and has engaged influencers for content partnerships and playtests. METAPIXEL contributes to the Aptos ecosystem through its AIP-11, tokenized object model, and proxy gas fee payment system, and is a fun game for those who love the MMORPG genre.
Gran Saga: Unlimited ("GSU") is a PC MMORPG game that leverages NPIXEL's existing Gran Saga IP, and is an OCA (Onchain Asset) game with some elements implemented on-chain. It uses Aptos as its underlying chain, has completed its first and second community playtest, and is expected to launch in late 2023, although an official launch date has not yet been set.
GSU features a player-driven economy, and the ultimate goal for players in the game is to become a System Agent, which is said to have unique powers to influence the GSU world, including the game's economic model and other areas of the game.
Founded in September 2017, NPIXEL is best known for its first game, Grand Saga, which was released in 2021. Since its domestic launch in January 2021, Gran Saga has generated approximately 140 million USD (approximately 180 billion KRW) in gross revenue through February 28, 2023, with nearly half of that coming from Japan. The company is also preparing to service the Chinese market, having completed the issuance of a Chinese license late last year. NPIXEL became the first Korean game company to become a unicorn, raising a total of $75 billion in Series A funding in 2020 and $100 billion in Series B funding in August 2021. NPIXEL is currently preparing a new open-world MMORPG called Chrono Odyssey.
(Gran Saga revenue from January 21 to June 23, 2021 | Source: Appmagic)
METAPIXEL is NPIXEL's onchain game studio, and the METAPIXEL ecosystem will be built on top of the Aptos chain. METAPIXEL's lineup includes GSU, its own NFT collection, Catcha, and another game, Pixelcraft.
Thanks to 1mpal, I was able to participate in a second playtest. First of all, I personally haven't played the MMORPG genre, so it's hard for me to give a proper evaluation, but the completeness of the game itself seems to be comparable to a normal game. I originally planned to play up to level 15, but I gave up because it became difficult to level up rapidly from level 13. Users who were having fun seemed to be partying together, raiding, and doing other activities. The lack of running and jumping and the quality of the animations in between were a little disappointing, but they didn't affect the gameplay too much. For a more in-depth review, check out tweet from 1mpal.
Proof of Play (PoP)
(Source: Gran Saga: Unlimited - Sailing Towards the Second Test)
Proof of Play (PoP) is a mechanism that METAPIXEL uses instead of a random number generator to determine the drop rate of rare items, and the relevant information is recorded onchain and can be viewed by anyone through Explorer. PoP works by inputting user-generated in-game information into a hash function, and if the output value is less than the target hash, it succeeds, and if it is greater, it fails.
(Source: GSU 2nd Community Test Starter Guide)
Currently, PoP is not used for all in-game items, but it is applied to one of the most important items, the tesseract. These tesseracts have a certain chance of yielding keystones, which can be used to summon some of the most powerful Gran Weapons in the GSU universe. For example, when you open a tesseract, you'll see a number between 0 and 999, and if the target hash is 750, you'll only get the keystone if the number is less than 750, otherwise an epic item will be given to you instead. The difficulty of earning Keystones is designed to increase as more players join the server.
When gamers open a Tesseract in-game, they can view various information and data about the results directly through the PoP Explorer. For example, the following Tesseract opened by a user named "Dexler" resulted in a result_value of 81, which earned him the keystone.
(Source: PoP Explorer)
Outside the Game
Outside of gaming, METAPIXEL continues to contribute to the infrastructure of the Aptos Chain.
Tokenized Object Model (AIP-11): In-game items often change and evolve over time, and traditional token models have difficulty reflecting this. AIP-11 enables dynamic representation of in-game items as on-chain assets.
Proxy Gas Payment System: This is a system that allows game companies to pay for gas on behalf of gamers who are unfamiliar with the concept of gas fees at certain events.
(Source: Why the New Aptos Token Object Is a Game Changer)
(Source: Creating Seamless Onboarding for Web3)
As stated in the AMA, METAPIXEL has no plans to launch a token yet.
(Source: METAPIXEL AMA #3 Recap)
(Source: METAPIXEL)
Through an event called "Gran Saga: Unlimited Idol," GSU partnered with creators for content and allowed them to participate in the second round of playtesting with their fans, and I participated in the playtest as a fan of 1mpal. It's a win-win situation, as GSU gets publicity through the influencers, and the influencers get to create their own content. These creators receive in-game Soulbound Tokens (SBT) called "Idol Tokens," which do not affect game progression but allow them to interact with fans through special features such as growing in size and emitting light.
METAPIXEL's Discord server has received a total of 124 boosts, indicating the support of many community members. In addition, the team has held three AMAs to date and two community playtests, one in March and the latest in July.
Overall, METAPIXEL's GSU is the closest thing to a AAA game that we've seen to an on-chain game to date, and it's clear that a lot of thought has gone into how to use on-chain elements in a way that doesn't impact the core game loop, but gives gamers an extra edge. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the MMORPG genre, so I can't say I enjoyed the game itself, but I'm sure it's a game for those who already enjoy the genre. Outside of the game, it's impressive to see a variety of open-source contributions directly to the Aptos ecosystem.
Wildcard Alliance is a game that combines the RTS, battle arena action, and card collecting genres, and uses polygon chain. The game is being developed by Playful Studio, whose CEO, Paul Bettner, is a former developer of 'Age of Empire' and the game 'Words With Friends'. Wildcard Alliance aims to be fun to play and fun to watch, with onchain capabilities that directly connect fans with streamers, creators, and esports players. The Genesis WildPass is currently available for playtest participation, airdrops, exclusive access, and more.
Wildcard Alliance is a mix of RTS + battle arena action + card collecting genres, where players take on the role of a champion in the arena, summoning various creatures to destroy the opponent's main base. It uses polygons as its base chain for the Gensis Wildpass and is currently in closed beta for Gensis Wildpass holders.
Paul Bettner, CEO of Playful Studio, the company behind Wildcard Alliance, started his career as an Age of Empire developer and later created a game called Words With Friends at a studio called New Toy before selling the studio to Zynga. He spent about two years at Zynga as a general manager before leaving to start Playful Studio, where he worked on Super Lucky's Tale, Creativerse, and his third game, Wildcard Alliance. In June 2022, the company raised $46M in Series A funding from Paradigm, Polygon, and Griffin Gaming Partners.
I was lucky enough to participate in the Wildcard Alliance Quest event and win a Genesis Wildpass, which gave me the opportunity to participate in the recent closed beta playtest.
It was one of the most fun on-chain games I've ever played. The goal of the game is to break the shield of your opponent's home base in the battle arena and destroy it. Users summon their creatures based on their mana, and you, as the champion, fight alongside them in the arena. The arena has three lanes and several devices like teleports, and it's a strategy game where you have to think about where, what creatures to summon, and when to summon them to fight alongside you. Later on, when multiple creature cards are released, it will be fun to build these creature packs like in Hearthstone. Also, each champion has different skills and ultimates, so while there are only two champions at the moment, BOLGAR and LOCKE, it will be interesting to see what creatures work best with which champions.
The only downside is that the specs are pretty high, making it difficult to run the game on my laptop. I ended up having to go to a local PC bang to playtest, which was well worth it for me. It's also still in closed beta, so I'm sure there will be optimizations for lower specs as we get closer to the full release.
Here's a video of @brycent_ playing Wildcard Alliance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G0aUA80T6U
Why Onchain?
Wildcard Alliance started as a generic web2 game five years before CEO Paul Bettner realized it was web3. Playful Sutdio wanted to make Wildcard Alliance as fun to watch as it is to play, with fun gameplay as a fundamental part of the gameplay. To realize this vision, they approached streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, but it was not easy to change the direction of their platforms. After weighing our options, web3 emerged as the solution.
In other words, the Wildcard Alliance's answer to "Why Onchain?" is that it allows for a direct, disintermediated connection between streamers, creators, and esports players and the fans watching the game. Just like a player giving away jerseys to fans at a real basketball game, the Wildcard Alliance allows for live giveaways from the wallet of Streamer A to the wallet of the fan B watching the stream.
Genesis WildPass
The onchain element within Wildcard Alliance at this point is the Genesis WildPass. Existing on top of the Polygon chain, the Genesis WildPass is a form of battle pass that gives holders access to playtests, airdrops, holder-only access, and early access to the Wildcard League ecosystem. The Wildcard Alliance will have separate web2 and web3 modes, with cards used in the web3 mode expected to be in the form of NFTs.
There are currently no known plans for a fungible token within the Wildcard Alliance.
The Wildcard Alliance's Discord server currently has a total of 30 boosts and is considered to have an active community. Discord regularly hosts closed beta playtests for Genesis WildPass holders, weekly quests with Genesis WildPasses as prizes, and community events to preview game designs and animations. Outside of Discord, the team actively interacts with its audience through its Twitter account, and a character introduction tweet in late 2022 received nearly 14.4 million views.
Personally, this was the most fun I've had playing this month, and it's been a lot of fun compared to games outside of web3. Of course, it's still in playtesting, so there are still some kinks to work out, but Wildcard Alliance is one of the most exciting on-chain games in the OCA format. There's a good reason why it's on-chain, and part of it is the format of a card game, so the introduction of NFTs seems natural compared to other games.
Words3 is a Scrabble-style word game turned PvP game, with all logic implemented onchain. The game is played with the word "INFINITE" centrally created and then participants add letters to create valid words, with the cost of each letter determined by the VRGDA mechanism. The contract for Words3 is currently not publicly available, but previous versions of the contract are still available.
Words3 is a PvP game that is a slight variation on the Scrabble-style word game where players take an alphabet and create valid words, and is a FOC game where all logic is implemented on-chain. The game is built using a MUD framework and is currently undergoing intermittent playtests. The underlying chain will be Optimism, and playtests are currently being conducted on the Lattice testnet.
Small Brain Games, the creators of Words3, are a community of developers and players who make FOC games, and in addition to Words3, they've launched on-chain games like Dark Seas, Underseas, and Ape's Gambit. They are currently working on an on-chain strategy game called Network States.
The game begins with the word INFINITE created in the center of the grid. Participants start with this word and add spellings to it, scoring points by creating valid words. The main difference from traditional word games is that each additional letter costs money. The cost of each word is determined by a mechanism called VRGDA based on the demand for that word at that time.
The player's final profit is determined by Your Word Rewards + Your Prize - Amount Spent.
Your Word Rewards: If another player uses your word or part of your word to form a valid word, 1/4 of the cost paid by that player is paid to you in World Rewards.
Your Prize: The remaining 3/4 goes to the treasury, which is distributed at the end of the game based on each player's score overall.
Amount Spent: The total amount of money spent on adding letters to form valid words.
I participated in the second playtest on July 22. The dark purple are the words I created, but because I focused on simply creating a lot of valid words, I earned a lot of points but messed up my final PNL. In the end, I think it's more important to earn the most points at the least cost and get others to use your words than it is to simply earn a lot of points to maximize your final profit.
Words3 is a FOC game, meaning that all game logic is implemented on-chain. Previous versions of Words3 were built with MUD v1, and the current playtesting version of Words3 is built with MUD v2. You can read more about the differences between v1 and v2 of the MUD framework in this article, but the main difference is that while MUD v1 enforced an ECS, MUD v2 allows developers to use any data model they want. Words3's current contracts will be released before the public launch, and previous versions of the contracts are still available on their GitHub.
There is no token-based economic model.
Small Brain Games' Discord server has only had two boosts, so there is not yet an active community. However, Small Brain Games seems to be focusing on creating a FOC game and evolving it through iterative playtests rather than building a community.
This is a simple game, but the addition of a cost for each spelling, and the fact that the cost changes based on demand, makes it different from other games. The game is still in the experimental stage, but we are looking forward to seeing how it develops as we continue to playtest.
Thanks to Kate for designing the graphics for this article.
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We explore the history of various gaming platform categories that have driven the success of the gaming industry, and Iskra's new vision and initiatives for Web3 gaming adoption.
A look back at 2023 in the on-chain gaming industry, and a look ahead to 2024.
Onchain Games I Played This Month: November
This report covers the gaming sector in November 2023.