Goblintown surprises us with a game...

GAMING CHRONICLES 106

Raiden

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Memento | Oscar

Feb 12, 2025

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TLDR :

Goblintown introduces the Really Hard Driving Game
Treasure introduces the Mage platform
Xai introduces Proof-of-Skill

🗞️ NEWS

Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game Coming Soon - Epic Games Store

GOBLINTOWN INTRODUCES REALLY HARD DRIVING GAME

Goblintown, the iconic NFT collection that launched back in May 2022, had a surprise announcement yesterday, introducing the “Really Hard Driving Game”
- In this Decrypt article, the developers said it’s going to be a “foddian” game, which is a challenging obstacle course experiment, similar to games like Getting Over It and Only Up
- Also, remember how Only Up was full of Goblintown NFT Art?
Overall, it’s interesting to see how multiple NFT IPs are turning into gaming companies over the years (e.g. Claynosaurz, Deadfellaz, and CryptoKitties)
- Notably, Goblintown was a free collection though, so they didn’t raise tens of millions like some of the others did
Unfortunately, the game won’t have any crypto or NFT connection
- The game will only use the Goblintown IP and World
- However, the game will be connected to Abstract:
  - “Abstract has a big focus on streaming, and we think our game will be one of the most fun games to stream in 2025,”
Furthermore, we know the game is set to release in 60-90 days
We’ve experienced how these indie games with incredibly high learning curves and very punishing set-back mechanics go viral from time to time
- Why? Because they require a lot of skill, bring a lot of emotion (mostly frustration and rage), plus they are easy to understand, which makes for great short-form content
- These types of games can go viral quickly but also have a short shelf life. I expect this will be a paid game (like $20), as these games are not suitable for in-game transactions or liveops
Because of this interesting flywheel, Abstract makes a ton of sense. The game looks like a ton of fun from the trailer, so curious about how this all unfolds

TREASURE INTRODUCES “MAGE”

In the continuing “battle” of gaming chains for AI dominance, Treasure released Mage. An agent launchpad and platform for AI entertainment
- Context: Ronin, Avalanche, XAI, and other gaming chains have been actively launching AI initiatives and grants over the past year
Mage is mentioned to be “an entire agentic platform” that will create new venues for gaming and entertainment
- Mage agents are built on top of the Eliza framework and integrated with Treasure’s gaming infra
- Anyone will be able to launch an agent using “mana”, fueled by the MAGIC token
  - To launch an agent, users will need 100 MAGIC and 69,000 MAGIC (~$16,500) will be needed to reach the bonding curve
- Including agents that can compete, play, trade, and build with humans and exist in-game, on-chain, and beyond
The first focus of these agents will be games as their training ground
- Including driving IP and worldbuilding, autonomous worlds, creating new game types, etc.
- In this newsletter from early January, we touch upon the idea that “AI AGENTS ARE THE NEW GAMES”
The launchpad is scheduled to come soon with the V1 of its agent orchestration engine
All this money poured into AI applications, tools, and platforms, does have me thinking about where all of this is going…
- Lots of experiments happening right now, but the basics of having an AI give you personalized quests or offers in-game is not something I have seen yet

XAI INTRODUCES PROOF-OF-SKILL

XAI announced that 40.000 Steam games are coming to its ecosystem through its new Proof-of-Skill (PoS) initiative
- PoS is a new rewards platform where anyone with a Steam account can connect it to the XAI blockchain, tokenizing player Steam achievements and rewarding players based on achievement rarity
Here’s how the reward structure works:
- Players connect their Steam account, which logs their achievements
- They climb the leaderboard to earn points based on achievement rarity
- Players earn prizes, being rewarded for their gaming skill
While PoS is “skill-based”, my concern with this model is how easy it is to game a lot of the Steam achievements
- I do understand that rarity matters and the most difficult to complete achievements will grant more points. However, we can’t underestimate people running huge AI/bot farms that can accomplish these tasks. Undermining the idea of “skill to earn”
Furthermore, the idea of bringing Web2 gaming provenance to Web3 is far from new, as the idea has been tried multiple times
- This is not to shit on the idea, and maybe I am over-critical of Proof-of-Skill, however, I simply doubt whether this will lead to significant UA
If they were to pull this off, Xai is well-positioned as a data play though. Because (genuine) achievement data on a large player base brought on chain can be very valuable (think custom offers based on player preferences)