Mafia Wars on the blockchain? Moon that

GAMING CHRONICLES 101

Raiden

and

Memento | Oscar

Jan 09, 2025

Gaming Chronicles focuses on curating the latest web3 gaming news, every week.

You will find the latest news, educational content, and game reviews.

Arbitrum, a gaming ecosystem with titles such as King of Destiny, Seraph, Pirate Nation, and Mighty Action Heroes, brings this newsletter.

Virtual Protocol and Avarik Saga partnered to create a flagship “Anime x Gaming x AI powerhouse”.

This means Avarik will bring Agents that can live stream games and comment on game in real-time. “Imagine a 24/7 agentic streamer, ACTUALLY playing games on Twitch AND interacting with the audience in real-time. . . “

TLDR :

Limit Break introduces Apptokens
Sonzai Labs
ZKcandy raises $4M

🗞️ NEWS

LIMIT BREAK INTRODUCES “APPTOKENS”

This week, Limit Break announced its “biggest and most important Web3 release yet”: Apptokens and TokenMaster
Let’s discuss what these terms mean, and what this means for the industry:
- Apptokens are a new class of programmable digital assets (ERC721-C and ERC-20 tokens). Designed to give game devs the tools to create functional token ecosystems
  - Examples of Apptokens:
    - App-linked: to drive game downloads by converting token demand into app engagement
    - Task-linked: requires specific tasks or quests to be completed before token interactions (e.g. enabling trading)
    - Web2 secured: use Web2 account infra (e.g. Gmail, Facebook, etc.) to secure and control token interactions
    - Trade-ratio: define trade value ratios between tokens in the game economy
    - Price range: set minimum/maximum price limits for trading
    - Promotional spend-only: freely distributed, but only usable in-game
    - Event: designed for event-based trading or engagement
- TokenMaster is the economic infrastructure built to allow devs to manage their ERC-20 Apptokens effectively (like an economy dashboard)
- The benefits:
  - Ryze (previously a game designer at Limit Break) provides some good insight into the specific benefits of the Apptokens:
    - This standard allows app-centric token economies to exist and operate primarily within the context of a particular app (e.g. game), making sure the app directly benefits from token demand and activity
    - It allows creators (e.g. devs) to capture the more speculative value and “token-driven UA” generated by their token, rather than losing it to external market forces or 3rd party platforms
    - It enhances the developer’s control over the game economy with tools to guide token utility and value toward desired outcomes, such as user retention and progression
  - Other benefits are mentioned such as:
    - Customizable token interactions, improved security, controlled trading activity, monetizing trading volume, dynamic token adjustments, Web2 gatekeeping, creating diverse token types, and returning a focus on building over token price
Overall, Apptokens will allow devs to define token behavior programmatically (on a smart contract level), something which wasn’t possible before
- Developers will be able to define how tokens can be bought, sold, and spent on a very granular level in-app and onchain, unlocking a ton of new applications and ideas
  - The most exciting is this quote from Gabe Leydon: “…I think with these tools you can actually make something that’s not possible with Web2.”
Lastly, if you want to learn more, but in a more digestible and easy-to-understand video format, I can recommend this video from Payton

SONZAI LABS

A couple of days ago, Sonzai Labs debuted a new gaming studio: “We build magical social experiences where AI, social gaming, and crypto seamlessly converge”
- Founded by the same Ryze we just referred to, Ryan Foo (previously the VP of Engineering at Alamanak), and Ian Leck (previously engineering lead at Tiltyard)
  - A very small, but stacked team, reminding me of a studio like Uncharted
Their first game is called TeleMafia, a social mafia game on Telegram
- In the game, you wage wars with different mafia families, allocate funds for wars and raids, and engage in battles to earn respect (think Mafia Wars, but with interesting blockchain-based meta-features)
  - Furthermore, the game taps into AI with its “AI Concierge”, who manages treasuries, distributes rewards, and taps into DeFAI
    - I assume this can lead to interesting scenarios where the AI can reinvest funds in the broader crypto market
  - It looks like the idea of the game came from Gabe Leydon
- Why was Mafia Wars so successful?
  - It was very accessible from a gameplay perspective, integrated with Facebook, had strong reward loops, and good social dynamics
    - Using this same formula, but on Telegram and adding in some blockchain degenism, will probably fare well with the trader crowd (like Onchain Heroes)
- They will release a Diamond Genesis Pass (a Factory NFT), that will grant respect, the rights to create a family and ongoing perks
  - You can sign up on the website to apply for the pass
The studio is backed by leaders in the Web3 gaming industry such as Gabe Leydon, Jihoz, Psychout, Piers Kicks, and others
- Furthermore, we see involvement from institutional partners, including Gam3rGirl Ventures, the new incubation fund backed by BITKRAFT

ZKCANDY RAISES $4M

ZKcandy, the gaming-focused L2 by ZKsync announced they raised $4M in a Seed round from Wemix, Animoca, Spartan Capital, and others
- The funds will be used to build a Telegram-based gaming ecosystem, develop AI agents for gaming, and expand its network of partners
iCandy Interactive is another founding partner, one of the largest game developers in SEA (in Web2), they have a large stake in Lemon Sky Studios among other gaming studios
- One of their investments includes Hashcode Studio, a company providing backend services and smart contract integrations to Web3 games
Around June or July this year, the ZKcandy account first popped up and recently the chain moved to its testnet phase
In terms of their game library, these are the current games in their ecosystem:
- ChooChooSpirits, BTFD, Rupture Labs, Pepe Kingdom, Candy Defense, and Kitty Slash
  - Considering the quality of these games, their lineup isn’t very impressive as of now, however, there’s still potential here…
The chain currently has a pipeline with 25 game titles in various stages going live, including a “Tier-1 Hollywood IP licensed game title”
- I believe ICandy using their industry connections to bring over "sleeper" IPs and games to Web3 might be the best bet here
- Through its subsidiary Lemon Sky Studios they released Marvel Spider-Man and Marvel Avengers games before, however, I’d say it’d be unlikely to see these mega IPs in a Web3 game