The narratives that are shaping crypto gaming
GC ALPHA 09
Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets that are spoken of in this newsletter.
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(P2A) EVENTS & SOCIALFI
EARN ALLIANCE
Last week, the Web3 gaming platform Earn Alliance launched the Ally Pass, S2 of its P2A campaign
The campaign works like a battle pass, where players collect XP by completing missions and progressively collect various rewards, including tokens (50M = 5% ALLY tokens up for grabs)
Each participant will receive a token airdrop at the end of the season, which is determined by the amount of XP you accumulate
Instead of upgrade tickets (distributed in S1), players now receive XP. If you collected tickets in S1, these have now been converted to XP
Premium Pass holders will get a multiplier for their token allocation and receive better platform rewards
Ally Pass rewards include XP, Gold, Ally Token, Chests, XP boosts, Muffin Characters, and Muffin Chests
Gold can be acquired by collecting daily chests and minting badges, and can be used to open Legendary Chests
4 types of Chests can be found on the wall (social media board) each day, with varying rarities
Magic Muffins can be found in chests and loot boxes
They serve as an avatar (PFP), but there will also be a Telegram game coming this month in which you can use the Muffins
G7 DAO CREDITS
Game7 DAO introduced a new feature to its P2A campaign: Game7 Credits. The campaign started on July 30 and will last for 6 weeks
Credits are a new point system. The currency is distributed via completing game quests and Lootdrop campaigns, playing games using the HyperPlay launcher, joining spotlight events, and through referrals
Those who played before will receive a retroactive Credit airdrop
The initial phases of the G7 campaign were focused on collecting XP to earn a share of the prize pool (Degen). Now, the G7 Credits campaign will specifically focus on the G7 token airdrop
Speculation: G7 has a large network of game partners, and maybe there will be cross-benefits
COSMIC BOMBER
The new game by nWay (an Animoca-owned studio) Cosmic Bomber released its Open Beta on the 1st of Aug. It’s a Bomberman-like multiplayer game
It’s the 2nd game of the Mocaverse “Cosmic Club”, Cosmic Royale was the first title announced of this ecosystem
To participate in the event you need a Moca ID, and the game has 2 game modes 2v2 or Free For All
Players will earn points based on their performance in each match for both Daily and Weekly tournaments
Daily tournaments happen from 12 AM - 11:59 PM UTC every day and require a 50 Moca RP entry fee
To earn rewards from the tournament you must be in the top 45% of players and have at least 1 point
Weekly tournaments start every Thursday
Every match you play contributes to your total points, and the top 100 players will be rewarded + there will be participation rewards
FLASH EVENTS
Avarik Saga’s Red Covenant P2A is starting today (you can still register)
Lumiterra is launching its CBT#1 today ($1M in rewards)
OnePlanet released the pre-season of S2 (participate to get a headstart)
MARKET TALK
ARE WE COOKED?
After the supercycle this year we finally got hit by a larger correction. The timeline is looking desperate, the fear and greed index is at 31, and everyone regrets taking screenshots
When the stock market takes a hit, so do BTC and ETH, and all the alts follow as well. Additionally, due to the BTC and ETH ETF approvals this year crypto now has a stronger correlation to stock market movements
Lots of the top gaming tokens are down 20% to 30%, but on the other hand, many of the good gaming NFTs remained relatively stable (although losing value in ETH)
Some people will say “All gaming tokens are on a discount”, I remain more cautious here. Lots of doomsday events on the agenda that could spark a global recession...
But if you’re DCA’ing into your conviction bags anyway these movements shouldn’t phase you
All in all, the most important is to form your own opinions here, nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, in a week, or next month after all
NARRATIVE POSITIONING
I have been thinking about the narratives that we’ve seen erupt in the past few months and where the attention will go soon:
PWAs: Regarding mobile, Telegram is gaining all the attention right now. But I believe the potential of PWAs is being overlooked at the moment…
It’s obvious Telegram has the distribution advantage, but teams have more freedom in terms of their game build (not dependent on HTML5) and Web3 integrations using PWAs. Additionally, the focus is on different audiences
Examples: Infinigods is not only scaling its game but leading in terms of new wallet creation. Plus CityVerse Tycoon is in the early stages of Web2 > Web3 conversion (disclaimer: my bags)
Telegram games: not the average cookie-cutter clicker game, but games that are leveraging the platform for re-engagement loops (i.e. smart ways to make players return to their game) and use it as a top of the funnel
I learned Pluto Vision Labs (the devs of CatizenAI) already has 19 (hyper)casual games ready and will likely go hard in Q3/Q4 this year.
Other teams will have a hard time catching up using the same hypercasual approach
Teams that built apps on WeChat before or even worked at WeChat will have a large edge in building, launching, scaling, and monetizing mini-apps (look for experience with Cocos)
Lastly, the teams building the “picks and shovels” (tools and services) needed to succeed on this platform will likely come out on top
Genre Benders: Bending or mixing traditional genres, can create novel experiences, which leads to the creation of blue oceans
You can’t compete with the major Web2 FPS, battle royale, or hero shooter as a small, medium, or even large Web3 studio. Therefore, Web3 games that experiment with what’s possible in a genre are much more interesting
Examples: Sparkball (MOBA + Striker), The Bornless (BR + Horror), Wildcard (MOBA + card draw mechanics), and Fableborne (ARPG + strategy)
On-chain “Experiments”: These are not games focused on a mass market but on the more niche Web3 (-adjacent) audience
Games that heavily focus on financialization and making players “entrepreneurs”. Early examples of this include Wolf Game and Defi Kingdoms
A new example: Onchain Heroes, which has a former Wolf Game dev on their team
To paraphrase Pet3rpan: I believe web3 games are for a new audience that will emerge with a breakthrough in entertainment
ON THE RISE
JinAnomaly, a cyberpunk fantasy roguelite ARPG
Undiscovered > on the rise. The game seems like an interesting genre blend
“The World of Chronoforge is nearing completion”
People seem pretty excited about the game footage they released recently
Notcoin released a new game called Lost Dogs
It’s a story-driven game, where players will predict the next story event