NFTs and blockchain game deveopment have not only caught the attention of startups, but even such giants among the gaming companies as GameStop, Konami, and Square Enix are following the NFT trend. Ubisoft beat the competition and rolled out Quartz, a blockchain service for selling and exchanging in-game cosmetics.
The hype around the blockchain and NFT is not going to subside soon. Even though most players still have mixed feelings about the implementation of this technology in games, many developers want to take advantage of NFTs and capitalize on them. That is why we want to talk a little more about NFT and blockchain in this article. We will discuss what an NFT is, how games can benefit from it, list several most successful play to earn crypto games, and share our own experience developing NFT projects.
What is an NFT
NFT are non-fungible tokens that, like cryptocurrencies, appeared as a result of the formation of the blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin, each NFT is unique and has its own value. If one conventional cryptocurrency unit does not differ in any way from another similar one (for example one Ethereum is completely interchangeable without loss of value), then the situation is different with NFT. Each token is unique. Tokens are used to secure rights to a unique object, such as a digitized work of art or artifacts in video games. Tokens are stored in the blockchain and contain the address of the object.
NFT allows one to create a unique certificate, a kind of electronic signature, which is assigned to a particular object in the virtual space. For example, one of the most famous cases of turning a work of art into an NFT token was the black and white stencil Morons by the famous artist Banksy. Blockchain company Injective Protocol bought the painting from the Taglialatella Gallery in January 2021 for $95,000. The organization then created an NFT token linked to the digital image and burned the original during the live event. In March, the token was bought for 228.69 ETH, which is about 400 thousand dollars at the exchange rate at that time.
How Players Earn with NFT Games
NFT in games are an investment tool, an alternative to traditional ways of saving money. The simplest mechanics of gaining profit on such play to earn crypto games, as well as on other investments, is to buy an asset, and after a while sell it for more. However, in the case of NFT games, users can not only invest their money in the purchase of assets, but also start from scratch without investment, and develop their character through various actions. Over time, its value will increase.
How NFT Technology is Used in the Gaming Industry
Blockchain and NFT are storage technologies, they are huge yet transparent databases. These databases store cryptocurrency sales and exchange information, plus information about the owner. Each user of the system has access to the blockchain and the entire history of operations. In other words, the blockchain is an almost ready-made banking system that does not need to be developed from scratch, spending millions of dollars. NFT is a virtual value that is bought or sold on the blockchain. A picture of a monkey, an enchanted sword for your character, or an apartment in an MMO, it doesn’t matter what it is. The main thing is that the database confirms that you are the owner of the virtual value. And no one will take away this value until you sell it for cryptocurrency.
Blockchain allows its users to exchange NFTs instantly and with a minimum commission, which is superior to other banking systems. Blockchain technology allows developers to create games with an open economy. These are games where every item is valued in real money and can be sold for cryptocurrency. Then it can be cashed out in the form of dollars or other preferable currencies.
Benefits of NFT Implementation
Crypto games bring new possibilities to the game industry and offer two significant benefits:
Immersion and Real-life Experience
An open economy and operations with real money make the virtual world look like the real one. This in turn makes virtual reality more complex and immersive for players. In crypto games, inhabitants interact with each other not only to kill mobs but also to trade or even open businesses.
In fact, such a complex game economy exists even in non-blockchain titles. Fans of World of Warcraft, for example, sell valuables for virtual gold. However, creating such a comprehensive system of auctions from scratch is possible to create only with the enormous resources of Blizzard. In turn, with blockchain, even an indie team can achieve the same result with far lesser effort.
Security
At the same time, real money needs to be protected. It is one thing to lose a virtual currency due to a system failure, and another thing to lose real finances. Blockchain gives a game transparency, proves that you have purchased some item. Even if a sword goes missing due to a game update or technical work, the blockchain stores information about it. Such proof cannot be deleted just like that; a record of the receipt or removal of the item remains in the blockchain.
As practice shows, many players really want to trade virtual values. Take the aforementioned World of Warcraft: the rules of the game prohibit trading for real money. To buy gold and other items, the audience goes to third-party sites, often dubious ones. Their owners can take payment but not give the goods or even use the payment information and try to steal money from the account. With blockchain, in turn, each user of the system has access to the database and the entire history of operations. So any illegal manipulation is almost impossible. If someone wants to underestimate or exaggerate their wealth, all users will find out about it and deal with the scammer.
3 Most Successful NFT Games
Here are the three most recognized crypto games that have already built a strong internal game economy, allowing players to gain cryptocurrency and trade NFTs. Some of these play to earn crypto games even became a substitution for regular jobs.
CryptoKitties
One of the token standards, Ethereum ERC-721, was first used in the online game CryptoKitties by the Canadian studio Axiom Zen. The essence of the project comes down to breeding and collecting cats, while gamers pay a commission in Ethereum for each transaction. The developer studio receives 3.75% from each sale and purchase transaction.
CryptoKitties was released in 2017, and by December, players had spent about $6.7 million — the maximum cost of one cryptokitty reached $114.5 thousand, with an average price of $25. Sales at that time amounted to 1.3 million dollars. The most expensive lot was sold in September 2018: a user under the nickname rabono bought the Dragon crypto cat for 600 ETH.
Axie Infinity
One of the biggest NFT games on the blockchain remains Axie Infinity by Sky Mavis, founded by Jeff Zirlin. In many ways, the game repeats the formula of CryptoKitties and the Pokémon series but adds elements of its own. The player is also encouraged to collect and breed digital tokenized pets, but the main goal is to fight in PvP.
It has its own Ethereum-based NFT marketplace where players can trade pets called Axies. The cost of pets depends on the rarity and uniqueness of their characteristics. For each battle, the player receives the local currency, Smooth Love Potion, that works according to the ERC-20 standard and can be used for trading on the Ethereum network.
According to Zirlin himself, his company was the first to implement the play to earn crypto games principle. The head of the organization said that thanks to Axie Infinity, half of the project users got acquainted with the cryptocurrency and started using it for the first time. The game itself has already managed to earn $2.4 billion in the NFT market.
Gods Unchained
Another great example among successful play to earn crypto games is Gods Unchained. Its developers took the formula of card games as a basis and introduced NFT technology into it. As with any Trading Card Game (TCG), Gods Unchained players build their deck by buying cards from other players or by getting them in PvP battles.
NFT does not clash with the classic tabletop card formula – tactical and strategic skill is still at the forefront. Gods Unchained uses a ranking system, so players of equal level compete here in every match. For a victory, a player receives experience points, and after filling out a special scale, moves to a new level or gets to the next level of the rating, receiving a new deck of cards as a reward. Each card in the game comes with an ERC-721 token, allowing users to trade them on the platform’s own market or the Ethereum network.
Since its launch in 2018, Gods Unchained has managed to earn $15 million. The project is led by brothers James and Robbie Ferguson, with Chris Clay, who previously worked on Magic the Gathering: Arena, as head of development.
Our Experience: MechaFightClub
MechaFightClub is an upcoming play to earn crypto game developed by Irreverent Labs, a promising startup with solid expertise in blockchain and a strong desire to create exhilarating gaming experiences. MechaFightClub is going to be released this spring and will combine a large world filled with lore, complex in-game economy, NFT asset system, and advanced artificial intelligence. In addition, this NFT game has a really gorgeous art style!
As for the gameplay process, players will first receive mechabot eggs that will hatch into unique bionic creatures living entirely on the blockchain. After this, players can battle with artificially intelligent NFT fighters, advance their mechabots, trade with other players, and so much more.
Irreverent Labs reached out to N-iX Game & VR Studio in November 2021, and shortly after we started working together on this fascinating project. Our team of 12 specialists is now working alongside the client’s U.S.-based team, providing co-development services on Unity, 3D environmental art production, animations, and sound design solutions.
N-iX Game & VR Studio has experience delivering several blockchain projects, and we believe that MechaFightClub is an industry-shaping game that has all chances to join the mentioned-above pantheon of crypto games. We enjoy working on this project with the Irreverent Labs team and are happy that they share the same feeling:
“Irreverent Labs had many options when beginning MechaFightClub, but N-iX’s admirable tenacity has only reaffirmed that these Ukrainian partners were the right choice,” says Rahul Sood, CEO of Irreverent Labs.
Let’s Create Game Masterpieces Together!
If you have a groundbreaking blockchain project/NFT game in mind and looking for a team of creative and skillful professionals, N-iX Game & VR Studio is ready to discuss it. Here are some advantages that we offer you as your NFT game development partner:
- N-iX Game & VR Studio has 10+ years in the gaming industry; we’ve worked with the world’s most recognized companies (Ubisoft, Supermassive Games, Paradox Interactive) and contributed to a bunch of AAA titles. We know how to make immersive games, even from scratch.
- We have a team of 240 professionals and can offer you a wide array of game development services: Unreal Engine / Unity development, art production, VR/AR and metaverse solutions development, cloud gaming, co-development, full-cycle development. Our company also offers a range of blockchain development services, including consulting, NFT marketplace solutions, NFT minting, and various NFT game development services.
- N-iX Game and VR Studio is a part of a large European software development company with extensive resources and an unrivaled reputation. With our recruitment team and company brand, there will be no hitches if your project will grow.
Drop us a line in the form below, we’ll surely get along well 😉
