Happy weekend everyone!
Happy to share with you GUMMYS’ list of top Web3 Gaming and Play-to-Earn projects in 2022.
As we see, a wide range of Web3 and Metaverse games are released every day and become the talk of the town among gamers. Understanding this, more and more gamers are switching to Metaverse Play-to-Earn and NFT projects to generate significant profits just by playing.
As per the latest industry reports, the global metaverse market is expected to reach $1,527.55 billion by 2029 from $100.27 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 47.6%.
According to analytics service DappRadar, “Blockchain games raised over $320 million in November, indicating excitement and potential growth of the Web3 gaming industry.”
So today, let us clear your understanding of such projects and explore kickstarters in the world of Web3 Gaming.
Big Time
Game of the Year of the inaugural edition of the GAM3 Awards 2022
Big Time is an open-world multiplayer ARPG, where gamers will play as time travelers who’ve been summoned to the end of the universe to fight back against history collapse. They will encounter hordes of mobs, from dinosaurs to robots depending on which timeline they will be on.
The game allows players to monetize their playing time with unique cosmetic collectibles that can be found in the virtual world and traded for real-world money. Without disrupting the game experience and without including any pay-to-win mechanics.
Although Illuvium has blockchain-based elements, it is more akin to a full-fledged video game. It’s accessed through a downloadable desktop app, but also has a range of supporting DeFi applications surrounding it — including a yield farm and decentralized exchange.
Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained won the GAM3 Awards Best Card and Best Strategy
Gods Unchained is a decentralized competitive card game that takes some of the best lessons learned from games like Hearthstone, MTG, and Faeria and turns them into a truly community-focused game.
At its core Gods Unchained is a state of the art blockchain-based game, enabling users to trade and sell their cards freely, with the same level of ownership as if they were real, tangible cards.
Players will be able to earn the native GODS token that acts as a payment method throughout the game. Gods Unchained provides real ownership over in-game assets by turning them into NFTs, allowing players to effectively trade their items for real money.
Axie Infinity
Most passionate community
Axie Infinity is a Pokémon-inspired universe where anyone can earn SLP tokens through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem. Players can battle, collect, raise, and build a land-based kingdom for their pets.
In-game items are represented by NFTs. These cryptographically unique tokens can be linked to digital content — in Axie Infinity’s case, the Axies and land plots that populate the game. Unlike conventional in-game items, the NFT confers ownership on the buyer; you can trade Axies on the game’s marketplace for real money.
While Axie is a fun game, it’s also taken on characteristics of a social network and jobs platform due to the strong community and play to earn opportunities that have come from its early success.
Illuvium
Illuvium won the GAM3 Awards Best RPG
Illuvium is an open-world fantasy battle game built on the Ethereum blockchain. Often touted as the first AAA game on Ethereum, Illuvium looks to provide a source of entertainment to both casual gamers and hardcore DeFi fans through a range of collecting and trading features.
In Illuvium, players are immersed in a 3D open world to explore and capture deity-like beasts called Illuvials. The Illuvials that players collect are represented with NFTs on Ethereum’s blockchain with real-world value. Players use the Illuvials they have gathered to battle other players to win ether (ETH).
The ILV token has a number of uses within the Illuvium ecosystem. It’s the main token used to reward players for their in-game achievements, entitles players to their share of the Illuvium Vault and is used for participating in the governance of the game via the Illuvium decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
Superior
Superior won the GAM3 Awards Best Action Game
Superior is a roguelite third person shooter powered by NFTs, created by Drifter, and brought to you by Gala Games.
All of the characters are available for free for players to enjoy the game but the earning aspect is tied directly to the limited collection of NFT characters from each hero. The rarer the NFT character, the higher its earning potential will be while playing Superior.
Blankos Block Party
Best Casual Game
Co-developed by Mythical Games and Third Kind Games, Blankos Block Party is a multiplayer party game set in a goofy online world, with a focus on custom art design, world-building, collecting and personalizing unique Blankos characters. Blankos Block Party allows players to create, build, play and socialize in game. Each Blanko character is an NFT that can be bought and sold on the in-game marketplace, with some of them designed by the world’s most talented artists, designers, and creators for limited releases as well.
Thetan Arena
Best Mobile Game
Thetan Arena is an esport game based on blockchain technology. You can gather your friends, form a team, battle with others and earn money with just your skills. Thetan Arena is a hybrid game that combines the Free-to-Play and Play-to-Earn models. You can receive free heroes to play casually. Better yet, acquire NFTs to start earning and maximize your profits.
Star Atlas
Best Graphics
Star Atlas is a fantasy game based in a metaverse-style virtual world. Spacefaring players can interact with each other, go on quests, claim territory and start their own societies. Players will need to purchase and hold an in-game NFT to get involved. Of course, they will then own these assets and can sell them whenever they want.
Splinterlands
Finalist for the GAM3 Awards Best Card Games category
Splinterlands is the next generation of collectible card games. It allows players to collect, trade, and battle with provably scarce digital collectibles with real world value. Splinterlands cards can be combined for more powers and accessing different levels in the game. Users can play against other users, trade cards/land NFTs, earn rewards from battling, and participate in tournaments.
Shrapnel
Most Anticipated Game
Shrapnel is the world’s first blockchain-enabled moddable AAA first-person shooter game. Designed to reward and empower players as well as creators. The game is being developed by a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning team of game industry veterans with unmatched experience in transmedia, virtual production, gaming-as-a-service, and blockchain production.
Players can transfer their assets from Shrapnel’s marketplace to Avalanche C-chain, trade with other players and community members, and bring them back in game sessions. This dedicated subnet guarantees the reliability and speed gamers expect from a AAA experience.
League of Kingdoms
People’s choice award
League of Kingdoms is a MMO strategy game where gamers can enjoy single player (PvE), multiplayer (PvP), or party play (MMO). This game is played on a blockchain network and its NFT ecosystem includes various in-game assets, such as its iconic Land NFT. The Land NFTs are stored on the blockchain and represent the very ground where the League of Kingdoms world stands.
Battle of Guardians
Multiplayer fighting game based on the NFT model of playing to earn
Battle of Guardians is a real-time multiplayer PVP arena NFT game developed in Unreal Engine. The game consists of two in-game currencies which are Battle of Guardians Share ($BGS) and Fighting Points ($FP). This dual token system allows for more rewards to be distributed with $BGS being used as the main currency for staking and governance which can also be used to purchase NFTs.
$FP is the secondary currency which is utilized for synthesizing NFTs and entering tournament modes. This can also be used for purchasing NFT characters. These tokens can be earned in-game by winning rounds and can be utilized in the NFT marketplace to purchase and sell Battle of Guardians NFTs.
Skyweaver
Finalist for the GAM3 Awards Best Card Games category
Skyweaver is a free-to-play NFT trading card game (TCG) on the Polygon network. Built by Horizon Blockchain Games, the game has more than 500 base cards for players to unlock. With these cards, players can build their deck and battle with other players to earn rare NFT cards. As players level up, they unlock more heroes, prisms, and cards for free. Aside from unlocking the cards in-game, Skyweaver will occasionally drop limited edition NFT cards that cannot be unlocked from the game.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based metaverse and gaming ecosystem where you can create, share, and monetize assets and games. The Sandbox is designed to disrupt the traditional gaming market in which platforms own and control user-generated content whereby the rights of creators and gamers are limited. In The Sandbox, users have absolute ownership over their in-world creations.
The Sandbox blockchain gaming platform consists of three integrated products that together provide a comprehensive experience for user-generated content (UGC) production. The combined products further benefit users by allowing them to secure copyright ownership for their user-created content through blockchain and smart contracts.
The Sandbox’s NFT marketplace allows users to upload, publish, and sell their NFT creations made with VoxEdit. Creations are first uploaded into an IPFS network to provide decentralized storage and then registered onto the blockchain to prove ownership. Once this is accomplished, creations become ASSETS that can be sold by making an initial sale offer on the marketplace where potential buyers can then purchase them.
The Sandbox Game Maker allows anyone to build amazing 3D games for free. No coding is required thanks to accessible visual scripting tools to create stunning 3D games in minutes. Creators like you contribute to a vast metaverse, filled with a wide range of amazing interactive creations and experiences.
The Sandbox uses several token types to ensure a circular economy between all the types of users who will interact with the platform: players, creators, curators, and land owners:
- SAND: the ERC-20 token used within The Sandbox as the basis for all of the ecosystem’s transactions and interactions.
- LAND: a digital piece of real estate in The Sandbox metaverse. Players buy LAND in order to populate it with games, assets and interactive experiences. Each LAND is a unique (non-fungible) token lying on the public Ethereum blockchain (ERC-721).
- ASSETS: a token created by players who build/assemble user generated content (UGC). ASSETS utilize the ERC-1155 standard and can be traded on the marketplace, with their main utility being to serve as creation elements in The Sandbox Game Maker.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are virtual tokens for digital scarcity, security, and authenticity. They are unique/distinct, indivisible, and not interchangeable.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Within the Decentraland platform, users can create, experience, and monetize their content and applications.
The finite, traversable, 3D virtual space within Decentraland is called LAND, a non-fungible digital asset maintained in an Ethereum smart contract. Land is divided into parcels that are identified by cartesian coordinates (x,y). These parcels are permanently owned by members of the community and are purchased using MANA, Decentraland’s cryptocurrency token. This gives users full control over the environments and applications that they create, which can range from anything like static 3D scenes to more interactive applications or games.
Decentraland is a place for people to socialize, participate in events and play games, as well as to create & sell game assets (NFT 3D items for use in game), showcase the art they have for sale or show off their art collection (NFT image/movie/audio, etc.), gamble crypto or free in-game gold, building and playing games within the Decentraland world, and more.
If you want to fully enjoy the Decentraland experience, it is recommended that you get yourself a digital wallet. If you choose to experience Decentraland without a wallet, the information will be only be locally stored: you will be able to walk around, customize your avatar and chat with others in-world, but you won’t have the chance to receive daily rewards, participate in events or log in with a different device using the same Guest ID and avatar.
Using the MANA cryptocurrency, you can create avatars, buy wearables, and acquire real estate in this virtual space consisting of over 90,000 land parcels. As a landowner, you can rent out lots — each measuring 16 virtual square meters — or whatever is on it: houses, hotels, parks, cinemas, casinos, and what have you. You can also earn income by organizing a concert and selling tickets, setting up an exhibit to auction off digital art, and so on. MetaMask is among the popular digital wallets that players use for this platform.
