Crypto games combining play-to-earn (P2E) and non-fungible token (NFT) mechanics found a big boost in 2021, thanks to the success of Axie Infinity and hype around the metaverse.
However, gameplay is still a major issue as most crypto games focus on tokenomics instead of providing a fun and enjoyable gaming experience.
Other than the earning aspect, they often offer nothing special compared to traditional PC or console video games, where players can find interesting plots, beautiful visuals, and addictive gameplay. Axie Infinity has become famous for its repetitive gameplay, known to gamers as “grinding”, while The Sandbox and Decentraland don’t really offer attractive graphics.
There is one that is worthwhile among the many games out there, which is not really a game in itself, but a platform.
Gala Games presents itself as a gaming blockchain ecosystem. Its digital fuel is the Gala Games (GALA) token, created according to the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain. It is also compatible with Binance Smart Chain.
Gala Games’ decentralized ecosystem aims to provide gamers with control over gaming assets. Thanks to decentralization, they not only own their game objects, but also have the right to influence the entire project. Players will participate through distributed voting mechanisms to help determine which games should be added to the platform.
The Gala Games ecosystem includes five components: the games themselves, the game publishing platform, the NFT marketplace, cloud hosting, and the tokenomics.
Gaming Platform: A Combination of Everything
Gala Games has a video game platform such as Steam, PlayStation Store or Xbox Store, but unlike these platforms, Gala Games is not based on traditional video games, but on projects that combine P2E, NFT and decentralized finance (DeFi) mechanics. Players can play freely and earn money just for playing.
Another feature of the platform is that it is the players themselves who decide which games are incorporated into Gala Games. Voting is done among all Gala nodes and any player can create a node using their PC. In addition to the choice of game, users will also be able to influence the development of the platform itself, such as the features to be added and where it is best to direct the efforts of the developers, such as creating new games, improving the interface or bug fixes.
In February 2022, Gala Games users decided to add a game called GRIT, similar to PUBG, to the platform.
Free P2E video game development
The second important component of Gala Games is the creation of video games based on the blockchain and NFTs. To do this, the company will open a separate division dedicated solely to the development of blockchain games.
Currently, there are nine games on the Gala Games platform, and only two of them are in beta testing: Spider Tanks and Town Star. The next game, Mirandus, was supposed to come out in December 2021, but the release was delayed until late from 2022 or even 2023. The release date of other projects is also unknown.
Gala Games Blockchain President Jason Brink told Cointelegraph that the main idea of the project is gameplay that is interesting for gamers:
“The key differentiator for us is that we put the game and gameplay first, before anything else. We believe that games and gamers should always be at the forefront of the gaming ecosystem. That’s why we focus on development of AAA-quality games. In January alone, we invested over $150 million in capital to acquire games for the platform. It’s important to note that these are AAA games fully developed by teams with decades of experience creating winning games. “
Town Star is a cross between a city sim and a farming sim like Zynga’s Farmville. It is currently the only full game available on PC. In October 2021, Town Star added an NFT and P2E feature that allows players to earn money by participating in weekly tournaments, completing daily challenges, and earning special rewards.
Spider Tanks is a session PvP shooter where a team of mech spiders fight against another team. The peculiarity of this game is that players can create their own spiders from various parts like chassis, weapons, abilities and skins that are NFT. The game is currently in beta and can work on PC. Users can also buy and sell NFTs in the game.
Mirandus looks like the most anticipated Gala game. The project is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) similar to Skyrim, in which players fight monsters, create cities and complete quests. Every kingdom, city, character, weapon, and armor in the game is an NFT that players can purchase.
The Walking Dead is a multiplayer survival video game set in the world of The Walking Dead series. Players will kill zombies, collect supplies, and build houses. No release date has been announced as the project is in an early stage of development and will be available on PC.
Echoes of Empire is a science fiction strategy game. Players can recruit heroes, hire armies, gather resources, and build, buy, and upgrade a star fleet. Echoes of Empire has two modes: solo and team, which are available after creating or joining a guild. At this time, the game is in development. The estimated release date is the second quarter of 2022.
Legends Reborn is a card game in which players must build decks (collections) of fantasy creatures and battle their opponents. Unlike similar games like Hearthstone, all creatures in Legends Reborn will not be represented as cards, but as 3D characters. In addition, users will be able to own the playing fields on which the players will fight. The release date has not yet been announced.
According to the Gala Games team, Last Expedition will be a blockchain and NFT based AAA first person shooter. Last Expedition has been created by the renowned development studio Certain Affinity, who helped other companies with add-ons for Call of Duty: World at War and various parts of Halo. Furthermore, it was the Halo series that became the source of inspiration for Last Expedition. The game’s release date has not been announced.
Fortified is a PvP tower defense game where players test their strategies using various assets they own. Players will build, develop, and defend their cities, as well as raid other players’ settlements. A release date for Fortified has not been announced.
Legacy will present a city building business simulation. In Legacy, players will be able to organize resource production chains and sell them on the market, maximizing their profits. The release of the game is planned for 2022.
Tokenomic platform and P2E model
GALA exists as both ERC-20 on Ethereum and BEP-20 on BNB Smart Chain. In 2022, the platform plans to migrate to its own chain called GalaChain. According to the project team, this will increase the speed of transactions, reduce their cost, and solve many of Ethereum’s scaling issues that hinder long-term development of the project.
Little is known about the platform’s tokenomics, Gala will be used to buy NFTs and pay for the licenses to run the nodes, according to the project’s website. At the same time, each game project will be able to launch its own token, which can be bought and sold both on the Gala Games market and on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Gala Games claims that any player can not only play their games, but also earn money without any investment – after all, these are free P2E games. However this is not entirely true. For example, if we take the already released game Town Star, the player can get the internal token of the Town project and sell it for real money in two ways: by completing tasks or by participating and winning in weekly tournaments. But, to complete the tasks, the player needs to have at least one special NFT project, which can only be purchased if you have a top-tier account on the Gala Games network. Therefore, it is very similar to betting.
Participation in tournaments is also not an option, as players with special NFTs have advantages over other players. For example, NFT buildings can provide a bonus to resource production speed or reduce the cost. Therefore, players without these NFTs are unlikely to be able to win tournaments and thus win real money. This mechanism cannot be called “play to win”, it is more of a “pay to win” model.
Gala Games Perspectives
Gala Games now has 1.3 million active players. At the same time, they have bought more than 26,000 NFTs, the most expensive of which was sold for $3 million. These figures attest to the considerable success of the project so far. However, the prospects of Gala Games in the medium and long term remain doubtful.
And it is that the development of video games is a very complex and expensive process with unpredictable results. The history of video games is full of examples where a very promising game with great developers and an unlimited budget failed miserably upon release. Therefore, it is very difficult to predict the future of any company in this industry.
It turns out that Gala Games’ prospects depend entirely on the success of its games. If they gather a large enough audience and are financially successful, then the startup will live. If not, Gala Games will be another company that video games have killed.
Brink is quite optimistic about the future of the project:
“Our current release cadence is projected to be about eight games a year. We have 26 titles in development, and we’re looking forward to releasing more titles.”
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