Executive Summary

• Upland is a virtual property trading game in which players buy and sell plots of land on a map of the real world and try to flip them for a profit.
• Upland’s cumulative mobile downloads stand at 2.4M, with US, Brazil, and UK being the top 3 countries. Upland also sells in-game currency (UPX) as IAPs on mobile and web, and the cumulative mobile revenues are $11.1M, most of which comes from the US.
• UPX, Upland’s in-game and on-chain but non-tradable token, is its biggest innovation, selling it as IAPs (on mobile stores as well as web) and allowing players to use it to trade NFTs. The fact that UPX is not tradable on open markets does not allow for speculation, thereby tying its value directly to player engagement.
• The biggest critique for Upland is the cold start problem in buying properties. It is either very time-consuming or expensive to buy a first property. There is no global directory to look through to find properties, and players have to spend time and UPX when searching for the right plot of land to buy.
• Apart from buying and selling properties, players can sell other NFTs through “metaventures” or take part in branded events. These activities are extremely social in nature but feel tangential to the core property simulation gameplay.
• Upland’s clever use of on- and off-chain assets has helped it create a sustainable business model. However, the limited set of players who are interested in pure property trading, plus the difficulty of increasing engagement via tangential features, makes Upland difficult to scale.

Introduction

Upland is a virtual property trading game that is based on real-world addresses. It allows people to buy, collect, sell, and trade property (land) in their city or elsewhere. Property ownership is secured on the EOS blockchain and rewards players with Upland’s in-game currency, UPX. Apart from the property gameplay, players can take part in multiple events set on the game’s map. Upland is available on iOS, Android, and the web.

Uplandme, Inc. is based in Silicon Valley where it was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneurs Dirk Lueth, Mani Honigstein, and Idan Zuckerman. The R&D center is located in Ukraine, and there are further team members across Europe and the US. The main inspiration for Upland was Monopoly at a time when CryptoKitties had just started making noise. The combination of Monopoly and the rise of digital collectibles had the three co-founders asking themselves:

• What if we can “tokenize” the real world through the very same technology that powers these collectibles?
• What if every property in the world could be its own collectible, non-fungible asset whose ownership could be verified by blockchain?
• Wouldn’t it be fun to trade virtual properties based on real-world addresses that are actually owned by you?

Though these are interesting questions, the most important questions are: will it be fun for players, and will they receive value from it?

Early investors saw promise in this premise, and Uplandme, Inc. raised a $2M seed round from angel investors and FinLab AG in June 2019. Since January 2020, Upland’s open beta has been live and available cross-platform. Later, in November 2021, it announced a Series A funding round of $18M at a $300M valuation led by ‍Animoca Brands. It’s also worth noting that an important part of Upland’s journey has been its partnership with Tilia Inc. which allows users to sell land for USD.

In the initial phase, which is still ongoing, Upland aims to distribute property ownership to players through gamified experiences. Then, the plan is to open its platform to third party developers so they can provide additional experiences that become part of the Upland universe.

Property-(land)-based mechanics are clearly a trend among web3 games. One of the use cases for blockchain technology is creating provable scarcity, and land is perfect for that. It is easy for players to understand the concept since it is a digital representation of the real world. However, just because the technology is optimal for a particular use case does not mean that the use case itself is appealing to a large audience or that it’s fundamentally a positive for most in-game economies. Land often leads to in-game recessions, and in projects like Decentraland (deconstructed here) and The Sandbox (deconstructed here), land is the bottleneck to creativity since players need to acquire high-priced land in order to build anything (unlike Roblox, Minecraft, etc.).

Of course, not all land is created equally, and it can work in many different ways. Upland is different from the titles above, because finding, buying, and selling property make up the core of the game itself. The “fun” is in finding cheap land, building a collection, and flipping it for a profit.

As of the time of writing, the 30-day MAWs (monthly active wallets) of Upland stand at 194K with healthy transaction volumes. It’s interesting to note that Upland has been in the top 10 list in terms of MAWs for a couple of months and did not see a huge dip after the crypto winter started.

The web traffic in October 2022 has been 234K, with 44% of it being paid, indicating a push towards paid marketing channels that started in April 2022. The country placement for web is also similar to that for mobile.

Upland Cumulative Mobile Downloads (Source: data.ai) Upland Cumulative Mobile Revenue (Source: data.ai)

Since Upland is available on mobile as well, its cumulative mobile downloads stand at 2.4M, with US, Brazil, and UK being the top 3 countries. Upland also sells its in-game currency (UPX) on mobile stores (as well as web), and the cumulative mobile revenues are $11.1M (the US has 63% of this share, possibly because 22 in-game cities are US-based).

This gives Upland an impressive RPD (Revenue per Download) of $4.58 for its worldwide audiences and $8.30 for the US. This is just the number for IAPs on mobile and doesn’t count other revenue sources. Apart from selling UPX, Upland also generates revenue from the transaction charges of the NFT market activity.

With every update, Upland operates more and more like the real world with tasks and experiences to match. From starting a metaventure (player-owned NFT shop) to supporting your favorite football teams by building stadiums and buying limited edition sports NFTs, Upland has it all. This deconstruction will focus on Upland’s unique economy centered around its NFTs and the in-game currency UPX. We aim to answer the following questions:

• What are the various on- and off-chain assets that make up Upland and how do they interact with each other?
• What are the core and meta loops for the various experiences in Upland? Are they fun and engaging?
• What are the unique aspects of Upland’s overall economic model? Is it sustainable and scalable?
• What’s on the roadmap, and what suggestions do we have for the team

Let’s dive in.

Assets

Let’s look at all the assets that make up Upland.

UPX

Upland’s primary virtual currency, UPX, is derived from the EOS token smart contract and is mainly used to buy land. For regulatory reasons that require ensuring UPX is strictly a utility token meant for use inside the Upland ecosystem, UPX transactions entail the multi-signing of both the owner and Upland. However, UPX cannot be traded in the open market. This is unusual for a crypto game, but it ensures that speculation around the token is minimized.

Spark

The second currency in Upland is Spark, which drives the metaventures gameplay. We’ll dig into this much more below, but, in short, it powers the development of any type of 3D object that’s built on top of Upland. This includes all inanimate objects, such as Structure NFTs (buildings), outdoor decor items, and more. Spark is not tradable as a currency, and it can only be used for staking.

Properties

Upland Property NFT Real World broken down into Properties

Property is a NFT on the EOS mainnet that maps to real-world addresses. Upland divides the world into 3x3 meter squares to define the parcel surface of a property. These squares are called “Up-Squares” or UP^2 . Each property consists of multiple UP^2s. Property NFTs in Upland are scarce because the world's surface is finite. Initially, properties can be traded on the Upland marketplace for UPX, dollars, or other properties. Fiat proceeds for property sales are managed by Tilia, which is used by Second Life as well

Block Explorers

Block Explorer NFT Players represented by their Block Explorers

Block Explorers are the representations of players in Upland. Everyone gets one for free, but there are NFT versions available for players to purchase. They offer no benefit in the game other than personal customization.

Legits

NFL Collectible Legit NFT NFL Legits

Legits are collectible NFTs within Upland. Beyond their collectible nature, these NFTs also offer an added layer of gamification through collections, location-based minting events, burn/merge mechanics, and unique interactions with brands and personas including virtual autograph-signing events. All Legits have the ability to be digitally signed by the brand or persona. Players can queue up after a game to wait in line and have their Legit NFT digitally signed, which gives it an exclusive flare as the signatures will exist on the blockchain forever.

Upland has teamed up with the NFL (American football) and FC Porto (football/soccer club from Portugal) for collection-based experiences in Upland. We’ll dig more into how exactly this all plugs into the experience further down.

Game Design

Upland is a vast experience, with additional systems being added at a very fast pace. We will analyze three main aspects:

• Property: Gameplay around the buying and selling of properties.
• Metaventures: Gameplay around buying and selling Block Explorers, Legits, and other NFTs.
• Events: Gameplay around time-based events.

Upland is a game that appeals to a variety of players driven by different motivations like:

• Owning the same property both in real life and Upland, or being able to own virtual luxury properties that would be impossible to acquire in real life
• Trading, negotiating, and dealing with other property owners
• Completing city-based collections
• Competing against other players in having the highest amount of UPX

Before diving into Upland’s game design, let’s look at how it handles being a free-to-play game with a unique player categorization system.

User Identity and Accounts

Upland enables players to start playing the game without having to necessarily monetize from the get-go. It uses the mainnet of the EOS blockchain to register and store the game’s assets, like property NFTs that mirror real-world addresses and UPX (Upland’s fungible token and virtual currency). A proprietary wallet is integrated into Upland’s smart game client, which securely handles the account’s private keys, account creation, and transaction signing. The game does not have access to any player’s private keys, and it can never sign transactions on behalf of the player.

Because Upland’s EOS accounts are dedicated to holding its assets, Upland is also responsible for staking all resources for operating these accounts. To manage these costs, the game uses a player tier system — Visitors versus Uplanders.

Visitors

Players start out in Upland as Visitors. In this phase, their Upland account is associated with an EOS account owned by Upland (i.e., Upland owns the private keys and maintains a pool of these accounts to support visitor activity). If a visitor’s game activity lapses for more than seven days (a duration setting which may change as the game evolves), the assets that were accumulated under that account (UPX and properties) are recycled back in favor of the community.

Uplanders

Once visitors accumulate a net worth (combination of UPX balance and value of owned properties) of 10,000 UPX, they become Uplanders. At that point, the Upland smart client generates new private keys that are unreadable to the Upland backend and creates a dedicated EOS account to be associated with their Upland account. All digital assets are then transferred from the free play EOS account to the newly-created dedicated one, and the Uplander can enjoy true ownership of digital assets forever. At the same time, Upland loses any access to owned digital assets. Finally, the EOS account that was previously associated with the Visitor account is recycled for reuse with the next Visitor to sign up to Upland.

Apart from Uplander, there are other statuses like Pro, Director, Executive, and Chief Executive that give multiple benefits to players, but we’ll keep it simple for the sake of this essay.

Of course, creating on-chain wallets is a real cost, especially if there is to be a smooth game experience. Upland’s way of managing this via EOS is clever and shows its intent in creating a frictionless onboarding experience, especially for free-to-play players.

Property Gameplay

The above diagram lays out the core experience of Upland. In short, the main objective here is to buy properties and sell them for profit. Let’s go into the various aspects of the property gameplay.

UPX Management

UPX is an on-chain but non-tradable token with infinite supply and is the currency that powers the property tycoon gameplay. To simulate a more realistic economy, UPX tokens are pre-inflated where $1 = 1,000 UPX. Initially, 100B UPX have been minted and allocated to two pools (the “Upland Pool” and the “Community Pool”).

Upland Pool (above): 50B UPX have been allocated for selling UPX for fiat (and later for crypto) to players. The fiat proceeds are used to fund the operations of Uplandme, Inc., the company behind Upland. To ensure there’s continuous funding for the development and growth of the platform, the Upland pool receives a variable amount of UPX per active player (newly created by the Upland minting system).

Community Pool (above): 50B UPX have been minted to run and sustain the economy. This pool is characterized by multiple UPX inbound and outbound streams. The following list is not fixed and is subject to change over time.

Before moving on, let’s quickly acknowledge the sources, sinks, and inflation policy of the Upland and Community Pools.

Sources of UPX for the Pools:

• Proceeds from the initial sale of a property
• Marketplace fees which occur when two players transact
• Other potential fees
• Weekly fixed and variable amounts of UPX (newly created by the Upland minting system)

Sinks of UPX from the Pools:

• Recurrent/boosted earnings for owning properties
• One-time rewards for completing collections
• Marketing and other campaigns (e.g., location drops, promotions)

Upland payment streams and inflation are designed in such a way that they:

• Benefit and nurture general gameplay
• Create a sound economy with a trusted currency
• Support daily operations
• Further develop the platform

Since UPX cannot be traded on the open market, its value is related to the NFTs in the game. This makes the system abstract and dissuades arbitrageurs, thereby creating an audience that is focused on interacting with the game.

Traveling in Upland

Traveling in Upland is core to the experience, because the player can perform actions only when they are in the vicinity of a particular property. Players are represented by their block explorers. The block explorer constantly wanders the Upland world, searching for unique and interesting properties to acquire. Its path is both random and automatic, as the direction it travels in cannot be chosen.‍ Block explorers leave a marked trail that indicates the properties it’s visited as it traverses the map. This trail will appear as the player’s block explorer starts moving. Trails also give players the chance to take a look at and possibly buy the properties they’ve discovered. After a certain period of time, the trail vanishes.

Traveling Within a City

Players can manually send their block explorers to specific minted properties by using "sends." This specific action can be done only within city limits. Players can, however, select their starting city. Every Uplander automatically gets 3 sends which recharge every 24 hours. Players can hold a max of 11 sends. It's also possible to farm additional sends by clicking on the paper airplane icons that spawn across the map. When visiting a minted property, players have to pay a visit fee (set by the owner of the property). This fee can range anywhere from 5 UPX to 100 UPX and is adjustable by the owner. Send fees also vary by city, as each has its own minimum and maximum threshold for them.

Traveling Between Cities

‍Flights are the main mode of travel between cities. To board a flight, a player has to send their explorer to the nearest airport. For example, the flight from San Francisco to Manhattan costs approximately 2,580 UPX, and the duration is around 45 minutes. Once they arrive, the player can depart the plane and enter the nearest city by selecting a minted property and “sending” the block explorer there. Travel is also possible via trains and buses, albeit they are slower but cheaper.

Moving to an owned property is free of charge. Upland has also introduced cars and even launched them as NFTs, but there are a few details about them other than players owning a property in order to park their car there.

Traveling is a design constraint that Upland has put upon itself. This makes it feel less like a game. It makes the gameplay a bit frustrating, especially for new players, and leads to a feeling of a loss of control.

Buying and Selling Properties

Properties can be bought, traded, or sold. When sold or traded, the property changes ownership, which is recorded on the blockchain. Properties can be bought for UPX and generate UPX earnings for their owners.

Unlike other blockchain games in which the land is simply one aspect of the gameplay, in Upland property trading (land) is the game. Apart from the inherent value of land (based on real-world values), which is speculative and subjective, there are multiple systems in the game that help the land itself generate value in the form of UPX through metaventures (explained below).

Next, let’s look at the different color categorizations of properties (seemingly inspired by Monopoly):

• Bright Green Properties: These are unlocked properties that are currently unminted. By minting them, players become the property's very first owner. Put simply, it means the player is buying directly from Upland in exchange for the opportunity to mint the property NFT. Prices for these properties are generated by simulating real-world market conditions in each city.‍
• Properties Marked "FSA": Properties marked "FSA" (Fair Start Act) are reserved for newer players and are generally less expensive than non-FSA ones. When players level up from Uplander to Pro (100K UPX net worth), they can no longer mint FSA properties.‍
• Dark Green Properties: These are owned, minted properties that are currently listed on the secondary market for other Uplanders to purchase — either using UPX or USD. Prices for these properties are manually set by their owners.‍
• Light Blue Properties: These are owned, minted properties that are owned by other players and not currently listed on the secondary market. Even though they are unlisted, players can still make offers to property owners for them to either accept or reject.‍
• Dark Blue Properties: These are minted properties that the player currently owns.‍
• Gray Properties: These are locked, unminted properties (never minted on the blockchain) that have not been opened for minting yet. Properties that are broken are sometimes locked until they can be corrected and released for minting. Additionally, several properties in each city are reserved for future landmark sales and auctions.

Categorizing these types of properties across different cities is a humongous task, and Upland has come up with a framework to guide overall city structure and how the initial value of these properties is determined.

The City Tier System

Cities will be classified using a matrix that qualifies each city under three core factors, including:

• Size - Number of Overall Properties + Area
• Price - Average Real-World Prices of Properties
• Icon Factor - Measure of the City’s Status

Each city is scored 1–3 for each of these factors to determine its overall tier. For example, Manhattan is a world-renowned city known for high property prices but is actually on the smaller end in terms of size. As such, Manhattan would be classified as a 1–3–1 City. These classifications define the number of FSA properties in the city, cost of traveling, etc.

When Upland launches in a new city or region, initial prices will use real-world prices as references. Locations that are more expensive in real life will initially be more expensive in Upland. In San Francisco, Upland has used a publicly available database to calculate the initial property prices. It was decided that the cheapest property in the lowest cost per square feet neighborhoods should be in the $2-$8 range in UPX, and from there a mathematical function was applied to calculate property prices in other neighborhoods. This initial pegging to real-world values is important, because it lets Upland’s audience live out the fantasy of “owning” a part of New York. Property prices on the marketplace are driven by supply and demand.

However, it is expected that the pricing structure will deviate over time from its real-life counterpart, because there will be other influencing factors. For instance, “collections” will impact supply and demand for certain properties. Also, the pricing of unminted properties will be influenced by the game’s market developments; hence, when they are offered for the first time, they will have the general Upland market effects priced in.

Location Location Location

The best traders in Upland are diligent about their research of market conditions in any given city. Before deciding on the asking price, players need to check what other properties are going for in their neighborhood. Property rates can depend on multiple factors like:

• The property's real-life equivalent
• Closeness to airports, train and bus stations
• Closeness to stadiums selling Legits
• Base price
• Current price
• UPX or USD price
• FSA or not

Listing on the Secondary Market

Once players become an Uplander, they can start listing their properties on the secondary market for a fixed price, both in UPX and USD. Players who wish to list their properties for USD will have to join the NFT-to-USD program, which enables players to sell their NFTs directly for USD.

Players who are KYC'd (Know Your Customer) by Tilia can list their properties directly for USD. That means when a player purchases a property, they pay in USD instead of UPX. This program is only accessible to Uplanders and not to Visitors.

Swapping

Players can leverage their portfolios of Upland NFTs (UNFTs) to initiate 1-for-1 trades between other players. This means that players can trade an Ornament for a Block Explorer, Legit for an Ornament, Block Explorer for Legit, and everything in-between.

Overall engagement is down from its peak but is back to the stable levels of Q3 2021, which is a good sign, considering the activity in other blockchain games.

Value Accrual of Properties

As we mentioned earlier, the game’s objective is to accumulate wealth in the form of properties and currency, as well as to ensure a constant flow of UPX earnings. Let’s run through how players can earn UPX from Upland.

Property Yield

Every property in Upland produces an annual yield. The annual yield is currently 14.7% (as of January 27th, 2022). These earnings can be collected on a 3-hour basis. The yield is calculated from the mint price of the property. Read here to understand the property card and how to calculate important factors like mint price, neighborhood value, and monthly earnings. It is expected that in the future, as the Upland economy grows, this earning percentage will change.

Collecting Visitor Fees

When someone visits a property that is not their own, they must pay a visitor fee. Depending on the city, the visitor fees vary. The minimum and maximum prices can range from 5 UPX to 100 UPX. Within the fixed range, the owner of a property is able to set the visitor fees for each of their properties. It is important to note that if a player receives a visit from a visitor, the fee is not immediately paid out. This happens once the Visitor becomes an Uplander. However, this is not a substantial source of UPX.

Completing Collections

One of the fundamental reasons for collecting properties in Upland is to complete unique and interesting property collections. This allows you to keep that collection as an achievement, earns you a one-time UPX bonus (dependent on rarity), and boosts your property earnings while the properties are in the collection.

There are several rarities of properties in Upland that are determined by their popularity, influence, and historical value. Each city is carefully researched to understand its most prominent areas and what makes them special. After collecting the necessary data, the Upland team designs what areas of the city become collections. They are sorted into five categories:

• Standard: The most common properties in Upland with no notable influence or historical impact.
• Limited: This rarity typically denotes large, popular areas like a well-known neighborhood or street.
• Exclusive: This rarity is reserved for well-known streets or neighborhoods that are far more limited in terms of availability and exclusivity.
• Rare: This rarity includes some of the rarest properties in Upland that are usually based on a few of the most influential areas of the city.
• Ultra-Rare: This rarity includes the absolute rarest and most exclusive properties in each city. These are usually custom collections and can include anything from the most famous bars to the most famous nightclubs. Ultra-Rare properties are incredibly sought after due to their high value on the secondary market and their massive yield boosts.

One-Time Bonus and Holding Periods

Players will have to hold their properties in collections for a fixed period of time before their one-time bonuses are awarded. It is important to note, however, that players will still gain access to boosted earnings regardless of the holding period. In other words, this change only applies to the one-time bonus, not boosted earnings. Depending on the rarity, each collection will be subject to a different holding period as outlined below:

• Standard Collections: No Timer
• Limited Collections: 7 Days
• Exclusive Collections: 21 Days
• Rare Collections: 30 Days
• Ultra-Rare Collections: 30 Days

Issues with Current System

As brilliantly illustrated by Lars Doucet and Dan Cook in this essay, the current land system has the following issues:

A diagram showing First Mover Advantage| A diagram showing second mover disadvantage| A diagram showing Speculators flourish

Phase 1: First mover advantage. The first players in the game are able to acquire land cheaply. They corner the supply of valuable land.

Phase 2: Second mover disadvantage. The next wave of new players moves into the game. They need to buy land, but there isn’t any available, so they pay the existing land owners a premium to either buy or rent it.

Phase 3: Speculators flourish. Both the rental income and the selling value of land will tend to increase while the game population is growing, which makes it a tempting target for speculators. These land hoarders intentionally sit on their treasure trove of land and wait for someone with bigger pockets or more desperate needs to come along and pay them a guaranteed profit. There’s no real economic downside (for the speculators) to continue this price-ratcheting cycle, so it flourishes.

The biggest critique for Upland is the cold start problem in buying properties. It is very time-consuming and/or very expensive to buy one’s first property. There is no global directory to look through to find properties, and players have to spend time and UPX searching for the right plot of land to buy. Upland can easily solve the problem by making travel more accessible and specific, but it will just enable the whales to gobble everything up.

In other words, a bad initial experience is being used to support fairness. In our view, this is an inefficient way to solve a problem. One possible solution is the implementation of Land Value Tax.

Land Value Tax

The basic premise is that it should become cheap to buy land but expensive to hold land. This ensures that only people who intend to do something productive with land will bother to hold it. Those who were holding it for speculative purposes with no intent to do anything except hope its value will increase will instead sell or abandon their claims to it, making much more land available. Those who wish to do something with land will build improvements upon it that cause the property to generate more income than the tax, justifying the cost of holding it.

This tends to solve two problems in one stroke:

1. Removing speculators who hold onto scarce assets unproductively
2. Ensuring that land organically finds its way into the hands of those who want to put it to the best use

There are four basic steps to implementing a digital Land Value Tax policy:

1. Identify “land-like assets”
2. Separate “improvements” from “land”
3. Discover the full market value of land (ideally, as both rental income and selling value)
4. Levy a Land Value Tax that captures 85-100% of land rents

There are a few other baseline requirements that your virtual world must first fulfill for this to work, of course:

1. Land must be tradable
2. There must be some kind of currency to levy the tax in

In Upland, the Land Value Tax would be necessary but not now. It still has a lot of land to sell. Systems like FSA-marked properties (that are reserved only for new users) do make it possible for new players to buy land. As the game grows and matures, or even if the user growth slows down, Land Value Tax will become more important because the fun in the game would be directly proportional to the amount of transactions that the players can do — but that will not be possible if whales simply hold on to their land.

There is a certain amount of fun in the core gameplay of buying and selling properties in order to increase one’s net worth. However, in order to retain and engage players, there need to be multiple meta loops.

Metaventures is one such loop, which we’ll dive into next.

Metaventures Gameplay

Metaventures, which are essentially in-game businesses, are an important part of Upland‘s economy. They allow people to sell Legits, block explorers, house decor, their own NFT projects, and more in the future. Once cars enter the game, another important mechanic will be showrooms where the manufactured cars can be sold. Upland has stated that “Metaventures will mostly be self-regulated and will require little interference from the Upland team.” Currently, it is a highly regulated marketplace in terms of what players can sell.

Spark Sources

As explained above, Spark is the second currency in Upland and is used in the metaventures game loop.

Spark Week Buying Spark in Store

There are multiple ways to get Spark:

• During “Spark Week,” Upland holds a Spark sale in the Upland Store. It is important to note that Spark is sold only for USD and not UPX. The sale is limited, and players can buy anywhere from 0.05 Spark for $30 (at a rate of $600/Spark) up to 1 Spark for $460. The sale has different quantities of each amount, and it is not first come, first served.
• Participating in Treasure Hunts (limited time events based on finding treasures on the Upland map) gives Spark.
• Leveling up a player’s Uplander status also gives Spark.

Structures

Structures are homes that can be built upon properties that players own. Spark is required to build these homes and other inanimate objects. Building a structure on a property will forever link the two together. This means that players can't sell a structure without also selling the land it sits on. If players want to open a metaventure (in-game business), having a structure is a prerequisite. In Upland, structures can be constructed, bought, sold, and traded along with the properties they are on.

Spark is the equivalent to man hours. If a player wants to build a home on their property, they require Spark hours. For example, to build a townhouse, this will require 2,600 Spark hours from players. If they own 2 Spark, it will take them 2,600/2 = 1,300 hours (over 54 days) to build it. Importantly, a player’s Spark never gets “used up,” and they can remove their Spark from a construction project at any time. Similar to UPX, Spark is non-transferable and cannot be sold.

There are various types of structures, and each of them requires a different amount of Spark hours to be built.

Structure Construction Contributing to others Construction

Since Spark does not behave like a currency that is spent, players can use their Spark to speed up progress on other structures. This can help them raise the neighborhood score and therefore increase the number of collections possible. This social aspect of Upland is great in making it a community-based gameplay experience.

In short, starting a metaventure will require players to own a property first, then own enough Spark to start building a structure. Spark’s unique design, which incentivizes players to help out their neighbors, is a good touch that makes Upland feel like a social experience.

Shops

Player Shop Player Shop

Shops are a type of metaventure in which players can sell certain NFTs like block explorers and Legits. In order to do that, they need to construct a structure that will house this shop. Not every Uplander will likely have the means or desire to open their own metaventure; however, they will still need a place to list their assets for sale. Players have the ability to become a sub-merchant and list their assets in another player’s store, with the metaventure owner taking a 2-10% commission on all sales. The items can be sold for UPX or dollars.

Shop in a Structure Others can list their items here Items sold for UPX/$

The monthly fees, or venture dues required to maintain a metaventure, are based on both the specific city and the number of businesses of a certain type that operate simultaneously. For example, if there are several similar metaventures in the same city, the cost to operate one will increase in order to discourage oversaturation of the market. Here are more details about venture dues which are similar to the Land Value Tax.

Factories and Showrooms

Factories are a type of structure that is capable of producing goods. They have the same process of manufacturing as structures, but players also need to have storage space near the factory to store these goods. The goods to be produced are not completely UGC yet and are controlled by Upland. They are sold at showrooms, which are also special structures.

MV Motors Factory Car production at MV Motors

These structures are currently regulated and are usually taken up by brands/companies since they require a large piece of land. They also have to think about transportation, storage, marketing, and selling as each of these activities is location-based. For example, it helps to sell near high density / high activity, because players can only interact with something in Upland when they’re close to it.

The trading volume of the metaventures is barely 4% to that of properties. This is understandable since they are only a fragment of the experience and might not appeal to players who are in Upland for the primary experience of trading properties.

Metaventures add another layer of commerce to Upland. This layer is much more player-dependent and adds multiple opportunities for social interactions within the game. Nevertheless, systems like these need high volumes of users to be successful.

Events and Fan Experiences

The core property gameplay can include a lot of waiting and be inaccessible to new players because of the high cost. Players can, in the meantime, aim to participate in other events to stay engaged. Let’s have a look at some of these events.

Treasure Hunts

Treasure hunting is a fun way to try and win UPX or Spark. It gives hints and requires players to send their block explorers to different properties around a city and get in close proximity of the treasure to claim it. It is important to note that as players begin hunting for treasures, they should expect to lose more UPX than win. Treasure hunting is a skill that requires practice, but if mastered, it can be very profitable.

There are three different types of treasure hunts, increasing in difficulty and rewards:

Standard

Standard hunts are the only type in which players do not compete against other players but only the clock. Players get one free standard treasure hunt every 24 hours but can complete more (theoretically infinite) by paying a small fee (50-100 UPX, depending on the city) for each hunt. Players are given 5 minutes to find the treasure. They need to click a property close to their block explorer and then the treasure hunt button within the property card. This will reveal the hint. Based on that hint, players send their block explorer to another property to reveal the next hint there, in the hopes that the hints indicate that they are getting closer to the treasure. This process is repeated until they find the treasure, run out of sends, run out of time, or give up.

Treasure Hunt in Process Treasure Hunt Hint Guide (Source: Upland Guide)

Depending on the city, you can use a maximum of 40 sends during each 24-hour period. When treasure hunting or doing something else, sending your block explorer to a property you own does not result in the loss of a send. Therefore, if players own more properties that are strategically spread out, this will decrease the sends they must make to properties that they don’t own.

Limited

Limited treasure hunts are free to participate in, but players must compete against other players. Once the treasure is found, the treasure hunt mode goes into a cooldown.

The winner of the treasure hunt also goes into a cooldown, and they are unable to participate again for the next three hours. A 5-minute countdown is also provided prior to beginning the next hunt. The concept and strategy is the same as in the standard hunt, but players have to be faster as there could be dozens of people looking for the same treasure. If a certain threshold of players hunting is reached, then Riot Mode is enabled, in which the prize is doubled! Since players are competing against other players, to win a hunt they likely have to find the treasure within 40 seconds. Having a vast treasure-hunting network is not necessarily advantageous in this situation.

Exclusive

Exclusive treasure hunts are very similar to the limited ones, but they spawn less frequently, and the rewards are higher. In the image below, you can see that the hint is a yellow arrow. This indicates that it is an exclusive treasure. Limited treasures are purple, and standard ones are blue. These color codes resemble the collection colors.

There is a second type of exclusive treasure that are “stealth” treasures. In order to see the hints for them, players must be less than 1km away from the treasure. Finding this treasure takes a lot of luck.

Legit-based Gameplay

Upland defines Legits as “a new suite of NFT offerings designed to enable brands, personalities, and organizations (such as sports clubs, athletes, artists, entertainment brands, and more) to extend their real-life presence into the Upland Metaverse and beyond. These new digital assets will enable fans to directly engage with the brands they love in an entirely new way.” There are a few different types of Legits:

Mementos

Mementos are rare, unique Legits (usually 1-of-1) that commemorate real-world events related to the brand or persona. These NFTs are typically integrated with unique data, such as a player’s stats for a particular game. Players will be able to register to secure Mementos prior to a game's start.

Essentials

Essentials are branded 3D NFTs that are not limited by quantity but by time and seasons. For example, a set of Essentials may only be available for a 2021 season. In essence, Essentials are more common NFTs that can be used to complete Legit Collections or combined to generate rarer, more exclusive NFTs, like Replicas.

Replicas

Replicas are NFTs that can be replicated by merging (or "burning") Legit Essentials. Replicas of Mementos are essentially copies of Mementos and are generally less valuable than the original.

Buy Legits

NFL Player Legits can only be bought at specified NFLPA (National Football League Players Association) in-game stores or stadiums of a given team. These Legits are needed to increase the fan score in a pseudo fantasy-sports-like gameplay, which we will discuss next. To get specific Mementos, players will have to go to the store prior to a game and register. They will need to buy the Memento of the player of their choice (assuming someone hasn’t bought it ahead of them). After the actual game, the Legit will be minted with the player’s stats from that game.

Grow Fan Score

The Fan Score is important because the larger it is, the more likely it is for players to buy Mementos and Autographs. If players are trying to mint a Memento or any other special Legit, the algorithm is not completely random as to who gets to the “front of the line.” There is always an element of luck. Players who have never bought a Memento always have a chance to obtain one, but the best way to ensure this is to have a high Fan Score. Once they’ve bought a Memento, the likelihood of them getting another one soon after decreases in order to give others an opportunity as well.

These can then be sold to other players to earn UPX or dollars.

Fan points per Legit range from 125 (contributor caps) to 4,147 (autographed elite player Memento from the Superbowl). This information can be found in the NFLPA Legits 2020 Bundle Contents and Fan Points list and the Fan Points Calculator.

In order to boost fan points for each Legit, players can add them to collections similar to how they would for properties. For each team, there is a total of 14 collections that players can add their Legits to. They are able to create collections in order to get a one-time bonus and boosted Fan Score earnings. Essentially, the more Legits players own, the rarer or more difficult they are to obtain, and whether they are part of a team or player collection will be the guiding factor to increasing the Fan Score.

Sell or Trade Legits

Players can sell the Legits that they have acquired as part of their metaventures, as explained above.

Although the main objective of events is to increase engagement, the time spent by players in the game seems to be very low.

However, partnering with brands has definitely helped Upland obtain users. The game announced a partnership with FC Porto (football club from Portugal) on June 29th, 2022, and it saw a huge uptick in DAUs on that day. Unfortunately, it did not sustain.

Events aim to add a layer of dynamism to Upland. They are easy to join and are a great way for new players to get started. Partnerships with the NFL and FC Porto aim to expand the playerbase by attracting fans of these franchises. However, they are not enough to increase engagement since they are tangential activities and don't directly tie into the core loop of buying and selling properties.

Upland’s Economy

Upland is unique in the sense that it has in-game currencies that are used for buying and selling NFTs but are not tradable. This unique model has helped it stay in the good graces of the Apple and Google stores while at the same time making it accessible and less prone to speculative bubbles. The Upland economy can be divided into two main parts:

1. Property economy
2. Metaventures economy

Most of the UPX transactions happen in the property economy. In fact, over the last 3 months, 98% of the UPX transactions in Upland were for properties.

Selling prices for most of the cities fall between 5K - 50K UPX. Assuming $1 = 1K UPX, based on the IAP prices, this means that most of the land plots sell for $5 to $50 (if players directly brought the UPX from the IAP store). There are, however, some exceptions to this, with Manhattan ranging from $100 to $1K while land in Detroit ranges from $3 to $11.

The all-time UPX spent per Trade (red line above) stands at 15,746, which matches the median of the city-wise distribution. The number of trades peaked in December 2021 at 340K and stands at 110K as of September 2022. The trade activity dropped sharply in May 2022 alongside the rest of the industry.

Besides UPX, players can sell their properties for USD. This functionality is available only on web. The above graph shows a city-wise distribution of the number of plots for sale in Upland.

As of the time of writing, Upland has properties in 22 cities (largely in the US). This could explain why most of the revenue comes from US. There are a total of approximately 4M properties of which 12% are unminted or locked. The remaining are either owned or for sale. It is interesting to note that among the properties for sale by players, only 8% are sold for USD. This is mainly because USD transactions are not allowed on mobile. Other reasons could be players not understanding the UX or just not being able to use the USD service due to country-based restrictions.

Block Explorer trades, though fewer in number, demand a higher price, which may be because of their limited nature and the fact that it’s the only visual representation of the player.

The above active user numbers are only for mobile. Assuming that an equal number of players play and pay on web, it would make the total revenue generated by Upland close to $20M. This is highly speculative, though.

Players in Upland can also sell properties for USD. Barring a few cities, property prices in Upland and the real world follow a similar trend with a 64% correlation. One obvious reason for this is that Upland uses real-world prices to define the floor prices of properties. Over time, this correlation is bound to change, because the factors that might affect prices in the real world will not be the same as those in a virtual world.

Upland also generates revenue from the 10% cut it charges from properties sold directly in USD. However, since this transaction is not possible on mobile, only 8% of the total trades are direct USD trades. This brings Upland’s cut to $370K, which is much less than the revenue generated through IAPs.

The above chart looks at the monthly revenue and user trends for Upland’s US business on mobile. The game’s monthly revenue definitely followed the crypto boom and bust, and it seems to be stabilizing at around $200K per month — approximately 15% of its peak revenue of $1.16M during December 2021. Further, Upland’s US MAUs are currently at 90K compared to 128K in December 2021. We’ll obviously see where these metrics go from here, but in general the game is still operating at a very low scale despite the addition of new features and partners.

Upland’s clever use of both tradable and non-tradable assets has helped it create a sustainable business model. The decision to keep UPX and Spark non-tradable has discouraged speculation. This means that Upland will be able to capitalize on the positives of the bull cycle while being cushioned against all the negatives of a bear cycle.

Roadmap

Upland is already a vast game with multiple systems interacting with each other, yet it has an even more aggressive roadmap.

• Add more cities: As new players join the game, Upland will keep releasing new cities to keep them engaged in the main core loop. Adding new cities will be an ongoing activity.
• Outdoor decor: Outdoor decor is one of the key ways players can contribute directly to the look and feel of Upland. With the introduction of outdoor decor manufacturing, the community has the tools to design and produce its own creations. Upland is currently beta-testing the feature with a few players. Beta players can create a queue for outdoor decor production inside their factories by allocating Spark towards production. Once an item is completed, it is placed in the factory’s inventory lot, ready to be sold in showrooms.
• Fantasy football with Legits: Each week, players will be able to form a team roster based on the Legits that they own. The real-world stats that your roster accumulates during that week multiplied by some factor based on Legit type (for example, Replicas being more valuable than Essentials) will provide players with a total score for the week. Every week, you can create a new roster using the Legits in your inventory. There will be global and private leaderboards, as well as opportunities to go head-to-head with friends. Aside from bragging rights, there could be prizes in the form of UPX, Spark, Legits, or something else.
• Legits of additional sports: Along with the NFL, Upland has partnered with the European football club FC Porto for a similar experience.
• Multiple utilities with cars: Currently, thanks to a partnership with MV Motors, Upland is now selling virtual cars. The plan is to add multiple utilities to these cars, including transporting goods and even racing. Players will also be able to sell custom paint jobs for cars, similar to how house ornaments function.
• UGC: In short, Community Dev Tools empower third-party developers to connect with Upland using simple REST APIs. This deployment method allows players to connect to third-party experiences while letting creators use the programming tools and game engines they love. Players have access to virtually limitless third-party content, and developers can tap into the Upland ecosystem. It’s a win-win for everyone. The Community Dev Tools are openly available to UDN members, and UDN applications are open for anyone who wants to apply.
• NFT Portal: Players will be able to bring NFTs from other blockchains into Upland.

Suggestions and Conclusion

Upland is a huge, ambitious project with multiple possibilities that it can explore. Let’s cover a few suggestions when it comes to improving its metrics.

Improve Acquisition

• Tie up with more brands: Tie-ups with the NFL, FC Porto, and MV Motors have helped Upland offer unique experiences to the fans of these brands. Similarly, the game can tie up with other real-world brands to help get their fans onboard. One caveat here is that the experience will differ for every category. So, as a first step, the suggestion would be to tie up with brands whose experiences are already built into Upland, like sports brands and car brands.
• Strategically select future cities: Currently, most of Upland’s revenue comes from the US, hence most of the cities in the game are in the US. The suggestion would be to open up cities in locations from where Upland gets many of its downloads. This would include cities in UK, Brazil, India, Canada, and Philippines.

Improve Engagement

• Improved Traveling: One of Upland’s weakest metrics is its session times. This is because the gameplay does not entail spending a lot of time in the game. One of the core activities in Upland is traveling. Upland can gamify this experience through a runner-based minigame.
• Quest System: As a new player, it is very difficult to navigate the game. Upland is a vast collection of intersecting activities, and players need time to understand the game. A quest system that takes players through various such activities and guides them to make their first land purchase would definitely be a welcome addition.
• Land Value Tax: Players should be encouraged to trade and not hold on to land. Land Value Tax (as explained in the Property Gameplay section) can be a good way to encourage more trades happening in Upland. This can be achieved, though, when land has multiple ways to earn from it.
• UGC: Upland is already focusing on UGC in which the community itself could create more engaging experiences.

Improve Monetization

• Block Explorer customization: The main identity of players in Upland is represented by their block explorers. Since the game is extremely social in nature, Upland can monetize customization options for creating unique block explorers.
• Clans: Though typically clans are a feature for retention, in Upland, they can be monetization-led through competitive systems inspired by 4x games.

Not allowing UPX to be tradable has been the best decision taken by Upland. It has enabled the team to focus on building a sustainable game and not be destructively impacted by the bear and bull cycles of the crypto world. This decision has done another important thing: it has prohibited the game from being associated with a market cap valuation, yet another way to avoid being overridden by speculators.

Upland is a huge game with multiple ambitious ideas. It has proven to be sustainable. Now, it just needs to attain scale to become more accessible. Then again, looking at the AAA games coming in 2023 and comparing that to Upland’s UGC-focused roadmap (which needs users to be successful, making it a Catch 22), this looks like an uphill task.

A big thanks to Karan Gaikwad for writing this deconstruction. If Naavik can be of help as you build or fund games, please reach out.