Reading Time: 17 minutes

Top News

#1: Bit Heroes Enters the Arena

Kongregate finally graduated its newest Bitverse game, Bit Heroes Arena, to a web-based global release after a six-month open beta. The game is the third in a series and part of a web3 ecosystem Kongregate is calling the Bitverse that builds on the IP of the first successful game in the series, Bit Heroes (now renamed Bit Heroes Quest), and its follow-up Bit Heroes Runner. Let’s run through each one. 

Bit Heroes Quest is a fairly simple MMORPG, but Kongregate has built up a solid feature set over time. The game has a campaign mode, PvP, boss fights, raids and guild features. After the currently delayed Bitverse token, $BPXL is launched, the company is also supposed to launch a play-to-own PvP tournament mode. Entering this game mode requires a $BPXL entry fee, and the tournament's top players will collect a percent of all fees as rewards.

Bit Heroes Runner is an adventure-driven endless runner. Each adventure is available for a limited time and features different enemies, hazards, gear, and environments. Players can compete against the community in daily, weekly, and monthly leaderboards where they can earn some of the game's best rewards. 

Bit Heroes Arena is a mix of battle royale and RPG in real-time skirmishes with upwards of 40 opponents all battling across a massive biome-melding map with a dangerous ever-encroaching storm along its borders. Players collect loot and battle spawning monsters for XP to level up and fight each other to be the last man standing.

Bit Heroes Quest, the original game in the Bitverse series, was released on Kongregate in 2016 by a small indie team known as Juppiomenz. Despite its modest beginnings, the game quickly gained traction and became a fan-favorite. By 2019, Kongregate had acquired the rights to the game and designated its internal studio, Ultrabit, to further its development. The game continued to flourish on mobile platforms and reportedly peaked in 2020, according to stats from data.ai.

The Bitverse series experienced a significant resurgence in 2022, amid rising interest in play-to-earn (P2E) games. Responding to the trend, Kongregate unveiled its web3 Bitverse plan in late April. The primary aim was to expand the Bit Heroes IP into the blockchain gaming sphere, allowing for asset interoperability across different games within the Bit Heroes franchise.

This web3 universe, dubbed the Bitverse, was outlined in the Kongregate whitepaper released as part of the Bitverse announcement. It detailed plans to introduce several forms of NFTs, with Bit Heroes NFTs being at the heart of the system. The Bitverse is also set to include a token named Bit Pixel ($BPXL). Although the games in the Bitverse would feature distinct gameplay mechanisms, they would all share traditional RPG elements such as combat, leveling up, collecting equipment, and upgrading gear to enhance power levels.

At its core, the Bitverse was designed to foster competition, with live events and prizes distributing player-owned items as rewards for the most dedicated and skilled participants. Bitverse Heroes were to be the primary NFT assets, interoperating with all Bitverse games. Even some items in the Bitverse Hero’s inventory were intended to be mintable into NFTs. These dynamics would provide additional utility to certain NFT assets over time, as the games were developed to augment the existing Bit Heroes experience through the introduction of blockchain elements. The Bitverse aimed to operate on a hybrid model, keeping the games free-to-play and accessible across platforms for all players.

In the Bitverse, Bit Hero NFTs would carry elements of progress. Players could log in to any Bit Heroes game and choose to play as a standard non-NFT hero or any Bitverse Heroes they own. Progress made, items gained, and the reputation built as a Bitverse Hero would belong to the NFT, remaining with it regardless of changes in ownership. 

This progress could be "frozen" and sold within the community. This gameplay model was applied to all the Bit Heroes games, and playing as a Bitverse Hero in any of the titles is planned to grant players access to additional in-game content, including exclusive Bitverse Hero tournaments and daily missions spanning the Bitverse.

Non-NFT items could be obtained mainly through gameplay and occasionally through shop purchases. The plan is for these items to be fused with $BPXL in a future Bit Forge to create new NFT assets. Players could own and trade NFT items, such as weapons, armor, mounts, pets, and familiars, regardless of whether they owned a Bitverse Hero. Transaction of a Bitverse Hero would not affect a player's inventory of NFT items.

Bit Hero avatars, in typical NFT fashion, possess a range of unique traits and rarity levels. These traits could include special backgrounds, skin tone, eye color, hairstyle, clothing, and accessories. The avatars have been released in generations. Generation 0 was introduced on September 22nd, 2022, while Generation 1 — the current generation — was launched on December 19th.

These NFTs are sold in what is referred to as "Portals,” which are blind packs that vary in price based on the probability of containing an avatar of a particular rarity. The pricing for Generation 0 ranged from $99 to slightly more than $1,000, which respectively guaranteed a Common to Legendary rarity. However, it's worth noting that the highest rarity, Mythic, was never assured. Nonetheless, even in lower rarity Portals, there remained a slim chance of obtaining a Mythic avatar, with the odds rising significantly in the Legendary Portal, from 0.9% in Epic to 16.6% Legendary.

The potential value of a Mythic rarity NFT is exemplified by the single Generation 1 Mythic listed on the Immutable Marketplace for $1,700. Interestingly, the pricing structure for Generation 0 was designed to favor early adopters, being lower than subsequent generations. Generation 1, while slightly pricier than Generation 0 by $10 to $50 depending on the tier, remains available for purchase as sales have not yet fully depleted the stock over the past five months.

Currently, the remaining stock comprises of 43 out of 217 Commons, 14 out of 49 Rares, 7 out of 19 Epics, and 7 out of 19 Legendaries. Given these figures, it is estimated that players have spent approximately $45,000 on Generation 1 Portals. Aside from direct purchases, there's also a secondary market for these NFTs. At present, the only item listed there is a single Mythic Generation 1 NFT. According to data from the Immutable, the total volume of transactions involving the Heroes stands at $30,500, with the highest recorded sale at $1,900.

Ownership of NFTs in the Bitverse ecosystem grants various non-gaming benefits. These perks encompass access to unique Discord roles and channels, an invitation to exclusive events, special in-game store offers, an ad-free gaming experience, closed beta access, and airdrops of future NFT pets and mounts. However, it's worth noting that many of these bonuses have not yet been finalized. Even the Discord verification process remains manual at present, requiring owners to submit a screenshot as proof of NFT ownership to an administrator.

In a semantic shift, the Bitverse team decided to update the term 'play-to-earn' (P2E) to 'play & own' (P&O) in version 1.01 of their whitepaper. This shift underscores Bitverse's commitment to offering players an extensive range of opportunities to engage in the P&O paradigm. These opportunities include a Bitverse Season Pass, daily missions, regular in-game events, exclusive token events, fusing, 1v1 bets, first run / victory bonuses across all games, and $BPXL drops in the Bit Heroes Runner.

However, the rollout of the $BPXL token, intended for release at the start of 2023, appears to have been delayed. The token is envisioned as a vital component of several NFT-related benefits. For instance, a Season Pass promises to feature numerous quests across all Bitverse games, offering potential rewards such as NFT equipment, $BPXL tokens, unique items, and schematics. The Bitverse team also plans to offer daily $BPXL bonuses for its three games and introduce a new 1v1 $BPXL betting mode for NFT owners in Quest.

The $BPXL token is designed to serve as a universal hard currency, analogous to gems in F2P games, across all Bitverse titles. Players will be able to use $BPXL to directly purchase certain elements or to exchange it for gems in each game at a conversion rate subject to $BPXL's valuation, but guaranteed to have a minimum floor of 1:1. The token will also be used to acquire NFTs such as gear, mounts, pets, and familiars through direct sales, secondary sales on various marketplaces, or via the in-game 'forge' to create new NFTs.

Furthermore, the token will function as a reward in various ways throughout the game’s missions, modes, and events. The game will even offer staking options for $BPXL, enabling players to vote on or propose game-related and token-related topics via decentralized governance.

In the interest of decentralization, the Bitverse developers aim to vest the community with ownership through a Bitverse SDK. This will provide a suite of services valuable to future developers, encompassing analytics, authentication, blockchain, and other game services essential for effective operation. The team is even contemplating creating a game engine, further empowering the community to develop games for the Bitverse.

Kongregate's foray into the world of web3 has been met with mixed results. On the positive side, it has successfully launched two new games as promised, albeit one of them needed an additional six-month open beta phase. However, the journey has not been without its challenges. The company fell short of its token release plans and is now forced to launch in a bear market, which has significantly dampened interest in its NFTs. This is compounded by the fact that the games themselves have not gained substantial traction.

Bit Heroes Quest, Kongregate's flagship game, has seen moderate success. According to data.ai, it has consistently held between 20,000 and 35,000 active mobile users since early 2021, with a noticeable surge into the 40,000 to 50,000 range following the Bitverse announcement. The game has also managed to cultivate a relatively stable fanbase, as evidenced by its 35,000 Discord members.

Bit Heroes Runner, available exclusively on Kongregate's web platform, has had a less enthusiastic reception. It has recorded 70,794 plays since its release six months ago. However, this figure is likely inflated as refreshing the page and playing again contributes another play to the count, suggesting the actual player count could be significantly lower. Player feedback on the site is generally critical, with many players noting the game's bugs and lack of refinement, likely due to its rushed release and the challenges of managing three games simultaneously.

Bit Heroes Arena faces its own set of challenges as well, notably its late launch. That could potentially hinder its ability to attract a substantial player base. The game requires a significant number of players for each match. However, during testing at various times of the day, it was seldom possible to find a match with even a single other player. The game appears to lack bot functionality to fill in for human players, making the matches feel rather deserted except for AI-controlled monsters. 

The lobby has a two-minute time limit, and if no other players join during this period, it returns to the main menu. This leaves players in the dark about the presence of other players as they have no way to know if people are online or queuing until attempting to queue for two minutes. It remains unclear if Kongregate will adjust its strategy to overcome these initial hurdles.

At this point, Kongregate is facing an uphill battle to drive interest in the Bitverse unless it can incentivize its diehard Bit Heroes Quest players into playing multiple games and actually wanting to use its web3 elements. The Immutable marketplace states there are just 163 owners of the 1,200 NFTs, which is far from meaningful traction for the project. 

It’s positive that a team of less than 10 people has been able to at least somewhat execute on an ambitious vision given how many other web3 projects remain in limbo. But it may be too little too late for the global release of Bit Heroes Arena to push the project to success.

#2: Game Dosi Lines Up Five Games

Line Next, the American arm of the Japanese messaging service Line, has unveiled details about five upcoming games for its Game Dosi web3 gaming platform. The platform, which isn't developing all the games but rather providing a platform for other game creators, has also started selling NFT membership passes and NFTs for pass holders. In addition to providing a platform, Game Dosi extends legal, marketing, and tokenomics consulting support to developers. The platform employs a blockchain network, Finschia, developed by LINE. It’s based on Cosmos and plans compatibility with various mainnets in the future. Finschia, previously known as LINK Chain, features LINK as its native cryptocurrency.

The five announced games — Sweet Monster Guardians, Vestria the Last Order (V.L.O.), KEROZ, Drawshop Kingdom Reverse, and Project GD —encompass different genres and mechanisms. They are designed to embody the "Gamer First, Web3 Next" ethos by allowing players to trade and own digital goods.

Sweet Monster Guardians is a “strategic merge-line defense game.” The gameplay is an interesting blend of a typical single lane attack/defense game, mixed with some merge mechanics and card management. The game is developed by Korean game developer Movisoft, which built HTML5 game portal Popcon Game and has a large number of mobile game releases under its belt going back to 2018. 

While the game is labeled as a browser game that is “coming soon,” it’s already playable in Korean on Android and has little traction despite being released in May 2022. Game Dosi is also selling Sweet Monster Guardians NFTs for $90 to $350 depending on rarity and purchasable by holders of the new Game Dosi membership NFTs. At the time of writing there have been 56 out of 100 of the highest rarity (Epic) minted with only one to three of the other rarities. The release date on the roadmap is Q2 / June 2023.

V.L.O (Vestria the Last Order) is an RPG for desktop (PC and Mac) being developed by the unknown SIS Studio. The game will have real-time PvP, a “chain-combo” battle system, and boss raids. The game looks to have a typical five-star gacha character system for party-based combat and multiple currencies that may indicate some F2P economics. Not much information is given about the game, but some gameplay can be seen in a YouTube video released by Game Dosi. The release date on the roadmap is Q4 2023.

Keroz is an action-roguelike targeting PC and mobile. Based on the information available it looks to be similar to games like Vampire Survivors and Survivor.io. The game is being developed by Super Flex, a Korean mobile developer behind moderately successful idle games IDLE Death Knight - AFK RPG and WuKong Legends: Idle RPG. The release date on the roadmap is September 2023.

Drawshop Kingdom Reverse is a “DAO-based Metaverse” with P2E gameplay and NFTs. Gameplay revolves around land management, PvP and gacha-based NFT “draw-machines.” There is also a focus on 2D pixel art galleries. The game is targeting browsers and being developed by Nolatency Limited, a Korean developer with multiple team members having formerly worked together at Krafton. Even though Game Dosi lists the game as coming soon, it’s been in open beta for some time with an alpha that began at the end of August 2022. The game was and possibly still is being developed for the Klaytn blockchain and it’s unclear if the new partnership with Game Dosi changes that. There is a full whitepaper for the game as well, and the release date on the roadmap is Q4 2023.

Project GD is the single game announced using Game Dosi’s IP, although it’s not completely clear if Game Dosi itself will be doing the development. Not many details are known at the moment except that it will be a Trading Card Game (TCG) with NFT cards, combined with what seems to be some tactical RPG elements. Judging by the UI shown, the target platform is most likely PC. We expect that as Game Dosi ramps up its network, more information around the game will be forthcoming to build hype. The release date on the roadmap is Q3 2023 for a demo version.

The NFT membership system Game Dosi is selling now is set up around two tiers: a lower Gold tier and a higher Platinum one. The benefits around membership generally are receiving exclusive limited edition NFTs, early purchase opportunities, in-game NFT giveaways, tournament tickets, special offers, and an incentive program. The Platinum tier also mentions an exclusive NFT raffle, early game access, and discounts on member exclusive NFT drops.

The current sale ends on May 22nd. At the time of writing, 753 of 1,500 Platinum passes and 17 of 2,500 Gold passes have been minted. With the Gold pass selling at $150 and the Platinum at $180, those interested so far clearly consider the extra $30 to be worthwhile with these being limited-edition. Once purchased, the membership pass reveals itself as one of six possible Game Dosi characters from Project GD to add some element of collectability. There are currently five holders of the Platinum Pass and four of the Gold pass looking to flip them on the Game Dosi marketplace for a slight profit.

To help promote excitement around the platform, Game Dosi is also running an NFT giveaway from May 11th to May 31st for some basic engagement like a Twitter follow, retweet, discord join and creating a Dosi wallet. The NFT given is a DOSI Citizen character that doesn’t appear to be for sale on the Game Dosi marketplace at the moment.

While Line is primarily a Japanese-focused messaging service, Game Dosi seems to be focused on leveraging the evolving South Korean web3 game scene. With a mix of different platforms, styles, and genres, it is trying to go broad to try and demonstrate the viability of the platform for other prospective developers. The actual benefit of the web3 aspects given so far, however, don’t seem especially compelling in terms of gameplay or integration. Instead, Game Dosi seems to be putting the cart before the horse a little by focusing on membership and collectability mostly around the platform with Sweet Monster Guardians being the only game-specific NFTs so far. Based on the low amount of sales within a limited time window, there may not be huge interest in the project until the games themselves start finding an audience.

The blockchain provided by Line Next comes with its own uncertainty, even though the wallet is relatively easy to set up and manage without needing a browser extension or app. Japan itself has shown strong interest in web3 and strong promotion within Line there could help attract some initial players with a possibility to leverage the social network for some virality, but that could be a long shot. Game Dosi is definitely looking to provide good behind-the-scenes support for developers, which — combined with funding — could be a critical factor in at least gaining a decent portfolio to build up interest. Judging by the current state of the project and some uncertainty around roadmap execution, if this platform does find success it may be a slow burn into 2024.

Upcoming Game Announcements

• Phantom Galaxies launched a new beta for holders of the ‘Zorran’s Favour’ NFT. (Link)
• Superior is running a free playtest for the web3 features using the Gala Launcher. (Link)
• Eternal Dragons released an update with NFT Integration, Lite PVE, and Quest Challenges. (Link)
• Life Beyond released details on its economy and tokenomics. (Link)
• Genopets released a new roadmap update. (Link)
• Yuga Labs revealed its HV-MTL NFTs to mixed reception. (Link)
• Aurory launched its Prologue to Adventures experience for NFT holders. (Link)
• Illuvium's Zero Alpha released a new update to prepare for Season 1. (Link)
• The Sprawl, a sandbox MMO, ran a free mint for Job Avatar NFTs. (Link)
• Mirandus launched a new Tech Test. (Link)
• MechaFightClub halted development and initiated an NFT buyback program. (Link)

Live Game Announcements

• Sky Mavis launched its Mavis Market and released Axie Infinity Origins on iOS (Link)
• Faraway released support for buying user-created Mini Royale Skins. (Link)
• Immortal Game announced a partnership with Polo & Pan to sell NFTs. (Link)
• STEPN launched its Badges & Achievements System. (Link)
• Wemade announced more games for pre-registration on its Wemix platform. (Link)

Funding Announcements

• Forj has been granted approval and $480,000-worth of APE tokens to launch Ape Accelerator, an incubation platform for the BAYC ApeCoin DAO. (Link)
• Animoca Brands released a financial update for transparency that it has $194 million cash, $3.3 billion in tokens. (Link)

Ecosystem Updates

• Polygon announced Sequence wallet as its preferred solution for Supernets. (Link)
• Limit Break released its Creator Token Contracts as a proposed extension to ERC-721. (Link)
• Walken Announces its Own Casual Gaming Ecosystem - The Cuze. (Link)
• Animoca Brands announced a partnership with Hooked for web3 edutainment. (Link)
• Horizen launched its EON EVM-compatible sidechain on the Gobi Testnet with $75K in bug bounties available. (Link)
• Helika announced a partnership with Yuga Labs for web3 gaming analytics. (Link)

Notable Market Moves

• This week was generally positive for all the tokens except Floki, with Render Token especially going big.
• Render token had a huge jump late in the week without any particular event or news from Render themselves that would drive the increase. Some speculate that the bullish increase comes from rumors around Apple and iOS integrations.
• Unlike most of the other tokens that gained this week with a big jump, ApeCoin slowly gained over the course of the week off the back of continued progress in its metaverse plans with the HV-MTL NFT reveals.
• The Sandbox got a small boost from the announcement of its May Festival which runs until June 12th. These monthly festivals have been a way to drive retention between alpha seasons and have had some success in doing so.
• Axie Infinity made some gains off the announcement of the limited iOS release which has been a long time coming. Even with it being limited to certain countries it was still a big step forward into mobile that could be a sign of progress into the space for both Axie Infinity and others.
• Gala helped boost its token price this week with a big token burn as part of its transition over to the V2 token.
• As always, we remind you to think long-term. Crypto and gaming in general is still in a period of high volatility that isn’t purely bearish or bullish and sensitive to other financial markets.

Content Worth Consuming

• Games Transitioning from Web 2 to Web 3 Ft. Michael Arnold | Mighty Bear Games (Economics Design): “In this video, we sit down and chat with Michael Arnold, who is the web3 lead at Mighty Bear Games. We talk about economic sustainability, faucets & sinks, and a lot more. If you are into gaming and web3, this video is for you.” (Link)
• Introducing ERC721-C: A New Standard for Enforceable On-Chain Programmable Royalties (Limit Break): “We are thrilled to announce that we have released Version 1.1, which formalizes the creator token standard introduced in Version 1.0 into the ERC721-C. ERC721-C will finally eliminate workarounds and make on-chain royalties enforceable through the use of transfer security policies that allow creators to decide how permissive token transfers are for their own collections, opening the door to new forms of royalties that can reward both creators, communities, partners, and affiliates.” (Link)
• What Value Does Web3 Bring To Games? (FOGcast): “Join Nico Vereecke & Phil Collins in an insightful podcast featuring Philip La, Director of Products at Roboto Games. With an impressive background spanning roles at Pokemon Go, Facebook, and Axie Infinity, La provides expert analysis on the intersection of blockchain and gaming. In his recent article, he presents a unique grading system that evaluates the incremental value that Web3 brings to games. The podcast covers essential topics such as marketplaces, trading, user acquisition, community building, and provable scarcity, offering valuable insights for game developers and enthusiasts alike..” (Link)
• Golden tickets (Nami): “We covered the free-to-mint strategy in detail in a previous post, which discusses the concepts of whitelist, first-come-first-serve, and raffle style minting, but P2M presents a slightly different approach. The main objective of P2M really is to separate true players from flippers, engaged but non-playing community members, and opportunistic raffle participants. Games like Duskbreakers, Omega Royale, and more recently Mojo Melee have adopted this strategy, but its revival is mainly attributed to Dookey Dash by Yuga Labs. To find out why, let's get into some of the most innovative aspects of Dookey Dash’s P2M design. (Link)
• Web3 toolkits: A user innovation theory of crypto development (Science Direct): “In this section we claim that the Web3 stack can be understood as a stack of digital infrastructures that have toolkit-like features. The structure of Web3 as toolkits is an institutional structure aiding an open user innovation process. While each specific element of the Web3 stack can be analyzed in isolation as an individual toolkit, here we look at the industry broadly, examining some general categories of Web3 and blockchain infrastructure along the toolkit characteristics in the literature.” (Link)

A big thanks to Devin Becker for writing this update! If Naavik can be of help as you build or fund games, please reach out.