Web3 Gaming Roundup #1
Taking a look at some actually good-looking games
Web3 gaming has suffered from a terrible plague in its relatively short existence: a severe lack of good, fun games. Thankfully, that’s a problem that has a clear solution—make better games.
Today, I want to highlight some Web3 games that I actually feel excited about, or am at least interested enough in to keep tabs on.
As a disclaimer, this post is not sponsored by any of these games or by anyone else. However, if you’d like to sponsor me, my email is steen.blake@gmail.com hehe.
Shardbound
Do you believe in second chances? Because Immutable Games and studio Bazooka Tango sure do—they’re giving Shardbound, a turn-based strategy card game, a new lease on life through blockchain tech.
I’m super pumped to play this one because it started in the traditional gaming industry, ran into funding issues, and then got picked up by massive Web3 gaming company Immutable—just because they liked the project so much. Interestingly (and promisingly), the studio seems to be way more focused on creating a solid game that people actually want to play rather than trying to force NFTs and microtransactions into their client. Which is refreshing.
The team shares a ton of great insights in this Dev Diaries video, and I highly recommend you check it out. I’m currently trying to get a playtest spot in their Discord with my “Day1” role 😅 May the odds be ever in my favor.
Sparkball
Funny name, super-fun-looking game. They’re calling it a “4v4 Mobrawler”.
Think League of Legends + soccer. As if League wasn’t chaotic enough. Sparkball seems like a blast though, and Worldspark (the studio behind the game) just held a big invitational tournament in June with all kinds of pro gamers and famous streamers—generating hype and drawing in potential new players.
Also of note: blockchain functionality isn’t even part of the game in its current state (which you can try on Steam right now). That tells me the dev team is really focusing on making a great game first, then figuring out Web3 stuff later. Which, again, is a great sign.
Regarding the difficulty of attracting new players, the founder and CEO of Worldspark, Chandler Thomlison, had this to say: “If a player sees the game on stream via their favorite creator, or sees their favorite org playing it competitively, we think it makes them want to like the game. It's that want that we think will drive players to get over the hump.”
Continuing on, he said, “If our viewer count is 1,000 people, but 750 of those became players for the early access weekend, we'd call that a massive success—more so than getting a 10,000-viewer count. Marketing reach is an easy solve with money. Conversion is not.” Very, very wise words.
Sounds like he’s got a good head on his shoulders. That kind of sense will take you far in the gaming industry—but will it be enough to make Sparkball the first Web3 game to truly go mainstream?
Anichess
Okay, I typically only want to talk about games that are already in development here, but the partnership on this one got me:
Animoca Brands + Chess.com. YES. I know, right?
I’m stoked. Animoca is a GIANT in the blockchain industry, and they created The Sandbox, one of the biggest metaverse projects to date. And I don’t think Chess.com needs an introduction.
But the game! What’s the game, Blake?
Well, we… don’t know yet! All we know is that Anichess aims to “preserve the core ethos of chess as a predominantly skill-based, free-to-play game” while augmenting its gameplay with “spells” of some sort. Whatever that means.
And they apparently want to go esports with it too. Part of me is like, “How do you make chess esports?” And then the other part of me is like, “Bro, look at PogChamps. Chess is CRUSHING it as a streaming game.”
So I don’t know. We’ll see though. For now, I guess we can just enjoy these vague but cool images that Animoca has released for the game.
Wildcard
I feel like Wildcard has potential. Potential for greatness. But also potential to be a Web3 version of Smite that doesn’t gain any traction. I’m intrigued by this one, but I’m holding out on fully endorsing it with my excitement until we see it go fully live (not just early access).
Wildcard’s creators have quite the pedigree—it’s from the co-creator of Words with Friends (who also worked on freaking Age of Empires, too). The game is like 3rd-person-perspective League of Legends, but with NFTs. You also summon creatures to fight for you with the game’s card mechanics.
Apparently, spectators of the game will be able to earn NFTs just for watching their favorite streamers or live tournaments. That’s cool and all, but I gotta be clear when I say this: NFTs and tokenomics will not make a game fun on their own. Period. Wildcard’s success or failure rides largely on whether people like to play it—and whether they like to play it more than their other favorite multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs). Recent demos have looked a little threadbare to me, but I’m not ready to write this one off totally yet.
Wrapping Up
That’s it for today. Let me know if you liked this post, I’m thinking about making this an ongoing series where I talk about Web3 games that actually interest me and look promising. Or maybe I could make examples of the ones that don’t interest me, and why. Or the ones I was interested in before, but have since failed or disappointed me. Or my thoughts on what it’s going to take for blockchain gaming to thrive. I don’t know, we’ll see. Anyway, thanks a bunch for reading—I really appreciate it. Until next time.
- Blake Steen