Blockchain-based games are still yet to take the world by storm. Big developers are testing the waters, and the smaller teams have yet to master a successful project. With little familiarity, many games still focus on the nonfungible token (NFT) component more than the gameplay itself, with many releases being as simple as pet breeding or other character collectibles. Consequently, if you remove NFTs from new project releases, games will have no leg to stand on due to the lack of intelligible gameplay.
However, it is believed for these games to take off, developers need to start putting interesting gameplay first and NFT features second. Regardless of genre, trends in match-3, battle royale and other tactical strategies have proven to remain at the top of the charts. When applied properly, these findings can be combined to create one metaverse that continues to entertain an audience in the long term.
Rising to meet this challenge is the Axes Metaverse, a project combining all of the aspects mentioned above to make gameplay and improving skills significantly more engaging for users. As one of the project team members shares, “some of the existing play-to-earn projects provide gaming experiences so terrible they have to pay users to play.”
In contrast, the metaverse is based on Axes.io, a game with 35 million installs and 30,000 daily active users (DAU). Only after Axes.io had been met with initial success in their community did the team begin to consider adding blockchain technology.
Where gameplay marriers blockchain
Doing a deeper dive into the gameplay, the team made the addition of player-versus-player (PvP) and simultaneously reimagined players-versus-environment (PvE) modes.
With the PvP mode, the team plans to increase engagement and add a competitive element, ensuring players have the motivation to win and rematch against other players. These additions will build a solid foundation for play-to-earn mechanics such as leaderboards, ensuring top players receive tokens as a reward for their results in tournaments.
In the PvE mode, gameplay will resemble something closer to dungeons or raids, where earning tokens is a passive activity. Being passive becomes key to ensuring players still focus on the gameplay and improving their skills rather than getting paid.
In alignment with modern mobile games, visuals have become essential. These developments have suggested that even the most casual games, with only basic shapes and plain backgrounds, are evolving in response to player demand. The demand stems from the strong focus on existing graphics on PCs and consoles, which present a new standard to be matched with NFT games. Unfortunately, cool visuals are rare since AAA publishers and other developers with the budget to bring these games to life are yet to enter the market.
The result was a low-poly style for Axes.io, which looks nice and allows players to create games in different settings, varying from realism to sci-fi to fantasy. For players, this feature can be useful in creating a metaverse project that has various genres, where you can level up a character in one game and launch another, later moving the project there as well.
A final area the game focuses on is the budget. Currently, major gaming companies have yet to make NFT projects a focus, with the majority only dabbling in the technology, notwithstanding Ubisoft and Microsoft. In the case of Axes Metaverse, a project from Whitepalms Developments Ltd with Azur Games, a $2 million investment was already made towards the development and expansion to the metaverse.
Leading the next round of efforts
To date, Azur Games, the Axes Metaverse publisher, has achieved a measure of success, becoming one of the top 3 mobile game publishers and 7 in mobile publishers.
These efforts are set to lead the team’s next round of efforts, including releasing a closed alpha version of Axes Metaverse for NFT holders. Alongside the release, Axes.io has also indicated a token sale, running a game test for the entire community and releasing the first chapter of Axes Metaverse. These are only some of the team’s plans outlined on the official roadmap.
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