Game Studios Promise More Fun With Collaborate-to-earn Model

The GameFi industry has gradually shifted from the ‘play-to-earn’ model to one where the tokenomics is secondary to fun gameplay, which some call ‘play-and-earn.’  

Now, the developers of “Angelic,” an upcoming Web3 title from Metaverse Game Studios, hope to pioneer a new GameFi paradigm called “collaborate-to-earn.”

Anastasia Volgemut, director of operations at Metaverse Games Studios, characterized the model as one which gives players “a say in the governance of games you’re enthusiastic about.”

“Now you can contribute to your favorite universe, design characters and share unforgettable experiences with friends based in a world that is partially designed and owned by you,” Volgemut said.

One example of collaboration might be forming guilds to establish control over territory in the game, or collecting resources and craft weapons. The more in-game assets owned, the more say players have in growing the Angelic ecosystem and helping to shape the game’s future.

Axie Infinity, one of the first play-to-earn blockchain-based games, originally had planned to use its governance token Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) for similar purposes. However, the exodus of players over the past year — which included a high-profile hack — negatively affected its in-game economy. 

“It’s all fancy crypto talk,” according to Omar Ghanem, head of gaming at Polkastarter Gaming, which recently hosted the Gam3 Awards 2022 that recognized some of the top Web3 games and talent.

“The blockchain tech was only ever meant to be complimentary, to solve certain problems within the gaming industry, it was never meant to take center stage,” Ghanem told Blockworks.

“First and foremost, it’s about good games, then blockchain enabled features such as player asset ownership, progression and instant payouts for esports tournaments can come to the picture,” he added.

Another NFT-based game angling for “collaborative” features similar to Angelic’s aims is Sunflower Land — an open source farming simulator built on the Polygon proof-of-stake (PoS) chain. In it, the community decides the progression of what happens in the game and which features should be implemented next, Ghanem said.

Partnership with ImmutableX

Angelic, which Metaverse describes as a dark science fiction-themed narrative strategy role-playing game with turn-based combat, is being developed by team members hailing from projects such as Far Cry, League of Legends and Diablo Immortal.

Metaverse Game Studio closed a $10 million seed round co-led by Animoca Brands, Pantera Capital and Everyrealm earlier this year.

On Tuesday, the game studio announced a partnership with the Ethereum layer-2 gaming platform ImmutableX, which offers a scaling solution for NFTs, based on Validium, a form of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs.

Protecting and enforcing creator-owned royalties is a major concern for the Angelic team, it said in a statement, to ensure that every community member “is fairly rewarded for their contributions to the game’s world.”

ImmutableX recently doubled down on its bid to enforce royalty payouts amid a slew of NFT marketplaces that altered their payout schemes or went royalty-optional. 

The game is powered by Unreal Engine 5 and began development again in 2020. Its alpha test for select community members and partners is scheduled to be released at the end of January 2023, with the public launch to follow in February, according to the company.

Updated Jan. 11, 1:15 pm ET: Changes the attribution of a quote from Metaverse Game Studios.

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