This post was originally published on this site
If you miss exchanging quarters for tokens to play games where you could earn fistfuls of tickets that might translate into sweet prizes, look no further than blockchain games for a digitized blast from that past.
Blockchain games are games that are built using blockchain technology. They usually involve non-fungible tokens in some element of the gameplay. For example, most of the characters, cards, creatures or items used in blockchain games are NFTs in that they are unique on the blockchain, ownable by a single person at a time and transferable inside and outside of the game. In games that feature land or similar limited-availability dynamic, the land and assets built on parcels are also NFTs.
Blockchain Games to Know
- Axie Infinity
- Bomb Crypto
- CryptoKitties
- Decentraland
- DeFi Kingdom
- Gods Unchained
- Nine Chronicles
- Pegaxy
- The Sandbox
- Splinterlands
Almost all blockchain games include a utility token that generally acts as the in-game currency or energy that drives activity in the game. These utility tokens can be fungible or non-fungible with some games “burning” them — removing them from the pool available — when they are used for transactions. With few exceptions, these in-game tokens cannot be bought with standard, so-called fiat currency, but must be purchased with cryptocurrency or earned in-game.
Many blockchain games also feature a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, which functions as a player-owned governance over the game. Blockchain games with this dynamic generally have a (usually non-fungible) governance token in addition to the in-game utility token that gives their holders the ability to vote or otherwise contribute to the way the game — or subsets of it — are run. In games with land NFTs, land often functions as a governance token, meaning these games return players to a time when only landowners could vote.
Blockchain games are often called crypto games or play-to-earn games because of their association with cryptocurrency. All blockchain games require a connection with a crypto wallet. Most games have a direct play-to-earn element whereby players can transfer in-game effort, activity or items into cryptocurrencies.
Sound interesting? Here are 20 blockchain games to check out.
20 Blockchain Games to Know
Alien Worlds
What it is: Alien Worlds is a near-future sci-fi exploration and territory-staking game that has players exploring space in a fourth-wall-breaking setting of intergalactic bitcoin mining communities. Players can find NFTs in their exploration, mine for Trillium and stake claims to new frontiers. Landowners have a vote in the developing governments of their new planets and can help shape the future. The game can be both competitive and collaborative, with players able to fight one another through a trading-card dynamic, but also able to work together on growing their planet’s government. Players can also “shine” their NFTs (essentially, combine them) to increase their rareness level and stats.
Game mechanics: Exploration, territory expansion and trading
Associated blockchains: WAX and Ethereum
Axie Infinity
What it is: Released in 2018, Axie Infinity is one of the oldest and most wildly popular blockchain games out there. (It also has the notoriety of being ground zero for an over $600 blockchain hack, when a hacker gained access to the Ronin Network, the sidechain that allows for the game’s transactions.)
In Axie Infinity, players can collect, fight and breed their Axies, axolotl-inspired cute monsters that are both the means of play and NFTs in and of themselves. Teams of three Axies battle each other (think Pokémon). Players play to earn, winning “smooth love potions” with successful battles. Players can then use those potions to breed their Axies to create new ones. These can be sold to other players or new prospective players, or used for battles by the breeder.
There is also a scholarship dynamic where experienced players who have many Axies can effectively lend out their excess Axies to new or young players. In these situations, the Axie owner gets a cut of whatever the borrower wins.
Game mechanics: Battling, breeding and collecting
Associated blockchains: Ethereum and Ronin
Bomb Crypto
What it is: Bomb Crypto, a pixel-based fighting play-to-earn game, really drives home the arcade-like feel. Players buy so-called bomber heroes in the market and pay in stakes for all out, winner-take-all pixelated brawls. It also has adventure modes and quests, and players can buy houses and other items that level up their heroes. As players explore, they can find NFT items to help improve their heroes — themselves NFTs — and trade with others.
Game mechanics: Arcade-style fighting and trading
Associated blockchain: Binance Smart Chain
CryptoBeasts
What it is: CryptoBeasts turns players loose on the pixelated fantasy world of EggLand, where there are 10,000 plots of land. Each plot of land has a single rare egg, the central NFT in the game, which also serves as the governance tokens of the game. These 10,000 rare eggs have all already been unlocked through mining, meaning new players cannot find them in-game, but they can still buy them on the secondary market. Eggs can either be held as eggs or hatched into CryptoBeasts. In this massively multiplayer online game, the more eggs and CryptoBeasts a player owns, the greater the impact that player has on the governance of the world.
Game mechanics: Collecting and governing
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
CryptoKitties
What it is: CryptoKitties is widely hailed as the first blockchain-based game. The game is all about collecting, breeding and selling digital kitties. Every kitty is an NFT, a unique combination of “cattributes,” status, generation and more. Players collect and breed these kitties, which are governed by 12 different genetic cattributes. Fancy, special edition and exclusive kitties don’t follow those rules and have rare attributes.
Game mechanics: Breeding and collecting
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
CryptoPop
What it is: You know those bubble (or gem or color block) mobile tapping games? The ones where you can lose hours doing nothing but tapping? Take that idea, but apply it to cryptocurrency icons and the possibility of some Ethereum or Popcoin payout, and you’ve got CryptoPop. This mobile game, available on the Google Play Store, lets players tap on groupings of cryptocurrency icons with the goal to clear the board. The larger the groupings, the higher your score.
Game mechanics: Clear-the-board tapping
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
Decentraland
What it is: If you enjoy open world games where your avatars can interact, buy territory and build unique items on it, but like the idea of actually owning, buying and selling such assets as NFTs, then Decentraland might be the game for you. In this metaverse-like game, LAND owners can do whatever they want with their property and get a vote on governance issues within their districts to guide the future of the community. LAND owners and unLANDed players can build items using the in-game builder or those with coding skills can make their own unique items. Those with LAND can populate their plots with what they have built and can sell those items to other players. With each sale of LAND, the fungible in-game currency MANA used in its sale is burned, reducing the fixed supply.
Game mechanics: Building, collecting and governing
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
DeFi Kingdoms
What it is: In the pixelated fantasy realm of DeFi Kingdoms, players can play to earn as fantasy heroes in a medieval-esque backdrop. There are adventures and quests to go on, lands to explore, other players to battle and heroes to upgrade. Heroes and their buffs are NFTs that can be bought and sold in the in-game marketplace. Land can also be purchased and built on. Stake in the game confers voting rights, allowing players to guide the future of the game.
Game mechanics: Crafting and trading
Associated blockchain: Harmony
Gods Unchained
What it is: In Gods Unchained, players start with a deck of fantasy cards and can begin playing competitively with other players. Players win cards and FLUX, the in-game currency and token that can be used to upgrade cards. While common cards are not NFTs, higher-level cards won through gameplay are and can be bought and sold to other players.
Game mechanics: Card battling and trading
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
Guild of Guardians
What it is: Guild of Guardians, a mobile fantasy role-playing game, is still in pre-release mode. So why is it on this list? The game has garnered plenty of attention. Prospective players can sign-up for pre-registration information on the game’s site. Pre-alpha demo playtesting ended on April 6, and the game is expected to go live in early 2022. Players create teams of NFT heroes and take them on adventures in a classic dungeon crawl-style RPG. While on these quests, hero teams will battle monsters and bosses while uncovering hidden loot that can be unique NFTs themselves and used to upgrade existing heroes, or to attract new and better heroes to their team.
Game mechanics: Collecting, crafting and dungeon crawling
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
Metamon (by Radio Caca)
What it is: Metamon, a single-player Pokémon-like monster battle game, allows players to battle and level up their NFT Metamons against randomly generated enemies. Battles require energy and RACA, the in-game token, and winning a battle earns the Metamon experience and the player egg fragments. Experience allows the Metamon to access higher-level battles and upgrade their level to increase their fighting ability. Leveling up requires a variety of in-game items (potions, yellow and purple diamonds), some of which have a fixed volume in the game. Egg fragments can be combined to create a Metamon egg — basically a mystery box — that can include a variety of needed in-game items, including new Metamons. Metamons over level 60 allow the player to access game creator Radio Caca’s Universal Metaverse, USM.
Game mechanics: Monster battling
Associated blockchain: Binance Smart Chain
MicroPets
What it is: Self-described as a combination of Animal Crossing, Runescape, World of Warcraft and Tamagotchi, MicroPets lets players raise and level up their titular MicroPets, which are NFTs, in the play-to-earn and (eventual) build-to-earn economy. Currently, players can play the mobile side-scrolling runner game (available on both Android and iOS) with their MicroPets to dodge enemies and earn coins. A later expansion will allow players to bring their MicroPets to the Petropolis metaverse where they can stake claims, build and create NFTs to sell to other players.
Game mechanics: Building and pet raising
Associated blockchain: Binance Smart Chain
MOBOX
What it is: The MOBOX metaverse — the MOMOverse — is a mobile- and browser-based game platform that hosts a number of interconnected individual play-to-earn minigames that run the gamut from battling to farming to adventure missions. Within the metaverse, players can harvest resources, build NFT items and interact with other players. Minigames include MOMO NFT Farmer, ChainZ Arena, MOLand Defense, MOMO:Block Brawler and MOMO:Token Master.
Game mechanics: Battling, collecting and farming
Associated blockchain: Binance Smart Chain
Nine Chronicles
What it is: Players can approach the fantasy world of Nine Chronicles in one of several ways: as adventurers who go out battling enemies for treasure, as miners who gather resources, as merchants who buy and sell resources and items to other players or as politicians who work with the governance of the game. The RPG features adventure quests, arena battles, crafting and trading. Players can also create new adventure levels to make available for others. Download requires a code, which you can get by invitation from a current player or by signing in with Twitter on the game’s website.
Game mechanics: Arena battling, crafting, governing, mining and trading
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
Pegaxy
What it is: Ever wanted to race and “breed” mechanical horses? Now you can. Pegaxy lets players compete with their elementally-themed mechanical race horses called Pegas and run them in automated player-versus-player races against 11 others. Running a Pega in a race is free, unlike many blockchain games with a competition element. If your Pega is in the top three of its race, players will earn VIS, the in-game currency token. Players with at least one male and one female Pega can breed them to produce more.
Game mechanics: Breeding and horse racing
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
The Sandbox
What it is: The Sandbox looks something like Minecraft and The Sims, allowing players to build voxel-art NFTs that they can use in the game or sell to others. You can also build your own games within the ecosystem for other players to play. Building requires LAND, NFTs that represent the limited physical space within the ecosystem. LAND can be combined to form ESTATES, which in turn can be combined into DISTRICTS.
Game mechanics: Building and trading
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
Silks
What it is: Bringing the fantasy football dynamic to thoroughbred horse racing, Silks is a horse racing and breeding game where in-game stats are impacted by real-world racehorses. Players can speculate on in-game land, develop that land into horse breeding and training facilities, trade horses, breed horses, race horses, wager on races and mine to verify and publish data to the Silks ecosystem. Horses, racing silks (the colorful uniforms worn by jockeys), stables and land all represent different types of NFTs within the game that can be traded. The game is currently in early access with the public release date set for April 27.
Game mechanics: Breeding, horse racing and trading
Associated blockchain: Ethereum
Splinterlands
What it is: A digital tactical card game, Splinterlands combines familiar dynamics: Players collect their cards, build their deck and battle against other players. Each card is a unique NFT that has different stats and abilities. Cards can be collected, sold or combined together to level up. The game takes the classic battling trading card concept and applies it online, while still allowing players to own and trade their cards.
Game mechanics: Card battling, collecting and trading
Associated blockchain: Hive (but cross-compatible with others, including Ethereum, Tron and WAX)
Upland
Description: The Upland metaverse — available online via browser and on mobile — has turned real addresses across the globe into NFTs in its digital world. Players can buy, own, build on, trade and collect these locations in a llama-populated version of familiar cities like San Francisco or New York City. Owned properties generate a passive income of the in-game currency UPX overtime. Unlike many blockchain-based games, the in-game utility token UPX can be purchased for standard currency from the game’s store at a rate of 1,000 UPX to $1. Properties can also be sold for either UPX or U.S. dollars via the partner marketplace TiliPay.
Game mechanics: Building, collecting and trading
Associated blockchain: EOS
Wombat Dungeon Master
Description: In this odd twist on the standard dungeon crawl, rather than explore a dungeon themselves, Wombat Dungeon Master has players send out their team of wombat adventurers to find the NTF treasures they have hidden in dungeons. Players can stake their own existing NFTs held on either the EOS or WAX blockchains. The wombats go out and try to find that treasure and return with it. Wombats can be upgraded with items found in the dungeons or via item creation within the game. The goal of the player is for their wombat adventurers to get as many points (via loot finds) as possible.
Game mechanics: Collecting and exploration
Associated blockchains: EOS and WAX