The first GameFi projects appeared back in 2013, but the direction gained real popularity at the end of 2020. In August 2021, cryptogaming experienced a real boom. Posts and articles about games that are designed to make money appeared from every corner. Only the lazy did not discuss the millionth fortune that can be earned sitting on the couch.
The popularity of P2E games and the income of companies is still growing at a tremendous pace: more than 1,300 projects can be found on Dappradar alone, and some developers receive huge amounts of money. For example, the developer Axie Infinity earned $800 million in a month. The game has already lost its former relevance and profitability, but this is an example of how profitable it is for the owners to create such projects. Fans of crypto games are now divided into two camps: some play to earn money, while others create games for the former. If you want to join the second camp, then this article is for you.
We will talk about blockchains for launching our project and share information on where you can get sponsorship money to start.
What are P2E games and why they can take the place of conventional online games
P2E or Play-to-Earn games are games in which users earn tokens or NFT items and then sell them on the market for cryptocurrency.
Online games store data on a server controlled by developers. There is account information, a history of game events, and items that gamers receive. This information belongs to the company, and players simply do not have any rights to their characters, accounts, or earned items. Even if they are bought for real money in the internal store. Honest players receive account bans for not playing the way the developers wanted. There are also bans in P2E projects, but for abuse of game mechanics or an obvious violation of the user agreement.
The use of blockchain eliminates and mitigates this problem, and most importantly, allows players to own their game items. This makes investing in games not a waste of money, but an investment in future income. The vast majority of gamers have a negative attitude towards the P2E format and the NFT itself, but some understand that this is an opportunity to make entertainment an additional income.
Yes, today 95-99% of P2E games are more like a kind of pyramid, but the industry is developing, and AAA projects with interesting gameplay may well be launched in the coming years. The owners of large publishers are already thinking about how to implement NFT into finished games or launch new ones and not lose the last fans.
For example, Ubisoft announced the release of an NFT game, but the public reacted negatively to this. The project, which is planned to be released on Tezos, has received a lot of dislikes and negative comments on YouTube. And before that, the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl removed all NFT content after being criticized. Which blockchains are used in GameFi We will list the most used blockchain platforms and several games that have been created on them. Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain are considered popular, but there is a high level of competition.
Ethereum
This is the most popular blockchain for creating P2E games. Users have more confidence in projects created on the basis of Ethereum. The disadvantage is that due to the high competition and high commissions, large cash investments are needed in the project. Blockchain offers funding for promising projects in its ecosystem.
Binance Smart Chain
BSC is tied for first place with Ethereum. Many gamedevs work with this blockchain due to its high speed and low fees. The main disadvantage, like Ethereum, is that large investments are needed due to high competition. In October 2021, BSC opened their own $1 billion fund for projects in their ecosystem. From time to time you can meet BSC as an accomplice in other investment funds.
Polygon
Polygon is technically the most advanced GameFi platform with the lowest fees. Many beginners are advised to try to launch a project on this particular blockchain. Polygon and the co-founder of Reddit have a $200 million fund for projects that will be launched on Polygon.
WAX
WAX Blockchain positions itself as a convenient and secure platform for buying and selling virtual items around the world. There is a community of gamedevs ready to work for money and an idea. Transaction confirmation is 0.5 seconds and fees are very low. The disadvantage of the blockchain is that it is not very popular among users.
WAX has its own fund of 100 million WAX tokens for DeFi and GameFi projects.
Ontology
Ontology was conceived to introduce blockchain technology into all areas of human life. The company creates various systems that can interact with each other. For game developers, Ontology is a good option due to its low cost. There are no popular games on Ontology now, as users are not familiar with this blockchain and game developers did not dare to create large projects based on them.
ThunderCore
This is a fast and modern blockchain with low fees. Transaction confirmation time is 1 second. Fully compatible with Ethereum. From time to time, ThunderCore arranges competitions for grants for projects. For example, this year a competition for $10 million began, which will end in 2022.
Steem
The Steem Network recently started supporting GameFi, so there are very few active projects. Games created on this blockchain will only be available to the Steem community, which drives it into certain limits.
Near
A young open-source blockchain that appeared in 2020. If you use the Near blockchain for your project, then you need to understand that this is a long-term investment. Many people are betting on the popularity of this blockchain. The team has its own fund of $800 million for promising developers.
Harmony
Harmony Blockchain was launched in June 2019. Active GameFi projects are DeFi Kingdoms and Freyala, with DFK accounting for 98% of all assets and the project received a $1 million grant from Harmony to start. Blockchain has a low commission, but it is difficult to find a detailed manual for launching projects.
The Harmony Protocol team launched a $300 million fund. Blockchain regularly finances new projects and organizes various competitions.
Solana
Solana is 3,000 times faster and 120,000 times cheaper than Ethereum, which is why many people consider this blockchain a good alternative for creating GameFi projects. In addition, Solana already has a large community, many successful NFT collections, and a developed ecosystem in the form of, for example, the Phantom wallet, which raised $109 million in funding in one of the funding rounds. Solana has a Mini Royale shooter where people get a good profit. For example, $3500 per month or $1500 per month. Promising gamedevs can get funding from Solana. Moreover, the blockchain issues grants not only to projects in its ecosystem.
How to get funding for your project
If your plans are not to copy someone else’s project, but to create a cool and unrepeatable game, then you can try to get investments from various crypto funds and investment companies, the blockchain itself, or systems that are running on this blockchain. Many will agree to invest in a promising project. Because it is an opportunity to advertise yourself and earn even more money.
If the blockchain you have chosen does not write anywhere that it invests in projects, then you need to contact them individually and talk about all the possibilities and prospects for your development. But there are those who are actively advertised by openly offering money to gamedevs.
Is it worth trying to launch your game in 2022? If you have ideas, opportunities, and desires – yes. Getting invested and running in a bear market will be more difficult. But GameFi is actively growing in popularity and in this area you can earn your own millions.
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