- Haseley told Blockworks that his earning project, Undead Blocks, is unlike any other Web3 game.
- The bear market is upsetting people — he said the game is distracting
Venture capitalists are paying close attention GameFi — They have provided more money to this sector this year than any other crypto-related investment. Messari In the first quarter of this year alone, we found that 128 companies were invested more than $ 1.2 billion.
Blockworks spoke Grant HasseryFounder of Web3 games Undead blockAbout his hitman zombie shooter, released in May. He said effective Play-to-Earn games are not games that use revenue as the main motivation for gameplay, but games that draw most players into the value of entertainment.
Former Goldman Sachs analyst turned to Web3 game developer Play to earn A concept that evolves from “play to enjoy”. He said it’s a big misconception that games compete with each other, adding that the founders of Web3 games are interacting and collaborating with each other as each project creates more users in the ecosystem. rice field.
GameFi companies on his radar include Mythical Games, Blowfish Studios, sandbox And big time.
Blockwork: When and why did you enter the GameFi sector?
Hazley: I have been using cryptocurrencies since around 2015 and have observed how we passed DeFi An explosion pivoted to GameFi.
Axie Infinity It was a game that made it mainstream, but I didn’t really like their tokenomics model.I thought it was Go to the flop.. People didn’t believe it, so they were selling a secondary currency called SLP. They wanted to cash out.
I thought I could build a better Tokenomics model, so I needed a fun game to play. Last year we raised about $ 5 billion to develop an undead block. This is a zombie shooter similar to Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty – Zombies or Resident Evil. But I’ve been making money for the last year and a half. If someone tries to get you to say you’re an expert, they’re wrong.
We are very fast. I’m in New York. If you poll 100 people, you probably know what a Play-to-Earn game is.
Blockwork: What has changed with GameFi since you started the same job?
Hasserie: Most scammers are gone, and that’s a good thing. I think many of them were wiped out by the cryptocurrency crash. From late 2020 to early 2021, people were inside, but the pandemic was still going on and there wasn’t much to do.People were creating NFT collection Left and right.
Everything you touched turned into gold. There were prizes on these whitelists. You called these groups the experts to earn themselves, who had created NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) with no experience in game development. They don’t know how to develop a game, but that was a buzzword. The cool thing was, “We are an NFT group, building games to play and earn.”
Now you are starting to see it less and less. Integration has begun for a more traditional game studio. Wagyu, which develops undead blocks, develops games in collaboration with actual game studios. However, not much fluff can be seen from the NFT collection. That integration is needed to allow people to identify games and projects that have real gameplay.
What kind of crypto winter?
Blockwork: Why is GameFi working relatively well across crypto subsegments when macros are uncertain?
Hasserie: This whole “crypto winter” is incorrect. From a DeFi (decentralized finance) perspective, you probably agree. But GameFi is hotter than ever.
If you have a product that works with a running game, you’ll have no problem raising money or funding. We see the world’s largest venture capital firm wanting to develop these games. Because they think this is the next pivot and the area of the next opportunity. A16z has recently occurred $ 600 million And Immutable $ 500 million in funding This won’t go away anytime soon, as we pay the game developers.
If we are in the bear market and people are angry about losing money, they want to be distracted and have fun. The game allows you to do that. People want additional ways to earn money, and playing and earning games is the next pivot for them to be able to do it.
Blockwork: Do players need to have a special interest in cryptocurrencies in order to play these games?
Hasserie: No, I’ll explain why. Undead Block is fully sponsored and offers free money. Liquidity comes through sponsors. The huge launch pad, Polkastarter Gaming, offers, for example, $ 10,000. We run a free tournament where people can join and win cryptos just by playing the game. Having these sponsored tournaments for us brings those Web2 gamers who never want to enter cryptocurrencies or NFTs as we give them a reason to play.
If the game is fun, you don’t need to know anything about cryptography. I started seeing it when I was developing another shooter, “Last Expedition,” at other game studios such as Mythical Games, Blankos Block Party, and Gala Games. .. These games look so real that people don’t know anything about cryptography, but they are still interested.
Blockwork: Has the undead block been released yet?
Hasserie: Our beta version has been released, is completely live and is generally free to play. Anyone can access our website, download it, play games and provide feedback. If you get the chance to play it, what you see is that it doesn’t feel like a web3 video game.
Traditionally, Web3 video games have two factions. These are decentralized yield farming, less interesting web browser-based games, or AAA game studios that promise to sell but never give. You are a fun game. Our beta is fully functional and the full gaming experience will be available in about two months. But you can now make money.
Blockwork: How many players are currently in the undead block?
Hasserie: The number of downloads has just exceeded 10,000, and about half of them are played at least once a day. They are all practicing for upcoming tournaments. There are over 5,000 active users every day. That number will grow exponentially as the word that you can come and earn for free without the need for NFTs becomes widespread among Web2 gamers.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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