Useful Links:
Official site
Developer site

By Terence Ang

13 Feb 2019: We've updated this article with an Ambassador PlayTest video below, which held its first closed playtest session on 1 February 2019. The initial pipeline playtest provided the opportunity for improvement in future Pre-Alpha tests. The greatest part of the experience, however, was seeing the first group of Ambassadors having fun just playing together and voicing their enthusiasm. The wider Limited Pre-Alpha stage of playtesting will begin in late March and the Project Genesis team both encourages and looks forward to meeting the newest additions to the Test Pilot team. Head on to their website if you're interested to join! 

16 Oct 2018: We've updated this article with a four-way video conference we did with the 8 Circuit Studios' team - James Mayo (CEO), Mike Jones (Business Development) & Isaac Barry (Game Design). Check it out.

8 Circuit Studios is a company that boasts a who’s who of the gaming industry. It includes folks who used to work for companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Sierra, Wargaming.net, Capcom and Disney Interactive. Their pedigree includes Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Age of Empires III, Mechwarrior III/IV, Mass Effect, SOCOM and HALO 5.

So when they announced Project Genesis recently, it really got some folks take notice. So what’s Project Genesis? It’s a science-fiction game world that combines elements of team versus team tactical ship combat in space with first-person shooter breach and board objectives. That itself sounds run of the mill as there have been many games with similar premise.

What’s not however, is that the project will sit on the Ethereum blockchain, and allows for other game-worlds to merge with the Project Genesis game-world (they’re calling it the Metaverse project). The Metaverse will allow 8 Circuit Studios to partner with other developers to integrate their projects, including allowing players to share assets across different games.

The digital token used as the underlying intermediary for these exchanges will be the 8BT tokens, which 8 Circuit Studios will soon launch for funding in October 2018.

​So to put things in perspective, it is possible, when the game launches, to move across different universes, picking up different weapons and ships, with historical or nostalgic value (ie. used by another player previously to defeat a famous end-boss). If you’re inspired by films like Ready Player One, TRON and The Matrix, then you’ll know we’re getting closer to that reality than you can possibly imagine. 

Useful Links:
Official site

By Terence Ang

Rock the Block Live was at Tokyo Game Show 2018 (20-23 September 2018).

While there weren't many blockchain games on display there, Swiss-based company EverdreamSoft had a booth in Hall 2.

EverdreamSoft is an integrator of blockchain technologies and tools in the gaming industry. Its first blockchain game, and reportedly the very first blockchain game invented ever (towards the end of 2016) - Spells of Genesis - has been out for more than a year.

They have recently integrated their game assets (under the BitCrystals ecosystem - of which the token BCY is trading on exchanges like Bittrex, Poloniex & Upbit) into a multi-chain wallet called Casa Tookan.

At TGS2018, we had a chat with Shaban Shaame, CEO and Founder of EverdreamSoft on these updates, their games and plans for their next blockchain game - A Table!.

Useful Links:
Official site

By Terence Ang
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If you’ve played Blizzard’s Hearthstone or Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering, you’d probably be familiar with the Trading Card Game concept behind Gods Unchained. Developed by Sydney-based Fuel Games, Gods Unchained is a competitive card game between two players based around a world inspired by Greek mythology. The difference however is that the entire ecosystem sits on the Ethereum blockchain.

Gods Unchained is currently undergoing its early funding round (called a presale), with plans to raise money from early players buying its Genesis Set (380 cards). They have the option to buy the cards in packs of 5 and the prices (in Ethereum) differ based on how probable they want cards with rare, epic, legendary or shiny legendary rarities. Cards with different rarities (backing, design, value, quantities) are minted in different quantities, thus the lesser they are in circulation, the higher their value.

According to Fuel Games, the Genesis Set will no longer be minted after the funding round, so there may be value for them in the secondary auction markets (on the Open Sea marketplace for example). Once they hit their funding target and close sale of the Genesis Set, future game sets will be based on a default deck so players wanting to build future decks based on the Genesis Set will need to buy (or loan them off other card owners) via the secondary market.

What’s gotten the community in a tizzy however is the auction of one of Gods Unchained’s Mythic cards – the Hyperion – which was won for 137.84 Ether (about USD69K at the time). As a benchmark, the highly prized and rare Magic: The Gathering card – Black Lotus – was sold at USD87K on eBay in July recently.

There are only four unique Mythic cards in circulation with the Genesis Set, and so far, two of these four have yet to be revealed by early buyers.

The second development is that ten percent of the presale decks’ proceeds will go into the grand prize of the World Championship set, planned for Q1 of 2019. The goal is USD1.6m and to date, USD260k has been raised, so it’ll probably take at least another couple of months before their presale closes.

The critical aspect of how Gods Unchained differs from Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering is that every card purchased by a player is owned by the player (in the form of a non-fungible token called the ERC-721 collectible). With this true virtual asset ownership, the player can choose to auction it off, loan it to tournament players as escrow or just keep it as a permanent collection (unless the Ethereum blockchain completely shuts off).

With such buzz surrounding this, it is no wonder that Gods Unchained’s Discord chat channel is constantly filled with players posting screenshots of new cards they’ve opened and sharing the rarity statistics within this ever-growing community.

Useful Links:
Official site
iOS application
Android application

​By Terence Ang

We’d all wondered if games have run out of ideas and are just rehashing previous ideas. Well, ten-year old Elyland decided to rehash two previous ideas and more. They’ve launched Clash & GO, a game that utilizes the augmented reality and geolocation features of Pokemon GO with the strategic base building, resource management and combative addictiveness of Clash of Clans.

What’s even better – they’ve put the game on the Ethereum blockchain so that players can generate crypto-currency in the form of CGO or Clash & GO coins. So how does it work? Set in a sci-fi theme, players build their bases at virtual locations which mirror the real-world plane you’re in. Whether it’s by a park, next to the mall, or just somewhere public, you can then meet other players in the game and do battle with them to defend or capture the landmark.

Once you earn enough CGO tokens, you can spend them to move buildings or build better defenses and structures on the virtual map. When the tokens are eventually listed on cryptocurrency exchanges, players can convert them into Ethereum or Bitcoin, which are currently the more popular crypto-currencies around. The CGO tokens are meant to be used to manipulate the Clash & GO augmented world, so it’s always different every time you log in.

​The game development roadmap doesn’t end here. Clash & GO will next have features like Clan Wars, Parallel Universes and new levels, units, buildings, resource types and galaxies. They have plans to conduct a public token sale in January 2019 before getting CGO listed.
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The game itself is now available on IOS and Android, and it’s free (with in-app purchases).