Technically CyberBrokers isn’t (yet) a game but as an NFT art collection with strong gamic influences, it’s been a standout project during 2022, and one that I think will continue to shine in 2023.
If nothing else, it has top pedigree when it comes to personnel. The vision comes from crypto OG artist Josie Bellini — she’s married to Andrew Steinwold, the founder of US crypto VC Sfermion — with tech smarts provided by Neon District’s CTO Ben Heidorn.
And this combination was certainly highlighted during the NFT mint in March as CyberBrokers set new standards in terms of the complexity and efficiency in storing its art — created as SVG layers — fully onchain.
Less showy were the six months of ongoing quests, which had the dual function of engaging hardcore fans with ARG-style gameplay, as well as acting as a distribution mechanism for over 70,000 mecha part NFTs for more passive CyberBrokers holders.
In this way, players who engaged in solving cryptic online puzzles gained rarer mecha parts as a reward while uninvolved CyberBrokers holders could claim common items.
These parts will be combined in early 2023 to create 3D rigged mecha NFTs, which will act as a gateway to the “gamified universe”; something that’s also been hinted at via the all-new CyberBrokers website.
And that’s not to forget the Lost Paradigms banner art project, which was funded through CyberBrokers’ community fund; The Paradigm Lost being the signature setting for CyberBrokers’ activity.
Finally, it’s also good to see well-known NFT collectors such as Pranksy, Cocovault and j1mmy are committed to the project; all being top 10 holders.
Which — of course — isn’t to say that CyberBrokers will ever regain its peak trading value. From a mint price of 0.35 ETH (c.$900), the floor has been as high as 5.5 ETH (c.$18,000) but now has dropped to 0.8 ETH (c.$1,000).
But financial value is not as important at this stage as functionality and momentum and CyberBrokers has the latter two in spades.
This Substack is sponsored by Hiro Capital: investing in the future of games