Off The Grid, Shardbound, The Sandbox now playable
So why am I playing a Telegram mini-game?
What an exciting week; I finally found a good Telegram game.
Admittedly, Lumina Hunt is a mini-game in which the ultimate goal is to collect a currency which places you on a leaderboard that will get you an allocation of tokens (eventually).
But this is no simple tapper. Instead you catch creatures — called lumins — pokemon-style, then group them together and send them off to complete various idle missions to get in-game items, which allow you to catch rarer creatures and earn better in-game items. You can also level up your lumina and even buy in-game items via Telegram’s Star IAP system if you so desire.
It sounds simple but it is very well presented and even though I’m not really playing the game to get tokens, the experience has got me more interested in Tatsumeeko, which is the RPG in which you’ll get those tokens. Its going live on the Ronin blockchain later this year.
You can check out Lumina Hunt here or using my referral code.
The rest of the week was spent generating graphs and looking at data around our regular roundup of the most popular blockchain games.
I highlighted the volatility of the market at present because so many games are — indeed — launching play-to-airdrop campaigns and/or closed betas as they get closer to launch. This means they can quickly switch from very high onchain activity to very low activity in the space of days.
One great example is another Telegram mini-game Catizen, which peaked at almost 800,000 onchain unique wallets on the TON blockchain when its CATI token went live, but is now at 40,000 DAUWs.
As has been the case throughout 2024, the most popular game in terms of sustained audience remains Pixels.
Other activity this week included a podcast with Bazooka Tango CEO Bo Daly talking about Shardbound, its deck-building turn-based tactics game which has just gone into open beta via Steam and Epic Games Store.
You can check out the transcript of the conversation here.
Finally, I spent way much too much time trying to work out a retention model for the onchain activity on the Immutable zkEVM blockchain. Very much a work-in-process I fear.
As for my homework this weekend, there hopefully will be time to check out both the initial release of console shooter Off The Grid and encourage my children to do the grunt work for me when it comes to earning SAND in The Sandbox’s Alpha 4 release.
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Weekly News Roundup
First console web3 game Off The Grid is now live (also on PC).
Ubisoft’s Captain Laserhawk will be minting on Magic Eden.
Guild of Guardians’ largest expansion drops on 16th October.
The Sandbox is giving away $2.5 million in its 10-week Alpha 4.
Kai Sangokushi Taisen – Battle of Three Kingdoms has launched its airdrop via Telegram mini-game.
Game of the Week is Tatsumeeko’s Lumina Hunt on Telegram.
As discussed below:
What’s Jon Been Playing?
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