Two Development Branches of Chain Games

The meaning of games themselves is to provide emotional value to people, such as the beauty often brought by games, the sense of achievement when completing tasks, and the excitement of defeating enemies.

Games are typically classified into "zero-sum games" and "non-zero-sum games" based on their economic models. The former is represented by gambling games (such as Texas Hold'em), where one party wins money at the expense of the other, and its economic system is heavily dependent on external factors (players). The latter is represented by various MMORPG games (such as World of Warcraft), where the economic system relies on internal circulation, with in-game currency continuously generated from PVE and consumed in various activities, forming a small independent economic system.

The combination of blockchain technology and games is currently considered in two ways. One way is to put in-game assets on the chain to create various tokens, including NFT tokens for characters and items, and tokens for in-game economic circulation, which is the concept of GameFi. Another way is to put game logic and assets on the chain, forming "fully on-chain games".

In the past year, fully on-chain games have made significant progress, forming unique infrastructure and being considered as games native to the crypto world. However, problems have arisen: after all, the fastest on-chain virtual machine currently only performs at a level equivalent to servers 30 years ago. If all game logic is put on the chain, only projects with relatively simple game logic and UI can be developed. At present, AAA-level games can only choose the "GameFi" route of putting assets on the chain. Therefore, we believe that in this bull market, GameFi and FOCG will develop simultaneously and evolve in two directions.

So how can GameFi break away from its Ponzi nature and have long-term value? The answer lies in playability. In the previous bull market, blockchain game projects focused more on financial aspects, creating various GameFi (combining games and DeFi, emphasizing earning money, and downplaying playability). In this bull market, we can see more traditional game companies entering the blockchain gaming industry, introducing a relatively mature 3A game production supply chain, and implementing "coin transformation" based on traditional games to ensure the quality and playability of the games. "Earth From Another Sun" is a well-produced blockchain game of this kind.

Game Introduction

According to the official introduction, "Earth From Another Sun" is a sci-fi adventure game developed by the Multiverse team. In this virtual world, elements such as large-scale battles, real universe, strategy, RPG, and storyline are included. In the fantastical future world, the struggle for power among factions, the difficult survival of ordinary people, and the fluctuating fate of races are all left for you to decide!

The core gameplay of "Earth From Another Sun" is the grandest sci-fi first-person shooting combat, including commanding armies, conquering the world to establish nations, personally participating in first-person shooting games with a wide variety of cool weapons, abilities, vehicles, and units. Players can choose to enjoy the game alone or in a cooperative or competitive multiplayer environment. From the adventure starting on Earth to exploring the entire galaxy, discovering treasures in the galaxy, meeting various characters, interacting with various countries, and facing the invasion of the Netherworms capable of destroying the world. In the game, players are free to exert influence, recruit officers and armies, overthrow corrupt nations, rule the galaxy, and kick the Netherworms out; or they can act as frontline commanders, take action, and personally eliminate foolish rebels and Netherworms.

The main features of the game include:

• The grandest sci-fi combat;
• A galaxy map that expands with each version, offering countless unique regions to explore;
• Large-scale battlefields, supporting up to 4 players and 500 AI units fighting in the same scene;
• Carefully crafted and fun first-person shooting games;
• Hundreds of unique weapons, weapon modifications, abilities, enemies, providing a new combat experience in every game;
• Mechs, tanks, hovercraft, ships, planes, space battleships, and space fortresses for you to operate and fight with;
• Carefully designed NPC and mission systems within the galaxy;
• Exquisite Waifu system;
• Your exclusive planetary land, where you can build, farm, and do as you wish.

The above content is excerpted from the official introduction. However, based on my personal trial experience, it is overall similar to the classic game "Elden Ring," leaning towards single-player gameplay. Although the official statement mentions the future opening of a PVP system, the current test version only supports PVE. If compared to blockchain games, the overall style would be more similar to "Phantom Galaxies," a mech sci-fi adventure game invested and produced by Animoca Brands, with a similar mech style, space exploration, and shooting levels.

Like most GameFi games, "Earth From Another Sun" integrated with Web3 emphasizes the concept of digital ownership, allowing players to own digital assets in the form of NFTs, such as characters, skills, weapons, mechs, and more. These digital assets can be developed and used in various in-game activities, such as trading items and using the game's extensive crafting system. This integration provides players with a new way to own, trade, and utilize digital assets in the game. In my trial process, the first mission of defeating pirates was relatively easy to complete, but the subsequent missions required more advanced weapons and armor, laying the foundation for the demand for NFT assets.

Game Review

After receiving the test serial number, I downloaded the game installation package immediately, which took 3 hours to complete due to the slow download speed. The game installation was straightforward, and I was able to log in using various existing social accounts, opting to use my Gmail account directly.

Next was the game's opening animation, with the protagonist floating in space and then being rescued by a spaceship. The game then required the protagonist to complete various tasks, such as flying to another planet to replenish supplies and fighting pirate ships. The game's perspective is from the protagonist's point of view rather than third-person, and the storyline unfolds in the form of dialogues. For a few questions, players can choose from several fixed answers, but the extent of their impact on the storyline is unknown.

Controlling the protagonist's movement is done using the standard WASD keys, making it easy for players to get started. If controlling the actions of a warship, it only requires using the right mouse button to click on the target. It's worth noting that in FPS shooting scenes, due to the introduction of team combat (AI), there are certain requirements for coordination. The image below shows a scene of cooperative combat with an AI team:

Another commendable aspect is that every time a new skill is acquired or a new task is received, a "guide video" will automatically pop up to help players familiarize themselves with the new skill and task, thereby reducing the difficulty of operation, as shown in the following image:

After pressing the ESC key, the settings page can be accessed, including mech, backpack, and legion (AI) settings, and so on. The following page provides easy access to basic information about equipment, such as level, health, shield value, and other basic data.

Clicking on Leaderboard allows you to see that the game sets two types of ladder data to encourage player competition: Battle Pass Ranking and Attribute Ranking, one is the battle network level, and the other is the character level in the game. As shown in the image below:

In summary, the game runs smoothly overall, with beautiful graphics close to the 3A level, a coherent storyline, and detailed prompts for completing tasks. These are the strengths of traditional game companies. When fighting pirates, the early stages are relatively easy, but the difficulty of the pirates increases later on. I speculate that this is to encourage users to purchase NFTs to upgrade their weapons (the current test version has not yet opened the NFT trading market). Overall, "Earth From Another Sun" ranks in the top ten in terms of gameplay in the blockchain gaming industry. As for the token economics part, we will have to wait and see the overall operation after the official release.

It is understood that EFAS raised $2.6 million on June 16, 2022, and subsequently completed a $4.5 million financing round, with participation from Solana Ventures, Alameda Research, Lightspeed, and others. It is expected that the tokens will also be issued on the Solana public chain. From this perspective, with strong technical capabilities and endorsements from well-known investment institutions, as well as a good performance in the test version, EFAS is worth looking forward to another small outbreak in this bull market.

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