Original | Odaily Planet Daily
Author | Asher
This year, as Bitcoin reached a historic high, the entire cryptocurrency market has remained hot, and the anticipated bull market has arrived. In this wave, GameFi has become one of the focuses of community discussions. So, in the fierce competition among numerous chain game projects, what kind of chain game can truly ignite the enthusiasm of the cryptocurrency market, and even break through the circle?
During the two-week pre-alpha activity, the number of registered users exceeded 1.3 million, with over 45,000 daily active users and over 700,000 independently active wallets. These data achievements have caught the attention of Odaily Planet Daily to Solana's leading GameFi project, Nyan Heroes.
Nyan Heroes is a third-person shooter game built on the Solana blockchain, combining fast-paced competitive gameplay with real-world impact, supported by Unreal Engine 5 and blockchain technology, and providing a 3A multiplayer gaming experience with unique mechanical characters and game abilities. It is reported that Nyan Heroes is the flagship chain game project supported by the Solana Foundation. Next, Odaily Planet Daily will comprehensively explore Solana's 3A chain game masterpiece Nyan Heroes from the perspectives of team information, project playability, token economic model, and internal test data.
Reasons why GameFi cannot be widely adopted at present
In the eyes of Web 2 users, Web 3 is seen as a completely new and unknown field, with many potentials and possibilities, but also various challenges and obstacles. How to promote its widespread adoption has always been the goal of practitioners. If Web 3 is to eventually replace Web 2, then undoubtedly, GameFi will become the sharpest weapon in the Web 3 camp.
Therefore, the GameFi sector is highly favored by practitioners. They have learned from the experiences and lessons of the previous wave of chain games, continuously refining, and as a result, a large number of new GameFi projects have emerged in this round of market trends. However, it seems that there has not yet been a successful case like Axie Infinity that has broken through the circle with the Play to Earn concept, or a case like StepN that combines sports and games, and with excellent marketing and operations, drives more Web 2 users into GameFi. According to a summary by Odaily Planet Daily based on feedback from a large number of members in the chain game community, the following problems currently exist in chain games:
Insufficient token incentive activities, resulting in few participating users.
Unstable servers, frequent crashes.
Poor game playability, unable to attract deep player engagement.
Weak user base of Web 2, leading to a death spiral of tokens.
These problems are widespread in current chain games and can be said to be a common ailment, with the weak user base of Web 2 being a fatal challenge. However, when we look at the pre-alpha activity data of Nyan Heroes, one piece of data is particularly noteworthy: "20% of players come from Web 2 games." This may mean that we have truly found the next potential blockbuster GameFi project—Nyan Heroes.
Nyan Heroes: Game Playability + Token Incentives
Basic Overview
Nyan Heroes is a third-person shooter game based on the Solana ecosystem, where players take on the role of a small cat driving a giant mech, using unique abilities and advanced feline movements to track targets and defeat opponents.
The Nyan Heroes team has rich experience in game development, with members having participated in the development of well-known titles such as Destiny, Halo, Mass Effect, and Assassin's Creed, deeply rooted in the game industry for many years. At the same time, Nyan Heroes has strong ecological partners. The chain game has received support from giants such as Razer, Xterio, Immutable, Superverse, NeoTokyo, Elixir, Hyperplay, and Saga, and has reached in-depth cooperation with esports giants such as G2 Esports, Fnatic, and Evil Geniuses, and will hold large-scale esports events with mainstream live streaming platform Twitch in the future.
Regarding financing, according to CRYPTO fundraising data and official information, Nyan Heroes has conducted multiple rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of up to $13 million, as follows:
On November 3, 2021, it announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round of financing, led by Three Arrows Capital and others;
On May 10, 2022, it announced the completion of a $7.5 million strategic financing at a valuation of $100 million, with participation from Kosmos Ventures and others;
On March 14, 2024, it announced the completion of a $3 million round of financing, led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from Sfermion and others.
Playability of Nyan Heroes
Currently, Season 2 of Nyan Heroes is in full swing. In order to attract more users to join, Nyan Heroes has launched a generous token airdrop activity for incentives. Whether they are old players who have participated in Season 1 or new players who have just learned about Nyan Heroes, they all have the opportunity to receive generous rewards.
On the one hand, for all users, they only need to visit the activity website and register through Twitter to participate. Then, by completing a series of simple social tasks such as following, liking, and retweeting, they can receive Catnip rewards, and these Catnip rewards can be directly exchanged for NYAN tokens in the future. In addition, by inviting friends to participate in the activity, users will receive more Catnip rewards, contributing to the expansion of the community and allowing more people to enjoy the fun and rewards brought by Nyan Heroes.
Interactive Activity Registration
Another aspect, Nyan Heroes will launch a two-week game experience event for all users for free on May 8th, giving users the opportunity to experience the joy of the game while earning more Catnip rewards. It is worth mentioning that in the previous game tests, Nyan Heroes was one of the few 3A games that received positive feedback from traditional players. Its captivating gaming experience not only attracted a large number of Web 2 content creators and their audiences but also won widespread acclaim. The game experience even made players momentarily forget that it is a Web 3 game.
Interface of a live streamer's game experience
Economic Model of Nyan Heroes
According to official information released by Nyan Heroes, its native token is NYAN, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens and no additional issuance. The team stated that NYAN will exist as a deflationary token, and in the future, it will be repurchased and burned through avenues such as market transaction fee income, minting income, and studio income to achieve token deflation. The deflation rate will depend on actual network activity and market trading conditions.
For the initial 1 billion NYAN tokens, the specific allocation breakdown is as follows:
- Community rewards: 335,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 33.5% of the total supply. These tokens will be used for airdrops, in-game rewards, competition prize pools, etc.;
- Ecosystem: 165,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 16.5% of the total supply. These tokens will be indirectly used for the community through IP expansion, partnership relationships, and strategic growth opportunities;
- Early investors: 220,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 22%;
- Team and advisors: 180,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 18%;
- Strategic investors: 70,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 7%;
- Liquidity and market making: 30,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 3%.
Pre-alpha Data and Recent Developments of Nyan Heroes
Review of Pre-alpha Period Data
On March 26th, Nyan Heroes officially launched on the Epic Games Store, and all players can download and participate in the Meow Points earning activity on the Epic Store.
During the two-week pre-alpha activity, Nyan Heroes achieved remarkable results. According to official data: the number of registered users exceeded 1.3 million, the number of independently active wallets exceeded 700,000, and the daily active users exceeded 45,000. At the same time, Nyan Heroes had over 200,000 downloads on the Epic Games Store and successfully entered the top five most popular games on the Epic Games Store and one of the top 30 most popular games globally.
Statistics during the pre-alpha activity (some data has been updated)
These data show that during the testing phase, Nyan Heroes not only attracted a large number of Web 3 players but also seamlessly integrated with Web 2, gaining support and love from a group of Web 2 players and live streamers. This provides favorable conditions for Nyan Heroes to successfully "break through the circle" after the official public testing and brings opportunities for its entry into the Web 2 gaming industry.
Season 2 Officially Launched
On May 1st, the team announced the successful conclusion of the Season 1 token airdrop event and directly launched the Season 2 token airdrop event, with the theme of "Hunt For Catnip."
Season 2 token airdrop event: Hunt For Catnip
Compared to the MEOW points in Season 1, the Catnip to be obtained in the Season 2 event will be more precious and harder to obtain. Due to the higher threshold for obtaining, those who strive for it will have the opportunity to receive a more generous reward pool.
At the same time, the highlight of this season's event is the launch of a new matchmaking ranking system (MMR) on May 8th, aimed at improving competitive skills and rewarding high-quality players. Regardless of whether players are seasoned veterans from Season 1 or newcomers preparing to participate in Season 2, MMR will match players with similar skill levels, enhancing their strategic abilities.
Based on the player's ranking at the end of the season, they will receive additional Catnip rewards, with higher rankings receiving more generous rewards. At the end of the second season, Catnip will be directly exchanged for NYAN tokens. Finally, the team also stated that the token airdrop event is not limited to just two seasons and will introduce more interesting activities in the future to incentivize real players.
Nyan Heroes will lead the next generation of GameFi paradigm
In the gaming industry, whether it's Web 2 or Web 3, any game has a certain lifespan. Specifically, League of Legends is a typical example. This multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Riot Games was released in 2009 and quickly won the love of a large number of players with its rich game content and competitive atmosphere. However, over time, the popularity of League of Legends gradually waned, and despite Riot Games continuously updating content and hosting events, the game's lifespan was still affected.
In comparison to Web 2 games, Web 3 games face unique challenges. On the one hand, due to insufficient playability, Web 3 games struggle to attract Web 2 users, resulting in a severe lack of user base. On the other hand, the token economic model of Web 3 games has flaws, attracting a large number of "pump and dump" users. These factors combined lead to continuous token price declines, reducing the lifespan of the game and ultimately leading to the game's demise.
Taking Axie Infinity and StepN as examples, although they innovated in the token economic model, they faced serious issues in the later stages of game development. The severe lack of Web 2 user base and the high barrier to entry for new Web 3 users resulted in insufficient new users to support the old users, leading to a continuous token price collapse, until the game was no longer mentioned, ending its brief glory.
Firstly, Nyan Heroes continuously refines the game, enhances its playability, and provides rich gaming experiences through diverse game content and gameplay design. This allows the game to satisfy users who truly love gaming, thereby establishing a strong Web 2 user base during the testing phase. This user base not only maintains the game's popularity but also has the potential to extend the game's lifespan, becoming the core of the game's development.
Secondly, Nyan Heroes has chosen to be part of the Solana ecosystem, which is the most discussed ecosystem in the current bull market. Within the Solana ecosystem, there are a large number of active Web 3 users, providing the potential for Nyan Heroes to continuously attract Web 3 users. By integrating with the Solana ecosystem, Nyan Heroes has gained broader attention and support, providing strong momentum for the game's continuous development.
Lastly, Nyan Heroes has implemented token incentive measures in multiple phases and continuously optimized them, further increasing user stickiness. Through this approach, the game can better incentivize user participation and retention, laying a solid foundation for the game's long-term development.
In summary, Nyan Heroes has not only made precise decisions in game design and ecosystem selection but also continuously innovated in the token economic model and user incentives. Therefore, Nyan Heroes is poised to become a pioneer leading the next generation of GameFi, bringing new vitality and development opportunities to Web 3, and opening a new chapter in the gaming world.
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