An analysis of the "move-to-earn" chain game Genopets: game mode, architecture and long-term vision

Note: The original author is Paul Veradittakit, a partner at Pantera Capital.

The surge in crypto gaming is one of the most important developments for our industry in 2021. The year saw a lot of notable things: Axie Infinity's hyperbolic growth, the birth of game guilds like Yield Guild Games, Loot's "bottom-up" unique games, Facebook's Meta rebrand, and the recent $100 million Solana Game funding and interest from traditional game studios, just to name a few.

If that wasn't enough, the energy of NFT.NYC is intoxicating, with startups, multinationals, A-listers, Hollywood studios, and many others coming together to discuss and celebrate the disruptive potential of NFTs in their respective fields. Especially with the intersection of open blockchains, NFTs, and gaming, this trend shows no signs of slowing down.

In line with our strong belief in the space, we recently invested in Genopets, the first-of-its-kind "move-to-earn" game, and we co-led the round with Konvoy Ventures ($8.3M), other industries Leading stakeholders also joined the round, including Eniac Ventures, Alameda Research, Solana Capital, Spartan Group, and others.

1

So what are Genopets?

The introduction of the project party is:

“Genopets is a free NFT game that combines breeding and evolution of Tamagotchi, training and fighting of Pokemon, and crafting and collection of Animal Crossing, all while using crypto as players hone in on physical activities and mini-games. Monetary rewards them."

If you can understand these comparisons, then the whole game should be easy to understand for you.

Users can choose to "mint" their Genopet for free -- answering a series of questions to imbue it with unique psychological traits -- or buy one on the open market. Each Genopet is associated with a unique NFT and is owned by the user.

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Source: Genopets

As Genopet grows, it gains increased utility as an in-app game and becomes more attractive to speculators or other players in the open market.

While "move-to-play" has found success with the Nintendo Wii, Pokemon Go, and other activity-based games, "move-to-earn" is an entirely new form of play. By exercising and completing step challenges, players will be able to accelerate the evolution of their Genopets, thereby increasing the value of their in-game assets. This is markedly different from other pay-to-play games we've seen, in that instead of incentivizing players to mindlessly tap their screens, Genopets provides players with a financial incentive to improve their personal health.

Genopets is available to all players, regardless of their past experience with decentralized applications (dApps) or crypto games. Therefore, the team made the gameplay as user-friendly as possible, abstracting NFT minting, microtransactions, or any other interaction with the blockchain from the end user. The goal of the game is to enable non-crypto-native players to mint, upgrade, and even sell their Genopets without directly interacting with the blockchain or crypto wallets. All you need is a smartphone to download the app and start earning money.

2

Why play for free?

Unlike many other play-to-earn games, Genopets is a free-to-play game. For example, if you want to play Axie Infinity (the standard play-to-earn game), the user has to buy 3 Axies from the market, at the most expensive time, this costs thousands of dollars, which makes it expensive for many users The cost is too high. And similar requirements exist for other play-to-earn games, which ultimately drives "gaming guilds" (like the aforementioned YGG) to offer Axies to players in exchange for a cut of their earnings.

While playing Genopets requires no upfront payment, players can, in fact, mint their Genopets, evolve it through their movement and in-game performance, and sell them on the open market for a profit.

Such a model has two main benefits over play-to-earn type games. First, it greatly expands the game's total addressable market. Many casual gamers are not even willing to spend $0.99 on the App Store, let alone spend a fortune on an in-game NFT before playing the game. By ensuring there is a free track, the game will attract a larger and more diverse audience.

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Source: Genopets (Medium)

However, if users want to purchase in-game items, they have many opportunities to improve Genopet's performance (and player's income). Refining crystals can be purchased to temporarily alter your Genopet and affect its future evolution (eg, "Fire Genotype Crystal"). Habitats are also lands where Genopets can live and evolve. Players can even rent out their Habitats to other players for XP rewards.

3

What is the structure of the game?

Solana's high throughput, fast settlement, and low transaction fees make it an attractive candidate for many new blockchain games, so it's no surprise that Genopets chose it as their primary layer 1 underlying blockchain .

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Source: Genopets (Medium)

To learn more about these elements and how they affect gameplay, I suggest you read the project's white paper.

4

What is the long-term vision for Genopets?

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Source: Genopets (white paper)

As Genopets prepares to launch a public beta in the coming months, there has been significant community interest in the project. They already have over 100,000 members on their Discord server and over 120,000 followers on Twitter.

This article comes from Tao of Yuan Universe, reproduced with authorization.

This article comes from Tao of Yuan Universe, reproduced with authorization.