Maybe, you have heard of Castaways, the "raft" with a floor price of 25 ETH:

Or from the cooperation established with DigiDaigaku, the big brother of "Free To Own" who just bought the Super Bowl ad:

Maybe, you have already participated in the Alpha version of Castaways game experience. Facing the full screen of "Marine Garbage", countless question marks popped up-what is this? Why are so many people wandering in the sea? How to "fish"? ...

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Project Introduction

Introduction to gameplay

Castaways is a "sandbox" game inspired by Animal Crossing and MineCraft. According to the description on the official website, in Castaways, each player will drift on the sea to find islands, and after landing, they will collect resources, make props, fish, plant, etc. to manage the islands and strengthen their strength.

Health, hunger, and props are the taste of MineCraft. The fish swimming in the water is the taste of Dongsen

The picture below is the official "Coconut Planting Manual" of Castaways. From this example, we can get a glimpse of the connection between resource collection and planting gameplay. Cutting down a fully grown coconut tree can yield coconuts and the "soil" suitable for coconut growth. Plant coconuts back again, and you can get another coconut tree, and you can become a "coconut tycoon" by planting repeatedly. Coconuts are collected at different stages of growth, and the resources obtained will be different.

Using a twig, a rope, and a eaten can of tuna, a spear can be crafted as a weapon:

Future plans also include:

1. Weather and time system, day and night cycle, cloudy and sunny

2. Character costumes and expressions, as well as keeping your own pets

3. Build your own mini-game with JavaScript

4. PvP and GvG (player versus guild)

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team background

Branch, the parent company of Castaways, announced the completion of $12.5 million in financing in early May this year, with participation from Mechanism Play, TCG Crypto, Dragonfly Capital, Polychain, and Coinbase Ventures. Before Branch switched to the blockchain game, it made such an immersive remote office product:

This immersive remote office product has received millions of dollars in financing, why did it suddenly quit? There may be many reasons for this, but one of them is the co-founder Dayton Mills' "not forgetting the original intention". When Dayton was 15, PayPal blocked him for being a minor. All the profits gained from setting up the MineCraft server were forcibly locked up by Web2, which made Dayton's life instantly plunged into embarrassment, and he even had no money to buy food. "Enabling every child in the world to put the income gained from building games into their own Web3 wallet before they have a Web2 bank account" has always been Dayton's dream.

In particular, Gabriel Leydon, CEO of DigiDaigaku's parent company Limit Break, also invested in Branch. Gabriel praised Dayton very much, saying that Dayton is hardworking and has leadership, and he also promoted Dayton's brilliant deeds of earning "the first bucket of gold" with MineCraft at a young age.

Dayton also reciprocated his big brother Gabriel. Not only did he say "Free To Own", but he also changed the ecological positioning of Castaways' first NFT series "raft" to align with the positioning of the DigiDaigaku Genesis series.

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"Raft"

"Raft" is the first NFT series of Castaways. As mentioned earlier, Castaways learned from DigiDaigaku's positioning of its Genesis NFT series and adjusted the utility of the "raft". Initially, the "raft" needs to be burned in exchange for a piece of "Genesis Island". Later, not only can the "Creation Island" be claimed without burning, but also the positioning of the "raft" series has been determined - just like DigiDaigaku Genesis, Belonging to the top "Mint" NFT series in the game ecology, as long as you hold it, you can get a steady stream of airdrops.

In addition to the "Mint" positioning commitment and the "Genesis Island" airdrop, "Raft" holders currently enjoy three benefits:

1. The "Genesis Island" of the "Raft" holder will have its own "Port". The "port" is said to be able to exert "economic and trade advantages", but the specific role has not yet been explained. In addition, these self-contained "ports" will be randomly named according to the name of the "raft". The best bonus will be obtained if the "raft" of the "raft" holder has the same name as the "port" it gets.

Take "raft" #93 as an example, the unique name of this "raft" is "Mystic". There must be a "port" on the "creation island" obtained by the holder of "raft" #93, this "port" may be named after any "raft", it may be "raft" #71 "Raven" for "Raven" and possibly "Gabe" for "Raft" #6...Fortunately, the owner of "Raft" #93's "Port" is also called "Mystic".

Careful friends may find that the above picture also shows that the "raft" has two attributes - "Event Bonus" and "Luck". These two attributes are tied to two other perks:

2. Additional resources. The "Creation Island" obtained by the "Raft" holder will have more resources than those obtained from the white list and public sale, and the higher the "Luck", the more resources on the "Creation Island" will be obtained. Many, such as coal, etc. Since many key resources such as coal will be "non-renewable", this benefit will become more and more valuable as the game content continues to enrich.

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"islands"

The total number of "Genesis Islands" is 500. Among them, 100 are airdropped to all "raft" holders, 250 are airdropped to users who have contributed to the community and game testing since May, 100 are open to the public Free Mint, and 50 are reserved by the project party for marketing and activities . The project party plans to take out some of its own "creation islands" as prizes in the exclusive event for "DigiDaigaku X Castaways Adventure Key" holders.

The current way to obtain "Creation Island":

1. Purchase "Raft". According to Castaways official information, a snapshot of the "raft" holders will be taken before the start of Free Mint. Therefore, you can still get the airdrop of "Creation Island" if you buy "Raft" in the secondary market.

2. Participate in Free Mint, which is open to the public. Free Mint will be launched at 6 am Beijing time on October 18th. At that time, Castaways official will release the Mint link in the YouTube live broadcast, first come first served.

3. Purchase "DigiDaigaku X Castaways Adventure Key" to participate in the exclusive game event and be among the best in the event. (Note: This information has not yet been officially announced, but it was mentioned by the founder in the official weekly AMA)

"Genesis Island" will not be the only "land" series in the game. As the content of the game continues to improve, there will be "second-generation islands" and "third-generation islands"... Holders of "rafts" have confirmed that they will receive airdrops from "second-generation islands". According to the official statement, because of the scarcity and "non-renewable" of resources, the more OG the "island" is, the more precious it is. For example, coal will be the exclusive resource of the "Creation Island", which will not be refreshed on the "Creation Island", and will not be available in new "islands" released in the future, but as the basic resource at the bottom of the prop production chain, the game Domestic demand for coal will only increase. Each generation of "new islands" will introduce new resources and follow the principles of scarcity and "non-renewable".

"Creation Island" can also enjoy dividends from the built-in game resource trading market in the future. Judging from the content of the game mechanism that can be known so far, this will be a powerful benefit. Different "islands" will have different disadvantages, as well as different advantages. For example, an "island" may have poor soil that is not conducive to planting, but it is very suitable for the growth of dairy cows. In order to fatten the cows, they need to "import" a large amount of feed from other "islands" and "export" milk and leather... Such a design will surely make the built-in game resource trading market very prosperous.

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Interactive strategy

Currently valuable interaction items are:

1. Participate in the "Creation Island" Free Mint open to the public. Free Mint will be launched at 6 am Beijing time on October 18th. At that time, Castaways official will release the Mint link in the YouTube live broadcast, first come first served.

2. After Free Mint's YouTube live broadcast, the new beta version will be live soon. In the new test version, the player name in the game cannot be changed once it is set, andWill be minted as an NFT. In addition to thinking of a valuable name, be sure to do a good job of in-game mailbox association in advance!

Email association steps: use a browser to enter the game (link: https://alpha.branch.gg/), click the "key" at the top right of the page, enter your email and press Enter to submit. The verification code email will be sent to the designated mailbox, just enter the verification code into the dialog box and submit. After the association is successful, when the mouse hovers over the "key", a "Logout" prompt will appear.

Game name setting steps (note: there may be changes after the new version goes online): Click the "chat bubble" at the top of the page, and a chat box will appear. There is a dialog box for entering the game name below the chat box, enter it in the box and press the Enter key to submit.

3. Keep playing the game. "Fishing" was the only playable content in the past period of time. At this time, the meaning of interaction is not much, because "Creation Island" is about to be released. However, from the official attitude of Castaways, they attach great importance to rewarding a loyal player base. For example, the key obtained by "Fishing" will be able to open the "Treasure Chest". In addition to being buried on the "Island", the "Treasure Chest" will also be airdropped to the "Fishing Masters" in the past tests. (Note: The specific rules have not yet been determined and announced) Therefore, there may be unexpected rewards for continuing to play the game, and higher operational proficiency may also help you have an advantage in future game activities.

epilogue

epilogue

Castaways more clearly demonstrates the operation of the "Free To Own" model, allowing us to see the increasingly mature development ideas of blockchain games:

1. "Free To Own" is actually "Free To Play To Own". The ability and attitude of the project party in the "Free To Play" link is crucial to the stable development of the project. In the past 4 months, although you can only "fish" in Castaways, the text and voice chat functions in the game have been relatively perfect, and the version iteration is very fast. In the almost weekly YouTube live broadcast, the team will give feedback on the community's questions and suggestions, and give a brief report on the resolution of some important issues. Competent and willing to listen, it's hard not to love a team like this.

2. "Free To Own" is essentially a change in the profit path, with a richer playability as the foundation, through mechanisms to promote players' game content transactions, and to better help players' game content (income) Tokenize and form A win-win situation for players and project parties. Although the early "Free To Play" seems to be just another form of "rolling wool", but with the continuous update of Castaways, we should be able to see that the idea of ​​"the more you play, the more I can earn" will be consistent. .

Of course, Castaways also has shortcomings. For example, from the perspective of the utility adjustment of "raft", Castaways more or less gives people a feeling of "planning while doing". However, the successful market performance of Castaways is enough to make us expect that more such blockchain game projects will appear in the future - no need to download and click to play, no need to sell NFT for income, richer playability and The payoff is proportional to the depth of play. Maybe this will be the new fad?