MetalCore’s CTO on how to make a Web3 game fun: “We use what we understand”

Blockchain
games
dominated
the
first
quarter,
representing
30%
of
all
on-chain
activity
in
this
period,
according
to
the
“State
of
the
Dapp
Industry
Q1
2024”
report
by
DappRadar.
The
report
highlights
that
an
average
of
2.1
million
wallets
were
active
daily
during
Q1.

This
dominance
in
gaming
activity
on
the
blockchain
could
mean
that
analysts’
expectations
about
Web3
games
focusing
on
entertainment
this
cycle
are
being
fulfilled.
MetalCore
is
a
blockchain
shooting
game
from
this
new
batch
of
titles
focused
on
entertaining
gameplay,
and
it
is
finding
success
in
its
second
closed
beta
testing.

“[The
number
of
players]
It’s
actually
a
lot
more
than
we
expected.
We
planned
for
a
couple
hundred,
maybe
1,000
players.
We’ve
got
close
to
9,000
players
and
about
1,500
to
2,000
daily
active
users.
And
then
at
any
given
time,
we
have
somewhere
between
300
and
400
concurrent
users,
which
is
really
good
for
a
game
that
is
not
freely
available,
you
still
have
to
sign
up
on
a
waitlist
and
get
keys,”
shared
Dan
Nikolaides,
CTO
of
MetalCore.

The
second
closed
beta
test
for
MetalCore
ends
May
16th,
after
a
two-week
period
used
majorly
to
test
game
economy
and
check
bugs,
added
Nikolaides.
Since
those
testing
periods
are
executed
without
the
completed
game,
they
are
harder
to
retain
players,
which
is
why
MetalCore’s
team
is
surprised
by
the
number
of
players
dedicating
up
to
50
hours
a
week
to
the
game.

However,
making
a
blockchain
game
fun
is
not
an
easy
task,
especially
because
most
of
the
teams
behind
new
Web3
titles
are
from
the
traditional
gaming
industry,
and
must
get
acclimated
to
new
standards.

“Web3
industry
is
really
young
still,
so
it’s
hard
to
know
what’s
right.
And
that
leads
to
changing
directions,
more
so
than
we
would
do
in
Web2.
Changing
directions
from
a
business
perspective
is
not
something
that
you
typically
would
need
to
do
in
Web2.
It
is
pretty
much
about
thinking:
well,
this
is
going
to
be
a
premium
game
or
a
free-to-play
game,
or
we’re
going
to
sell
it
in
bundles,
or
whatever
it
is
going
to
do.
Whatever
the
business
plan
is,
that
doesn’t
require
you
to
change
your
entire
development
process.”

Yet,
in
Web3
there
are
more
factors
to
consider,
such
as
choosing
a
blockchain
to
deploy
digital
assets
and
deciding
whether
or
not
the
game
will
have
tokens.
This
drastically
affects
the
technology
stack
used
and
what
the
team
can
do
with
digital
assets,
said
MetalCore’s
CTO.

“Are
we
going
to
be
able
to
upgrade
them?
Are
they
gonna
have
attributes
that
we
can
cheaply
upgrade
and
can
players
level
them
up?
Or
is
that
gonna
be
too
cost-prohibitive?
That
is
just
the
simplest
of
things.
Even
from
the
business
side,
we
have
to
question
when
we
should
launch
from
a
market
perspective.
Like
when
is
a
good
time
to
launch
a
token?
Who
should
we
partner
with?
All
of
these
are
very,
very
difficult
decisions
that
we
have
to
make
besides
just
making
the
game,
which
definitely
there
was
a
learning
curve
there
for
us
to
figure
all
this
out.”

Scratching
an
idea

MetalCore
is
a
multiplayer
shooting
game
that
reminds
famous
titles,
such
as
Titanfall
and
Destiny.
Players
can
go
on
missions,
use
different
battle
vehicles,
and
fight
alien
monsters.
Nikolaides
shared
that
the
decision
to
create
a
multiplayer
online
game
is
tied
to
the
“company
DNA,”
but
it
started
outside
the
Web3.

“We
started
this
off
actually
as
a
VR
game.
So
we
made
a
VR
game
called
World
of
Mechs
for
Quest
2
[VR
goggles].
And
that
was
really
fun.
Our
founder
has
a
long
history
of
developing
mech
games.
And
once
we
did
that,
we
had
a
really
good
foundation
for
fun
mech
combat.
And
we
were
like:
‘What
if
we
took
this
and
made
a
big
PC
game
out
of
it?’
And
at
the
time,
we
weren’t
sure
how
to
fund
it.
We
weren’t
sure
how
to
make
it
happen.”

Migrating
to
Web3
then
made
sense,
as
the
team
would
be
able
to
create
a
new
blockchain
title
from
scratch,
instead
of
just
trying
to
“slam
a
game
into
Web3.”
After
this
decision,
Nikolaides
explains
that
making
the
game
free-to-play
was
the
next
logical
step,
as
the
team
didn’t
want
to
gatekeep
the
game
with
costly
NFTs,
allowing
players
to
build
a
community
around
it.

“Gatekeeping
games
with
NFTs
is
just
not
fun.
The
fun
thing
about
games
like
this
is
when
you
can
show
off.
If
you
have
something
really
cool,
naturally
you
want
to
show
off
to
other
people.
But
if
you
make
a
game
where
you
have
to
buy
a
super
expensive
NFT
just
to
play,
there’s
nobody
to
show
off
to.
Nobody
else
is
there
to
be
like
‘oh
my
god,
that’s
so
cool.’
So
people
generally,
just
the
average
person,
really
loves
to
feel
they
have
achieved
something.”

Keep
it
simple

Besides
the
initial
barrier
of
getting
used
to
a
new
industry,
Nikolaides
shares
additional
challenges
when
creating
a
fun
Web3
game,
and
how
MetalCore’s
team
overcame
them.
“There
are
all
the
normal
challenges
that
come
with
making
a
fun
game
even
in
Web
2,
which
is
difficult
by
itself.
Then
there
are
additional
challenges,
which
are
the
kind
of
economic
challenges
of
designing
a
system
that
works
in
Web3.”

MetalCore’s
approach
then
was
to
keep
“as
close
as
possible
to
something
they
understood,”
says
Nikolaides.
They
already
understood
the
idea
of
building
a
character,
leveling
it
up,
improving
its
load-outs,
spending
time,
energy,
resources,
and
money
potentially
upgrading
it
and
making
it
“super
bad-ass,”
he
adds.

“And
then
we
thought
that
with
a
free
marketplace
of
NFTs,
people
would
want
to
sell
upgraded
characters.
And
so
we
kind
of
designed
our
game
around
upgrading
characters,
right?
This
was
very
important
for
us,
because
instead
of
trying
to
do
something
very
complicated,
we
kind
of
could
take
a
lot
of
lessons
that
we
learned
in
Web2,
that
we
understood
from
designing
game
economies
that
involved
upgrading
characters,
and
then
just
kind
of
do
it
in
such
a
way
that
it
was
Web3
friendly.”