Nakamoto Games: A Year In Review
Looking back on the platform’s most significant achievements
Summary
The last two years saw a stampede of projects enter the GameFi market, riding the wave of hype within the booming industry. However, as the market began to stabilize, many projects fell by the wayside. Unsustainable investment, maladaptive business models, and bad in-game economics all contributed to their downfall. Despite the turbulence, Nakamoto Games has withstood the bear market, and even thrived within it, building a host of new features and games in the process.
In their first year live on mainnet, the platform has blossomed into a bustling hub packed with great gaming options and a fantastic pay-to-earn community. Through their zero-sum economic model and the creation of a diverse economy, Nakamoto Games has built a sustainable financial ecosystem. Additionally, by creating a platform full of games instead of a single title, Nakamoto Games has been able to cater to a greater audience while keeping pace in a rapidly expanding industry.
The ecosystem was strengthened recently by merging the project’s mobile app team with the original Nakamoto Games team. This has added 10 developers to the fold. The result? An acceleration in new games, website enhancements, and tokenomics improvements. The progress has earned them a reputation as pioneers of innovation in the play-to-earn market that deliver new features regularly. This past year, Nakamoto Games has kept ahead of the curve, listening to the feedback of the community, and forming their roadmap around the ever-changing landscape.
Establishing themselves as industry leaders
Their progress has not gone unnoticed. Since their inception, the growth of Nakamoto Games has been documented every step of the way. Hundreds of press releases and Twitter mentions by the industry's top news outlets and influencers have mapped the progress of the platform. These include Bloomberg, Nasdaq, and Yahoo Finance just to name a few.
Nakamoto Games regularly tops the polls for social media and community engagement on several crypto data websites. They now boasts over 180,000 Twitter followers and 113,000 Telegram channel members.
However, it seems Nakamoto Games truly established themselves as an industry leader in September of this year. Research and Markets, one of the leading global research institutes, published a report detailing future projections for Metaverse projects. Nakamoto Games was listed alongside some of the biggest companies in the world including Netflix, Tencent, Google, Binance, and Microsoft. as a project flourishing on the frontiers of the Web3 world.
A catalog of 20 unique games
Throughout the year, Nakamoto Games has published a total of 20 unique games spanning multiple genres, the quality of which appears to improve with each release. Everything, from competitive sports games to multiplayer shooters to single-player puzzle games, can be found on the platform. The ecosystem remains innovative, with roughly two new games per month, a key element of their sustained success. Here is a rundown of some of the exemplary titles on the site.
Tank Battle is an action-packed 3-D multiplayer shooter. Players storm the battlefield, operating armored tanks and pushing toward victory by taking down enemy players. Its addictive and competitive qualities have led to it quickly becoming one of the most popular on-site games. Nakamoto Games plan to roll out updated versions of the game packed with novel features including customizable skins and new equipment, enhancing the gaming experience.
Night Warrior is a top-down horror-themed survival game. Players must endure waves of monstrous foes in a desperate bid to survive the night. The strength of the monsters increases with each passing wave. Players must match their increasing power by using coins dropped by the monsters to purchase upgraded weapons and armor.
8 Ball Pool is a 2-D billiards game. Players can stake their $NAKA and battle other members of the community or AI to win rewards. The game is being remade to provide smoother gameplay and upgraded graphics to match the higher quality of recent releases.
Discord Channel Launch
Nakamoto Games Discord channel was launched in mid-September. Discord is perhaps the world's most popular social media hub for gamers and a major space the platform had yet to tap into. Players flooded the chat to share game room details and talk about gaming experiences. Programmers also jump on regularly to explore potential use cases and challenges with the Nakamoto Games SDK. To celebrate its inception, exclusive ticket rewards and gamification features were distributed on the new channel.
$NAKA: listings, staking, and innovations
$NAKA tokens play a crucial role in the ecosystem, serving as a method for users to access games and investors to leverage lucrative earning opportunities. The entire platform is built around the token, with native marketplaces, exchanges, and games all relying on $NAKA to function effectively.
NAKA marketplace
The NAKA marketplace is a decentralized trading hub where players buy or sell platform-related NFTs using $NAKA as the medium of exchange. Everything from in-game assets to NAKAVERSE land NFTs can be purchased instantly on the marketplace. The NAKA marketplace will be essential to the sustainable economy created for the NAKAVERSE.
Exchange Listings
$NAKA was first listed on Quickswap and Kucoin in Q4 2021, two established exchanges in the crypto market, introducing $NAKA to the blockchain community. BitMart and MExC quickly followed in Q1 2022. BitMart is a top-tier exchange handling hundreds of millions of USD in daily trading volume for over nine million users.
$NAKA was officially listed on the Kanga exchange in late August of this year. Kanga is one of the largest exchanges in central Europe with over 250 physical exchange points. As of the 31st of August 2022, the token became available for trading on their platform. Users can also stake $NAKA and earn yields.
Nakamoto Games built a strong relationship with Kanga over the 3rd quarter of 2022, collaborating on a number of important events. One of which was an AMA to unveil the NAKA Punks, the upcoming NFT collection. The $NAKA token has expanded its reach through its listing with a host of prominent crypto exchanges.
Staking
Over the course of the year, the platform has held multiple $NAKA staking rounds for fixed returns, rewarding long-term investors with up to 25% APR. Earlier this year flexible staking was launched on-site, providing variable APR depending on the staking length. Staking boosts market dynamics while simultaneously delivering value to investors.
Fiat currency acceptance
Nakamoto Games opened their platform to a mass of mainstream users in February as they integrated the acceptance of fiat currencies for the native $NAKA token. Nakamoto Games became the sole play-to-earn platform accepting major fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, RUB, GBP, and AUD.
Users can easily purchase $NAKA tokens through their credit card, a major push towards widespread adoption of the ecosystem. This move makes the platform easily accessible to anybody with a credit card and boosts demand for the NAKA token.
Native DEX
The platform launched their very own DEX in April which opened up conversion opportunities for fiat-NAKA transactions. With this marketplace, global trading of $NAKA for various currencies can take place in a safe and secure manner on the platform's website.
The DEX was enhanced later in the year to allow users to freely swap BUSD, a fiat-backed stablecoin, on BNB Chain for $NAKA tokens on the Polygon network, and vice versa. The DEX improves on-chain liquidity and assists in onboarding users from the BNB chain ecosystem, which boasts a user base of over 2 million.
Upgrades to reward economics
A huge factor in Nakamoto Games' success is the creation of a play-to-earn economic model that is fair to all users, unexploitable by bots or bad actors, and available to everyone regardless of income level. The expanding GameFi landscape warrants continuous trial and error in order to fine-tune platform economics. This has led to a number of essential adaptations that have benefited the Nakamoto Games ecosystem.
Sustainable play-to-earn
Many games attract players with large initial rewards pools and incentives. However, these pools soon empty, causing token inflation, reduced user engagement, and eventual project death.
The Nakamoto Games economy takes the form of a zero-sum model. Each player invests a certain amount of $NAKA to compete against a pool of players to earn rewards. Similar to Poker, those who place high reap the benefits, and those who don't lose what they put in.
This ensures that the liquidity pool won't dry up as it is the users who provide the tokens to sustain the economy.
Tier system
Every gaming community contains players differing in skill levels. Nakamoto Games democratizes play-to-earn by implementing a tier system for players. The system is applied to every game with each player starting at the bronze tier. Those in a certain tier will only play against gamers also in that category. If you play a particular game frequently and/or win at a high rate, you will be moved up a tier to play in a higher-skilled player pool. This ensures an even playing field and protects inexperienced players from losing their stake every time to better players.
In-game achievements
Nakamoto Games has introduced a variety of in-game quests and achievements to boost player rewards. Prizes for quest completion include tickets, EXP, and badges. EXP is another new reward system that increases productivity, performance, and profitability in the upcoming Metaverse, the NAKAVERSE.
A total of 21 unique quests are available spanning the majority of on-site games. Players can jump from game to game tackling a variety of challenging tasks to earn rewards. Chasing achievements increases both the long-term playability and profitability for users.
Weekly rewards pool
In March, Nakamoto Games announced the launch of a weekly reward pool that pays out $NAKA tokens to the most active players across the ecosystem. The top 10 players with the highest $NAKA accrued from playing on-site games receive a share of the weekly prize pool. Pool rewards are distributed among the top 10 players, with the higher-ranking player receiving a larger share of the spoils. This honors both the skills and loyalty of players on the platform.
Micro pooling
Many people are looking to explore the world of play-to-earn but don’t want to invest much money to do so. In September, Nakamoto Games solved this problem by introducing micro pooling. Micro pooling allows people to play games at cost levels they are comfortable with. Instead of entering games at a fixed value of 1 USD worth $NAKA per game, players can enter gaming lobbies for as little as 0.05 USD.
Free-to-play
Free-to-play was implemented to allow gamers to foster their skills before jumping into play-to-earn pools. Instead of earning $NAKA, users are rewarded with points for their gaming efforts which will later grant them access to a variety of play-to-earn gaming options.
Although there is no monetary reward up for grabs, players can gain experience in games without the need for financial investment. They can foster their skills and decide which games they enjoy the most or have the best chance to earn the highest rewards. Free-to-play is designed to ease new players into the platform at no cost, creating a smoother onboarding experience for all.
The free-to-play feature can be accessed by connecting to the Nakamoto Games platform via the Discord channel. First, join the channel, then enter the email address that you registered with their platform and use the code "WELOVENAKA" on the website to get free items for their on-site games.
Huge tournaments with fantastic rewards
Tournaments and play-to-earn are a match made in heaven. It gives the entire community the chance to enter for a small fee, or even free, and win large cash or token prizes in exciting battles with huge player pools. They also help bring gaming communities together, creating buzz for the players and spectators.
The first tournament the platform hosted was the inaugural Naka Strike tournament in February last year. In a competitive knockout event featuring a $10,000 prize pool, the top 3 players took home substantial prizes of $6,000, $3,000, and $1,000 respectively. The tournament was such a success that Nakamoto Games followed up in May with a second Naka Strike tournament for another $2,500 $USD in prize money.
Then in August, in collaboration with UpOnly, a huge 250-player Tank Battle tournament was held with a prize pool of $2,250. Contestants fought it out in an every-player-for-themselves battle royale to determine the top players in the community. The three-day tournament ended with the winner taking home $1,000 USD for their efforts. The free-to-enter event was a testament to the earning potential Nakamoto Games has to offer.
In fact, the tournament was so successful that a prominent gaming streamer decided to host his very own event. XSlayer_ND was part of the original tournament and wanted to share the experience with his own community of gamers. His fanbase battled it out in a 25-man tournament with XSlayer_ND taking home second prize.
Other Important developments
Ticket support system
The ticketing system allows users to communicate directly with the Nakamoto games team, facilitating quick easy submission of problems, feedback, and suggestions associated with the ecosystem. The platform has a 24/7 team dedicated to addressing feedback. The system provides dynamic and fast-paced support to the user base.
Referral system
The referral system allows players to earn lifelong passive income by inviting friends to sign up with Nakamoto Games. The player can earn 3% on every game their friend plays and the number of players one can refer is unlimited. This is another example of a great onboarding strategy through community-driven growth.
Campaigns
Nakamoto Games has put together a number of promotions and campaigns in order to reward their community, create buzz, and attract new players. The first of which was the $100K content campaign in December of last year. The project followed this up with successful Christmas, Songkran, and Easter campaigns totaling prize pools of $25,000 collectively.
Achievement badges and profile customization
The introduction of achievement badges to reward and recognize active members of the ecosystem came in March of this year. Players who hold large amounts of $NAKA, those who achieve great scores platform-wide or in individual games, and those who assisted with Alpha testing are all awarded badges for their effort and commitment to the ecosystem. The platform also introduced a flag icon for display alongside profiles to allow players to demonstrate and represent their country.
Publish weekly development updates
In order to maintain transparency between the team and the community, Nakamoto Games began publishing a rundown of the platform's weekly goals and objectives. Everything from game development to staking to upcoming features and events is documented in the updates. These updates keep the community informed and set a standard and expectation for the platform.
Education
Over the past year, Nakamoto Games has partnered with prominent institutions in Thailand including Bangkok University International (BU) and Khon Kaen University (KKU). The purpose is to educate students on blockchain and related technology.
The Nakamoto Games team began assisting professors in developing blockchain-based courses and diplomas for students. Course material ranges from NFTs to blockchain gaming, to Metaverse and the broader Web3 economy. Students are then encouraged to join internships, apply for positions, and conduct research for Nakamoto Games.
In April, Nakamoto Games organized a student conference in KKU introducing the project's ecosystem to students and other distinguished guests. Early exposure to these emerging fields can help shape student career choices and set them up for success in their future endeavors.
What's Next For Nakamoto Games?
Huge strides in NAKAVERSE development
The NAKAVERSE has been a goal of Nakamoto Games since the platform’s formation in December 2020. The premise is an immersive virtual world that mimics many facets of the real-world economy. Players can choose their own unique paths and ways to earn by providing valuable services to the Nakamoto Games ecosystem. Over the past year, the ecosystem has been gearing up for launch in a variety of different ways.
In April 2022, Nakamoto Games launched the public NAKAVERSE land sale. Digital land plots will be an instrumental part of a liquid economy within the NAKAVERSE. Those who purchase can mine resources, which can then be combined to produce items for on-site games. These items can be sold on the marketplace generating substantial passive income for the investor.
Sales are facilitated via a smart contract. Investors can choose to buy in one sum or via an installment plan over several months. Those who avail of the installment plan gain immediate access to the land plot. However, security measures in the smart contracts revert the land plot to the original owner if three consecutive payments fail.
In order to educate the community, Nakamoto Games published the NAKAVERSE Economics Explainer in early July. The document provides an overview of the economic model used in the virtual world. Factors like percentage yields on land parcels and stamina requirements for workers were determined in order to clearly outline the profitability of the NAKAVERSE.
Additionally, the land banner, the first of many advertising tools available in the NAKAVERSE was announced in July. The land banner allows landowners to print their brand/logo and load it onto their land, allowing for unique business expression, visual recognition, and credibility.
Everything from designing the landscape to improving the user interface to calculating optimal reward systems has been addressed by the team. Security has been consistently strengthened via the implementation of smart contracts, ensuring that users' investments are safe. After 2 years of development, the NAKAVERSE is slated to debut in the final quarter of 2022.
Entering the world of NFTs
The NAKA Punks is a collection of 10,000 punk-like NFTs with a unique set of characteristics and rarity indicators. Among the collection are 50 gold-skinned NFTs that will likely be valued far beyond the average market price. Everyone who mints a NAKA Punk will be in with a chance to land one of these rare golden punks.
What sets the NAKA Punks collection apart is the immense benefits that holders have beyond the speculative value of the NFTs. Every NAKA Punk purchase comes with a NAKAVERSE land asset valued at $500. Additionally, all NAKA Punk holders will be automatically granted exclusive membership to the Satoshi Gaming Club and will receive a share of Nakamoto Games’ profits.
The value they provide has multiplied with the announcement of the sale of NAKA Punks Mystery Boxes. The new offering allows buyers to acquire a number of different NAKA Punks in a single box. Nakamoto Games has integrated Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF) into the mystery boxes. By integrating an established decentralized oracle network, users can verify that NFTs in the mystery boxes are secured by a tamper-proof random number generator.
An evolution in play-to-earn gaming quality
The Nakamoto Games community can expect a revolution in game quality in the coming months. Games slated for launch improve the user experience by focusing more on gameplay and less on earning. The games will still contain the same lucrative rewards as previous titles, but there will be a huge emphasis on fun and playability for future releases. There are three massive games scheduled for the coming months that embody this.
The first is an in-house developed AAA 3-D puzzle game called Escape. The game will demonstrate a marked upgrade in quality as gamers can navigate a slick 3-D environment to tackle challenging puzzles to earn rewards by escaping various maps. The game will be developed using Unreal Engine once the initial prototype is released.
The second is an immersive MMORPG blockbuster, Outlanders, that contains pioneering move-to-earn rewards and a smooth onboarding experience for non-crypto native gamers. The game has been in the works for three years and has already received wonderful reviews based on the Beta version. Built on the Nakamoto Games SDK, as well as industry-tested gaming frameworks Unity and WebGL, the game boasts cutting-edge graphics and gameplay with an expansive world for gamers to explore.
Finally, the team is working on a new collectible card game, a genre garnering significant traction in the play-to-earn market. Earlier this year, they released snippets of the assorted cards the game will feature. The cards themselves are wonderful hand-drawn artwork modeled after a variety of mystical characters.
Accessibility and multi-device playability
The number of mobile gamers worldwide totals over 2.2 billion. People who wish to play games may not have access to a PC or would otherwise prefer to play on a portable device.
For these reasons, a variety of web-based games will be made available through a new mobile application for Android and iOS in the future. Players will soon be able to immerse themselves in the Nakamoto Games ecosystem and earn rewards at any time of day in whatever locations they may find themselves.
Software development kit (SDK) and market expansion
There are currently 20 on-site games that use either the Nakamoto Games single-player or multiplayer SDKs. In the coming quarter, The platform aims to facilitate independent developers by granting them access to the SDKs. This should lead to a host of new games hitting the platform for users to enjoy. Developers will receive 3% of the prize pool money for every game that is played, as long as there’s 8 players in the pool. For security reasons, the Nakamoto Games team will encrypt the data between the game and the platform.
Due to the recent explosion around the launch of Dogechain, Nakamoto Games has opted to extend the SDK compatibility to include all dApps built on the new network. In just three days of going live, Dogechain attracted 20,000 unique Web3 wallets. In three weeks over 300 million $DOGE had been bridged, spawning a new phenomenon in the Web3 landscape. The decision to extend compatibility grants Nakamoto Games access to millions of new users and the opportunity to onboard large portions of the fun-loving Dogecoin community.
This isn’t the only plan for expansion in the works. The Nakamoto Games team is continuing research and development to launch their core blockchain infrastructure on other popular networks including BNB Chain, Solana, Avalanche, Near, Tron, Fantom, Terra, Elrond, and WAX. This large-scale expansion is expected to start with BNB Chain and gradually expand to others over the following six to 24 months. If the success on the Polygon network is anything to go by, the Nakamoto Games multi-chain roadmap can potentially attract millions of users to their growing ecosystem.
Wrap-up
Over 50% of all blockchain activity is gaming-related, GameFi is one of the most promising and flourishing niches in the blockchain world. Nakamoto Games is well-funded and well-positioned to grow alongside this booming industry as a market leader.
This year has been remarkable for Nakmoto Games and it is clear that they have no intentions of slowing down. So far, they have delivered on the majority of the promised roadmap targets. From new games to enhanced economic models to tournaments and platform innovations, Nakamoto Games has flourished in the GameFi landscape and will continue to do so into the future.
With all the milestones reached this year, it is exciting to see what the future will hold. The strength of the plans on the horizon is a testament to their ambition and if the past year's achievements are anything to go by, there is little doubt Nakamoto Games will continue to hit it out of the park. Nakamoto Games has built the scaffolding for a prosperous blockchain ecosystem and will now continue to develop on a rock solid foundation.