At the heart of every sustainable Web3 ecosystem there is a grants program, though not all have been a success. There is a good reason for the prevalence of grants: it allows innovation at a pace simply not possible internally. Talented community members and entrepreneurial developers present ideas and can receive the support to bring those ideas to life, which in turn, expands the ecosystem. While it is commonplace for layer-1 blockchains, Alien Worlds’ Galactic Hubs grant program shows the value of these initiatives to metaverse projects. In fact, I have written before on why I think this system will be foundational to the games industry in the future.

The Galactic Hubs Grant Program exemplifies what makes Web3 gaming so important: empowering creators large and small, promoting transparency, interoperability, and open-source development. By doing so, the Galactic Hubs program is cultivating symbiotic relationships with web2 and web3 creators and innovators. Those who want to build games in the Alien Worlds metaverse can receive support, bootstrapping community members and teams to develop their projects.

These projects then improve the Alien Worlds ecosystem in all directions, which is crucial. To my eyes, metaverse projects are the next evolution of MMORPGs; vast game worlds with societies, economies, and most importantly, varied gameplay. So, for a metaverse to succeed, it needs all of these, but in particular, it must have varied and evolving gameplay. There needs to be lots to do and Galactic Hubs feels like a fast pass to that objective.

The first season of Galactic Hubs was an unprecedented success, resulting in Alien Worlds explorers having more ways to engage within the metaverse and play new games. Now, that Season Two is well underway and it’s time to look at some of the standout projects developed by the Alien Worlds community.

Trilium Quest – MVP

Trilium Quest is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) set in the Alien Worlds universe. In the future, explorers can traverse the open world, visiting the six planets. Each planet will have its own storyline, lore, and temperament. The MVP is in development and will launch with core gameplay for planet Magor.

Explorers choose their character’s race, then decide which planet they wish to brave first. Starting with no weapons or equipment, players must prove themselves in a series of trials before they are allowed to venture out of the safe zone to embark on that planet’s storyline quests. Explorers fight their way through aggressive creatures, mine Trilium, or simply congregate at a tavern to chat with others. Each planet has more challenging zones where greater riches lie, as well as its own dungeon.

Some of our early game play dev. collecting random TLM in multiplayer. pic.twitter.com/cMSK5rNUkq

— Trilium Quest (@TriliumQuest) May 8, 2023

So far in Season 2 of Galactic Hubs, Trilium Quest has neared completion of Sprint 1, bringing the game closer to its first playable iteration. The design team has been working relentlessly on the visuals of the most used NFTs in Alien Worlds, implemented Trilium mining, and improved combat and battle mechanics, among many other additions. This expansive MMO is approaching quickly!

A2 Boss Battles Event in Acryptia

Acryptia, by Taco, is a dungeon card game in which players have to out-skill the card dealer, Rug’O, to progress to the next level and climb the leaderboards. This unique, single-player card game has attracted quite the playerbase: There were over 20,000 game sessions played and 6,200 unique entries in just 24 days.

In season 3, Acryptia teamed up with us through Galactic Hubs to put on a special event: the A2 Boss Battles. Acryptia had been invaded by beings from Alien Worlds and the dungeon must be vanquished. Any player who could get their hands on the Alien Worlds Gem gained access to this special event, though all 200 event Gems were out of stock in the first 30 seconds of availability! Collective tasks were set where all players contributed towards a common goal, for example, deal 1,000,000 damage. The players who dealt the most damage during the event topped the leaderboard and received the lion’s share of the prize pool.

This prize pool was a staggering 20,000 TLM split between the highest players on the leaderboard, as well as 30 Alien Worlds-branded, limited edition card backs for Acryptia, reserved for the top 30 players across the two boss battles.

Battledome – Syndicate Toolset

Battledome, by Restack.ai, is a free-for-all, last-man-standing card battler which sees up to 20 players at a time fight it out. Explorers can utilize their Alien Worlds NFTs in battle and to the victors go the spoils: NFTs and Trilium. You may recall this game was the result of Galactic Hubs’ first season, and now, the developers are back with the Syndicate Toolset.

The Syndicate Toolset is a platform for better community integration, as well as the decentralization of processes. The Syndicate Toolset is split into three parts:

Crowd Support

In the crowd support module, there will be a list of ideas for Battledome, for example, daily login rewards or a UI overhaul, etc. The community, players, and syndicates can then vote on what they would like to see developed by pledging Trilium to it. Once the idea is fully funded, the developers get to work; a true gaming democracy!

Battledome President

In this section, you can see the five custodians for each planet that have been voted in through the governance system — a total of 30 custodians. These custodians can then vote on who they would like to see as the Battledome president for their planet, with only three votes needed for a custodian to take office.

Tournament Admin

Each Battledome season, a tournament is held by one of the six planet syndicates, decided on rotation. The Battledome president for the planet running the tournament will assume the role of the admin, which enables them to change the name of the tournament, add graphics, and most importantly, decide the prizes for the winners.

Alien Worlds Community TV

Last but not least, we have the Alien Worlds Community TV YouTube channel. As the Alien Worlds metaverse expands, it can be difficult to stay on top of all the cogs in the machine. This YouTube channel, hosted by Brandon Parker, discusses updates to Alien Worlds, strategies for success, interviews with key players in the metaverse, and much more. The most recent episode is an interview with both the CEO and CTO of Rework.ai, the team behind the Galactic Hubs project, Battledome!

Final Thoughts

In many ways, a metaverse is like a layer-1 blockchain: it is the foundational structure upon which everything else is built. Grant initiatives enable these ecosystems to become three-dimensional — in Alien Worlds’ case, literally! — and Galactic Hubs is clearly demonstrating what a powerful model for growth it can be. Alien Worlds isn’t for everyone, which is true of any game, but with the trajectory set by Galactic Hubs, it will soon have something for everyone.

Galactic Hubs Season 2 has been a success for Alien Worlds and its players, but also as a use-case for popular games investing in their communities and supporting those who want to build. Here’s to Season 3!