Summary
- MMO strategy game using Immutable X
- Player-owned economy, PvP, and complex gameplay
- Highly experienced team with EA, Ubisoft, and Paradox backgrounds; team now 100 strong
I get a lot of messages from community members and friends in the space with new projects and games to take a look at — I love that, keep doing it. Also, TG Member’s Pass and VIP Pass NFT holders are invited to share drops for games and if we add them to our gaming drops calendar, we give out a small reward. Well, across both of these, people get confused about what I’m looking for in blockchain games. Sometimes I accept clickers, sometimes I don’t; sometimes I accept traditional-looking games, sometimes I don’t.
The formula is difficult to define, even for me. I check for many red flags first, then I take a look at the game and where it’s going. While I am optimistic about many games, it’s rare I look at a project and am immediately interested. Today was one of those times when a community member told me about a game he’d seen at GDC 2022: Blocklords.
Blocklords on Immutable X
Blocklords is a medieval, strategy MMO with a fully player-owned economy. You will take control of a medieval hero, build communities, raise and lead armies, and conquer in whichever way you choose.
We would like to give players a free to access game that offers an approachable, fun and easy portal for people to learn about all the good things that web3 brings. An asset powered economy. Making games richer and much more fun to play with economic assets that are part of the game itself. An open economy vs. traditional game closed economies. And empower players to fully own what they earn and monetize skills/make a living from it, as players can rent out, lend, or trade their earnings. To ultimately create entire economies/communities for employees.
Lazlo, Blocklords FAQ
The game is said to have varied playstyles and player choices are central to how everything pans out. They say they have “taken the best of Age of Empires (developing civilization), Total War (Battle) and Crusader Kings (Political strategy/intrigue) to bring the best strategy game experience ever to everyone”, which is one hell of a claim. It also has PvP, so naturally, I’m sitting here with my wallet out.
There isn’t gameplay footage yet (although I did find the above video), which is something I hate to see, but the screenshots are utterly superb. The term “AAA” gets banded around and applied to anything that wasn’t made in 3 days in Unity, and although it was nowhere to be seen in any official descriptions, it wouldn’t be unfair when branded on Blocklords.
In fact, the screenshots are so damned good I can’t really understand why they haven’t had some gameplay teasers yet. The project seems well fleshed out and frankly rather beautiful. Blocklords is certainly reminiscent of Total War to me, and if you were to add blockchain to that, it’s hard to imagine how it wouldn’t change the gaming industry forever.
Since 2017, we’ve shared a singular vision of creating the world’s most-loved multiplayer strategy game … We are gamers at heart, and our number one priority is providing our players with an experience they truly love to play. With the advancement of Web3 technology, we also believe players should be empowered to monetize their passions, skills, hobbies, and talents — but most of all, they should have fun doing it.
David Johansson, CEO & Founder of MetaKing Studios
MetaKing Studios is a new name to me — but that’s par for the course in blockchain gaming — however, their team started with a core team with backgrounds involving the likes of Ubisoft, EA, and Paradox, but now they have over 100 people working on the project. This is likely off the back of some serious investors and venture capitalists, like BITKRAFT, Spartan, and of course, Animoca Brands, among many others (scroll down to “Our Partners”.)
It’s early days for this project and they haven’t got much of a following yet (which will change imminently), but it’s undoubtedly one to watch. The open beta is said to be this year.
