Hytopia’s revenge Minecraft, ‘janky’ Otherside demo: Web3 Gamer

The creator of NFT Worlds is about to launch Hytopia beta after taking over Minecraft.

NFT Worlds Co-Founder Brayden Batunghal Minecraft 2018 Since unceremoniously dropping the game in 2022, he says he's been building Hytopia, a blockchain open-world game that aims to give Minecraft a run for its money. A beta version of Hytopia will be released next month.

In October 2021, NFT Worlds was integrated with Minecraft as a blockchain-based update to allow users to access crypto and NFT features. Minecraft accumulated nearly 100,000 users but was canceled after eight months in June 2022.

Batungahal told Web3 Gamer that he was a little shocked that the Microsoft-owned team in Minecraft didn't give him a heads-up or anything before the move — like a sudden cold shoulder.

It was confusing; We've heard through the grapevine that they decided to shut down Blockchain because they felt it was unfair to the younger audience on these services who were playing Minecraft and needed these tokens to purchase content.

Batungahal tried in vain to find out what was going on directly from Minecraft.

“We never heard from them. I sent maybe two or three consecutive messages and emails to our address and got no response, it was radio silence.

He believes that the developers did not like the users to have more control in the game.

“The team at Minecraft feels that Minecraft is their game. They don't want people to modify or create instances that spin custom content. That detracts from the original survival game mode, where you can run around and break things,” he said.

Hytopia has already gathered 1.1 million pre-registered players and has a transaction volume of over $11 million.

Only another 165 million players left to reach Minecraft.

The game will initially launch as an invite-only rolling beta, but there will be plenty of invites to iron out any problems.

“Issues that you don't see with 50 people can arise when you throw it to 1,000 or 10,000 people and we want to make sure we iron out any bugs,” he says.

Can this cricket game explode when the Indian Premier League starts?

The founder of Cricket Stars, a new cricket NFT mobile game on Tezos, is hoping that this year's spectacularly popular Indian Premier League will give its user numbers a big boost.

Cricket Stars has only been around for two months and has a modest 5,000 active monthly users. But creator Ravi Kiran reckons it could pick up speed when the IPL kicks off in April.

“We are just getting started with the game, and we plan to grow this game to millions of cricket fans over the next two years,” he said.

The 2023 edition drew half a billion viewers, and Kiran believes that crazy online searches will drive users to the game.

“In the coming competition, we expect a strong growth, 2-3x increase month-on-month till April and overall 8-10x growth in the three-month period,” said Kiran.

There is a prerequisite for starting similar games. NFL Rivals, a mobile NFL game created by Legendary Games, had a magical moment when it hit 2 million active users in September after being featured as Game of the Day on the App Store.

Kiran says that being a professional in cricket is not necessary to do well in the game, but it certainly doesn't hurt. “While FPS and RPG games are more about player reflexes and accuracy, our game is about cricket strategy and knowledge,” he declares.

“By the number of shots they play, players can understand which bowling card is the best shot to deal with at a given time.”

Those who excel can win real-world prizes such as “cricket bats and cricket kits in the virtual world to help them pursue their passion for cricket in the real world,” he said.

Hot Take: Battle Derby

If you're getting a little tired of the same old car racing games and want more guns and explosive action, Battle Derby might just be the game for you.

Car fighting blockchain Battle Derby is developed by Triple O Games and is available for download on both Android and iOS devices. It is set to hit Immutable later this year.

It is free-to-play and earn-to-play (P2E).

The objective of Battle Derby is simple: drive around and destroy as many cars as possible.

The game starts with the obligatory tutorial, which even if you're impatient like me, any screen tap – trust me, I've tried ten times – will allow you to skip.

Just like when you're a teenager learning how to drive for the first time, when you finish the lesson you're given the worst car possible – except this one has a gun mounted on it.

During the tutorial, you'll go through everything from driving the joystick to accessing various tools and blasting other cars to bits.

Once you've completed your course, you'll upgrade to a *slightly* fancier car before having the option to go into battle mode.

The first one you can access is Deathmatch. The goal is to be the first to take out seven enemies in under five minutes.

As you climb the levels and accumulate more points, other battle modes become available. At level 3, Find and Destroy will be unlocked, and at level 4, Battle Royale will be unlocked.

The developers have teased the flagship game mode, but it won't be available until the next update.

Although the game is still a work in progress, the controls are extremely smooth and responsive.

There is basically zero input lag, which has always been a huge disappointment to me in mobile car racing games. Driving feels effortless, with no major problems navigating the weapons.

One thing that can be a bit counterintuitive when you're in the game is the bird's eye view, as most car racing games offer a first-person or third-person view.

An aerial view makes sense while driving, especially with a top-mounted gun where you can get a clear shot.

But it can cause some surprises around the corners, including enemies that appear in first or third person view.

Having an enemy grid map at the bottom left of the screen can be extremely helpful, especially after a recent shootout. It will give you a much better idea of ​​your dragons.

While the game is still in development, you'll start to notice the fairly limited selection of weapons and maps and the repetitive nature of the three game modes.

I mean, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 offers 12 game modes and after a few back-to-back weekends of non-stop play, the game still feels the same.

Battle Derby contains more than 150 cars that you can access by modifying and spending the coins you earn in the game.

It can be frustrating for developers to grind for hours just to test new cars. That's why they added the option to use your coins to rent cars from other players.

As you progress and build your car collection, you can also rent out your car, so you can accumulate more coins.

Battle Derby is not about letting rich players come in and buy the best upgrades.

There are improvements such as NFTs, but they are mostly for looks rather than gameplay benefits.

Another demonstration by Yoga Labs received a mixed response

YugaLab's highly anticipated Metaverse game, Another, was recently tested by some Bored Up Yacht Club (BAYC) owners, and the responses ranged from excited to frustrated.

Another has been in place for almost two years since it was first announced in March 2022.

Yuga Labs has made an event called “Monkeys Come Home” for selected BAYC holders to check out, but cautioned that it is not “a finished product in the beginning.”

X user whitehouse.eth, who is part of the Yuga Labs Game Council, told his 5,460 followers that despite a lot of money and two years of development, the game still feels a little rough around the edges.

While criticizing the audio and the in-game “junky” camera, he praised how “nice” elements look in the game.

Meanwhile, BAYC owner “JpegFlippa” told followers he was “1000% absolutely devastated” by the experience.

“I should have sold all of this a long time ago,” he said.

Another X user who goes by Gabe8bit pointed out the confusion of some investors splashing money on others based on unconfirmed rumors that Improbable MetaVice is using technology.

“Many have invested on the other side because Yuga Labs promises Metaverse, a feature that is popular with gamers, built on amazing technology. However, Yuga Labs/another entity is now offering a different product, which is not possible,” he says.

Other news

– Unchained Games launches Gods Unchained, a F2P tactical card game on mobile.

— The Axie Infinity Origins Season 7 Final Era has begun, offering double the rewards compared to the previous Rare Era, with 18,900 AXS and 13,732,070 SLP up for grabs.

– Redig appointed former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios and Web3 gaming skeptic Sean Layden as a consultant and made $4 million for the Web3 gaming company.

— Web3 infrastructure provider Helica has partnered with Ubisoft to offer cutting-edge analytics, user acquisition and game management infrastructure products.

– Solana-powered card racing strategy game MixMob has acquired the IP rights to integrate the original stormtroopers from Star Wars: A New Hope into the game as Stormtrooper NFTs.

– USDC developer Cirque has announced a partnership with South Korean game studio Crafton for an upcoming metaverse game called Overture.

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Ciaran Lyon

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He is also a freelance comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.