GG’s 2024 Game of the Year: Off the Grid

Off the Grid has solely been out there for a pair months, but it surely’s by far one of the best crypto sport of the yr—and it’s not even actually shut.

If we’re speaking pure numbers, then Hamster Kombat blew most video games out of the water by racking up 300 million gamers this summer season. However the monotonous tap-to-earn mini app finally felt like a financialized gimmick thinly veiled as a sport, and the ensuing airdrop hardly justified the hype.

As for Off the Grid, the sport impressed each Web2 and Web3-native players by providing up a legitimately nice aggressive shooter that rivals different AAA entries within the battle royale style.

In doing so, it not solely caught the eye of the livestreaming elite, but additionally opened their eyes to how the blockchain can enhance gaming. That’s why Off the Grid is GG’s Sport of the 12 months for 2024.

How did it do that? In some ways, it was achieved by going towards what the crypto gaming business had come to count on, by not creating in public and regularly iterating from a really early stage. As an alternative, Gunzilla Video games adopted a extra conventional “AAA” mannequin of doing the majority of the work away from prying eyes, solely showcasing the sport as soon as it was principally sharpened.

“You wish to put your finest foot ahead—as a result of in case you burn that bridge, it is gone,” Gunzilla Video games Director of Web3 Theodore Agranat informed Decrypt. “First impressions matter all all through life, in all the pieces.”

This helped its October early entry launch make an enormous splash and attain mainstream gamers, in a manner not like any crypto sport launch we’ve seen. Its fascinating mix of extraction components inside the tried-and-true battle royale style, set in a dystopian actuality TV present setting envisioned by “District 9” movie director Neill Blomkamp, created the right storm. 

In consequence, famously brutal crypto sport reviewer Jauwn known as it probably the greatest (if not the finest) crypto video games he’s performed. It additionally garnered plaudits from Web2 content material creators like Warzone specialist IceManIsaac, who mentioned it was “by far essentially the most enjoyable” he’d had taking part in a battle royale, whereas YouTuber Tomographic mentioned he prefers Off the Grid to established hits like Apex Legends and Name of Obligation: Warzone.

“The launch of the early entry was extraordinarily hype,” crypto gaming content material creator Kyroh informed Decrypt. “It was nice seeing so lots of the large streamers getting concerned like Ninja, TimtheTatman, Scump, and extra.”

A part of what fueled these optimistic critiques is the sport’s distinctive cyberlimb mechanic, which permits gamers to swap out their arms, legs, and backpacks for robotic ones with particular skills. This has created tons of thrilling viral clips, with gamers discovering pleasure pushing the boundaries of the sport or laughing when their cyberlimb is shot off—forcing them to crawl throughout the map.

“It is one of many first Web3 video games that has really innovated on the battle royale style, and I feel folks took discover of that,” Kyroh added. “I feel it has the legs to grow to be probably the greatest battle royales on the market, given sufficient time to prepare dinner.”

Holding crypto truthful

Even with a sensational launch, some gamers have issues about what’s going to occur as soon as the sport’s crypto components come to the floor—together with the likes of Jauwn, IceManIsaac, and Tomographic. However Gunzilla says there’s nothing to fret about there, because the options are already baked into the sport and working behind the scenes.

“Effectively, I’m glad to let you know that all the pieces is already applied. Folks simply don’t overtly see it,” Agranat defined. “It isn’t like we’re hiding it. It is simply that it is irrelevant.”

In its present state, the sport is working on the GUNZ testnet—basically a apply run of the actual factor. New gamers have pockets addresses seamlessly made for them, extracted hexes are minted on-chain, in-game GUN tokens are precise crypto tokens, and objects are transferred as NFTs between wallets when traded on the in-game market—albeit, all on a testnet. 

To some, this was sufficient to open their eyes to the potential for blockchain gaming not being so unhealthy—after years of crypto being vilified by many players. Most notably, former Counter-Strike professional participant Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek mentioned that tokenized, tradable objects was a “fairly simple” idea, evaluating it to Valve’s Steam market, that he was shocked hadn’t caught on already.

It’s the following step that scares numerous players. In Q1 2025 (estimated), the GUNZ community, constructed as a devoted L1 on the Avalanche blockchain, will transfer to mainnet and the GUN token might be freely tradable. Testnet GUN balances might be wiped, however distinctive property might be stored. 

In idea, because of this anybody might make investments actual cash to acquire GUN tokens and purchase up all the highly effective weapons, stopping actual gamers from utilizing them. However Gunzilla has a plan.

Within the case {that a} specific weapon is being hoarded by a single participant, a brand new variation of the asset—with a beauty change, not a statistical energy distinction—might be entered into the sport to fight this.

“Guess who decides which objects drop on the island within the varied completely different hexes, within the varied loot packing containers, proper? It is us, after all,” Agranat informed Decrypt. “No person advantages in any respect from simply deploying 1,000,000 bucks into {the marketplace}.”

He defined that finally, all weapons out there to buy within the market will be scavenged on the map. Even in case you purchase the weapons and cyberlimbs on {the marketplace}, it’s essential to nonetheless get sufficient in-game money to buy a loadout, which Agranat suggests might have led you to discovering your required weapons anyway. 

Nevertheless, some gamers would dispute this by saying that discovering the funds for a loadout is just too straightforward. This then turns into the important thing balancing problem—reasonably than combating market whales.

“No pay-to-win ever, ever, ever,” he mentioned, definitively.

That mentioned, by getting the battle cross by way of the $11.99 month-to-month OTG Professional subscription, you’re in a position to commerce your objects and earn GUN tokens at a sooner fee. That is clearly a bonus; Agranat admits as a lot.

However is it rather more of a bonus than buying the newest Name of Obligation sport for $69.99, plus their seasonal battle cross affords for $9.99, to unlock weapons for Warzone?

“It doesn’t offer you any particular privileges within the sport. It doesn’t offer you a weapon that is stronger than some other weapon,” Agranat defined. “Any weapon that exists within the sport, in the entire universe—by way of performance of the weapon—you will discover at no cost in an in-game session.”

For all of its strengths, Off the Grid nonetheless hasn’t solved the age-old crypto gaming drawback of launching on consoles, as PlayStation and Xbox nonetheless haven’t embraced blockchain gaming. Ethereum battler Moonray just lately revealed plans to launch on PlayStation 5, however will utterly take away any blockchain components, at the least at launch.

Agranat confirmed to Decrypt that the sport’s crypto components should be “dealt with in a different way” and that extra info might be launched round mainnet launch. Finally, nonetheless, he confirmed that the console video games will nonetheless be powered by the GUNZ community on the again finish, even when person interactions with crypto may be completely different than on PC.

What’s subsequent?

There’s a lot that Gunzilla Video games needs to have in place for Off the Grid and GUNZ earlier than the mainnet launch early subsequent yr.

Agranat defined the sport is about to launch a ranked mode and solo queue mode, and open up the remaining 80% of the map in a brand new battle royale mode whereas kicking off the storyline. Not solely do they need these options dwell, however to be “high, high notch.”

That’s to not point out plans to onboard third-party builders to deploy different video games on the GUNZ community, fueling a gaming ecosystem powered by the GUN token.

In a yr by which crypto gaming was dominated by Telegram tapping video games, it’s refreshing that Gunzilla Video games is devoted to creating the business revered by players. Faucet-to-earn large Hamster Kombat might have attracted lots of of tens of millions of gamers, however few gave the impression to be very glad by the point the token lastly launched.

“I am not taking credit score away from the truth that they’ve positively tapped into the present zeitgeist of individuals wanting fast issues, social issues, and one thing the place they need not assume,” Agranat mentioned. “However past that, it’s fairly hilarious that 300 million folks simply tapped on one thing.”

Nonetheless, Gunzilla is prepared to study a lesson from this, with the studio contemplating creating its personal Telegram mini app as a approach to onboard folks into the rising ecosystem. Agranat mentioned that is “completely” on Gunzilla’s roadmap as a person acquisition funnel.

“We already are establishing finest practices,” he mentioned, in reference to all the sport rollout and creating methods. “We would like all the video games launching in our ecosystem to make use of these finest practices, in order that we’re recognized for the chain that solely has good, enjoyable, and sustainable video games.”

Maybe in 2025, we’ll be hailing the following sport launched on the GUNZ community, following these exact same practices. Given how nicely Off the Grid landed, we are able to solely hope.

Edited by Andrew Hayward