The entire community was enamored by a game called Cryptokitties, an investment-type game on the Ethereum blockchain, which gave birth to the play-to-earn (P2E) concept in the crypto world. Following the success of this concept, another game was launched, which had a more muted reception compared to its kittie rivals, and that game was Crypto bots, originally launched in December 2017. But these days we are witnessing a special and different hype that happened with the updated version of Cryptobots at the end of October.
But what’s behind a game launched that now seems a long time ago?
How do you play the game, and is there a potential to earn?
All this and much more will be covered in this article.
How did it all begin?
At its height, Cryptokitties saw over $11 million in transaction volume. The goal of the game was to breed digital kitties, as each was unique and had a set of characteristics that set it apart from others. As the kitties were bred on the blockchain, each had its pedigree without the possibility of copying anything over, which fetched a pretty penny for the owner of a newly bred, unique digital kittie.
Following the same concept, another game was born – CryptoBots (in December 2017.) It was launched by Playneta Studio, a mobile game development studio founded in 2015 by Simon Shiharev. The goal of the game was simple, buy some bots, start your army, improve it by manufacturing, buying, selling, and trading, and become the strongest. In essence, enjoy a digital battleground and earn while doing so.
What’s the new Hype about the Cryptobots?
Though the game was released a long time ago, it is now living it’s second coming. Namely, the game was slowly abandoned in 2018 due to very high gas prices for NFTs, but the developers did not abandon the project. They used all the proceeds to keep the project alive, and they built on the previous versions improving the new game that returned in 2022, which morphed into an exciting space strategy game with a stable economy. Earlier this year, the new collection of the main game characters, the Genesis Cryptobots was successfully pre-sold with 10,000 NFTs.
With the switch to a new, more sustainable form of economy, as explained by the developers themselves, the game will move away from the “old” economy model that required a steady influx of new players for the game to flourish and stay alive. Cryptobots is looking to introduce new mechanics to ensure sustainability, with returns up to 300%, which is low compared to returns in the thousands in other games. Furthermore, a part of the earnings will be used for marketing and education of the player base creating a stronger community, and for what it’s worth, it seems to be working.
Cryptobots poster. Source: Cryptobots Whitepaper
How to play?
Playing the game will require users to buy their own Cryptobots, in-game characters, which can be done by initially setting up a Metamask wallet required for storing the NFT characters. Metamask is one of the most popular wallets, and installation is seamless. Each player will require at least three bots to start playing, which can be bought with Ethereum from the Cryptobots Game OpenSea page. OpenSea is one of the largest NFT marketplaces on the web, where users can sell their bots once they have more unique and valuable bots. Once the bots are purchased, they need to be transferred to the Polygon chain, which is easy to do, following the official instructions. Once transferred, Polygon needs to be added to Metamsk along with the NFT bots so they appear in the wallet.
After that, the game can be played on the desktop or mobile, or more help surrounding the game and community can be found on the project’s Discord channel.
How to Earn?
The game tries to engage users in various ways to help users earn more. Bots, ships, land, and other items are basically NFTs that can be sold. The strategy part consists of the fact that bots can be used to create new bots or ships, land can be upgraded, etc., all to get a more unique and valuable item that can be sold to other players for more than the original investment.
Battling other players also brings rewards in the form of oil and bits, which are required for in-game mechanics and can also be sold on the open market. Battles offer a variety of strategies as there are numerous skills, part combinations, and effects that can be affected on the opposing team.
Since bots can be disassembled forever, the parts can be used to create spaceships, these can be used for spaceship battles. Getting together with other players to form alliances is also encouraged as the game rewards players in alliances a bit more than solo players, but not drastically as not to ruin the game mechanics for new or loan wolf players.
How much can users Earn?
In August, when ETH traded around $1,900+, the most expensive Cryptobot was sold for 4.88 ETH or roughly $9,000, while the cheapest sold for 0.05 ETH. The game’s earning potential will depend on ETH’s fluctuating price as bots are sold on the OpenSea marketplace in ETH tokens. Then again, the in-game economy is geared towards sustainability, and the developers themselves claim that the annual percentage yield (APY) for average players will be more than 100% and for the more advanced players between a few thousand%.
Cryptobots. Source: OpenSea
While these numbers may seem impressive, other P2E blockchain games boast yields in the thousands but rely on a constant stream of new players joining so that the trailblazing players can offload their NFTs onto the new ones, thus creating such high returns.
Cryptobots returns. Source: Cryptobots.me
What happens next?
The game itself is under development and continuous improvement with strong feedback from the user community. Developers are implementing some of the recommendations to make the game mechanics even more addictive and appealing to new and old users alike. With a great emphasis on creating and upholding a stable in-game economy, more upgrades in the battle and skill systems can be expected; as the second season of the game kicks into high gear.
The future of this game seems bright; however, the state of P2E gaming has more room to grow. Certain market commentators are claiming that the fact that thousands of players are playing the same game and farming the same no-market-cap coin, the demand will die and take the coin and the game down with it. This points to the “flawed” in-game economy that most P2E games utilize, which is what the developers of Cryptobots are pointing to.
On the other hand, others are pointing to areas that need improvement and that the P2E model needs to evolve to a play-and-earn (PnE) model, where games will be more fun and will be played for the same reason AAA titles on PC and consoles are being played for. Furthermore, in-game economies need to be made more stable, and barriers to entry need to be lowered.
All in all, blockchain gaming and games that allow users to profit from playing are still in their infancy stage. The fact that issues are popping up and solutions are being suggested points to the fact that growth will certainly come. Will Cryptobots usher this new era of PnE games? Only time will tell, until then, the game is there to be enjoyed.
