Today we hear more and more about projects revolving around NFTs in the world of video games, but not only. Many of our readers still wonder today what an NFT is and what it is for. This is why we have decided to explain to you step by step in our dedicated file what an NFT is and what this technological innovation is likely to bring as an upheaval in the video game universe.
What are NFT games?
NFT games are platforms that use NFTs as the building blocks of the game . For example, a traditional card game is played with cards. In the same way, an NFT game is played with NFTs. The NFT in question can represent a card, an avatar, a land, a creature, an animal, a character, etc.
The NFT game is therefore entirely based on NFT technology. As a reminder, an NFT is a non-fungible token. The NFT therefore has two main characteristics: it is non-fungible (or non-exchangeable) and it is represented in the form of a token . Each NFT is associated with a token which is stored on the blockchain. This token contains the information of the NFT as well as its title of ownership. The blockchain being tamper-proof, each NFT is therefore unique.
NFT gaming is a field of so-called decentralized applications. In concrete terms, these are applications that operate autonomously (without a third party) thanks to smart contracts . Not all blockchains are equipped to manage smart contracts or, more generally, decentralized applications. For example, the Bitcoin blockchain is unable to do this.
Currently, the most advanced blockchain in this area is Ethereum . This is why most NFT games run either directly on the Ethereum blockchain or on a second layer solution connected to Ethereum. NFT gaming platforms therefore often use Ethereum as a crypto for their operation, or a token compatible with Ethereum.
How Play-to-earn games work
NFT games are called Play-to-Earn because they allow you to earn money (“earn”) by playing (“play”). While the games are all different, they all work on the same principle.
Custom Avatar
Play-to-earn games all involve NFTs. These NFTs are often custom avatars that represent your game character. But that’s not always the case! NFTs can also represent animals, plots of land, etc. Either way, NFTs are customizable and unique. In general, the game allows you to earn funds that you can use to further customize your avatar and make it stronger.
Free crypto games
Most Play-to-earn games are free in the sense that you don’t have to pay anything to sign up. However, in general, you need to buy cryptos or tokens to start the game and to have access to more features.
Levels and missions
Many Play-to-earn games operate on the principle of quests or adventures . On the model of classic video games, you can therefore progress in the game and unlock levels. Play-to-earn games are doubly scalable. On the one hand, the game’s storyline allows you to access new missions. On the other hand, the price of the token directly impacts the value of your NFT and can therefore influence your strategy.
Earn Tokens
Play-to-earn games work with a token or token. In addition, they have reward mechanisms also in tokens. Play-to-earn games therefore allow you to earn money through these tokens. In general, these tokens are listed and have a volatile price. If you want to withdraw from the game or simply collect some of your winnings, all you have to do is convert your chips into fiat money at an exchange.
NFT
NFT is the basis of all Play-to-earn games. As explained above, NFTs operate on a blockchain and involve a token. In this, Play-to-earn games are therefore one of the possible applications of NFTs in the same way as collection or trading for example.
What are the types of NFT games?
As you may have seen with the top 10 best NFT games, there are different types of games.
NFT games with terrain
NFT games with terrain are directly associated with a digital universe called metaverse. This is the case, for example, of the NFT games The Sandbox or Decentraland. These games are all based on the same principle. A player can buy a piece of land and then set up infrastructure and services there. The goal is often to make the purchased land prosperous and profitable.
NFT Fighting Games
NFT fighting games are based on the principle of direct confrontations between the avatars or creatures of each player. These battles allow users to earn points (or even tokens) and advance their avatar or creature. Axie Infinity is an example of an NFT fighting game.
NFT card games
These games rely on the use of NFT cards. These cards can be collected and can represent figures from sports, art or an essential part of the game’s ecosystem. For example, the game Sorare allows you to buy and exchange cards bearing the image of players of football.
Mobile NFT Games
Some NFT games are also available on mobiles. Thus, it allows you to play and win money regardless of where you are.
NFT animal games
NFT animal games are very common. One of the first NFT games, CryptoKitties, belongs to this category. These games do not always involve specific adventures. Sometimes the only goal is to grow your NFT pet and then resell it.
Why play an NFT game? Advantages
Check out some benefits of playing an NFT game below.
Ownership of digital assets
With their technology, you are the sole owner of your NFT . In other words, more than a game, it is an investment. If the NFT increases in value with its characteristics or as a result of the success of the game, you will earn money as the sole owner of the NFT.
Earn money
NFT games are a fun way to earn money . Indeed, if you manage to progress in the game, you will receive rewards in the form of tokens. However, the price of each token follows the law of the market. Since NFT games are still very recent, many tokens are seeing their price increase. If you want to stop playing or simply withdraw your winnings, all you have to do is convert the tokens earned into fiat money using a crypto exchange.
Blockchain reliability
NFTs use blockchain technology. The blockchain has very important characteristics that allow it to establish itself in all areas at the present time. One of its important characteristics is that it is not falsifiable . In other words, when a transaction is passed (token purchase, reward gain, etc.), it cannot be canceled. In addition, the blockchain guarantees the ownership and authenticity of your NFT.
What are the upcoming crypto games?
Building on the success of the blockchain and NFTs, many NFT games are still in the pipeline and should be talked about in 2022.
Below are some examples of crypto games that we have not covered in this guide:
- Forest Knight ;
- DeAngels ;
- Meta Triads ;
- Pirate x Pirate ;
- Guild of Guardians ;
- BoombCrypto ;
- LunaRush ;
- Pegaxy.
NFT games on mobile: play from iOS and Android
Do you like smartphone games? So why not play an NFT game on mobile? More and more NFT games are available on iOS or Android. These games generally do not require a high level of graphics or memory. Also, they won’t take up too much memory on your phone.
Focus on the 10 best Play to Earn games
Below is a brief overview of the top 10 NFT games of 2022.
Silks
Silks is one of the next NFT games to hit the market, and chances are it will get people talking! The game is a clever mix between metaverse, NFT and horse racing. Just that ! On Silks, players can purchase avatars called “Silks” which can be likened to jockeys.
Additionally, players can also own Silks horses, land and stables. Where the game gets really interesting is that it takes into account the results of real horse races. If you know the game NFT Sorare, it’s a bit the same principle.
Each NFT horse is paired with a real -life Thoroughbred with a 1:1 correlation. The performance of the NFT horse therefore takes into account the pedigree, history and development of the horse in the real world. Depending on these results, players earn rewards and collect winnings in the form of STT token, the native token of the platform.
The launch is scheduled for the end of April. Silks horses will be offered for sale regularly throughout the year via auction. It is possible to access the whitelist by joining the Discord Silks . You can also find a lot of information on the official Silks website .
Lucky Block
In just a few months, Lucky Block has become the world’s leading crypto gaming platform. It thus offers raffles , and this, on a daily basis. With a market capitalization that exceeds $1 billion, its native token is now one of the fastest growing cryptocurrencies.
What pleases with this new game format is that everyone can participate . No geographical restriction, the draws are made in complete transparency and above all, the fairness of the games is respected.
To participate, you will have to pay the entry ticket which is in LBLOCK tokens. Note that those who already have LBLOCK in their wallet can directly connect to the application and play for free. Expected for mid-May, the first draw announces a prize pool of nearly 2.2 million euros .
It is worth remembering that 10% of the jackpot will be reserved for charity. 10% will be given to LBLOCK token holders as a bounty, 8% will be injected into the fund for the development of Lucky Block and 2% in the NFT raffle.
At the same time, holders of NFT Lucky Block can participate in the daily NFT raffle , the prize pool of which is now estimated at more than one million dollars.
Decentraland
Decentraland is one of the best-known platforms when it comes to the metaverse . In fact, it is even the most important when considering the capitalization of its token. With a capitalization of more than $4 billion, the MANA token is among the 40 largest cryptocurrencies in the world.
But Decentraland is also one of the first metaverse platforms to have been developed. The Beta version of Decentraland was launched in 2019. Its official launch dates back to February 2020. At that time, few people had heard of the metaverse, and the Facebook company was still far from having changed its name to Meta.
Pure metaverse platform, Decentraland takes the principle of historical video games like Sim City . Concretely, Decentraland offers land that players can buy and then develop by setting up infrastructure there. In detail, the platform provides 90,601 plots, each measuring 16 meters by 16 meters. Each plot is an NFT and is purchased in crypto. The token used is the platform token, the MANA token. It is an ERC-20 token, i.e. it uses the Ethereum blockchain.
My Neighbor Alice
The My Neighbor Alice or ALICE token has a capitalization of over $200 million , which puts it in the top 300 global cryptos. The NFT ALICE game was created by Antler Interactive, a Swedish company. Antler Interactic is a pioneer in the field of virtual reality.
For example, the company is behind the following platforms: SVRVIVE: The Deus Helix, Kartong – Death by Cardboard, Krystal Kart AR, Krystopia: A Puzzle Journey, Krystopia, and Nova’s Journey. For its development, the My Neighbor Alice project has raised more than $2.1 million from well-known investors such as Coin98 Ventures and Kyros Ventures.
The principle of My Neighbor Alice is inspired by that of other games such as Animal Crossing or Minecraft . My Neighbor Alice is a metaverse platformer centered around the character of Alice. Each player can buy land within the following virtual islands:
- Snowflake Island ;
- Medieval Rest ;
- Nature’s Rest ;
- Lummestad;
- Sandy Coast :
- Submerged Island.
Each player can buy a piece of land as an NFT and then develop it by planting houses, lakes, animals, plants, etc. Each player is recognizable with his avatar.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is the most popular Play-to-Earn game today. The native token of the platform is the AXS token . With a capitalization of over $2.5 billion, the Axie Infinity token is among the 50 largest cryptocurrencies in the world.
The Axie Infinity game was officially launched in 2018 by Sky Mavis in collaboration with Trung Nguyen and Aleksander Larsen. The developer team is based in Vietnam. What is the game principle of Axie Infinity?
If you remember the famous Pokemon game , then you understood the Play-to-earn game Axie Infinity! Indeed, on Axie Infinity, players can buy creatures in AXS tokens. These creatures are called “Axies”.
Each creature is customizable, for example there are more than 500 different “bodies” divided into different categories of creatures: aquatic, bird, insect, plant, reptile, etc. Then each player can develop their creature to make it stronger by giving it certain abilities.
For example, you can mix different body parts to make your creature able to live in different environments! It is also possible to organize battles between Axies which can allow players to earn rewards.
Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained is a card-based blockchain game . The game was created by the Ferguson brothers, James and Robbie. It can count on a talented team of developers who cut their teeth in big gaming companies like EA Games, Riot Games, etc.
Officially launched in 2015 on the Ethereum blockchain, this makes it one of the first blockchain card games to be created.
The principle is to buy “gods” cards with the GODS token and fight the “gods” of other players. There are different levels of cards. With these cards, each player can:
- Sell them on an OpenSea-type NFT marketplace to earn money;
- Exchange them for cards from other players;
- Keep them to build a complete collection.
The GODS token runs on the Ethereum blockchain. At present, its market capitalization is over 27 million dollars. In June 2021, the game migrated to Immutable X, a second layer solution of the Ethereum blockchain. This migration allowed the game to be able to handle more transactions without congesting the Ethereum network or having to generate prohibitive gas costs for players.
CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties blockchain game is one of the first NFT applications . The game runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
The principle of the game could be similar to that of tamagotchi … All this does not make us any younger, does it?! On CryptoKitties, players can purchase a virtual cat in the form of NFTs and then nurture and grow it.
These “cats” can reproduce, carry a unique number and have a distinct DNA made up of 256 bits which give them special attributes! These attributes can be transferred from one chat generation to another. The game implements a total of 12 attributes (called “cattributes”) such as:
- The reason
- The shape of the mouth
- The fur
- The shape of the eyes
- The base, accent, highlight and eye color
- The wild side
- The environment
- The “purstige”
- The secret “
Other attributes are not transmitted to subsequent generations and depend solely on the “generation” to which the cats belong. Chat NFTs can be collected and then resold. The game was launched in 2017 and quickly became a major success.
Moreover, its success led to seriously saturate the Ethereum network in December 2017 in particular. In November 2018, the game could boast of gathering more than 1 million chats with more than 32 million transactions.
Mines of Dalarnia
We owe the release of the game Mines of Dalarnia to the launchpad of the Binance exchange . This is an action -adventure NFT game . The game features two types of people: landowners and miners. Landowners seek virtual land within the Dalarnia Mines metaverse. The miners, on the other hand, must accumulate wealth by exploiting natural resources and fighting monsters. Just that !
The game universe is as follows: The year is 11,752. The Megalactic Collective rules most of the known systems. A benevolent but incomprehensible AI known as The Onemind guides the Collective, ensuring peace and prosperity.
The Onemind has unveiled a revolutionary new technology: Terraforming Capsules. These capsules spontaneously cause a planet to undergo millions of years of evolution in a matter of seconds. Three planets in a sector called Dalarnia have been chosen to undergo the first wave of terraforming experiments. Peoples from across the Galaxy flocked to the newly terraformed planets, seeking their fortunes in a space gold rush.
As one of these hopeful miners, you have spent all of your life savings traveling to a moon on the outskirts of the system. Are you ready to strike it rich in the Mines of Dalarnia?
The game token is the DAR. With a capitalization of over $220 million , the DAR token is among the top 300 cryptocurrencies in the world.
The Sandbox
The principle of The Sandbox game is very similar to that of Decentraland. It is a platform that offers virtual land on which users can build infrastructure. Land can be purchased with LANDS tokens that run on the Ethereum blockchain (ERC-721). The Sandbox metaverse consists of 166,464 plots.
The game was created by two Frenchmen: Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget. The Sandbox company, on the other hand, is based in Hong Kong. The origins of the project date back to 2011, which means that The Sandbox has been waiting for its time for a few years! The official launch of its metaverse took place in 2021. For this, the company succeeded in raising significant funds from recognized players such as Softbank, which injected $93 million.
The Sandbox ecosystem is based on its native token, the SAND . The capitalization of the SAND token is more than 3.4 billion dollars, which ranks it in the top 50 of the largest cryptos in the world! The SAND token allows in particular to:
- Access to The Sandbox platform;
- Participate in the governance of the platform;
- Do staking.
Which platform to buy cryptos to play?
Each NFT game is based on blockchain technology and a token or cryptocurrency. This is why it is necessary to buy cryptos before starting to play on any of these platforms. How to buy crypto? The easiest way is to go through a crypto exchange. Check out two well-known crypto exchange platforms below.
Crypto.com
The Crypto.com exchange is very well known, especially among sports enthusiasts. Why ? The American exchange is very present in formula 1 or in basketball through sponsorship. This exchange is one of the heavyweights of crypto with:
- 10 million active users worldwide;
- A daily transaction volume of approximately 4.5 billion euros;
- 4,000 employees;
- Over 250 cryptocurrencies and tokens listed.
To buy cryptos on the Crypto.com platform, the main steps are as follows:
- Opening an account . This classic step requires you to provide certain information such as your name, first name, date of birth, telephone number, nationality, etc.
- Account Verification . The Crypto.Com exchange follows KYC or Know-Your-Customer regulations. Also, the exchange will proceed to a verification of your identity and will ask you for an identity document. You must also take a selfie with a paper in hand that indicates the current date and the mention “Crypto.com”.
- Account security . This step allows you to strengthen the security of your account by enabling features such as two-factor authentication and anti-phishing code.
- Purchase of cryptos and/or deposit of funds . Once you have initialized your account, all you have to do is buy some crypto. Depending on the crypto, you may be able to buy it directly with fiat money with your bank card or by wire transfer. If you need Ethereum (as is the case with many NFT gaming platforms), you will be able to buy ETH directly from fiat money. But if you need to buy a particular token, the solution is to deposit funds into the exchange account and then exchange them for the desired crypto.
Binance
The Binance exchange is one of the largest in the world. Present in many countries, Binance is used by millions of people around the world. To give you an idea of what Binance represents, here are some numbers to know:
- 21 million active users worldwide;
- A daily transaction volume of around 15 billion euros;
- More than 2000 employees;
- Over 600 cryptocurrencies and tokens listed.
The purchase of crypto on Binance is done in the same way as with other exchanges, that is to say:
- Opening an account . For this, you will need to provide at least your email and a password. You will then need to validate your account with the security code that Binance will send you.
- Account Verification . The Binance exchange follows KYC or Know-Your-Customer regulations and asks you to fill out a form to get to know your profile better.
- Account security . This step allows you to strengthen authentication protocols to prevent attacks. You can activate additional means of authentication such as Binance Authenticator, Google Authenticator, a physical key like Yubikey or even an anti-phishing code.
- Purchase of cryptos and/or deposit of funds . Like on Crypto.com, you can directly buy cryptos and tokens with fiat money. The transaction is possible with your credit card or by bank transfer. If the desired token is not available for direct purchase, then you must fund your account and then choose the appropriate trading pair.
Conclusion
NFT games are part of the Play-to-earn category and they allow you to earn money while having fun. As mentioned in this guide, there are hundreds of different games. Some games fall under the domain of adventure, sport, art, management, etc. All games run using NFT and blockchain technology.
In the age of web 3.0, the biggest NFT games are: Silks, Lucky Block, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, My Neighbor Alice, CryptoKitties, Gods Unchained, Mines of Dalarnia, The Sandbox and Sorare. But the field is diversifying more and more and many NFT games are emerging. You are bound to find THE NFT game you like!
