Illuvium’s co-founder shares plans for interconnected blockchain games
Quick take:
- Illuvium has an ambitious goal of building interconnected blockchain games.
- The Web3 game developer creates an interoperable gaming platform.
- Interoperable Blockchain Game (IBG) will allow different game titles to share NFTs.
Illuvium co-founder Kieran Warwick has unveiled plans for an interoperable blockchain gaming model. Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Token2049 event in Singapore, Warwick said the new web3 gaming ecosystem will allow blockchain games to share NFTs.
Warwick believes Illuvium’s perceived gameplay concept has never been done before. For perspective, in April social AR gaming platform FlickPlay teamed up with The Sandbox to build an interoperable metaverse. FlickPlay offers playable NFT avatars that can be integrated into gaming platforms.
In the same month, a16z and SoftBank co-led Improbable’s $150 million fundraising to build interoperable metaverses. Called MSquared (M2), the planned platform will allow users to launch their own metaverses and share their creations.
Random Games’ Unioverse is the closest thing to what Illuvium envisions. Backed by Resolute Ventures and Asymmetric, the community-driven web3 gaming franchise is building an ecosystem that will allow different games to share NFT avatars on the platform.
Illuvium has named its project the Interoperable Blockchain Game (IBG), which will be governed by the platform’s native token $ILV.
According to Illuvium, IBG represents a series of interconnected blockchain games that share NFTs, a single in-game currency, or both.
The platform is made with the fans in mind, instead of focusing on the play-to-earn model, which is quickly becoming unpopular. One of the reasons Illuvium has chosen to focus on fun first is to try to attract players from the mainstream gaming market.
“In our genres that we’re hitting, there could be something like 500 million people that we can bring in that literally don’t want to know that they’re playing a crypto game,” he said.
Warwick said the first game, which mixes “Sim City and Clash of Clans”, is already underway. The city builder game allows players to mine resources for use in the second game, “Overworld”.
“Overworld” is a Pokemon-esque game that involves catching creatures called “Illuvials,” which can then be used in the third game, like Warwick compared to online battle arena titles like “DOTA.”
According to Warwick, the plan is to build another six games on top of the three.
In a traditional game model, you jump from one level to another and carry assets from the previous level with you. In Illuvium’s case, players jump from one game to the next, taking their NFTs and in-game assets with them for use in the next game.
Illuvium is backed by some of the leading web3 gaming funds, including Framework Ventures. According to Warwick, the game developer planned to raise $350 million during the bull market, but has since scaled the number down to between $10 million and $20 million in the middle of the crypto winter.
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