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Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders have a broad license to use their owned artwork as they wish, which has led to some diverse collaborations and spin-off projects. Soon an owner Mutant monkeys will appear in Dungeons & Dragons inspired Web3 gameThe glitter ring.
Gripnr, the game’s developer, announced today that they have partnered with well-known collector and Web3 founder Jimmy “j1mmy” McNelis to bring more of his owned Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT characters into The Glimmering as enemy characters.
The mutant monkeys in question will be redesigned by Gripnr lead artist Justin “Angryblue” Kamerer to fit into the game’s fantasy world. Gripnr will release a derivative NFT collection based on the Mutant Ape characters, embossed on Ethereum scaling network Polygonand they will be featured in the digital table game experience.
“Ever since Mutants came out, I’ve been wondering where their IP might fit,” McNelis shared Decrypt“It turns out that villains in an RPG felt like the right direction to take this when the opportunity presented itself.”
McNelis – who founded Avastar’s profile picture (PFP) collection in 2020 and co-founded Gallery of Digital Assets (GODA) platform alongside musician Pharrell Williams – said he is a fan of role-playing games (RPGs) and the fantasy genre, as well as their often memorable villains. Mutant Apes seemed like the right one for it.
“The mutants look like villains,” he confirmed. “We’re leaning into it.”
The mutant monkeys launched in August 2021 as a spinoff of the original Bored Ape collection. Existing Ape holders were awarded a “Mutant Serum” NFT that would transform their existing artwork into a new NFT, plus creator Yuga Labs sold an additional 10,000 new Mutant Ape NFTs. To date, the collection has generated over $1.9 billion in trading volume, per CryptoSlam.
Gripnr is a Web3 startup that attempts to bridge the gap between traditional, physical board games and digital components using NFT-based characters. The Glimmering is the first game from the studio, which raised $2.5 million in funding in 2022.
The studio recently faced potential turmoil as Dungeons & Dragons IP owner Wizards of the Coast announced plans to ban NFTs with an update to the Community License enabling derivative works.
However, the Wizards eventually canceled such plans after backlash to other proposed license changes, rental Web3 use cases continue unimpeded. Instead, the company puts the core Dungeons & Dragons content under a Creative Commons license, which allows creators to develop derivative work without fear that the license will one day be changed or revoked.
The Glimmering will be launched on 30 March. Players must create an NFT hero and then play the online game, with all progress recorded on the chain. Users can also create their own content in The Glimmering world and even receive royalties when played.
Gripnr Lead Designer Stephen Radney-MacFarland told Decrypt that Mutant Apes will fit well into The Glimmering’s fantasy world Asuwa, which deals with supernatural and magical elements.
“We don’t want to spoil the story by over-detailing how these newcomers fit into the world, or our vision for how they might shake up the plot,” Radney-MacFarland said. “We’ll say this for now – goblins and bastard baboons will soon have another crazy competition in town.”
For McNelis, the Gripnr collaboration is the latest example of licensing his own Apes for various creative projects. He also owns Bored Apes which is used by Universal Music Group’s 22:22 label for its Kingship virtual band projectand his own Avastars project similarly offers NFT holders commercialization rights.
“I love being able to learn about and explore commercial rights with NFTs,” he shared Decrypt. “This use case for NFTs has been at the top of my mind for several years now. Having a solid collection of Yuga assets has given me the ability to make some cool deals.”
