Economy Showcase

As pioneers in the web3 gaming space, we are charting a course for the future of gaming. As the game’s landscape has transformed, so too has its intricate economy, reflecting our steadfast dedication to refinement and innovation. In the newly evolved Guild of Guardians, players will immerse themselves in refined gameplay, trading, and crafting. Collectively, these elements will open up a wider world of strategies for mastering GOG’s economy

With our eyes set on the horizon, we’re excited to share with you all our progress over the past few months as we continue to push the boundaries of web3 gaming, ensuring that Guild of Guardians remains at the forefront of innovation and player satisfaction.

TLDR

• The Fundamentals: GOG’s gameplay revolves around assembling and equipping powerful squads of Guardians to conquer Dungeons, supported by collection and competition and social systems.
• Redesigning for Success: We’ve redesigned GOG’s economy, making web3 the optimal, not mandatory, path for progression in order to onboard millions into GOG
• Engaging Player Journey: The player journey prioritises sustained player engagement with immersive progression, dynamic web3 features, and upcoming Guild gameplay.
• Streamlining Web3 Onboarding: We’re streamlining web3 onboarding for newcomers by minimising friction and collaborating with Immutable’s platform team for an optimal UX. Even with these improvements, our OG supporters will continue to play a crucial role in welcoming a massive influx of players to Elderym.
• Economy Development Progress: The team visited Mineloader Studios in Shanghai to finalise initial economy features, focusing on solo PvE. Future developments will introduce expanded Guild functionality, enhancing communal gameplay.
• Giving Guardians more depth: Guardians are central to GOG, guiding players through challenges. They can be levelled, enlightened, and ascended using in-game resources. Gaining more stars boosts a Guardian’s abilities, with rare ones having distinct upgrade paths. Players can ascend Guardians into “Radiant Guardians” tradable NFTs with special powers, which are amplified by acquiring Radiant Souls, adding depth and rewarding elite players.

The Fundamentals of GOG’s Game Economy

Our team’s primary focus is to build an enjoyable web3 game that resonates with gamers. With the overwhelmingly positive response to the Beautiful Corner playtest, we’re increasingly confident in our ability to achieve this goal, backed by two compelling reasons -

1. Our development partner Mineloader has a solid track record of delivering high-quality, polished mobile F2P games.
2. Immutable brings invaluable experience and technical know-how to the table when it comes to building web3 games and economy systems.

With these valuable strengths, we look forward to launching the first break-out success in the web3 mobile gaming space!

The primary & secondary game loops

The gameplay experience of GOG revolves around two fundamental aspects that play a crucial role in a player’s progression. The primary game loop centres on assembling squads of powerful Guardians, leading them into challenging Dungeons to vanquish foes and reap rich rewards. Success or failure in these treacherous realms hinges on a player’s strategic acumen and mastery of the game’s meta systems.

On the other hand, the secondary loop encompasses the game’s intricate merging and crafting systems, requiring players to make tactical decisions about which materials and blueprints to target within Dungeons and what equipment to craft, all in the pursuit of Dungeon domination.

Amidst the heart of the adventure, players will find themselves drawn to the satisfaction of Collection and the excitement of Competition. As they strive to conquer thrilling challenges and begin ascending the leaderboards, enticing rewards and recognition await. The chase for achievement is continually reignited by a dynamic stream of fresh content, ensuring their passion remains fresh, and their return to GOG is inevitable. Integral to this experience is the deep bond formed through cooperative gameplay, creating a sense of camaraderie and belonging that fuels their enthusiasm for many more adventures ahead.

Economy Learnings: Crafting an accessible and inclusive web3 journey

Over the past year, we’ve learned that economic sustainability and broad market appeal are closely connected. To achieve our vision of onboarding millions of players into web3, we’ve adjusted our economy’s design to accommodate what we’ve learned thus far.

Instead of making web3 mandatory for player progression, we’ve reimagined it as the optimal path for advancement. This means that web2 players can still enjoy all the content without necessarily acquiring Tokens and NFTs (albeit an inefficient play style). By doing so, we aim to create a compelling and inviting experience that naturally draws players towards web3 as they embark on their journey within GOG. Naturally, we have placed careful guardrails in our design to specifically mitigate against value-extraction. We want to ensure that bad actors cannot drain the resources of the game’s economy, and in doing so, we give GOG’s economy its best chance to thrive.

Our dedication to building a sustainable and inclusive gaming environment drives us forward, ready to welcome players from all backgrounds into the captivating world of GOG.

The player journey within GOG

The cornerstone of long-term sustainability in web3 games lies in striking the perfect balance between a consistent influx of new players and naturally retaining existing ones. GOG has been meticulously crafted with this principle in mind, deliberately designed to integrate seamlessly into the lives of our players, ensuring that they remain engaged and pondering their next objectives even after setting the game aside. Our goal is to create a harmonised experience where players never feel compelled to choose between their real lives and their in-game progress.

Throughout the journey in GOG, every player will experience an ongoing sense of progression. From traversing Dungeons to claiming bountiful rewards to merging materials and strategically crafting equipment to overcome formidable bosses, there will always be something captivating to pursue. We strive to sprinkle enjoyable moments of challenge and advancement across a plethora of situations, so every action taken within GOG leads players closer to achieving their goals.

Players can opt to engage in our dynamic web3 system, facilitating meaningful interactions with others and unlocking enhanced progress within the game. Over time, the allure of web3 engagement will grow stronger, enticing players to merge, craft, and trade their way to rare and potent, Epic and Legendary items.

Armed with such formidable gear, players can ascend the ranks of the leaderboards and embark on exhilarating Endless Dungeon modes, earning glory for themselves and their esteemed Guilds.

While our end-game systems are still in development, we envision a fantasy realm where seasoned players, having mastered all the game’s intricate mechanics, can delve into the rich social gameplay of Guilds. Collaborating as Guild leaders and members, they’ll undertake daring challenges against other Guilds, vying for the most coveted rewards and prestigious accolades. Anticipate a slew of captivating features, such as Guild Crafting, Guild vs. Guild showdowns, and epic PvE Raids, all set to debut shortly after the game’s release.

For our cherished Founders, who have already acquired Guardians, rest assured that they hold a special place in the game’s lore and enjoy access to unique characters, abilities, and economic features that remain exclusive to them. As our economy systems evolve into our launch, we will take consideration of the existing supply and make specific adjustments to ensure that a path of progression always remains open to your favourite Guardians. As early adopters, we extend our heartfelt gratitude and hope that you thoroughly relish the GOG experience.

Your support is instrumental as we welcome new players and introduce them to the boundless wonders of web3. Every new player not only amplifies the game’s potential but also deepens the value of our community, as new players are the foundation for further economic activities in our ecosystem. As our community grows, the rewards and recognition for your early belief will be justified by the unique abilities and features that we’ve set earmarked for holders of Founder Assets. Together, our shared vision of the gaming future isn’t just realised; it flourishes, ensuring that your pioneering stake in the world of Elderym is recognised by all that follow.

Developing best-in-class web3 User Experience

One area of web3 economy and game development we have been keenly focused on is how much friction currently exists for new players looking to experience web3 for the first time. Here, we have been working hard to reduce these areas of friction as much as possible to make it easier for new players to enjoy all of the web3 features that GOG has to offer.

We want new players who want to interact with web3, to have a seamless onboarding experience. To achieve this, the GOG team works closely with other development teams within Immutable to design how IMX Passport will work, using GOG as the reference experience. This means that GOG is guaranteed to have a best-in-class web3 UX experience that is a step-change improvement to existing solutions.

Web3 natives will be more familiar with the intent, flow and purpose of web3 systems than the influx of web2 players we expect to onboard in the future. This expertise will give those players a headstart in Guild of Guardians, whether that be in leaderboards or finding ways to build an enterprise out of trading materials and Guardians within the web3 marketplace.

But we are sure that the OG GOG supporters will foster a welcoming and hospitable community on our quest to onboard millions of players to the land of Elderym.

Economy Development Progress

In July, GOG’s core team members travelled to Shanghai, where they had a jam-packed week of meetings with senior designers and engineers at Mineloader Studios. Our objective was to lock in the features and systems that will be present in the initial release of GOG. At launch, we’re focused on delivering an engaging core gameplay loop with the first iteration of the game economy focusing on solo PvE progression. We also locked in the post-launch content update plan with new content drops, narrative updates and even expansions to the game’s world.

This phased approach will allow us to test and balance the game over time, starting with solo progression, which all players will experience, followed by Guild functionality, including Raids, Guild vs Guild PvP, and Guild Crafting. As Guild features are complex and expected to lean heavily on web3 interactions, we will introduce these features last when we are confident that the basic Economy systems are stable and functioning as expected. We’ve already done a ton of design work around Guild systems and features and are excited to begin sharing more details on it in the following months.

Feature Deep Dives: Guardians

Guardians are the focus of our game and our player’s emotional connection to the game world. You, as the commander of a squad of Guardians, are tasked to journey through dangerous Dungeons to defeat the Dread and restore balance to Elderym. As such, Guardians are the primary vector of player progression.

GOG is a game built around collectibility, meaning there is a wide range of Guardians to acquire and many ways to upgrade them. Our merging and crafting systems augment the power of Guardians and squads by improving stats and, in rare cases, transforming their abilities. To succeed in defeating the Dread, players will need to acquire a roster of Guardians to unlock synergies that will turn the tides of battle in their favour.

Powering-up Guardians

Guardians power up in a variety of ways. Firstly, the level of a Guardian can be increased by acquiring XP through Dungeons. This provides minor improvements in stats for each level that a Guardian grows. There are also rare resources that can be found in Dungeons that increase a Guardian's overall power and unlock new skills or abilities. There will come a point where Guardians can only be advanced further by upgrading the star levels of a chosen Guardian.

Enlightening Guardians to Gain Stars

Generally speaking, enlightening Guardian requires a combination of duplicate Guardians (with less stars) along with Faction Ash. Faction Ash is a resource obtained when sacrificing Guardians that belong to a particular Faction (Redeemers, Keepers, & Imperials). For particularly rare Guardians, e.g., Founders Guardians and Legendary Guardians, we will provision that they start with more stars and/or possess less onerous duplicate requirements to account for their strictly limited supply. Enlightening a Guardian increases a Guardian’s level cap, thereby enhancing their potential stats, abilities, and itemisation choices.

As players continue to progress and gain more stars, they may begin to find it tedious to collect Guardians via the Gacha system. It is at this point that web2 players may wish for a way to exchange their unwanted Guardians for ones that satisfy their requirements. Here, we begin to introduce ‘Radiant Guardians’.

Radiant Guardians

Disclaimer (13/09/23): At Guild of Guardians, we believe in listening and appreciating all community feedback. After careful deliberation, we have decided to revert back to the original design where Chroma utility is cosmetic only and doesn’t provide a stat boost. We believe this outcome will help Guild of Guardians have a more healthy and successful ecosystem in the long-term and we will continue to incorporate community feedback in our development processes

Radiant Guardians are Guardians that have been converted to NFTs via a minting procedure that converts the Guardian’s current characteristics (including stars, but excluding dynamic game attributes such as HP) into a permanent blockchain asset. We intend this to be the optimum progression pathway for players to reach end-game content.

In order to control power inflation, Guardian levels reset upon trade, with the seller recovering a significant fraction of the invested XP and resources, while the buyer receives a fresh Level 1 Guardian. This ensures players are buying, potential, and not just raw power. We believe it’s important for players to level their Guardians through gameplay.

Radiant Guardians have another special trait that is unlockable once a Guardian is converted into an NFT and a process we describe as ‘ascension’. In addition to their stars, Radiant Guardians have access to several tiers of powers that augment their stats and abilities. These powers are fully transferable to other players on the marketplace — and all things equal, a Radiant Guardian is more powerful than the equivalent normal Guardian. In very rare instances, Radiant Guardians, while undergoing enlightenment, may undergo a metamorphosis and become augmented with Chroma gifts which transform their appearance and enhance their versatility further (note: Founder Guardians cannot undergo further metamorphosis).

Radiant Guardians have another special trait that is unlockable once a Guardian is converted into a NFT and a process we describe as ‘ascension’. In addition to their stars, Radiant Guardians have access to several tiers of powers which augment their stats and abilities. These powers are fully transferable to other players on the marketplace — and all things equal a Radiant Guardian is more powerful than the equivalent normal Guardian. In very rare instances, Radiant Guardians while undergoing enlightenment may undergo a metamorphosis and become augmented with Chroma gifts which transform their cosmetic appearance (there will be no effect on Guardian's stats or abilities).

Further ascending a Guardian’s Radiance requires the consumption of Radiant Souls, a valuable and unique resource formed when a Radiant Guardian is sacrificed. This mechanic provides a point of differentiation between Radiant Guardians while simultaneously creating a consistent deflationary sink on the total supply of Guardians. Unlocking Radiant powers is a key factor for going deep into the end game. We anticipate that Player’s and Guild’s competitive drive to win Leaderboards and acquire Legendary loot motivates their desire to mint, burn and trade their way up towards the most powerful and dazzling squads.

As we continue to forge new paths and craft engaging experiences, your insights and engagement remain our guiding star. Together, we’re not just playing a game; we’re pioneering the future of web3 gaming!

Stay tuned for the Economy Showcase Town Hall with Game Director, Chris Clay and Guild of Guardians Economy Designer, Howie Zhang, as they take us through the economy update and answer community questions.

Where: Discord
Date: Wednesday, September 6th
Time: 9am GMT+10.

Until next time, Guardians
LFGOG!