The Rise of Gaming on NEAR Protocol
In the past six months, the gaming scene has been rapidly expanding on NEAR. The Human Guild’s launch in early 2021 has brought to the NEAR’s ecosystem over 2400 people interested in Web3 native games, and has incubated over thirty-five projects that are going to launch in the coming months. NEAR became the home of a thriving community of gamers and developers that are pushing the boundaries of traditional gaming and inaugurating the beginning of a new era.
NEAR has built the most scalable and user-friendly blockchain architecture, and just over a week ago it launched Simple Nightshade, a sharding protocol that greatly facilitates the building of games, Metaverses, and NFT dApps. But NEAR does not only offer a great infrastructure, it also offers grants opportunities and funds to promising projects. In this article we are going to showcase some of the best gaming platforms that are being built on the NEAR Protocol, namely, OP Games, HASH RUSH, Shroom Kingdom, and NEAR Hub.
NEAR Native Gaming Platforms
OP Games: The Platform that Turns Games Into Investable Assets
OP Games is one of the most interesting platforms that is being built on NEAR. Its concept is simple, turning games into investable assets through the use of NFTs. OP Games works directly with game developers to turn their games into fractionalised NFTs that are then offered to the community. Players in turn can discover new HTML5 games on OP Arcade, play, compete in tournaments and buy NFTs thus becoming stakeholders.
This system favours both games and players by disintermediating their relationship and gaining more freedom on the development of their preferred games. Essentially it enables a more sustainable model to substitute the pitfalls for Web2 gaming platforms, making the game creators and their community rip all the benefits that they produce.
OP Games is currently building on NEAR Protocol and is soon going to inaugurate a new era of gaming, where players can earn rewards, have a say on the development of the games they own through DAO. OP Games is committed to building a better gaming future for everybody and is not doing that only through its work but also by supporting other Web3 projects. A little over a week ago OP Games raised $8.6 millions to help game developers transition to Web3.
OP Games is well positioned to become a thriving community of game developers and players and start off a new era of Web3 gaming.
For more information about OP Games follow them on Twitter and check out their Website.
HASH RUSH: A play to earn Real Time Strategy Game
HASH RUSH is considered by many one of the best, most innovative emerging games in the NEAR ecosystem. HASH RUSH is an online sci-fi/fantasy RTS set in the fictional Hermeian galaxy. Within this alternative galaxy players can build, fight, and trade their way through victory by growing their mining cology, managing their battle monsters, and trading resources and items.
What makes this game particularly appealing, however, is not only its visuals and plot but the fact that it combines the worlds of play-to-earn and real-time strategy gaming. HASH RUSH is a quintessential Web3 game as it brings together the world of crypto and RTS gaming to create a completely new way of playing. Gamers will be able to compete for cryptocurrencies and other rewards turning their passions into profits.
Currently, the HASH RUSH team is updating its playtest client and adding additional features. You can easily participate in the testing and try out this amazing game by creating an account on vortonetwork.com.
For more information about HASH RUSH follow them on Twitter and visit their Website.
Shroom Kingdom: The Next Generation of Web3 Super Mario
Shroom Kingdom is a play-to-earn video game powered by NEAR Protocol that leverages Web3 technologies to create new gaming possibilities. Players are able to play with Super Mario characters, build their own level or play levels built from others, and each level is stored on the blockchain as an NFT.
Players can earn $SHRM tokens via participating in game activities or earn them passively if other people play or like their levels. There is no upper limit to the tokens and as long as there will be players they will be generated. One can then use the tokens acquired to make in-game purchases, upgrade licenses, and much more.
Interestingly, players will be able to extract existing assets from their Super Mario Maker 2 copy or use game mod files. Since all file formats have been reverse engineered they can easily get extracted from the player’s copy.
Shroom Kingdom is in its very early phase of development but it has already gained the attention of the whole NEAR community for its innovative idea.
For more information about Shroom Kingdom follow them on Twitter or check their Github if you are curious about its development.
NEAR Hub: The Entry Point to the NEARverse
While not a traditional game, NEAR Hub also received a grant from Human Guild. NEAR Hub is a community-driven initiative that aims to build the first metaverse for the NEAR community. The metaverse that NEAR Hub is creating is a space where the NEAR community members can come together, learn, play, and work in an engaging and fun environment. By working closely with NEAR dApps and projects, NEAR Hub will bring to light new ways of networking and experiencing the NEAR ecosystem.
The project kick-started a few months ago but the team has already managed to build four NEAR Hub’s rooms: Cheddar Farm, AstroDAO Spaceship, Paras Gallery, and Dragon Beach. In the next few months it will build four additional rooms, complete its NFT marketplace, and implement a 360° video VR experience. It has huge future potential with dApp and game integrations where events and tournaments will be hosted.
For more information about NEAR Hub development follow them on Twitter and check out their Website to try it out.
Web3 gaming is rising fast in the NEAR ecosystem. In this article we have only covered a small fraction of what really is going on in space. There are many other projects that are innovating user experiences and creating a new era of Web3 gaming, so stay tuned for more articles on NEAR’s native gaming platforms!
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