Blockchain gaming can not only be fun, but lucrative.
Indeed, at least prior to the onset of the latest crypto winter, some people were making thousands of dollars a month playing P2E games like Axie Infinity, with 20% of the population of nations such as the Philippines playing blockchain games.
With lightning fast transaction speeds of just two seconds and gas fees of just pennies, the ICON network almost seems purpose-built for gaming.
Unsurprisingly, then, ICON has a rich gaming ecosystem that’s growing day-by-day. From space exploration strategy games to decentralized casinos, gamers will find their proverbial jam on ICON.
We’ll begin our exploration of ICON’s world of gaming by taking a look at four exciting NFT titles:
- Project Nebula: NFT-based space exploration and empire building with fantastic art and music.
- Wonder Game: Collaborative GameFi inspired by Alice in Wonderland with an interchain twist.
- Inanis Invictus: Desktop gaming meets the blockchain in this intergalactic strategy game.
- SuperNode Racing: NFT racing game goes beyond fast cars to build a veritable racing ecosystem, complete with gas stations and paint shops.
Project Nebula
One of the first games launched on ICON is Project Nebula, an NFT-powered sci-fi strategy game that invites players to “explore a vast universe, colonise planets, build up their industry and learn new technologies while advancing their space empires and competing with other players.”
Project Nebula’s universe is hex-based and real-time. Ultimately, the goal is to build a galactic empire, preferably the biggest, baddest one in the ‘verse.
To do this, you have to colonize planets, which you can do in several ways, including discovering them as you explore space and buying them from other players through the marketplace.
Planets produce credits, which can be used to help explore the universe faster, buy more planets or upgrade your plants to produce even more credits.
Fuel constraints will restrict how much of the universe you can explore in a 24-hour period, so choose your moves wisely.
To play the browser-based game, just head to the website, log in, connect a wallet to your account and begin.
Being a space exploration game, you’re going to need a spaceship, so the first thing you’re going to need to do is buy a spaceship — you’ll find plenty at the ingame marketplace.
On the style side, Project Nebula boasts some pretty trippy art, really atmospheric in-game music and some really well-written lore and worldbuilding. Plenty to keep the player engrossed in the universe.
Wonder Game
Powered by interoperability solution ICON Bridge, Wonder Game describes itself as “a collaborative GameFi that takes players on a cross-chain adventure to different blockchains with each new chapter.”
The name of the game here is to collect SHROOMs, the utility token of this Alice in Wonderland-inspired universe. How you go about doing this, however, depends on your playable NFT character and the strategies you and other players employ.
To play the browser-based game, you’re going to create an account and mint and a playable NFT character. Character NFTs include Card Soldiers, Queens and Alices.
From the Whitepaper:
“Card Soldiers explore and camp to find the magical power – aka surge area. Queens tax the Card Soldiers for SHROOMs that they’ve worked so hard to collect in their sector. Alices steal from the Card Soldiers when they are on the way to the Queens.”
During the presale, you could mint NFTs on Harmony using ICX via ICON Bridge, one of the first examples of cross-chain NFT minting.
However, Wonder Game has since moved its NFTs to Polygon with mints in ETH, which means you’re gonna need a Metamask wallet.
One of Wonder Game’s big selling points is its interoperability. The next chapter of the game will be powered by ICE, ICON’s upcoming Ethereum-compatible Polkadot parachain.
Inanis Invictus (“Void Unconquered”)
Inanis Invictus brings together traditional desktop gaming with NFT technology.
As the game itself puts it:
“Inanis Invictus is a science fiction themed tabletop strategy wargame set in space where players pit unique collections of space ships, drafted as fleets, against one or more opponents in turn based combat matches. Taking place using a custom designed turn based ruleset, a hex grid map and player-owned collectible ship assets, players will be required to strategize and make tactical decisions with their fleets to overcome their opponents.”
So, turn-based, hex-based combat. If you’ve played classic tabletop games like Warhammer, you’ll know what to expect.
You can find the gameplay ruleset here — rather niftily, you can just as easily play the game on your kitchen table as you can on the game’s digital game client.
While the art — or at least the art that has been revealed so far — is pretty awesome, it’s more than just eye candy. Each NFT is a playable game piece, each one with unique powers and capabilities.
To play, you’ll need to visit the website, connect a wallet and begin. There’s nothing in the marketplace yet, but that’s likely to change this week after the game’s initial launch.
SuperNode Racing
SuperNode Racing is more than just a car racing game, though it is certainly that as well.
“SuperNode Racing is a blockchain game where you can build and OWN (yes, you OWN the virtual car that you build) your own racing cars that are styled around blockchain tokens like ICX. There will be shells/designs for BTC, ETH, DOGE, and others as well with all different types of cars you can build. You’ll also be able to customize your rims, decals, spoiler, and internal components like engine, breaks, suspension, tires, etc.”
Not only does the NFT-powered game let you build, own and race your own fast cars, but it also lets you own digital businesses as well, including stations, parts shops, paint shops and more, creating a “racing management ecosystem.”
This gives plenty to do not just for harcore racers, but NFT artists as well.
As with many NFT-based games, upgrading your car is a key piece of the game. Winning races is the cheapest way to do this, though you can also buy gear at the ingame marketplace.
You’ll also need to buy gas using the in-game $SUPR token, which you can purchase from player-owned gas stations. Feel the economy growing.
Designed to run on ICE, SuperNode Racing will have mobile and browser versions. It’s still very much in development, but you can still check out plenty of leaked NFT previews and game footage at their Twitter channel or, even better, DIscord.
MORE TO COME: In future posts, we’ll take a look at more ICON games, including hits like ICONBet, ZenSports and more.
