Dean
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Screenshots from ‘Project X’.

Gaming represents one of the most promising opportunities for cryptocurrency to gain more mainstream use, and there is no shortage of new projects aiming to capitalize on this potential. You could say, in fact, that game assets and coins are one of the hottest trends in cryptocurrency right now. One of the best examples of this is MetaGold, an in-game currency that will span at least 2 games: a multiplayer magical card game and a cross-platform adventure game, as well as possibly a third game if the project’s crowdsale is successful.

Putting in-game coins and assets on the blockchain has a number of interesting advantages. It allows for true ownership of in-game items, enabling players to withdraw items purchased within a game to their own wallet and trade them with other players. This opens the door to provably limited edition items with value to collectors, as well as intriguing game economies with players creating or earning items in game and then trading them for other items or even for a profit. It also opens the door to items being used outside the game, in homage projects created by fans or even in other games. It also creates an opportunity for fans to buy into games that they love and potentially pofit from their success.

There also seems to be a big overlap between these two communities: gamers and cryptocurrency users, which is one of the reasons why there is such a high level of activity in this area at the moment.

MetaGold Crowdsale

MetaGold is a digital currency that players can use to buy limited edition in-game items such as custom skins, new characters, booster packs, cards and so on. It is an ERC20 token based on Ethereum, and all limited edition game assets will also be issued on the Ethereum blockchain.

Owners of the MetaGold token will be able to use it in at least two very promising looking games (see the next section) and possibly a third as well.

In order to support the development of these games MetaGold tokens will be sold in a crowdsale, or ‘ICO’. Out of the total supply of 8 million tokens, 6 million will be made available to buyers in this sale, with the remaining 2 million split between the development team, third party business partners, and bounties to help promote the project.

The crowdsale begins on April 3rd and runs until the 25th, and is being managed by Tokenly, which is acting as an escrow agent. The goal of this sale is to raise at least $250,000 for development, with maximum funding cap of $6 million to prevent the value of the tokens being diluted too much.

You can find more information about the ICO, as well as a technical whitepaper and a development / release roadmap at http://metagold.io/

The Games

Of course everything I’ve said so far is secondary – the most important thing is the games! So here is the info you really wanted to see:

War of the Magi

The first release is a collectible card game with single player campaign and player-vs-player elements. Although all of the games are still under development, you’ll be happy to hear that there is already a ‘demo’ available for this one, which is very playable and has 50 levels already in place as well as PVP battles. You can get it for Android in the Play Store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.metagold.warmagi. Personally I was very impressed by this demo, which is already a fairly addictive and fun playing experience even at this early stage.

As the name suggests, this one sees you take on the role of a Magi. It features cards representing magical spells that you can collect and upgrade, and then use in battle. You can build up multiple decks of cards to use, and must collect magical elements to use for things like unlocking new spaces within your decks to include extra cards.

Project X

The name ‘Project X’ is actually a placeholder for a yet-to-be-named adventure game. This will be a cross-platform release that you can play on your PC or mobile device.

The lore behind this game places you in a science fiction world, in which most of the planet has been blanketed in a poisonous fog. This strange fog has caused genetic mutations which have given the planet’s inhabitants super-powers.

There will be two levels of gameplay in project X. The first will see you piloting an airship, which is the only safe way to travel long distances on this toxic world. The other will see you take control of an individual character to do battle on the ground.

I’ve included a couple of screenshots of this one, which you can see at the top right of this article (click to see larger image).

Project 3

You may have thought the name ‘Project X’ sounded quite mysterious, but since many of the details of that one have already been released, along with multiple screenshots and video, the title of most mysterious goes to ‘Project 3’.

This recently announced third game will only be developed if the maximum funding goal is reached during the crowdsale.

The goal of this third project is to create a MMO game with a full cryptocurrency powered in-game economy. In addition to being able to purchase, use and trade blockchain assets, players in this game will be able to earn resources and even create special items within the game, which they can then withdraw and trade with other players.

Further Information:

Website: http://metagold.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetaGoldDev

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1795161.msg17896586#msg17896586

BTW, you can find Cryptorials on Bitcointalk too!