Top 9 of the best upcoming NFT games you should keep an eye on

Top 9 of the upcoming NFT games you shouldn't miss

Blockchain gaming is the most talked about topic now in all blockchain world. As a result, upcoming NFT games are the group of blockchain projects that catch public attention the most. Below is top 9 games that are about to be launched hand-picked by DarePlay.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), upcoming NFT games, and other related blockchain technologies are a recent phenomenon, exploding into popularity even though the first instance of any sort of NFT was 8 years ago, in May 2014.

It was thanks to the combination of the ERC-721 standard from Ethereum in 2018 that the term “NFT” gained widespread usage, and the runaway success of the online game, CryptoKitties, became so popular that it attracted the attention of the public. Some kitties have been sold for more than $100,000 each.

Like the innovative minds of the team behind CryptoKitties discovered back then, combining the emerging market of NFTs with the established and highly lucrative gaming industry would benefit both the developers and gamers alike.

What does non-fungible token gaming mean?

First of all, let’s define what a non-fungible token (NFT) is. NFTs are units of data that can be sold or traded and that are stored on a digital ledger called a blockchain. The non-fungible part means that the token can’t be segmented and exchanged into individual parts (that are the same as one another) like fungible tokens can. For example, a $100 bill can be changed into twenty $5 bills; non-fungible tokens can’t.

NFTs are usually associated with digital assets, such as images, art, and videos, but they can also be physical assets too, like sports collectables, antiques, physical goods, etc. Typically, if the original license agrees to it, these non-fungible tokens can be traded and sold on various digital marketplaces (OpenSea, for example) for cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, ETH, or Bitcoin.

Video games are a form of interactive electronic digital media, usually with the purpose of entertainment or pleasure as its primary focus (though education can also be an underlying theme as well).

NFT games, especially the upcoming NFT games, are the merger of these two concepts; the ability to obtain, trade, and sell various digital assets as NFTs are naturally integrated into gaming. Most of the time, NFTs in video games usually represent some sort of item or character in a game. In a digital collectable card game, the individual cards themselves could be considered NFTs, while in a third-person or first-person shooter, the guns could be made into various NFTs.

Let’s take a brief look back into the history of NFT games before we delve into some of the big, upcoming NFT games.

The past growth of NFT gaming

The growth of nft games
The growth of nft games

Even though the purpose of the article is to showcase the most interesting upcoming NFT games, it’s still needed to take a look at the past growth if NFT gaming.

The first big NFT game that caught mainstream attention was the previously mentioned CryptoKitties. Many also consider the first game to incorporate non-fungible tokens into it was Etheria, released a few years before CryptoKitties.

In Etheria, similar to modern NFT games like Decentraland, users were able to buy and sell plots of virtual land and build upon them as they desired. In the beginning, each plot of land was just sold for 1 ETH (which back then was equivalent to around $1), but since then, the interest in these plots has skyrocketed, with one person last year reportedly investing 70 ETH ($130,781 back then) to buy a plot of Etheria land.

Another NFT game that found success was the creature collector and idle battle game, Axis Infinity. Players would collect, breed, raise, and battle with small creatures known as Axies (based on the real-life axolotls). In 2020, a super rare Axie was sold for 30 ETH, comparable to US$130,000 at the time of the transaction.

Last year, Axie Infinity’s biggest surge of popularity came with several players that earned money through the game, which generated over US$780,000 in sales just in June alone; July saw more fees than Bitocoin or Ethereum in a week. Additionally, on November 23rd of the same year, the game’s native token, AXS, had reached a market cap of just under $8 billion, which made it the 25th largest cryptocurrency back then.

With some success stories of the past looked at, let’s look forward into the future to see some of the upcoming NFT games.

List of upcoming NFT games

Guild of Guardians

Guild of Guadians
Guild of Guadians

As one of the highly anticipated upcoming NFT games, Guild of Guardians is a mobile role-playing game that’s set in a fantasy world filled with elves, orcs, and other magical creatures. Stepico Games is developing the game, and it will be published by Immutable.

About Guild of Guardians

On iOS and Android, this dungeon crawler has players build a team of heroes called Guardians, entering dungeons filled with monsters, bosses, and traps (think of Diablo and other similar dungeon crawlers). By successfully completing these dungeons, players get rewards (like resources, equipment, and in-game currency), which can then be used to recruit new and upgrade old heroes and their equipment. Users therefore can complete progressively more difficult dungeons.

The Guardians themselves are NFTs that can be traded and sold on the marketplace; other NFTs include Pets, who can be “bound” to teams of Guardians to give special benefits; Energy Boosters, that restore fatigued heroes that spelunk into dungeons and allow players to use them for longer periods of time before suffering detriment; and more.

What’s exciting about Guild of Guardians

The pre-alpha was released to a small group of play-testers. The feedback received was quite good overall, praising the solid game design, charming graphics, and functional user interface. The Guild of Guardians team sold out their first NFT Founder collection, raising $4.6 million for game development in June of 2021, while in December, the sale of the game’s in-game token, called Gems, on CoinList raked in a total of $5.3 million from more than 800k participants.

Though the game has around 400,000 pre-registered users, a firm launch date has not been announced yet, but the roadmap found on Guild of Guardian’s whitepaper has stated that the game will hopefully be released sometime in the second half of 2023, after a beta release in the first half of the same year.

RaceFi

RaceFi
RaceFi

Next in the list of upcoming NFT games, RaceFi is a play-to-earn racing game where players can enjoy racing in a variety of game modes with cars and other in-game assets that they own.

About RaceFi

The first Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) racing game backed by the Solana blockchain, RaceFi plans to show players endless possible ways to earn and have fun through racing in Player versus Player (PvP) or Player vs Environment (PvE) race modes, or managing different in-game properties, like garages, the race tracks themselves, etc.

Gameplay consists of a few simple steps. First, players need to buy a car and purchase some gas before they can start participating in the races. Gas will be sold by the gallon for about US$1 (or whatever the equivalent price of the game’s governance token, $RACEFI, will be), and each race will cost a certain amount of gas to join. For example, a “1 GAL” race will cost 1 gallon of gas to enter.

After selecting a race to participate in, all the racers will see the Race Conditions, (such as weather, track conditions, etc.) that’ll determine what Race Strategy each player will choose. Race Strategy is composed of several different sections, such as engine strategy, which tires to use, breaking strategy, and more.

From there, the race starts in the background, i.e., the player can’t directly drive their car around the track. Therefore, selecting the best Race Strategy with the Race Conditions and what your car’s level of XP and upgrades are will determine if you’ll win the race or not.

What’s exciting about RaceFi

Though RaceFi has yet to fully launch to the general public, plenty of investors have seen the potential of this racing game. This past December, $2.4 million in seed and private funding was raised by various investment groups like Exnetwork Capital, Genblock Capital, Shima Capital, and Solar Eco Fund, to name a few.

Next on the roadmap for Q3 this year, the team behind RaceFi plans to integrate 3rd Party Betting solutions and implement a new mode, Battle Mode, where up to eight players will battle head-on against each other using guns, shields, and more.

Phantom Galaxies

New nft games Phantom galaxies
Upcoming nft games Phantom galaxies

Our third entry in this list of upcoming NFT games is set in a science-fiction world where the backdrop of war against an alien threat looms in the background, Phantom Galaxies is a fast-paced third-person Action Role-Playing Game (ARPG) that features giant mechs, open-world space simulator mechanics, and an engrossing story.

Phantom Galaxies intends to be the leading NFT sci-fi mecha online ARPG on PC and consoles, and it’ll support multiple different cryptocurrencies through a multichain framework. By utilizing AAA graphics, exhilarating mecha combat, and a game world that’ll be told through different media (gameplay, books, comics, etc.), combined with blockchain technologies that will give players true ownership over in-game assets and player governance.

To combat a technologically advanced alien foe such as the Sha’Kari, players are given access to powerful mecha Starfighters (think of the various transformable jet/space fighter aircraft mechs from the Japanese anime media franchise Macross) to combat this threat. Each Starfighter will be categorized into 4 separate classes (Lancer, Buster, Assault, and Breacher frames) and will be sent out to the frontlines to fight against this threat or explore the vast expanse of space for precious resources and powerful weapons.

Activities that pilots can participate in are as follows:

  • Missions are story content that will allow players to delve into the lore of the characters, locations, and varied histories of the game’s universe.
  • Quests are discrete pieces of content that tell distinct, standalone stories about minor characters and factions in the universe.
  • Operations are repeatable daily or weekly objectives that will keep players engaged with the game in-between the other activities.
  • Raids are massive PvE encounters that will require multiple players to band together to complete some of the toughest challenges in the game.

The core NFT that Phantom Galaxies uses is the previously mentioned Starfighters. Each Starfighter will be composed of several NFT parts and some fungible resources as well. Other NFTs that the game will feature will be avatar NFTs (the embodiment of the player character), weapon and armor NFTs used to upgrade and customize Starfighters, and even asteroid and planet NFTs, which will act as in-game bases of operations for planet NFT holders as well as passively generate (depending on the size of the asteroid/planet) the in-game’s native currency, PGToken.

Unlike other blockchain games that have used their native tokens in initial dex offerings (IDOs) or public or private pre-sales, Phantom Galaxies has instead opted to use their planet NFTs to raise funds to develop the game. After the Private Planet sale in May 2022, they managed to gather $19.3 million from various backers led by Animoca Brands, Liberty City Ventures, GameFi Ventures, Terrace Tower Group, SMO Capital, Polygon Ventures, amongst others.

The alpha of Phantom Galaxies has over 125,000 active players (as of May 2022) and more than 500,000 users holding onto special NFTs that’ll grant them access to the alpha build of the game. The roadmap listed on the official website and litepaper has listed that an early access beta launch is planned for sometime in Q4 of 2022, with another Planet Sale in the works as well.

Star Atlas

Star Atlas
Star Atlas one of the biggest nft game projects 2021

Next on our list of upcoming NFT games is another sci-fi game set in intergalactic space, Star Atlas, a blockchain, space simulator, and massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. The game is supported by the Solana platform while being developed on the powerful Unreal Engine 5.

About Star Atlas

Set to be released on PCs, Star Atlas was inspired by other contemporary space sim games such as No Man’s Sky, Star Citizen, and EVE Online. Unlike those games, however, this one will feature in-game assets as various NFTs that players will truly own for themselves.

Star Atlas’s core gameplay loop will consist of several aspects. For example, through exploration of the game’s universe, space combat where three factions (MUD, which is the human-led faction; ONI, a conglomerate of alien races; and Ustur, which is comprised of sentient androids) vie for control over all known space; role-playing which area of mining operations (the biggest pillar driving the entire economy of Star Atlas) one would like to preside over; and more.

At the time of writing this article, the game has yet to be fully released, but players can get a sneak peek of what’s to come through a minigame playable on the Star Atlas website. To access the browser minigame, a ship must be purchased from the marketplace. Afterwards, players can send the ship on various missions around the game’s universe, claim land, and start mining operations.

What’s exciting about Star Atlas

In Star Atlas, there are multiple NFTs available for users to own, trade, and sell. These NFTs include but are not limited to the aforementioned ships; multiple different types of structures such as drilling rigs, space stations, and power plants; and usernames for every player. Late December of last year saw the sale of over $3 million of ship NFTs, committed by Animoca Brands. The sale of these NFTs is a part of the Galactic Asset Offerings (GAO), where the revenue gathered by the sales will be used by the team to further develop the game.

Looking at the roadmap, the next planned step for Star Atlas is the addition of Ship Modules, where players can view already purchased ship NFTs in a dedicated Unreal Engine 5 showroom, as well as the additional sale of another set of NFT assets. While each phase has no estimated date of release, the next steps on the roadmap will be the release of more additional game features, leading up to the launch of a beta build of the game.

Polygonum

Polygonum - An NFT game in Polygon chain
Polygonum – An Upcoming NFT game in Polygon chain

Another entry to the list of upcoming NFT games, Polygonum is an upcoming multiplayer 3D shooter survival game with cross-platform support between PC, browser, and mobile platforms. This free-to-play game is currently being developed on the Unity Engine and is built upon the BNB Smart Chain (formerly known as the Binance Smart Chain).

About Polygonum

Unlike many multiplayer survival games available on the market right now (Rust, 7 Days to Die, DayZ, etc.), Polygonum combines the exciting gameplay of survival shooter games with NFTs and in-game tokens that players can earn and make money with.

The game is divided into three game modes or zones, each of which is distinct enough from the others to have something for everyone to enjoy. The first game mode, Farm Zone, is a completely safe area (with no enemies or PvP elements present) that features a private island where you can build your own farm; craft, upgrade, and repair various items; complete NPC quests; and access the NPC and NFT marketplace.

The second mode, the PvE Zone, is not as safe as the Farm Zone. Here, there are a multitude of enemies that players may encounter, from vicious wild animals to zombies that roam the streets. The PvE Zone is divided into several smaller sub-zones that’ll contain different levels of enemies. Defeating these enemies will drop loot, but the value of the loot will vary depending on the level of the enemies; for example, the lower the level of enemies present, the less valuable the loot dropped. Other activities in this zone will also include resource extraction (meat, fabric, plants, wood, etc.), mining various ores, as well as completing NPC quests.

The PvP zone is the final mode. As the name suggests, this zone will have PvP elements enabled, making it the most dangerous area to venture into. Split into two cities (Middle and Hard), the higher difficulty city will feature more zombies and will have a higher chance to spawn tough zombie bosses, while the lower difficulty city will have fewer zombies and a lower chance to spawn zombie bosses. Of course, fighting these zombies is not the only threat in this zone, as other players with ill intent will be around to plunder the loot gathered from defeating these zombies.

What’s exciting about Polygonum

Polygonum’s governance token, $POG, was quite successful in its sale, with approximately $2 million raised, split between a private sale and five different IDOs. Additionally, some of the NFTs available for the game will be weapons, equipment (such as armor), animals to use in the Farm Zone, etc.

The roadmap for the future of the game is looking quite good. The team has already released a third version of their alpha and have already tested the majority of the planned PvP content. Next up for Q4 2022 will be implementing the repair system, general Farm Zone content and PvE content.

The roadmap for the future of the game is looking quite good. The team has already released a third version of their alpha and has already tested the majority of the planned PvP content. Next up for Q4 2022 will be implementing the repair system, general Farm Zone content, and PvE content.

Battle of Guardians

Battle of Guardians
Battle of Guardians

The sixth entry in our list of upcoming NFT games, Battle of Guardians, is a NFT fighting game currently being developed on PC, with iOS and Android cross-platform multiplayer planned in the future.

About Battle of Guardians

Built on the blockchain of the Solana network, this fighting game will pit players in a battle of skills and quick wit where only the cream of the crop will stand above the rest and earn the best rewards.

The main draw of fighting games (Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat, etc.) is the PvP modes, but there will be a PvE mode for all players to enjoy. In Story mode, gamers will fight against an ever-increasingly difficult computer opponent for a total of 25 stages, with a varying amount of the in-game token, $FP, as the reward. 

There will be two PvP modes that players can participate in: Arena and Bout. The Arena will be a 1v1 battle of random matchmaking based on each player’s rating; each win will reward the winner with $FP and an increase in their ranking. Bouts are tournament-styled 1v1 fights (which can consist of 8, 13, or 32 players in total). After paying an entrance fee of $FP, the winner of the whole tourney will get all the accumulated $FP and some of the game’s governance token, $BGS, too.

What’s exciting about Battle of Guardians 

Among many upcoming NFT games, Battle of Guardians presents something special. The NFTs utilized in the game are the fighters used to fight. Potential players can only buy the NFT players (in a pack of three) from NFT drops, but only if they stake some $BGS first. Each character will be separated into three different races that each have a different attribute specialization over the others. Furthermore, they’ll all be categorized into three rarity tiers; the higher the rarity, the more rewards one will gain if a match is won.

The most recent rounds of IDOs have gathered around $720,000, from five separate investors. Past seed investing and private sales have both raised $600,000 and $3,820,000, respectively. The next phase in the Battle of Guardians’ roadmap will include the 1st sale of NFTs, the launch of PvE content, the Marketplace launch, and the implementation of $FP rewards.

Outer Ring

Outer rnig
Outer rnig

Following that on our list of upcoming NFT games is Outer Ring, an MMORPG third-person shooter set in a universe where science fiction and fantasy collide. Developed on the BNB Smart Chain, the blockchain game will be released on the Windows and Mac platforms, while a companion app on iOS and Android will also be made public in the future to assist the player in the main game.

About Outer Ring

Outer Ring, unlike others in the genre, does not have a main storyline that players can play through. By playing in either PvE or PvP modes, gamers will interact with five species, divided into four different factions in this game’s universe. PvP can occur in the “normal” gameworld as well as in special closed-off arenas, which can facilitate eSports competitions.

As opposed to other MMORPGs where character development is based on classes or roles, this game differs due to the fact that progression is based on skills instead. Players will develop a certain set of skills to fulfill a role in a group of friends, clan, or faction. There will be many skills that players can specialize in, from Physical Skills (running, jumping, climbing, etc.), to skills that will help make better NFTs, to combat and pilot skills.

What’s exciting about Outer Ring

Speaking of NFTs, Outer Rings will feature a large variety of them. As of now, only weapons, armor, and materials are present in-game. Raw materials are not NFTs; only processed materials will be allowed to be sold in the marketplace, exchanged in a pool, or for usage in clans or companies.

The assortment of weapons is quite large, from melee weapons to handguns to rifles and heavy weapons such as rocket launchers and anti-aircraft cannons. Armor is separated into three types: light, medium, and heavy. Both weapons and armor can be categorized into tiers that will determine the rarity of items.

Looking at the Outer Rings roadmap, it’s understandable why Outer Ring is in the list of wanted upcoming NFT games. It’s clear that the team has a lot on their plate as they prepare for early access to a pre-alpha sometime in early 2023. Rounding out the year for Q4, they plan on implementing NFT crafting mechanics, Land NFTs (though these will just be small pieces of land first), updating the main website, and posting the first round of Galactic DEX listings, allowing players to swap between in-game materials and gain farming rewards, providing liquidity to the various pools.

Bit.Country

Bit Country
Bit Country

The penultimate entry in our list of upcoming NFT games is unlike anything else on this list. Bit.Country is a networking platform where users can generate their own unique metaverse projects for gamers and other blockchain enthusiasts to enjoy. Bit.Country is built on the Polkadot blockchain.

About Bit.Country

This platform will allow anyone who has a passion for creating metaverses to do so without the need for technical knowledge in the first place. Here, creators will create and then interact directly with users. However, unlike other platforms that host metaverse experiences like The Sandbox or Decentraland, Bit.Country will enable and allow creators to build stores, tokenomics, and governance for each of their projects.

Though the initial rollout of the platform has only been released to a select few members of the community, the feedback they have received has been quite good. These early testers have praised the simplicity and ease-of-use of the interface for creating their own projects.

The early access launch includes the Bunker feature, a personal 3D space where users can experiment and learn how to build with blocks, assets, and NFTs. There was also the Sandpit feature, which is essentially a testing ground to try out new assets and blocks without major repercussions.

What’s exciting about Bit.Country

The team behind Bit.Country raised $4 million in seed investment during their first funding round in May of last year. Major investors include Walsh Wealth Ventures, Animoca Brands, Hyperspace Ventures, and DFG Ventures. Additional investors also include Shima Capital, Longhash, CMS, Moonrock Capital, and others.

The list of upcoming NFT games has many names and Bit.Country is the one many are looking forward to. The roadblock for Bit.Country has almost reached the halfway point. Currently, the team is preparing to enable the first proposal in the “Enable Governance Features” Phase. Phase 7, the “Enable pBIT Mining and NEER Staking” Phase, will allow users to mine for BIT (one of the important tokens needed to use for many activities) and the ability to stake $NEER (the other native token used for more important features).

SIPHER

Sipher - Moba NFT game
Sipher – Moba NFT game

Our last entry in the list of upcoming NFT games is SIPHER, a MOBA-styled “looter shooter” in a cyberpunk-inspired metaverse. Secured on the Ethereum blockchain, players will fight monsters and other players over territory, collect and level up multiple different characters, and gain rewards.

About Sipher

The core gameplay loop of SIPHER consists of PvE and PvP modes; forming Guilds with others to compete in various activities; and using the in-game utility token, $ATHER, to upgrade and craft all types of items, characters, and even more.

In the PvE mode, players will enter dungeons in teams of three, fight monsters and bosses, and get loot and rewards like materials and $ATHER, or cosmetic items. The PvP mode is where players hone their skills and master and upgrade all the various characters in their roster to dominate the other team. Both PvE and PvP modes will have Casual and Ranked matches; Casual is for more casual matches, while in Ranked, each win will increase the player’s ratings.

What’s exciting about Sipher

Though there are a lot of NFTs available in SIPHER, the main NFT that most players will interact with the most are the Sipherians, or simply known as Siphers, the characters that the player will use to play the game.

Last October, the team successfully raised $6.8 million in funds from an assortment of investment firms. These firms include Hashed, Konvoy Ventures, and Arrington Capital, as well as groups like Defiance Capital, Alameda Research, BitKraft Ventures, GBV, and Kyber Network, amongst others. Sipher is now one of the most anticipated upcoming NFT games in Vietnamese market

For the roadmap, SIPHER will first launch a MVP (or Minimum Viable Product; think of this as something like a pre-alpha release) for the PvE game mode to finish off Phase 7. Phase 8 (October to December 2022) will be fully committed to the full launch of the PvE mode (and, in turn, the official release of the game).

Why play these upcoming NFT games?

While normal games (either ones that must be bought or free ones) are quite fun and unique, the ability to earn an income while gaming is not a very easy task that most people can achieve. As well, since making games (and especially supporting games that continuously get updates) is a very expensive endeavor, game developers feel the need to follow current trends and make games that are only made for financial stability.

However, with the advent of blockchain technologies, implementing NFTs and cryptocurrency with a virtual economy to support the game’s launch and future success, both gamers and developers are able to support the games they love. With this list of upcoming NFT games chosen by Dareplay.io, the future of blockchain games seems bright as ever before!

Contributed by Bill Le

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