Building A Web3 MOBA
This article was written by Battle For Giostone Co-Founders, Mile Gramatikov and Theeban Siva.
Filled with promise, blockchain gaming has taken the world by storm and it has been stormy at times. In a space still taking its earliest steps, forging ahead requires development teams to navigate an oft confusing road. This is especially true in the creation of a Web3 MOBA.
MOBAs are the most difficult games to master because they exhibit infinite strategic complexity. To begin with, one must make team-oriented decisions — it’s as if instead of controlling the entire chessboard in chess, you control a single piece. And instead of individual defined moves, you must then make thousands of momentary decisions which build towards the same goal as your four other teammates. Popularized by Dota2, League of Legends, and hundreds of other copycat games — we believe it is now time to transition this Web2 genre into a true Web3 experience.
Battle For Giostone
Battle For Giostone has already undergone significant active development and is coming up on an alpha release. From the outset, you’ve got two teams made up of five people, and the goal of the game is to destroy the enemy base within the first 25 minutes. This mechanic should feel very familiar to existing MOBA players.
However, there is an added a gameplay twist. Should a base not be destroyed in the 25 minute time-frame, all of the players get summoned by the dragon Gio (a monster that spawns on the map, dropping stones to powerup teams following defeat), leading to a battle to the death. The winning team of this final fight emerges as victorious.
Uniquely, in Battle For Giostone, Heroes are created via a forging mechanism. Instead of using pre-made heroes, players are able to forge an ideal hero, customized to individual playing styles. There are six Hero classes and a total of 72 abilities, with each forged Hero possessing 4 permanent abilities. With more than 6 million combinations of play styles available, strategy and playing to one’s strengths is of paramount importance.
From the outset, we have wanted to make Battle For Giostone a game that was built by passionate MOBA gamers, with tweaks that we believe improve the overall gaming experience. This might sound easy in practice — but turning that into reality is another story. In Battle For Giostone, gameplay has always been our main focus. An example could be — if you attack an enemy hero and they’re near their creeps, they need to start attacking your hero to defend their position. We believe that continued refinements like this add up to an overall experience that takes the genre forward.
Visual Design
In order for a game to be successful in this day and age, it needs to be visually pleasing. This is obvious but surprisingly overlooked as gaming projects often prioritize the wrong things. In a MOBA, the map, towers, creeps, heroes, bushes, lanes, equipment, abilities, the dragon Gio, and the user interface need to have the same theme, branding, and look like a premium, AAA game. We have a team of designers working continuously to push out in-game assets whose aesthetic supports this vision.
Balancing
Abilities, stats, level upgrades, and items require lots of balance testing. Most abilities have counters, and the ones that don’t will be countered by items. Heroes that have abilities from the same class have increased stats, and that can influence the outcome of a match. Balancing means that all playstyles and levels of experience will feel rewarding in-game. Over time, this meta will change and we will remain vigilant not to nerf, or overpower specific abilities in those changes.
Tokenomics
Gameplay and design must be at the heart of every Web3 game—but that doesn’t mean that the tokenomics aspect isn’t a vital and crucial piece to the puzzle. Some people will play a game just because of its ability to earn. In Battle For Giostone, there are two tokens: BFG and GIOS. BFG is a blockchain-based token on the Avalanche network, while GIOS is a non-blockchain token that will work as in-game credits to forge heroes. BFG is the absolute driver as we don’t believe utility belongs in the hands of a team controlled token supply. It is there to complement BFG and allow users to advance in the game while BFG runs and effectively is the economy. We are constantly refining our design around these tokens to ensure that rewards will be fair for both the players and the investors.
Players will be able to earn by playing, winning esports events, forging, trading Heroes, and creating content. The more passive will be able to earn by staking BFG tokens but must forge NFTs to receive any share of the revenue from the game and furthermore, need players to maximize their earning potential. In order to increase staking rewards, token holders require modifiers that spawn inside the game, and must buy them from the players. This creates a circular economy and a closed loop where the two sides help fulfill each other’s objectives.
Community
The best game in the world, is nothing without its players. Our community has been incredibly supportive so far, and we are excited to see it continue to grow. Many people have played traditional MOBA games, but are thirsty for something new. We believe Battle For Giostone is the thing they’ve been waiting for.
Team
Everyone on our team is passionate about MOBA gaming and crypto, and they firmly believe Battle For Giostone is the future of Web3 gaming experiences. We are a highly motivated pedigreed team filled with skilled individuals working toward the singular goal to make both the game and a token economy a riveting success.
Conclusion
While we don’t suffer from a lack of ambition, we are very grounded and focused on our deliverables. The Web3 may offer unlimited potential which has also hastened the migration of opportunists looking to exploit the space. Hyper inflationary tokenomics and unsustainable DeFi protocols masquerading as games are slowing the potential for growth and BFG believes it is incumbent upon us to do something about that—beginning with a game that earnest games want to play.
About Avalaunch
Avalaunch is a launchpad powered by the Avalanche platform, allowing new and innovative projects to seamlessly prepare for launch with an emphasis on fair and broad distribution. With its values deeply rooted in the early Avalanche community, we are able to offer projects confident, informed users who are aligned with the long-term goals of the rapidly expanding application ecosystem. Leveraging Avalanche’s scalable, high-throughput, and low-latency platform, Avalaunch is built by users, for teams, to help grow strong communities.
Website | Twitter | Telegram | YouTube
Building A Web3 MOBA was originally published in Avalaunch on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
