A glimpse into the pinnacle of blockchain games from Dark Forest and Loot: On-chain games (Part 2)

Author: Kaspar, Mask Network

This topic consists of 3 articles, this is the 【Medium Article: A Comprehensive Overview of the Loot Ecosystem】

→ [Previous Article: The Beginning and Dark Forest] → [Next Article: Insights from Dark Forest and Loot, and Future Possibilities]*

The Dual Titans of the Entire Chain: Loot

Unlike Dark Forest, which has clear game objectives and mechanisms, Loot, as an NFT project, had no rules from the very beginning. It created a sensation in the crypto space with just 8 lines of white text on a black background. Even today, many participants may still be puzzled about what Loot actually is.

1. Origin

Loot (for Adventurers) is an experimental project launched by @Dom Hofmann on August 28, 2021. Prior to this, he had released another experimental project called Blitmaps, and he is also a member of the founding team of the famous CC0 project Nouns. His earlier identity was as one of the founders of the once-popular overseas video sharing app Vine (which was later acquired by Twitter). Currently, his new project SUP has secured $12 million in seed funding from the leading crypto fund Paradigm.

The concept of Loot was first announced by Dom on Twitter on August 25, 2021, and the contract was officially deployed on the 28th. The sale structure consisted of a total of 8,000 Freemints, of which 7,777 were for public sale, and the remaining 233 were reserved by Dom. Within less than 3 hours after the project was announced, all 7,777 NFTs were minted.

2. Philosophy

What sets Loot apart from mainstream NFT projects is its underlying "Bottom-up Approach".

In traditional NFT projects, we purchase a complete artistic product/IP from the project team/creator and expect the project team/creator to build more content around that theme/IP. This model, where creators actively assign core value and rights, while the community and holders are more passively receiving or creating peripheral content, is classified as a "Top-down Approach." This path often relies heavily on the core roles to drive the project, and once those core roles are absent, it can create significant obstacles for the project's continued development.

However, from the success of projects like BAYC and Azuki, we can see that beyond the proactive operation of the project team, the cohesion and creativity exhibited by community members have also played an indelible role in pushing the project towards success. What Loot aims to try is to stimulate and unleash this unparalleled potential to create a completely decentralized project defined by the community.

From the very beginning, Loot did not intend to become an IP. It is a collection of character fields consisting of 8 lines of white text on a black background, without any images or colors. The charm of the text lies in its ability to present differently in everyone's mind; each person can use these character fields to construct the world as they understand it.

After the project launched, founder Dom almost completely stepped back from any project affairs. This behavior of placing no restrictions on any development and fully handing governance to the holders has also achieved true openness. As Vitalik said:

"Almost anything created by anyone will 'exist', but what really matters is how much others can build on top of it."

However, the advantages and weaknesses of this model are very apparent. Loot is like a pile of bricks; people can use it to construct various buildings, whether grand or intricate. It has an extremely high ceiling, and the underlying blockchain technology also endows it with composability, meaning that any other blockchain project in the future can quickly gain a large amount of traffic and content by incorporating Loot or combining it with other Loot projects.

If no one comes to discuss, use, design, and build, then Loot will ultimately become meaningless, not even a small image. At the same time, just as Rome was not built in a day, the initial construction and accumulation of the ecosystem also require a long journey; only by enduring can it accumulate and burst forth.

Fortunately, from the current situation, Loot is steadily accumulating and has gained recognition from many excellent developers and seasoned crypto enthusiasts. In the context of community autonomy, dozens of naturally formed teams are continuously contributing positively to the community, forming an open and organic free ecosystem.

3. Development Overview

3.1 Loot Secondary Market Situation

The trading price of Loot's first secondary market was only 0.05 ETH, which did not attract much attention in the NFT market at that time. Over the next 2 days, the price stabilized around 0.1 ETH.

But no one expected that starting from August 30, Loot entered a period of frenzied price increases, reaching a historical average daily trading price of 18.5 ETH on September 3, with the highest floor price of 20 ETH that day. However, the good times did not last long; in the following months, with the decline in popularity, the clearing of speculative profits, and the differences from mainstream concepts leading many players to struggle to understand the Loot ecosystem, market funds gradually withdrew, and the price fell to around 2 ETH by the end of 2021.

With the arrival of the bear market in 2022, Loot's price further declined, maintaining around 1 ETH before October 2022, and then dropping below 1 ETH after October.

Currently, Loot's price hovers around 0.7 ETH, with 2,520 holders and a historical total trading volume of 140,000 ETH, with a total market value of 82,200 ETH, ranking 16th in the market, but daily trading activity is relatively quiet.

3.2 Loot Core Series

• Loot (for Adventures)

  

  The main Loot, also known as OG Loot, was launched on August 25, 2021, with a total of 8,000 pieces, of which 7,779 are currently circulating in the market. Each NFT represents a loot bag containing 8 pieces of equipment, with each line of text describing the corresponding equipment: Weapons, Chest Armor, Head Armor, Waist Armor, Foot Armor, Hand Armor, Necklaces, Rings. However, the interpretation rights of the text descriptions are completely open; anyone can define the visual presentation or even the meaning itself.

• Synthetic Loot

  

  Synthetic Loot is not an NFT; it is a contract launched by Dom on September 2, 2021. Essentially, it is an algorithm that converts wallet addresses into random numbers, allowing more people to participate in Loot. Any address can obtain a set of Loot structure character fields through this algorithm, logically resembling the concept of Loot version of SBT soul-bound tokens, and any developer can call this contract to achieve interaction with Loot.

• More Loot (abbreviated as mLoot)

  

  More Loot is a derivative series launched by Dom on September 4, 2022, starting from number 8001, dynamically produced at 1/10 of Ethereum's block speed, with approximately 250,000 produced annually, totaling about 1.5 million. Currently, 135,335 have been minted. Users can choose to mint by number; aside from the difference in numbers, other attributes are the same as the main Loot.

• Genesis Adventures (for Loot)

  

  Genesis Adventures is a core product of the Genesis Project initiated by Loot's core community member @Timshel, and it is the first derivative series developed from the narrative level within the Loot ecosystem. It attempts to interpret the origins of Loot through the analysis of Loot's character fields, extracting the concept of "16 Orders" (16 factions/tribes) around Suffixes (similar to factions or tribes).

  Loot holders can Distill Loot with Suffixes fields to obtain intermediate products called “Genesis Mana” NFTs. By collecting 8 same-order Mana, they can awaken the corresponding “Genesis Adventure”, with a theoretical maximum of 2,540, of which only 628 have been awakened.

  This is a very interesting process, involving a lot of collaboration among community members and ecological organizations, including the timeline writing in collaboration with DivineDAO, issuing the $ATIME token, etc. It has ultimately gained widespread recognition within the ecosystem and has become a symbol of advanced identity in the Loot universe through narrative. In the future, it may even provide specific NFTs with identity stories and exclusive names through the Scroll project, forming a relationship akin to Zhuge Liang (GA) and ordinary citizens (Loot) in the Three Kingdoms universe, making it an extremely unique project.

3.3 Loot Related Token Situation

As an open ecosystem project, Loot has never released any official tokens. All related tokens are self-released by organizations and project parties within the Loot ecosystem. The two tokens with the highest market value are $AGLD, issued by Will Paper, and $LORD from the Loot Realms ecosystem:

• Adventure Gold ($AGLD) was first released by Will Paper on September 2, 2021 as the Loot ecosystem token, with a total of 77.26 million pieces, where each Loot can claim 10,000 pieces for free, reaching a maximum of $7/AGLD on the first trading day.

  Currently, $AGLD hovers around $0.5, with a FDV of $36.33 million and a circulating market value of $31.97 million.

  

  (Data source: Binance, as of 2023/02/18)

• Lords ($LORD) is the ecological token released by BibliothecaDAO, the core organization around the derivative project Loot Realms, launched in December 2021, with a total of 500 million pieces, of which 89.65 million have been issued.

  

  On February 1, 2023, the community completed the execution of the 7th governance proposal (BIP-7), selling 12.5 million $LORD at a price of $0.05, aiming to raise $625,000. This round was a private placement targeting the community, ultimately raising $3.97 million, 6.35 times oversubscribed. After refunding the oversubscribed portion, the secondary market price of $LORD quickly rose from $0.09 to a peak of $0.169.

  Currently, the price of $LORD fluctuates around $0.13, with a FDV of $12.22 million and a circulating market value of $6.94 million.

  

  (Data source: DexGuru, as of 2023/02/18)

4. The Narrative and Ecosystem of Loot

After founding Loot, Dom has almost not intervened in its development, choosing instead to let it grow naturally. In this process, many excellent contributors and community organizations have gradually emerged, especially Timshel @TimshelXYZ and Loaf @lordOfAFew, who have become core figures and even spiritual leaders in the Loot ecosystem through their continuous positive contributions to the community, leading it forward. Currently, Timshel focuses more on the macro narrative depiction and development of the Loot universe, while Loaf assists in bringing Loot ecosystem-related products to fruition.

4.1 Narrative: Loot.Foundation

It is important to reiterate that Loot does not have an official narrative; therefore, gaining recognition and consensus from other community participants is what truly matters, which requires continuous contributions and quality outputs.

In the entire narrative expansion process, Timshel has undoubtedly played a crucial role. The Loot.Foundation he initiated is currently the base for community contributors, and through early in-depth exploration of attributes and contracts, the Loot universe they have interpreted has become the mainstream narrative today.

In this narrative, "cyclicality" is the backdrop of the world. Loot is the relic of predecessors, accidentally discovered by later generations, who gain new insights through continuous learning and understanding of these relics, creating new things and exploring further boundaries under the guidance of these insights, while also making the Loot in their hands more powerful. The generational cycle has a beginning and an end, and under the generational alternation and cyclicality, we have arrived at the third cycle, which is the era of "us."

On the Loot.Foundation website, you can see that the descriptions of each period only provide a rough framework, leaving a lot of blanks for anyone to fill in and expand upon the historical stories and directions.

To promote the development of certain content, Timshel even initiated a new project “Open Quil” specifically to collect and evaluate quality creative content, while “Genesis Scroll” is a content expansion project targeting the first cycle "The Genesis Era."

Genesis Scroll was first initiated in the Loot community forum Loot-talk and later continued on the openquil platform. It is an open narrative co-creation project for everyone, where participants can freely express their imagination around the world of the Genesis Era, creating content about characters, families, wars, poetry, etc.

If we compare Loot to the "Three Kingdoms," then Genesis Adventures is like the generals who left their marks in history, while Genesis Scroll depicts the entire period's "Records of the Three Kingdoms," which may include different chapters just like "Records of the Three Kingdoms: Shu Book: Zhuge Liang Biography." Loot can also have "Genesis Scrolls: The Fox: Raeven."

Currently, Genesis Scrolls has successfully completed three rounds of Writing Grants, with the main sponsors of this round including the Loot community, Genesis community, Realms community, and other Loot ecosystem projects. Meanwhile, Mask Network, as a core supporter of decentralized narratives, has also provided $10,000 in funding. So far, Scrolls has accumulated over 100,000 words of rich content.

However, this does not mean that the interpretations of Loot Foundation will be the only version. One of the most interesting features of Loot is its open narrative ecology. Loot essentially does not provide any substantial elements; rather, it offers clues pointing to elements, and the interpretation of these clues can ultimately have countless versions. A simple analogy would be the national treasure Mahjong; regardless of the strange rules, as long as someone is willing to participate, the rules are established.

If we consider this, it is not impossible for a brand new Eastern fantasy version of Loot narrative to emerge in the future, as long as the content is captivating enough and contributors can gain recognition from other participants, it can also gather an ecosystem around that narrative. After all, "the greatest significance lies in being believed."

4.2 Ecosystem Situation

Loot's broad inclusivity attracted a large number of derivative projects from the very beginning. Even though many projects did not continue to develop, they still built a vast Lootverse. For detailed project information within the ecosystem, you can check the Resources on the Loot website and Loot Watcher. Additionally, I recommend this article titled “BAYC to the Left, Loot to the Right: Exploring the Ecosystem Development of Loot Eight Months After Its Birth” written by Hill, a core contributor from the Loot Chinese community, for a detailed understanding. This section will only provide a brief introduction.

Basically, after a relatively long period of time, the projects and organizations that still persist in the Loot ecosystem have good development or content output capabilities, as well as a sincere belief in the Loot philosophy. Some of the relatively active projects/organizations in the current Loot ecosystem include:

• Loot Realms (Bibliotheca DAO)

  

  Loot Realms is currently a land derivative project managed by Bibliotheca DAO, launched on September 14, 2021, with a total of 8,000 pieces. Bibliotheca DAO is a decentralized open-source game studio developed around the StarkNet ecosystem, with a relatively clear roadmap. They plan to develop two products around Realms. On January 31, 2023, they conducted a private fundraising round, achieving an oversubscription of 6.35 times, successfully raising $625,000. They are currently in the internal testing and development of the on-chain game Realms: Eternum. (See 4.5 for details)

• Crypts & Caverns

  This is also a land derivative project of Loot, launched in November 2021, with a total of 9,000 pieces. Compared to Realms' urban territories, Caverns develops towards smaller maps. Each Crypts & Caverns is a randomly generated "seed-shaped" dungeon map, continuing the underlying "clue" concept of the Loot ecosystem. This means that any developer can call its contract to create their own front-end visualization, generating random dungeons. For example, the game Hero.fun uses the metadata of Crypts & Caverns to create a dungeon-like mini-game similar to Beacon.

  

  Currently, C&C is continuously trying new ideas and actively collaborating with Realms. In the future, a very interesting model may emerge, such as Loot holders entering random C&C dungeons for battles. If they win, they will take away the loot from the dungeon; if they die, the dungeon will gain experience, and the equipment on them will be consumed by the dungeon, rewarding the corresponding C&C holders.

• HyperLoot

  HyperLoot is one of the higher-quality Loot visualization projects, launched in April 2022. All Loot, mLoot, and GA holders can mint a corresponding HyperLoot NFT for 0.05 ETH, with a total of 20,000 pieces, of which 8,585 have been minted.

  Perhaps due to the co-founder's background as a seasoned art director with rich experience in game character design (having participated in projects like Hearthstone, Clash Royale, and NetEase's Harry Potter), HyperLoot has a more widely accepted art style compared to other visualization projects, along with a clearer roadmap and progress.

  On February 10, 2023, they announced their latest progress, having completed the 3D modeling of all HyperLoot NFTs. Soon, original holders will be able to upgrade their NFTs to 3D versions, and their self-developed mobile game "HyperLoot: CC0 Wars game" is also about to launch. From the revealed information, the art style is somewhat similar to Clash Royale and Brawl Stars, and it will be a MOBA mobile game with OCA assets on-chain.

  

• LootMMO

  LootMMO is an MMORPG game developed on the open-source game engine CORE (underlying UE) based on the Loot ecosystem, integrating many projects within the Loot ecosystem. Although it has not yet achieved a fully on-chain form, its open-source nature has attracted and encouraged many developers to participate in the game's construction.

  From the gameplay videos on the official website, LootMMO already shows a relatively good game presentation, with an art style reminiscent of World of Warcraft. I am also very much looking forward to the game experience that can be presented as the narrative of the Loot universe expands in the future.

  

• The Crypt Game

  The Crypt is a fully on-chain game in the Loot ecosystem developed by the web3 game studio PlaymintUK (which completed a $4 million seed round in April 2022). Players need to hold Loot, mLoot, or GA to participate in the game. The game mechanics are relatively simple, mainly involving players cooperating to raid dungeons to obtain NFT loot.

  Currently, the game has opened three chapters, each with slightly different mechanics, but there have been no further developments announced recently.

• Banners

  Banners is a collection of 10,600 flag NFTs aimed at becoming the social layer within the Loot ecosystem. They represent the factions and aspirations of characters in the Lootverse as specific icons, with the flags carrying their will.

  Banners are currently active content producers in the ecosystem, often appearing in Scroll expansions and other writings.

• The Rift

  The Rift is a foundational infrastructure of the DID type within the Loot ecosystem, which assigns experience points to each Loot NFT. When Loot interacts with projects within the ecosystem, it can gain certain experience points, which can be referenced by other derivative projects to grant more powerful functions.

  It provides a solution for value accumulation within the Loot ecosystem, and The Rift also participated in the EIP-5050 proposal, creating a new way to facilitate interactions between NFTs.

5. On-chain Civilization: Loot Realms

Realms is currently one of the core projects in the Loot ecosystem, and as it develops, it has also grown into a vibrant ecosystem. Realms is actively developing two fully on-chain game projects: Realms: Eternum and Realms: Adventurers.

5.1 Realms: Eternum

Eternum is a sandbox-style strategic simulation game similar to "Civilization," adopting a fully on-chain model. Players need to hold at least 1 Realms to play the game. In the game, players will act as lords of their territories, increasing their strength through resource acquisition and management, involving construction, trading, invasion, and defense in player-versus-player competition. It has already launched on the StarkNet testnet, and you can experience it here.

Based on the overall experience, the game already has a relatively clear structure and logic. If the underlying narrative of Loot is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, then Eternum is akin to the game "Records of the Three Kingdoms." Although there is still room for improvement in the interactive experience, and due to Starknet still being in the testnet throttling phase, the transaction confirmation time from L2 to L1 is quite long, Eternum still demonstrates a commendable performance as one of the few fully on-chain games.

Additionally, its economic model has also completed preliminary design, which can create good synergy with Loot ecosystem NFTs and its own ecological token $LORD. After going live on the mainnet, holders of both Realms and C&C NFTs will be able to generate continuous asset output, and the assets can be sold for $LORD. Currently, the game has also completed the AMM market for assets, and I believe the future economic system will present a good performance.

As the narrative of the Loot ecosystem further integrates in the future, such as Loot, GA, etc., the game's model and scale will likely become richer over time, making it a project worth paying attention to.

5.2 Realms: Adventurers

According to team disclosures, the plan for Adventurers is to become a fully on-chain RPG game platform, providing various tools for developers to quickly integrate Loot ecosystem projects and complete RPG game development, such as integrating C&C dungeons, where players can control characters to explore different dungeons and obtain NFT assets and $LORD.

Interestingly, the team is eager to incorporate the concept of "risk," meaning players can choose to cash out during their exploration or continue deeper exploration. However, if they die, they will lose some/all of their assets, and the corresponding NPC or developer will receive that portion of the assets as a reward (for example, the corresponding C&C holders). The team refers to this model as "Play 2 Die," which adds an element of competition to the overall game.

However, since Adventurers is still in the closed development phase, the ideas are still being validated, and we will have to wait and see how it ultimately presents in the future.

Finally, the overall Loot ecosystem is also starting to collaborate more with Starkware. As a gathering place for fully on-chain games, StarkNet's "on-chain Steam" Catridge and "fully on-chain game incubator" MatchboxDAO are also worth paying attention to.

To be continued…

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