Bitmates. An example of #BUIDLing - Issue #5
This the fifth in a series of posts that had been originally published on Revue.co With Revue shutting down, the Bored Ape Games on Chain blog/newsletter is moving here and will be mirrored at thechaingamer.eth on Mirror.
This article was originally published on Apr 10, 2022
Welcome to my newsletter, Bored Ape Games on Chain.
I’m going to be focusing on the intersection of blockchain and gaming. I believe we’re going to see tremendous growth in this area over the coming years and I hope to document some of that here and share it with you, the community.
In this issue, I wanted to talk about a game that I’ve mentioned before on twitter when I did a short thread on it, called BitMates, a blockchain MMORPG which has been under development for about 7 months.
I’ve been following the project since its inception and recently spoke to the team about it. Let’s dive in!
Yet Another Blockchain MMORPG
It’s hard not to be skeptical when you hear about blockchain MMORPGs. This is a genre that is super hard to get right, takes a lot of time to build and is probably the most difficult “first” game project you start with.
There are two MMOs that I’m bullish on. Treeverse by the Wizard himself (wrote about it and talked to Loop a while ago, check it out here), and BitMates.
I remember seeing the BitMates site near their mint window and liked the pixel art, but decided not to mint any and just watch from the sidelines. The discord was slow, the team was not super active on Twitter, and not well known.
They minted out and I FOMO’d a bit 😂 and then the floor started falling.
It was on the 25th of September that I finally aped in, grabbing four. I had been lurking in the discord, watching the progress, keeping up with the Medium posts, and the floor prices were too good to miss out on.
I started to cover BitMates over the next few months during my BAGC Daily NFT Updates.
There was a camp mini-game on the website where you could interact with your BitMates, Tamagotchi style.
Since the MMORPG was (understandably) taking a long time and updates were slow, the team released an arcade style game called Ogun’s Wrath. Fun game, felt like a nice throwback to the arcade games of old.
The Main Event
All this while, the team was making progress on the MMO. I’ve shared a couple of GIFs from the BitMates Medium Monthly Dev updates.
Elda the Chef!
Pixel art projects can become super involved activities, and the team is certainly trying to something ambitious here with the game. The quality and detail of the assets is another thing that stood out for me. Having personally worked on several pixel art indie game projects (via my indie studio - Forgotten Machine), I know how much work is involved.
BitMates - 8 Directional Walk Cycle
The 8 directional walk cycle is an example of the thorough work done by the team. You can take a look at the Medium posts for more GIFs and art assets! They detail the custom Unity3D tools made by the team to make the process more efficient.
A Conversation with 0xFlayed & Napalm
I reached out one of the founders, 0xFlayed and we had a good chat over Discord about what the team was working on.
Napalm & 0xFlayed mentioned that the entire team, currently 12 people, some full-time, some contract are all focused on the MVP of the MMORPG and so won’t be releasing more mini-games like the camping & Ogun’s Wrath until the MVP launches.
0xFlayed talked about how a lot of the team’s development focus has been on networking, building their custom Java based backend, and so the initial scope of the release is going to narrow in terms of playing time.
They likened it to the initial release of Worldwide Webb where players will connect, run around, meet friends, play mini-games and do some questing.
Along with the development of the game, the team is also exploring different L2s for scaling the game and allowing for in-game items to be traded on the blockchain itself.
The latest dev update detailed the upcoming land drop which is going to be a 1:1 drop for each Bitmate. Each piece of land will have a unique look and feel, as well as unique resources, thereby enabling an economy where trading will be essential.
0xFlayed mentioned the team is making a big push and trying to get the MVP out in the 3 months.
Closing Remarks
I’m looking forward to trying it out and would definitely recommend you do the same. This is a team that has been #BUIDLing above all else. Very little time and resources have been invested in marketing or creating hype around the project which is why the floor is where it is at the moment, around 0.1 ETH.
It is still so early in the blockchain gaming space that it is quite impossible to tell who will succeed and who will fail. Seeing projects like BitMates makes me bullish on the future of the ecosystem though, and that feels good 😊!
Official Resources:
Join the metaverse with a collectible BitMate NFT– 10,000 algorithmically generated NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Read writing from Bitmates on Medium. Every day, Bitmates and thousands of other voices read, write, and share important stories on Medium.
Bitmates (@BitmatesNFT) | Twitter
The latest Tweets from Bitmates (@BitmatesNFT). Massive multiplayer NFT-based game on the Ethereum blockchain. 10,000 Bitmates roaming the metaverse.
DISCLAIMER
I own 4 BitMates that I purchased back in September last year. I have not traded any BitMates apart from the 4 that I bought and have held.