It’s not a blockchain game. In fact, it’s a game that predates the advent of blockchain by quite a few years. Turning 23 this year, The Age of Kings was released in September 1999, and it exceeded Microsoft’s sales estimates by a massive amount, selling millions when they expected to sell a few hundred thousand.

So why am I writing about it? Because it’s an extremely important game from a historical perspective. AoE 2 is also an amazing example of how a passionate community of players can not only save a game, but make it thrive!

It's easy to talk about any project when the space is hot. Everything is going up and no one really stops to question how or why it's happening and whether or not it's sustainable.

I got into @AxieInfinity in '21 while exploring blockchain gaming. P2E was the biggest thing. I got some Axies, played the game, gave a bunch of scholarships, saw Axies go up in price, $SLP to 30 cents etc. and then saw it all come crashing down.

Parallel is a collectable card game that has been in development for at least 2 years now. It's a collectable card game (CCG) that had several pack drops to onboard early supporters and they're now getting close to releasing an early, playable version of the game to testers.

In this post, we'll talk about the backstory of the Parallel universe, all the cards released so far, what's the latest going in Parallel land, and more.

With the crazy bull run we had last year, you could have spent 8 ETH minting 100 BAYC and made 1500 ETH ($60MM), and now with the bear market, that 1500 ETH is probably down to 800 ETH ($12.3MM). The bear market is usually a good time for reflection and we should focus on why we’re really here.

Personally, I want to build a strong foundation for Web3. Whether it’s products, or games, or anything else. The concept of decentralization really appeals for me, and though I don’t believe we will magically have this perfect new internet all of a sudden, I do believe that it can be better than what we currently have. Even if only slightly.

I’m involved in several projects which I feel will provide real utility.

I got sucked into the world of games when my dad got my sister & I the NES. Ever since then, I became obsessed with games. On the PC, on different consoles. From the Sega MegaDrive to various Gameboys to the PlayStation. From Dangerous Dave to Commander Keen and Gods etc.

Back in 2000, my brother gave me a PC gaming magazine that had a Demo CD through which I discovered Age of Empires II. The Demo wasn’t enough for either of us. One of my fondest memories of that trip to Austin is browsing the games section at CompUSA (RIP) to get Age of Empires 2. For the next several years AoE II + The Conquerors was my go-to game. I went from playing against the AI using “how do you turn this on” to 1 v 3’ing them on hardest and playing multiplayer on the MSN Gaming Zone. It was the perfect game.

Three of the team members are game designers and Pokémon Pros. One of the Kuroro Beasts articles I found most interesting on their blog was “Kuroro Beasts Competitive Vision” written by one of the designers, Serapis.

The article provides a great overview of the tried and tested Pokémon competitive mechanics and then goes on to talk about the pillars of Kuroro Beasts and how they plan to make the game attractive for investors, players as well as supporters.

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.

Simply put, on-chain games are a genre of blockchain games where all the actions of the player(s) are recorded on the blockchain.

Taking an RPG example, my character levels up and I get 3 skill points to allocate across STR, DEX, INT. I would make my selection, choosing where to spend my skill points & once ready, I would interact with the blockchain this imaginary RPG is deployed on, and via a smart contract I would record the new stats of my character. These new stats would now be stored “on chain”.

We’ve covered games that are out so far, but there’s one game that I’ve been really been looking forward to throughout 2021. It’s not an understatement to say Treeverse is probably the game I’m excited for most in 2022.

Legends of Venari stood out to me when I first came across it. I really liked the website and graphics. I got Pokémon vibes which made me want to learn more!

Voxie Tactics by AlwaysGeeky Games, is an indie turn-based tactics RPG inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics. The game is currently in development, but a playable demo that was released on the 21st of October 2021.