Presented by AppsFlyer
Web3 games offer new opportunities for developers, but also new challenges. Get started on the right foot with this VB On-Demand event, where industry experts take an in-depth look at the Web3 gaming world, from what it actually means to how it works and more.
Even in the midst of an economic downturn and a crypto winter, Web3 is a hot topic. It offers developers new opportunities and a chance to become pioneers in an entirely new market. In this on-demand webinar, a panel of industry experts, along with GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi, took a closer look at the capabilities of Web3 and its unique, transformative benefits for players and developers alike.
“Aside from the economy and the crypto winter, we need to look at Web3 from a completely different lens – we are going to see the opportunities Web3 brings to games,” said John Liu, lead product, AWS Web3/Blockchain.
The first, of course, is ownership of digital assets that players have actually invested in, whether that’s a custom digital skin or a player character. Gamers now have more direct participation in the value they add to the game. The second is the interoperability enabled by Web3, where gaming partnerships allow users to carry the resources they’ve invested in across a gaming ecosystem. Because Web3 is built on a public blockchain using an interoperable standard, it is significantly easier to exchange information between games.
But it’s still an emerging industry, with some challenges.
The biggest challenges of Web3 games
Right out of the gate, the big challenge is learning a new set of technologies that allow developers to build the game, integrate layers, achieve scalability, and more. CryptoBlades CEO Philip Devine notes that when his development team moved from Web2 to Web3 in early 2021, they struggled with the lack of a technology stack.
“General things that were part of our game development strategy and pipeline in Web2 weren’t even available or made yet in terms of tooling for Web3 game development,” says Devine. “Everything from continuous integration and QA testing and things like that — it’s a very immature technology right now. We have had to invest a lot of our time developing it ourselves, which takes away time that we could spend on game design and development or improving the user experience.”
From a gaming perspective, players will also encounter a learning curve with the number of new blockchain primitives to learn, such as self-custodial or non-custodial wallets and private key management. Finally, there is the impact on the gaming economy with the introduction of external forces such as the decentralized exchanges for tokens and external markets where players can now sell these digital assets.
User acquisition is another challenge in Web3, especially with the tokenomics, for-profit, play-to-earn aspects of the game popping up alongside a game’s old-fashioned purpose of playing for fun, said Alex Yip, senior solution architect at AppsFlyer.
“If people start looking at that as another reason they play a game, it changes the complexity of the user journey and the reason they get involved,” says Yip. “The same goes for the NFT side, where people invest in these games and own a piece of the game. There is a certain level of community, representation and identity of the items that people buy.”
Moving from Web2 gameplay to Web3 gameplay requires understanding how to integrate new features and functions, such as wallets, in a way that doesn’t interfere with gameplay. But while developers struggle with ways to integrate those elements seamlessly, it’s also important to keep in mind that they change gameplay irrevocably, adding an extra level of complexity.
Marketing a Web3 game
There are three macro stages to getting a Web3 game to market, says Justin Vogel, co-founder of Safary. The first is the development phase, where you don’t have a playable game yet, but you focus on native web3 marketing to build the base community, mainly using a non-paid marketing strategy.
Next is the soft launch playbook stage, which is very similar to Web2, where a game prototype is born and launched into the world for users to play. At this stage, the developer collects game engagement information from those thousands of regular players to understand how the game will perform.
The last step is the monetization phase, where you make sure that the game will be profitable. Here, a developer should be able to test user acquisition at scale to determine if your targeted download metric is achieving your goals.
The most unique part of blockchain user acquisition, the focus on the early adoption of players evangelizing your game is also challenging because it is so early.
“When it comes to early stage community growth, we all figure it out along the way,” says Vogel. “Many of these scenarios change every four to six months. Phase one revolves around social proof marketing. This is when we do a lot of research on players and develop creative material. The best communities come from thoughtful research and investment. There are few shortcuts.”
Web3 community building is not only about how a gaming brand interacts with its audience, but also about how a brand facilitates experiences for and between members. As engagement kicks in, it can form incentive structures around lower-level admission lists, intermediate-level private AMAs to allow people to interact one-on-one, and highly customized experiences at the highest levels, and so on.
“The level of control, involvement and passion people have with the games will determine the direction of these projects,” says Yip.
Don’t miss this VB On-Demand event to learn more about how to harness the power of community, design a game and game economy that balances profit and playability, and more!
Watch here for free, on demand!
agenda
- What Web3 is and how Web3 games work
- How to tap into new growth opportunities and solutions
- Best practices for connecting and onboarding users
- Navigating the fragmented platform landscape
- Why measurement and attribution are crucial from the start
Presenters
- Phillip DevinCEO, Crypto Blades
- Justin BirdCo-founder, Safari
- John LiuMain Product, AWS Web3 / Blockchain
- Alex KipSenior Solution Architect, AppsFlyer
- Dean TakahashiLead Writer, GamesBeat (Moderator)
