3 Onchain Games to Tell Your Fam About During Thanksgiving

November 23rd, 2023

Gm and Happy Thanksgiving!

It may be a holiday here in the US, but WASD didn’t get the memo – We still have an article for you all!

However, since many of you will likely be full from the feast and having fun with your families, today's piece will be lighter.

In it, the legend 0xAkina will discuss three of his favorite onchain games!

As usual, Akina does a great job breaking things down.

He also provides you with some good Thanksgiving conversation material.

If you’re looking to onchain game pill your fam (or you’re looking to redirect a conversation with an annoying relative) you can share some of his picks!

(I may or may not employ that latter strategy myself)

Before diving into it, in the spirit of today, I want to thank every WASD reader, subscriber, collector, and community member for their support.

I’m incredibly grateful for it, and the time you’ve all given me these past few months.

❤️

We’re just getting started – And I can’t wait for what’s to come :)

Now…let’s get to Akina’s piece!

-FaultProofBen

Author: 0xAkina

It’s good to see you again, gamers!

It’s me, your humble writer and avid onchain gamer, Akina.

I’ve spent the past few pieces discussing infrastructure or games within specific ecosystems like Optimism or Starknet.

Today, I’ll escape from these self-imposed confines and look at three of my favorite (or most anticipated) games across all ecosystems.

Let’s dive in!

Pirate Nation

Pirate Nation is a pirate-themed RPG developed by Proof Of Play.

In the game, you complete quests, craft NFT items, and battle enemy ships in PVE combat.

Under the hull, Pirate Nation is a true multichain game. Its playable characters (represented by NFTs) live on Ethereum L1, while its game contracts reside on Arbitrum Nova.

I’m a big fan of Pirate Nation – It’s one of my favorite onchain games at the moment.

The quest system is engaging, while the grind to craft and flex an item is rewarding. Personally, I’m trying to get a Galleon Ship, but still facing some challenges in doing so.

The Proof Of Play team is also quite impressive, with great communication skills and an extensive Web2 gaming background.

They’re now well capitalized, as Proof of Play raised $33 million in a recent round led by a16z Crypto and Greenoak to help provide them with ammo to grow the game and ecosystem.

However, despite Pirate Nation’s fun gameplay and strong team, I do have some issues with it.

These mostly center around the game’s pay-to-win dynamics, as items are tradable on secondary marketplaces.

However, the game tries to mitigate this by implementing an energy system, where players can only take a finite number of actions, and making certain resources soulbound.

Tarochi

Tarochi is a highly anticipated onchain monster-tamer RPG built by Paima Studios with the Paima Engine.

Tarochi is similar to Pokemon, as players capture monsters and battle them against each other in PVP combat. These monsters are represented by stateful NFTs, whose metadata updates are based on a player’s in-game actions.

Paima Studios has been holding a private alpha for Tarochi, though they showcased some demos last week at Devconnect.

The game is also gearing up for a public alpha later this month, which will contain about 1-2 hours of gameplay.

This release will include several new updates, including the ability to switch monsters during battles and a new menu system.

These additions should add new layers of strategy to combat, and provide players with greater access to the information they may need to play and win.

Based on what I’ve seen, Tarochi gives me nostalgic Pokémon vibes and brings back old memories.

Given that I’m a big fan of the Paima Engine and team, I think it has a shot at being one of my favorite onchain games if more multiplayer features are integrated.

Primodium

Primodium is an engaging strategy and resource management game where players mine, create factories, and engage in combat to accumulate resources and reach the top of the in-game leaderboard.

The game is developed by Emerson Hsieh and Tax Cuts, and currently live on a Caldera testnet.

We talk a lot about Primodium here on WASD, and for good reason.

The game’s latest updates have been sick, adding new features and making its gameplay more cooperative.

For instance, in the latest one, you can:

Form onchain alliances with other players
Protect resources from raids
Build giant shield generators
Blow up Pirate asteroids

And more!

Although I’m not the best at it (and it has a steep learning curve), I’ve still had a lot of fun with Primodium.

It’s one of a handful of onchain games that you can sink tons of hours into, and the leaderboard helps amp up the competition and motivate you to keep progressing.

Furthermore, there’s a ton to like for strategy fans, as you’ll have to decide how to build out your base, allocate resources, and which players to raid.