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Sergey Pokrishka Excited to Bring Autobattler Tower Defense Game Mercenary Battlegrounds to Alien Worlds

Enterprising game developers are increasingly bringing their games to Alien Worlds, drawn in by the prospect of interacting with a growing and engaged player base, not to mention the captivating sci-fi lore. Whether it’s epic cosmic odyssey Battlefleet Armageddon, retro style clicker Milky Way Miner, or Battledome, the free-for-all card battler, these quality mini games offer plenty of choice and another avenue for deploying NFTs and earning rewards.

One of the latest titles to enter the Alien Worlds Arena is Mercenary Battlegrounds, an online autobattler tower defense game in which players can fend off monsters, earn resources to strategically upgrade their towers or unlock new ones, and summon powerful heroes to aid them in combat. Excitingly, Mercenary Battlegrounds will be hosting a four-week-long competition from January 20, with 15,000 TLM in weekly rewards up for grabs (more info here).

The project’s Chief Technology Officer, Sergey Pokryshka, holds a postgraduate in computer science and is no stranger to Alien Worlds having been introduced to the game in April 2021. “It was the first blockchain gaming project I was aware of, the first large-scale web3 game with free entry, and I was very passionate about it,” he says. “I recognized its potential and various opportunities for growth. Later, my active participation in the community led to me being invited to become moderator in the official Russian-language Telegram channel.”

Let the Battle Begin

For Sergey, interacting with Alien Worlds was akin to opening a Pandora’s box as the differences between web2 and web3 came into sharp focus. “The main problem of web2 gaming is that all assets are in the hands of their creators, unlike those in Alien Worlds which are available as NFTs and belong to players who can dispose of them as they wish,” he explains.

Given his fondness for gaming, familiarity with the Alien Worlds ecosystem, and a decade of programming experience, building a high-quality game that snugly fit into the metaverse was a no-brainer for Sergey. After fleshing out the concept, the idea was taken to Galactic Hubs and a grant for building it duly obtained.

So, what can players expect from Mercenary Battlegrounds? In a nutshell, the Steam mini-game compels players to strategically assemble defensive tower fortifications along a path to deter the advancing enemy. Each tower has its own strengths and weaknesses, and players must carefully decide which towers to build to repel the militant forces bearing down on them. The initial release features four classes of units encompassing Robots, Undeads, Biologicals, and Elementals, and with half a dozen NFT units per class, there are endless combinations and gameplay diversity.

“The genre was born from custom maps from Warcraft 3 in the early 2000s,” Sergey says. “The first and most famous map is Legion TD, which is still evolving and available as a standalone game on Steam. It has no connection to blockchain and is distributed on a paid basis with an audience of thousands. However, Mercenary Battlegrounds is free-to-play and play-to-earn with free entry for everyone. Both games – Mercenary Battlegrounds and Legion TD 2 – were developed by a small team of just a few people.”

With successful tower defenses, players accumulate experience and increase their odds of additional rewards including $MBGR, with the amount dependent on the strategy demonstrated during attacks: every decision is tracked to calculate reward totals, and all technical formulas will be publicly available later on the game’s website and in its Gitbook documentation.

“Players do not directly control the battle but act as a commander, placing defense towers on the tactical grid before the start of each wave of attack,” adds Sergey. “The main idea is to protect your base and destroy the enemy’s base; to do that, you have to not only strategize on the tactical grid building towers but also conduct economic strategy – extracting resources, improving the base and sending additional troops to the enemy side, called Mercenaries in our game.

“There will also be tournaments where players can compete for Trilium, WAX and NFTs, and get the opportunity to earn a small reward for each round of advancement in the grid except for the first one. We will use the single elimination system which is known by many people, and we are currently developing automated tournaments. To emphasize, tournaments will be fully automated; players only need to track their position in the standings and play a match with a declared opponent. After that, the system automatically promotes the player on the table and triggers the rewards.”

Trilium is not the only Alien Worlds asset featured in the game: Sergey explains that his team has 3D modeled six NFT characters from the metaverse, including Grey Peacemaker, Terminator V17, Wise Ancient One, Nordic Warrior, Enhanced Reptiloid and Storm Giant.

“These six towers make up the Alien Worlds Towers Pack in Mercenary Battlegrounds, which you can get only if you have NFTs from the category crew.worlds, through the website of the game. By staking these NFTs, you earn a certain number of points and can collect the Towers Pack. After that, the pack can be played in the game. This is a unique set of towers, so only those who participate in the Alien Worlds meta universe will be able to acquire them and use them against others.”

Perhaps one of the coolest things about Mercenary Battlegrounds is that players can get up and running without a web3 wallet: all they have to do is download the game client to their PC, register an account using an e-mail, and log in. Thereafter, it’s possible to dive straight into battle with a set of standard tower units to get a feel for the gameplay and start earning experience, tokens, NFTs and other rewards.

Of course, claiming (i.e. withdrawing) such earned assets requires a compatible WAX wallet, with the player free to participate in this blockchain component whenever they wish.

Syndicates and Lore

Aside from the obvious questions concerning the developer’s experience, passion, and motivation for building the game, Alien Worlds project launches tend to generate queries related to the role of Planetary Syndicates. But as Sergey explains, Syndicates have already played a meaningful role in the journey to this point.

“Custodians from Naron were among the first to believe in our project and help with initial funding,” he explains. “Without them, the development probably would not have started.

“Otherwise, Syndicates can sponsor tournaments and draw attention to the planets of Alien Worlds and the meta universe in general, as Mercenary Battlegrounds will be played by people who aren’t yet involved in the blockchain sphere. In terms of creating various events, there are lots of potential opportunities. For example, we can host “Syndicate Days” where there will be a reward in the form of an intra-planetary token for victories in the game. If today is “Naron Day,” NAR tokens could be provided to players who stake TLM to Naron. We welcome any ideas from Syndicates and we are open to any kind of cooperation.”

Another pertinent question concerns lore. With Alien Worlds mythology having recently received a major refresh, and the emergence of on-chain Tokenized Lore voting, are there plans to integrate the game’s mythology deeply into Mercenary Battlegrounds?

“Oh, that’s a good question,” Sergey says. “Initially we considered battles on different planets – currently a planet from our game universe is called Equory; we wanted to integrate other Alien Worlds planets because battles on these planets could bring not only rewards in the form of in-game tokens and experience but also the intra-planetary token NAR, if Naron was added, for example. Syndicates could also manage the quantity and quality of rewards directly for battles on these planets. But unfortunately we had to pause this idea due to a shortage of hands in development and funding; as experienced developers, we try not to bite off more than we can chew and announce only things we are definitely able to release.

“As for lore in general, we have DLC (downloadable content) planned in the form of single-player story campaigns following the release of the main game, where the story of various mercenaries from Mercenary Battlegrounds will be told. Similar to the game towers from the Alien Worlds Pack, we can create Mercenaries from the Alien Worlds meta universe and tell their story in the form of story DLC. If Dacoco is interested in this promotion of Alien Worlds lore in our game, I think we can make these ideas real.”

Before concluding our conversation, Sergey reiterates his love of web3 gaming, noting that blockchain gives players and developers “more freedom, openness and transparency” since all transactions are made on-chain. “Unlike web2 gaming in which the player confirms he owns nothing in the game by signing the EULA (end user license agreement) and can be blocked without explanation, with the removal of all the game assets!”

Fans of autobattler tower defense games should keep a close eye on our channels to stay informed about Mercenary Battlegrounds’ release. The game’s official Telegram page is here. With thanks to Sergey Pokryshka for generously offering his time.