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.”