Alien Worlds is many things to many people. A mining game. An NFT collection. A staking project. A governance experiment. Since master storyteller Kevin J. Anderson came onboard to revamp Alien the lore in 2023, though, it’s becoming something more: a living, breathing sci-fi franchise.
Lore – defined as the creative elements (characters, stories, history) unique to Alien Worlds – is what makes the metaverse a coherent ecosystem rather than a disparate hodgepodge of Web3 mechanics. Think about it: mining Trilium, building an NFT collection, participating in DAO governance, competing in tournaments: all these elements work together because they’re rooted in a shared sci-fi narrative. It’s the story that makes everything click, the lore that pulls players deeper every time they connect their wallet.
Since Kevin J. Anderson outlined the alien races and interstellar conflicts that characterize life on the six frontier planets, the community has taken the baton, submitting over 130 stories for review. At the time of writing, dozens have been officially canonized by the Lore DAO – making them beyond reproach. With every submission, the connective tissue holding Alien Worlds grows stronger.
Building the Backstory
Although Anderson’s 16-page Lore Treatment breathed fresh life into the sci-fi DNA of Alien Worlds, there was plenty of continuity: the willowy, enigmatic Altan race, for example, clearly derived from the Greys. The subsequent publication of a Tokenized Lore Book, meanwhile, provided a visual insight into the alien races, vehicles, and architectures, giving creators a strong foundation upon which to add their own creations.
The same decentralized architecture that permits players to occupy a seat at the powerbrokers’ table in the governance-focused Syndicate and Union DAOs, also ensures a broad church where lore is concerned. Submitting a story is easy, with a Lore Librarian vetting contributions to ensure conformity with the official canon. As with the other DAOs, players stake TLM to decide whether a story deserves to be woven into the fabric of Alien Worlds.
It should be noted that players can leverage another resource, other than the Lore Treatment and Lore Book, to write stories. Lynx, a Discord-based LLM trained on the canon, can be utilized to generate ideas, answer queries, and cross-check stories for inconsistencies. It’s a system designed to enable smooth passage for submissions that genuinely bring something fresh and exciting to the existing material.
Speaking of fresh and exciting content, the media inspired by lore now includes both games and comics, with multiple indie developers weaving stories and characters into their projects. Without the lore, these developers would be whistling in the dark.
Starblind is a great example: set in the Magor prison colony Grimstone, this comic book series follows a tight-knit crew searching for a hidden Trilium deposit. A forgeable NFT-based comic with nine rarity tiers and unique generated covers, Starblind features several races outlined in the Lore Treatment including an Onoros and Elgem. What’s more, the story will soon be gamified in the upcoming first-person shooter Siege Worlds.
In addition to Starblind, the revamped lore has featured in the auto-battler Battlefleet Armageddon and Meta Battler, a deck-building game that introduced new NFTs featuring races grounded in the foundational material. As more developers build on the lore scaffolding, the sense of community and shared purpose will only intensify.
Blending Mechanics with Story
As mentioned at the outset, Alien Worlds is about mining, collecting, staking, and governance – but lore confers import on all of these endeavors. Take NFTs, for example: while their scarcity and functionality gives them broad appeal, it’s the lore that provides their substance. A mining tool is used primarily to procure Trilium, but now players can explore the tool’s backstory to enrich our understanding and appreciation of it. The same is true of weapons and avatars.
In the absence of such a backstory, what do we have? Images, with some utility baked in. Thanks to Tokenized Lore, simple tools can be transformed into artifacts of a living world. Players will trade NFTs regardless, but knowing the asset carries narrative weight adds a new layer of immersion. Blending mechanics with story fosters a deeper level of engagement, particularly when factoring in the role of the Syndicates themselves. What other game can you simultaneously write, play, and govern?
It is no exaggeration to say that Tokenized Lore has given context to every spinoff project, comic, NFT drop, and tournament. By rooting the various moving parts of Alien Worlds in community-driven lore, they have become more memorable and meaningful.
Any discussion of sci-fi innovation inevitably segues into Star Wars at some stage or other, but it’s important to remember that before the saga, there was the story. Without its compelling cast of characters and races, George Lucas’ masterpiece might be a little-known ‘70s space flick rather than the beloved franchise it is today.
If you’re a sci-fi storyteller or ambitious indie developer, there’s no better time to plug into Alien Worlds and help write the next chapter in the evolution of gaming.
Developers can access our API toolkit here. Innovators, breathe life into your project by applying for a Galactic Hubs grant today. Leaders, step into the Planetary Syndicates or Union DAOs and propel your ideas to the forefront of the community. If you need assistance with any of these endeavors, please visit our official Discord or Telegram channels.