If you’re a gamer, you may have noticed a new title on top of the Epic Games free-to-play store: ‘Off the Grid,’ a battle royale shooter set in a cryptopunk universe. Within a week since the launch of its Early Access mode, it has risen above popular titles ‘Fortnite,’ ‘Rocket League,’ and ‘Fall Guys.’ And the fun part: It is a Web3 game that has significant crypto elements.
Some are speculating that it will be the first game in the next iteration of the internet to break into the mainstream. So, what is ‘Off the Grid,’ its blockchain elements, and the studio behind this burgeoning hit? Let’s dive in.
Off the Grid: An Overview
Launched on October 8th in Early Access mode, Off the Grid is a battle royale shooter where 150 players fight to the death in a dystopian environment called “Teardrop Island.” It has a “cyberlimbs” system where players can equip limbs that give those players abilities. Those limbs can be found on the island or shot off players in combat.
The game features a modular weapons system with over 300 combinations. There is advanced physics, and players can go vertical, either through jet packs or zip lines. In addition, Gunzilla Games, the studio behind the game, has included a bounty system and extraction packs.
According to reports, Off the Grid (OTG) solely has the battle royale arena mode at the moment, though more modes are expected when the game officially launches. This includes a 60-hour narrative mode from the mind of Richard K. Morgan, the author of the Altered Carbon series. In addition, the game requires no Web3 knowledge to play, making the focus on the gameplay elements.
To market OTG, Gunzilla Games employed an interesting strategy, partnering with popular gaming influencers to bring attention to the game. Those influencers include Ninja, shroud, and summit1g. On Ninja’s streams alone, the viewers count has been upwards of 100,000. One publication speculated that the total exposure for the game due to these streams could number over one million.
Blockchain Elements in Off the Grid
Gunzilla Games built OTG on its GUNZ platform, which is a dedicated subnet (L1) of Avalanche. GUNZ bills itself as being a platform built by gaming developers for gaming developers, with the hope that developers will create other games on the platform. For now, GUNZ has only launched its testnet, with the mainnet launch planned for later.
That testnet, though, has seen quite a bit of action since the game debuted. According to Decrypt, millions of wallets have been created, and millions of transactions have taken place. It appears that every time a user starts playing the game, a new wallet is created. In addition, all in-game assets are fully on-chain, and those assets are denominated in $GUN, which is the planned token of the GUNZ mainnet. Eventually, there will be a player-to-player marketplace so users can trade those assets.
Gunzilla Games has not announced when the mainnet of GUNZ will launch or when it will implement these overt Web3 features. For now, gamers are focused on the gameplay, which may be where it needs to be. Many Web3 games, with promises of airdrops, have focused on the token before the gameplay, only to have an attrition of users later. OTG may be different.
Who is Gunzilla Games?
Founded in 2020 by Vlad Korolov and Alexander Zoll, Gunzilla Games has one stated purpose: to create the next generation of battle royale games. It has a team of at least 340 members who come from major gaming companies like Blizzard, Ubisoft, THC, Electronic Arts (EA), and more.
To give creative direction to its games, the AAA studio hired Neill Blomkamp, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director, and producer, as its “Chief Visionary Officer.” Gunzilla Games also counts among its members Timur Davidenko, who led the development of CryEngine as its technical director.
According to an old announcement, the studio is backed by $90 million in funding and its team members work from three locations throughout the world: Frankfurt, Los Angeles, and Kyiv.
Final Thoughts on Off the Grid
There’s no telling whether Off the Grid will continue its run on top of the Epic Games store or into the mainstream gamer community. But, with its Web3 elements and gameplay, we believe it could make some noise, which would be interesting for the space overall.
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