A new NFT-themed game is set to launch on the Epic Games Store that will allow players to bring their NFT avatars from four blue chip collections into the metaverse.
‘Another World,’ created by ScienceVR founder Jackie Lee, is a 3D metaverse that pays homage to the swampy homelands of the Bored Ape Yacht Club as well as the Japanese anime aesthetic of Azuki’s. Holders of OnChainMonkey and Clone X collections can also connect their crypto wallets to use their NFT avatars in the metaverse.
Lee received a grant from the Optimism Foundation to develop the game, which was built with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, a software kit that’s used by many gaming studios. It is currently available in the Epic Games Store in the ‘Blockchain/NFT early Access‘ category.
To enter the metaverse, users must connect a crypto wallet using a Tokenproof integration that appears as a QR code board in-game. Depending on the coins a player holds, the game provides different digital wearables to adorn their avatars.
Players who own over 42 $APE receive a free digital Apecoin hoodie they can wear in-game. Lee said he is currently working on a Pepe-themed frog mask wearable for players who hold the meme token $PEPE. The wearables are free NFTs minted on Ethereum through the Layer 2 scaling network Optimism.
Although NFTs and crypto will not be sold in-game, NFTs can be won or discovered, and potentially earn players a profit. The Optimism Foundation is sponsoring a $100,000 prize pool in the game’s first season, where winners are determined based on who has acquired the highest value NFTs by the end of the season.
Another World, which bills itself as Ready Player One-esque, also has a player-versus-player (PVP) mode that lets players battle each other using their NFT avatars. NFTs can be won or acquired in the PVP zones.
For now, the game has no official ties with any major NFT projects. Lee said he is in discussions with BAYC to use their logo in Another World’s Ape-inspired swamplands, but acknowledged “it’s not going to be easy.” Nevertheless, the game shows promise for advancing interoperability in the metaverse, a factor many believe is critical for its survival.
The Evolution of the Metaverse
When Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook was changing its name to Meta back in October 2021, metaverse hype around the world soared. Since then, some of the buzz has died down and been largely replaced with the new term of day in Web3 — artificial intelligence.
But that hasn’t stopped companies and Web3 developers from launching new metaverses. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered countless stories in 2023 about new metaverses being released. Here are some of the top headlines:
- Pussy Riot Founder Teams Up with IMVU for Utopia Metaverse
- Mattel, Forever 21 Team Up for Exclusive Barbie Roblox Metaverse
- Laneige Cosmetics Opens Metaverse Store
- LandVault x Super League to Bring Metaverse Gaming to Middle East
- PUBG: Battlegrounds’ Krafton to Launch Metaverse in 2023
- SmarterVerse Debuts Metaverse Modeled After Miami
It appears many immersive virtual spaces can exist and thrive independently of each other, perhaps despite Zuckerberg’s wishes. But metaverses like Another World, which promote interoperability (allowing users to enter with digital assets from other spaces), could be rising in popularity. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll be following up for additional stories about Another World.