Announcing the All-New Game of Blocks
A decentralized game of conquest, designed for the crypto community.
In a few days from now our giveaway begins! Access codes will be granted via our official account, so be sure to follow us on Twitter @ScreenshotLabs for a chance to get your own!
Read on for more details about the developer, the game, and the giveaway.
Our Story
Screenshot Labs is a company of gamers first and foremost. This obsession started in our childhood playing console games and grew exponentially when MMORPG games hit the scene. We dove head first into World of Warcraft. The gameplay, utility, and community aspects are what kept us playing for years. We took great pleasure in recruiting for our guilds, farming for resources, buying and selling items in the auction house, and so much more… Then we began to farm gold and created a business selling gold and other in-game items. Little did we know at the time that this was all a precursor to Web 3.0 gaming and NFTs! It gives us goosebumps just thinking about it.
It was a natural progression for us to become interested in blockchain technology, DeFi and NFTs. In 2017 we came up with the idea for the first ever decentralized board game and we began to immerse ourselves in the cryptoverse. After the creation of CryptoKitties, which was a revolution in terms of digital assets creation, we realised just how much enthusiasm there was for collectibles and decentralised blockchain applications. We saw first-hand that the play to earn business model was taking root and growing into something very meaningful.
Our aim has always been to provide a rich gaming experience while sticking to the fundamental principles of decentralisation: security, transparency, and collaboration. With this in mind, we launched the first version of Game of Blocks in 2018. We were inspired by well-known board games such as Risk, Catan and Monopoly… So, if you love board games, online gaming, and decentralized technology, then GoB is the perfect game for you.
The beta was a runaway success and we facilitated the exchange of over 250 ETH!
With success comes challenges and, in these early days, we ran into some problems due to high gas fees on Ethereum. The biggest issue we had to contend with was the crash of 2018, which forced us to pump the brakes a little on the wide-scale rollout of the game. We decided to take advantage of the situation and create some time and space to optimize the game. We tested out several platforms and blockchains with different consensus types: NEO, EOSIO, hashgraph, Loom Network and Nebula network. For an interim time period we moved over to nebulas and had strong adoption from the Asian markets who recognised Game of Blocks as the best Nebulas application at the end of 2018.
We are proud to announce the new and updated version of Game of Blocks, which launches on Ethereum in September 2021 at https://www.gameofblocks.io/ !
How It Works
Game of Blocks is a simple multiplayer strategy game which gives players the opportunity to earn ETH rewards!
Players start by purchasing land in the form of hexagonal plots on a scaled-down world map. There are a total of 3,200 territories. Each piece of land is a unique and valuable NFT with differing traits and levels of rarity. The more land a player owns, the more revenue they can generate — and compensation is built directly into the smart contract. Every time land is purchased, 5% is directed to a community pool that pays out land owners through our game.
Edit from v1, Changelog Below
How To Win
Inspired by other board games of territorial conquest, your goal is to acquire — and hold onto! — as much land as possible. In Game of Blocks, you receive rewards every month simply by owning one or more plots of land.
The more you own, the more you earn. At the end of every month, each player’s reward is calculated on a pro-rata basis according to the number of land plots they hold on the map.
Starting your Adventure
To participate in Game of Blocks, you need only to own at least one plot of land. You have a chance to acquire a plot by either:
- Participating in our giveaway release event throughout August and September 2021. To participate, be sure to follow us on Twitter: @ScreenshotLabs .
- Or, you can buy them via the secondary market on OpenSea.
GAMEPLAY
1. The Game begins
From day one, there will be a total of 3200 owners of the land. Just like in the beta version of Game of Blocks in 2018, the more land you own, the greater the reward you earn every month.
A new game begins on the first day of each month (Central European Time; check our Twitter for details). Can you continue your campaign of conquest over an entire year?
2. Acquire unique land that is yours alone
There are two aspects of rarity for each of the 3200 land plots:
- The level of the land
- The variety and unicity of the assets on the map
3. They will know your name
Once you own your land, you can proudly display your name on the map
4. Hold!
All that’s left is to take care of your land, keep it safe in your wallet, and hold your territory.
As with similar projects, there will be a fee taken on every transaction made on the secondary market (5% in our case). But this fee doesn’t go to us! Everything collected will be used to build the community chest and reward the GoB community.
5. What is the Community Chest ?
Every transaction on the secondary market is going to what we call the community chest. During the second phase of the launch, all the ETH gathered on the secondary market will be set as a cash prize in the
Mini-Game.
The Mini-Game will be an early version of the final Game of Blocks gameplay and will only be playable by Land Holders.
Edit from v1, Changelog Below
6. Leaderboard and Statistics
You can use the leaderboard and research tool to:.
- List yourself in the Owning Ranking
- List yourself in the Rarity Ranking
- List and search the type of lands you are looking for
- List the previous monthly rewards
- List the most expensive land being sold
- List the land being currently sold on Open Sea
GoB History and Roadmap
January 2018 — Twitter Account Creation
When everything began and when the Twitter account was created.
8 February 2018 — Public Announcement
The first announcement on Twitter related to the release of Game of Blocks.
12 March 2018 — Beta Opening
Official launch of the Beta for the early adopters of the community.
April 2018 — The First Smart Contract
Here are the smart contracts that was used back then :
August & September 2021 — New Version and Giveaway Event
During August and September 2021, a special one-time giveaway event will occur! Whether you’re one of the lucky few who receives a random land, or an ambitious conqueror who acquires them in the marketplace, the Game of Blocks starts then.
End of 2021 — Screenshot Future Plans
Following the Game of Blocks release, we will be announcing our future plans for Game of Blocks and our new play-to-earn game made by genius people from League of Legends and One Piece…
Business Model
There’s no need for the Screenshot Team to collect revenue. We made Game of Blocks to show what decentralized tech could do for gaming; we don’t earn anything ourselves.
Supply
There will be 3200 lands in total, which includes 1 random land reserved for each member of the Screenshot Team, as well as some additional honorary members.
The total supply will be divided in two :
- 3,000 lands delivered during the giveaway to the community;200 random lands reserved for each member of the Screenshot Team, some honorary members, and key members of our community.
The giveaway begins soon! Once more: be sure to follow us on on Twitter @ScreenshotLabs for a chance to receive an invitation code and be one of the first contenders in the all-new Game of Blocks!
— Past Version: NFT Collection Model
v1 How it Works
Every time land is purchased, 5% is directed to a community pool that pays out land owners on a monthly basis.
The objective of the game is to generate as much income as possible. This gameplay relies on OpenSea, a healthy and robust secondary marketplace. That means the game is completely decentralised, and you’re guaranteed to be the only owner of your land!
v1 Community Chest
At the end of every month the community chest will be equally distributed (according to the number of lands you own) among the total land owners.
For example: Let’s say there was a total amount of 6,400 eth of transaction during the 1st month, it would mean that every land owner would receive = (6,400 eth x 5% fees) / 3200 lands = 0.1 eth per landowner.
