It’s a Wrap! The Alto Cryptogame Challenge Crowns a Winner
The champion will receive $70,000 in cash, Alto Coin, and marketing support, and will receive a storefront for the game on Alto.io
Three months. Thirty participants. Five demos. One winner. The Alto Cryptogame Challenge held its closing ceremony last week at PGConnects in Helsinki where Alto’s Chairman and Co-Founder, Gabby Dizon, announced the champion of this one-of-a-kind competition. It was a rollercoaster of a ride, and we couldn’t be happier with the results.
Five teams from Nigeria, Germany, Japan, India, and the Netherlands went into the final round at the beginning of August with five compelling concepts — ready to create strong, innovative demos and show the blockchain gaming world what they could do. Alto is extremely proud of what all these teams have accomplished, and we know we’ll be seeing more of them in the future. But there could only be one winner, and it had to be the team that best met the judges’ highly-competitive standards.
The demos were judged based on five criteria: fun and feel, use of cryptoitems, production quality, novelty, and business feasibility. The games should be stimulating and satisfying to play, and make the user want to keep playing. They should make meaningful use of original cryptoitems, and seamlessly supplement them with ACC Edition Challenge Loot. Gameplay should flow smoothly while assets, interface design, and performance should demonstrate high-quality production. They should stand out from other cryptogames either through a new concept or the blending of old ideas in novel, interesting ways. Finally, the developing teams should have a credible market plan with a reasonable chance of success.
The judges had their work cut out for them, and that is why we assembled a panel of notable experts in the gaming world to take on this task. Judging the demos were Pocket Gamer Co-Founder, Jon Jordan; Flowplay CEO, Derrick Morton; Crypto Bit Games CEO and Co-Founder, Rudy Koch; Lockwood Publishing CCO, Oliver Kern; Altitude Games Creative Director, Luna Javier; and Alto.io’s very own CTO, Paul Gadi. Their combined expertise and insight gave us the winners of the very first Alto Cryptogame Challenge.
Runner-up: BrainFunc (BioHackers)
Lead developer and designer Tejas Nikumbh was the mastermind behind BrainFunc, an ambitious e-learning game that revolves around the brain’s anatomy. Its ingenious concept and commitment to accuracy make it a praiseworthy game. As runners-up, BioHackers walked away with a cash and Alto Coin prize worth $10,000.
Second Place: Treasure Dungeon (Kiokumushi)
Treasure Dungeon impressed the judges with its deceptively simple dungeon crawler concept and addictively fun gameplay. The team behind it, Kiokumushi, is also working on a second blockchain-based game, Memory Insects. So the $20,000 in cash and Alto Coin they earned as second-place winners will definitely come in handy.
First Place: Crown of Carnage (Codeglue)
Crown of Carnage came to life as an idea during a pitching session. Though Codeglue had extensive developing experience through titles like Terraria and Rocket Riot, they were new to the blockchain gaming world. But they came through, producing a visually enticing and well-balanced game demo that successfully swayed the judges in their direction. Crown of Carnage is a team-based collectible card action game that incorporates blockchain technology through spell cards and character customization items.
Codeglue, with Co-Founder Peter De Jong at the helm, are the grand prize winners and will bring home $40,000 worth of cash and Alto Coin, plus an additional $30,000 in marketing support. Alto will also create a bespoke storefront for Crown of Carnage to hold an Initial Item Offering.
Other Finalists
Beating 25 other teams and pitches to be able to make it to the final phase was no easy feat, and all five finalists should be commended for their hard work. Loot Hunt’s unique fusion of augmented reality, card trading, and coop boss battles showed the judges something they’d never seen before. We’re sure we’ll be seeing more from Frank Duffner and his team, Digital Token Alliance, in the future. Last but not least, Ugarsoft gave us CryptoBarons, a multiplayer strategy and RPG built for the blockchain. Their integration of cryptoitems into a genre that has flourished in traditional gaming proved the team’s tremendous potential.
All in all, the Alto Cryptogame Challenge was a huge success and gave us an exciting glimpse into an ecosystem where cryptoitems are usable across multiple game worlds. It showed us what is possible when developers build their games with item interoperability as a core principle. The item-first economy has a bright road ahead, and the Alto Cryptogame Challenge just laid the first stone. Thank you to all the participants, our expert judges, and PGConnects for helping us make it a reality.
