How Ev.io became one of the biggest web3 games with Fractal
Fractal Auth, Tournaments, and Marketplace products helped Ev.io increase player engagement and monetization
Ev.io — a first person shooter with a million monthly active users — is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing blockchain games today. But it didn’t start out that way — and was initially developed without any blockchain elements or infrastructure. In 2022, the team decided to pivot into web3 — and partnered up with Fractal to guide their journey.
Chris Scott, Game Director at Ev.io, and David Ho, Head of Marketing, share how FSTUDIO by Fractal not only helped them get up and running on the blockchain with just a few lines of code, but also increased their player engagement and retention.
- Game: Ev.io
- Studio: Enthusiast Gaming
- FSTUDIO products: Authentication, Tournaments, Crafting Tool, FStore, Marketplace
Up and running with a few lines of code
“Bottom line, we want the best for our game and community, and we believed that adding elements of player ownership into our game would massively benefit our user base,” Chris Scott, Game Director at Ev.io shared.
From the start, Fractal’s tools made it easy for us to focus on game development, and not on the blockchain craze
“But though we were eager and saw the benefits of player ownership, we were too new to the blockchain world to navigate it on our own. So we reached out to Fractal to help. They had interesting APIs, tools, and solutions — and like Solana, were all about making the blockchain easy, simple, and fast.”
“From the start, Fractal’s tools made it easy for us to focus on game development, and not on the blockchain craze,” developer Isaac Gurillo added. “With a few lines of code, we had web3 integrated in our game quickly and simply.”
Building the blockchain strategy together
“From a development perspective, the integration with Fractal was quick, useful, and helpful,” Chris agreed. “But more importantly, Fractal acted as a guiding light for us on our overall blockchain strategy as well.”
“Their team gave us a download on NFTs, how they work, and ideas for successful in-game use cases. In fact, they helped us design the system we still use today: players need to purchase an NFT to start gaining ‘E Earnings’ — which they win for every kill and can eventually cash out into SOL.”
Gamifying the first mint
“Chris brought me on to help with their first mint,” David Ho, Head of Marketing at Ev.io shared. “Basically, I was tasked with helping sell NFTs to a community that didn’t seem to want it. But we were honest with the community and answered everyone’s questions. Of course, some people left, but the ones who stuck around gained a lot of respect for us and the game. In fact, as time went by, the people who were initially vocal about hating NFTs came to own wallets and even got excited about upcoming mints.”
Fractal’s suggestion to gamify the mint was a huge help in getting our community on board with our pivot
“In addition to our transparent approach on Discord, Fractal’s suggestion to gamify the mint was a huge help in getting our community on board with our pivot,” Chris shared. “Their team helped us design a compelling leaderboard competition ahead of the mint — where we’d drop whitelist tokens around the map for players to purchase our NFTs at a discount.”
Amplifying player engagement with Fractal tournaments
“Seeing the success of that leaderboard competition, Fractal approached us to run their first-ever tournament — today a major component of their product offering,” Chris continued. “In April 2022, we ran the inaugural $10,000 Fractal Cup tournament — and with 14,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, it became the biggest blockchain game live stream of all time.”
“Beyond the buzz Fractal helped us create, they made it incredibly easy to distribute the prize pool to all 4,000+ participants — something we normally wouldn’t be able to do with PayPal or traditional payment systems. But by leveraging Fractal’s Tournament API, which we set up in 30 minutes, we could give rewards to every single player who joined.”
“Since then, we’ve run many tournaments together. They’re a huge engagement tool for us, giving our players consistent content and a reason to play and stay in the game for longer,” Dave added. “Plus, we’ve found Fractal tournaments to be unique in that they’re casual, so even everyday gamers participate and earn — not just the best of the best.”
Tournaments are a huge engagement tool for us, giving our players consistent content and a reason to play and stay in the game for longer
“Recently, we also implemented Fractal’s Crafting Tool into our Discord — which gives even more utility to our player rewards and even more engagement for our players. It’s great to see users participating in our game and tournaments in new ways — they’re not just shooting, but also collecting, trading, and crafting token badges.”
“The content from the tournaments is a great opportunity for us to gain mileage from these events. The exciting content people see, the posts from the players, and good experiences people talk about, help continue to bring in new users.”
Hyper invested in partner growth
“I’m really appreciative of all the dedication and work Fractal has put into our partnership — they are hyper invested in our growth,” Chris wrapped up. “They’re also all about games, which makes the partnership a no-brainer for us.”
“I don’t think we could have gotten to where we are without their help. The team is proactive about what’s going to be fun and engaging for our players, and are in the trenches with us to grow the game and make it work. That’s exactly what we needed to help us successfully pivot to the blockchain.”
