Top 10 Metaverse, Gaming, and NFT Projects Building on NEAR Protocol
Metaverse, gaming and NFT are some of the most exciting sectors currently driving some of the most exciting innovations in the blockchain space and beyond. To help support these two booming spaces, NEAR and the partnering VCs will invest up to $100 million in gaming and metaverse projects building on our blockchain. And our commitment doesn’t stop there, as we plan to continue to support their growth over time.
On November 15th, NEAR will launch Simple Nightshade, a sharding protocol that will enable gaming, Metaverse, and NFT dApps to be even more effortlessly built on the platform. The first of NEAR’s four sharding phases, Simple Nightshade’s fast transactions, robust security, and ease of use will also accelerate platform adoption, giving developers millions of new users for their gaming and Metaverse experiences.
To coincide with this release, we’re shining a spotlight on 10 gaming and metaverse projects to showcase exactly what developers are creating and the important milestones they’ve hit. This is just a glimpse into the gaming and metaverse realms that are coming to the NEAR blockchain.
While these gaming and metaverse projects are exciting news for NEAR, it’s also worth mentioning that in September the advanced Web3 browser Opera — equipped with HTML5 gaming functionality — integrated NEAR Protocol with its built-in crypto wallet. This means Opera’s 350 million+ users, including its 170,000 monthly active crypto-wallet users, can now benefit from NEAR Protocol’s features.
TaoBao Maker Festival
The Taobao Maker Festival, held from July 17–25, 2021 at the Shanghai National Exhibition and Convention Centre, provides young Chinese artists with the opportunity to showcase and sell their artwork through an exhibition. NEAR Protocol collaborated with Web3Games to help Huang Heshan, a popular Chinese NFT artist building his collection on NEAR, promote and sell his work.
Heshan created the “Toorich City Series”, a collection of special NFTs on Paras representing digital real estate properties, a part of which is the Bu Tu Garden Community, a set of 10 luxury single-family villas.
Huang Heshan, the creator of the “Toorich City Series,” said: “I’m psyched to work with NEAR Protocol and Web3Games. With the support of NEAR, I was struck by how user-friendly and easy it was to mint an NFT and interact with the blockchain, despite having no prior experience in crypto.”
According to Huang, users can place an order on Taobao and pay using Chinese Yuan, which will then allow them to receive a link (similar to an “airdrop”) containing the NFT digital artwork. Upon opening the link, it only takes a few simple steps to register a NEAR wallet and claim their purchased NFTs. This easy onboarding flow paired with NEAR’s very low transaction fees (just a few cents) makes interacting with crypto inexpensive and simple for novices like him.
“If I were to issue the NFTs on legacy blockchain platforms, it would often cost me up to a few hundred US dollars just to issue each NFT, whereas on NEAR, an environmentally-friendly blockchain platform, minting an NFT typically costs below 1 cent.”
Reality Chain
Reality Chain is a multi-chain metaverse set to launch on Octopus Network, which is the substrate-based appchain network on NEAR Protocol. On its platform, users will be able to take gaming and social activities to the next level with immersive multiplayer functionality and features.
Players can assume the role of NFT avatars and interact with NFT furniture, walls, floors, and more in-game assets that can be resold. Voice and text chats are also enabled to give it a more realistic feel. Players can also stake their $REAL native tokens to start a brand new metaverse.
The platform has recently completed its Metaverse Engine and set up its DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) to allow $REAL token holders to have voting rights on project initiatives. Several demos have been deployed, and the full live game will be launching soon, with an upgrade to a 3D engine in the works to enhance the game’s visuals.
Adam Ardisasmita, CEO of Reality Chain, said: “We’re proud to say that Reality Chain is elevating the utility of in-game NFTs as assets to maximize the blockchain gaming experience. With everything we have in the works, our project is set to bring a new and immersive look to NFT gaming, setting the new standard for online metaverses on the blockchain.”
OP Games
OP Games is a blockchain-based Web3 gaming platform looking to transform the way users buy, own, and trade in-game assets. Currently, gaming platforms tend to monopolize by locking digital collectibles into their own ecosystem, preventing users from bringing in accomplishments and skins from other games. The game development process also requires a heavy amount of investment upfront, with very little involvement from the gamers.
OP Games is fixing this by turning entire games into fractionalized NFTs. This means players can own a fraction of the game and co-own the project. Through this co-ownership, players can enjoy price appreciation if the game succeeds, and even shape the game by participating in its DAO. For developers, this model means a revolution in terms of project financing and monetization.
“Now, developers can fundraise from NFTs and DAO in a continuous process”, says Chase Freo, CEO and Co-founder of OPGames.“And at the same time, if the DAO of the players decides to add some more levels to the game or further develop it, they can just talk to the developer and say, ‘This is something we want to do — can you make it for us?’ Then the developer will be paid by the DAO through the game’s treasury because the game is not owned by the developer anymore, but rather by the collective.”
Its arcade platform is built on NEAR and lets users play HTML5 games and engage in tournament competitions to win prizes. By merging NFTs and DAOs, game owners within the community can harness voting power to initiate project proposals to further drive the utility and innovation of its NFT ecosystem.
In early October, the project raised over $8 million in seed funding to bring more gamers into their Web3 world, helping fund its main initiatives. Chase Freo (CEO) and Paul Gadi (CTO) have each spent over a decade in the gaming industry before co-founding OPGames in 2018. With support from NEAR Protocol, Filecoin/Protocol Labs (which recently launched a collaboration with NEAR in co-grants and developer storage credits), and advisors like Gabby Dizon (Co-Founder at Yield Guild Games), OP Games plans to develop and build over 500 games on the NEAR blockchain by the end of 2022, marking a huge milestone for the blockchain gaming industry. The project already has almost 16,000 combined followers on its Twitter and Telegram channels as it continues to expand.
Hash Rush/Vorto Network
Vorto Network is an online marketplace that lets users house in-game items and digital assets in a wallet that can be used to buy and sell across multiple titles.
Hash Rush is a blockchain-based, real-time strategy (RTS) game running on Vorto Network. Players can immerse themselves in the Hermeian galaxy to build, compete, and exchange goods as they advance. The game leverages a play-to-earn model, which incentivizes participation and fosters a digital goods economy, making the game more immersive. The team is planning on publicly launching the game in early 2022.
Big things have been happening for Vorto Gaming. In October, they raised $4 million through a closed investment round to help fund and build its growing ecosystem. Over 9,000 NFTs have been minted to date on its network, and $100,000 in sales was collected for Hash Rush. Hash Rush has amassed over 5,000 Twitter and 2,000 Telegram followers, and continues to grow day by day.
Kris Vaivods, CEO of Vorto Network, said: “Our team was at NEARcon and had the opportunity to showcase our exciting game to visitors. Our game’s open testing continues, giving users a chance to play and experience what we have to offer for themselves. Down the road, we’ll be integrating more cool characters and gameplay features, leveraging NEAR’s blockchain technology to take things to the next level.”
Feiyu
Feiyu is a social media platform built on NEAR Protocol that allows users to truly express their creativity through sharing memes and GIFs, creating an entirely new and exciting NFT metaverse. The app contains a built-in meme generator where community members can easily create and disseminate their creations to others, in addition to a vast NFT marketplace. Participation on the platform is driven through rewards-based incentives, such as earning in the native token and receiving items in the form of NFTs (skins, weapons, etc.).
One of its most recent initiatives was its “pixel art war,” where participants worked together on an artboard to develop their own NFTs via chat rooms. When interacting with the artboard, users could acquire pixels and earn Feiyu tokens as a reward, encouraging highly collaborative efforts and elevating the creation process for NFTs.
By building on NEAR Protocol and utilizing NEAR’s powerful account system, Feiyu is able to hide the “crypto” part away — users don’t have to deal with registering a wallet, getting tokens from centralized exchanges to pay for gas fees, etc. NEAR is seamlessly onboarding the broader internet users today to the blockchain. Currently, it’s garnered over 1.5 million users and continues to increase its community base.
Xue Kai, Co-founder of Feiyu, said: “At Feiyu, we want to inspire everyone to create the most innovative and unique pieces of NFT artwork. These days, social media is by far the most popular means of interacting on a global scale — by building on NEAR, we’ve been able to make our very own social media platform come to life and realize the true potential of blockchain and its efficiencies.”
Paras
Paras is an NFT marketplace built on NEAR that aims to drive the adoption of a wide variety of unique digital collectibles. It offers real-world trading cards of art as collectibles that users can mint, buy, or sell quickly and cheaply. There are also NFT drops and users can follow launch publications through stories. The team recently launched Boom Boom! the first mini digital comic series on NEAR, and PARADIGM as their first comic, with more features to come in the pipeline.
At the time of this writing, they’ve hit over $144,000 in 30-day trading volume, made up of over 30,000 transactions. Thousands of users are purchasing the one-of-a-kind collections offered on the platform. Paras has over 18,000 Twitter and 3,000 Telegram followers, showcasing its quickly growing community.
Rahmat “Riqi” Albariqi, Founder of Paras, said: “We’ve been hitting the ground running with implementing as many exciting features as possible on our NFT marketplace. Our goal is to create the most comprehensive, innovative, and inclusive environment to inspire NFT creators and investors everywhere.”
Mintbase
Mintbase is an online platform and NFT utility engine. Users can mint and sell their NFTs in the form of tickets, music, and art, while also creating their very own marketplaces. VR (Virtual Reality) integrations are also possible when minting NFTs. The platform offers NFT auctions, stores, and a lucrative royalty rewards system — all made possible by its extremely low transaction fees, speeds of up to 100,000 TPS, and lightning-fast block times, thanks to the NEAR blockchain’s scalability.
They’ve already hit several key milestones, such as setting up 544 NFT contracts, adding an open store for NFTs called “Openbase,’ and implementing new website functionalities for ease of use. The project is quickly gaining traction within the community, already garnering over 28,000 Twitter and 3,000 Instagram followers.
Nate Geier, CEO of Mintbase, said: “A lot has been happening at Mintbase. Customization and creative liberty are at the forefront of our business model to expand the use case for our NFTs. With NEAR’s technology and infrastructure, we’re opening the doors for smoother monetization and application.”
Satori
Satori is a new comprehensive NFT platform and marketplace designed for high-profile artists and musicians. Built on the NEAR blockchain, its vision is to ignite the next “creative renaissance.” The project is looking to implement a unique business model where artists and creators can confidently take their NFT artwork straight to their audiences, removing the intermediary and allowing them to thrive with their own business. Satori strives to deliver on the promise of NFTs from their inception — building an economy that truly serves creators and their fans.
The project is currently in stealth mode and planning a full launch in January 2022. Satori is planning to mint 5 million+ NFTs in Q1 2022, which will reach an audience of over 10 million people and some of the best artists.
Peter DePaolo, CEO and Co-founder of Satori, said: “Our team is building Satori with the goal to truly inspire and empower NFT artists and creators worldwide. We’ll allow them to better monetize and distribute their artwork by directly reaching their customers through our marketplace, showcasing their talent to our community with luxurious tastes.”
Metaverse AI
Metaverse AI is developing the Open Metaverse on Web 3.0 with engaging applications including digital human engine, social metaverse, and virtual celebrity. Built on NEAR’s lightning fast and affordable protocol, Metaverse AI’s advanced AI engine will allow users to create decentralized identities and 3D high-fidelity avatars. Metaverse AI’s blockchain-based DiD (decentralization identifier) avatars will empower users to own and keep and move their valuable identity and assets across the Metaverse.
The virtual celebrity industry is projected to be a trillion dollar market with wide applications in commerce, luxury, advertising, and more. Metaverse AI has partnered with NVIDIA and built revenue-generating virtual celebrity products. The core team has built VR/AR products at Facebook, Google, and Snapchat, and is supported by Kleiner Perkins, Animoca Brands, Draper, Delta Blockchain Fund, etc.
Henry, CEO of Metaverse AI, said: “The Metaverse is redefining human-computer interactions and Web3.0/NFT will play an indispensable role. Scalability, privacy, and security will be important factors. With NEAR’s Nightshade sharding technology and ecosystem, we’re accelerating the vision towards the Open Metaverse with mass adoption.”
NEAR Lands
NEAR Lands is a decentralized, 2D multiplayer blockchain-based game. Built atop NEAR’s fast and easy-to-use sharding protocol, the game’s developers are creating a pixelated land-based open world game that will be as much about community as gameplay.
On NEAR Lands, players can create their own characters and items, talk to friends, and engage with other participants in the online universe. Players explore the game’s landscape at will, creating an immersive and interactive online realm.
The team from Human Guild, Developer and Co-founder of NEAR Lands, said: “Our decentralized game is taking the world by storm, letting players immerse themselves in a brand new online universe on NEAR. We’ve got plenty of future initiatives in the works for the game, such as adding dungeons, allowing for land sales, and enabling audio chat support.”
About NEAR
NEAR is a high-performance blockchain that is designed to be super-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable. NEAR’s vision is to create a network that acts as an on-ramp for billions of people to access the next generation of the web.
NEAR is built by an award-winning team of engineers and entrepreneurs to be simple to use, inclusive and good for the environment. NEAR is backed by top VCs such as A16Z, Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain.com, and Baidu Ventures.
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