Let’s dive into Azra Games (EN)
Azra Games
- Part.1 — Intro. Azra Games
- Part.2 — First Project ‘LEGIONS & LEGENDS’
- Part.3 — NFT
- Part.4 — Economy
- Part.5 — Team & Investors
- Part.6 — Roadmap
- Part.7 — Opinion
Part.1 — Intro. Azra Games
About ‘Azra Games’
Azra Games is a new game studio founded by Mark Otero, a master game designer widely known for Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, the most successful mobile game in Electronic Arts (EA). Experts with decades of experience in blockbuster RPG production are working together to develop games to realize their vision. Will Mark Otero’s success continue on Web3? Let’s look at their goals and game ideas through what has been released so far.
Vision
Azra Games believes the childhood experience of playing with your favorite toys is best captured in RPG games. Mark and his seasoned development team are back together to build extraordinarily fun games with highly immersive action RPG gameplay.
Multi-Chain & Chain irrelevant
Azra Games issued Genesis NFT on Ethereum and published an article called ‘Why Build on Ethereum?’. According to the article, the studio has expressed its ambition to dream of a future where it can enjoy games regardless of Chain.
Although Genesis NFT is built on Ethereum, the first game, ‘Legions & Legends’, will be built on top of EVM L2.
In addition, the team continues to write about ‘multi-chains’ on Twitter and is confident that everyone, regardless of the chain, will be able to enjoy the game in the future.Part.2 — First Project ‘Legions & Legends’
Part.2 — First Project ‘Legions & Legends’
Welcome to Legions & Legends
Legons & Legends is Azra Games’ first game project, set in an uncharted galaxy where magic and technology collide. This will be developed as a collectible & combat RPG genre that CEO ‘Mark Otero’ has devoted his entire life to and will be innovative in the timeless science fiction and fantasy genre.
Origin Story: THE LEGEND OF ARCANAS
EONS AGO AT THE DAWN OF OUR FUTURE, A FAMILY OF CELESTIAL GODS LIVED IN HARMONY UNDER A SINGLE ALL-POWERFUL ELDER GOD.
WHEN THE CAME FOR HIS ASCENDANT DEATH, THE ELDER GOD DECREED HIS SUCCESSOR CHOSEN THROUGH WAR.
THE VICTORIOUS GOD WOULD GAIN THE THRONE AND THE POWER OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION.
EACH GOD TRAVELED ACROSS TIME AND SPACE IN SEARCH OF LEGENDARY WARRIORS, LOYAL PASSIONATE LETHAL TO BE THEIR COMMANDERS AND THE FOUNDATION OF THEIR WORLDS.
THE GODS AND THEIR LEGIONS CLASHED IN FIERCE BATTLES UNTIL.
FINALLY, THE GODDESS ARCANAS WAS VICTORIOUS. SHE BECAME THE NEW ELDER GOD HER BROTHER, THE GOD HADRIN WAS ENRAGED BY DEFEAT AND LED THEIR SIBLINGS IN VIOLENT REVOLT, SO ARCANAS USED HER NEW POWER TO END THE REBELLION BY KILLING THEM ALL.
HOWEVER, TO THE MORTALS THAT REMAINED ON OUR WORLDS, SHE SHOWED MERCY. THE GREAT ELDER GOD ARCANAS, POWERFUL AND FAIR, UNITED OUR GALAXY IN PEACE. A PEACE THAT ENDURES TO THIS DAY.
Game Play
In Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, a masterpiece developed by CEO Mark Otero, a turn-based battle using unique skills was created by placing heroes collected by users.
It’s not an auto-battler, a turn-based RPG, or a twitch-heavy RTS. It’s something in-between these things and all its own
According to Medium, Legions & Legends is trying to provide automatic combat and turn-based RPG intermediate form. According to the released sneak-peeks, users can see how they hunt monsters through manual combat not automatic. In addition, you can see the battle going on by changing the character according to the situation, not by the usual turn-based RPG arrangement.
Unlike the hyped trailers of other projects, the team released the in-game play screen as a sneak-peeks. Judging from this, we can see that design and motion are progressing considerably, and we can guess that game development is going fast.
Character
There are three types of characters at the center of Legions & Legends — Legionnaires, Commanders, and Behemoths.
Legionnaires are powerful, loyal, and active on the front lines of battle. Commanders have unique attacks and buffs that bolster their units but are vulnerable if left unguarded. And lastly, And finally, there’s the powerful war machine, the monster, Behemoths. These massive mechanical, biological, and spectral creatures are slow, but devastating in their ability to turn the tide of war. Players will carefully place different types of characters to overcome impossible challenges.
In most Collectible Card Games (CCGs), similar types of characters are often set up to avoid breaking the battle balance. However, Legions & Legends is preparing innovations to solve this dilemma.
Part.3 — NFT
THE HOPEFUL (Genesis NFT)
Mint Price: Free mint (NFT Marketplace: MagicEden)
Total Supply: 5555
Story
The Hopeful are members of the Genesis Merchant Company — the intrepid explorers, miners, scrappers and traders who discovered the Corvus Galaxy. One of these explorer, Darko Wiggins, made an incredible discovery of the moon Sitara-9.
Now the entire band of “The Hopeful” are following this exciting lead to the edge of uncharted space. They seek to extract valuable relics of a lost warrior civilization. Some are honest and do it for the good of the colonies. Others are in search of glory, eager to lay claim to treasure with no intention of reporting it back to the Genesis Merchant Company.
‘THE HOPEFUL’ is a special Genesis NFT in the form of a Profile Picture (PFP) released by Azra Games. ‘THE HOPEFUL’ is not just a PFP NFT, it is also an ecosystem’s PFP(Play Forever Pass).
Utility
- Access a Azra Games content, including Legions & Legends
- Private Discord, Sneek-Peaks, Epic drops
- Early Access to Demo and more
- According to Medium, the right to mine resources in the game, etc. (Land-like Asset)
In “The Web3 Land Dilemma — Exploring the Solution”, Azra Games explains the possible dilemmas, including the complexity of the game’s route when applying Land on Web3 game. The team then stated they would make ‘THE HOPEFUL’ a Land-like asset, not a new Land release. This approach can maintain Land’s fundamental advantage on the metaverse without complicating the game’s route.
THE HOPEFUL will have exclusive mining rights in all games from the Azra ecosystem as the first explorer to have a Play Forever Pass, not just a Profile Picture (PFP) NFT. With these benefits, the team will provide permanent utilities and rewards to Genesis NFT holders.
Other
Phase 3 is currently in progress on the roadmap, and after the announcement of Litepaper, Legions & Legends NFT will be issued.
Part.4 — Economy
There is no clear disclosure of the current economic structure, but according to the roadmap, Azra Token is expected to be issued.
Although NFTs for each game are expected to be released, many NFT values are expected to be integrated into Genesis. In fact, it is mentioned in the medium that Genesis may have features such as Land and exclusive mining rights, and certain benefits in the game will be granted exclusively to Genesis NFT.
At this point, most of the value in the Azra Games ecosystem is focused on Genesis NFT. Suppose Azra Token and Legions & Legends NFTs are published. In that case, we need to see how the values currently concentrated in Genesis NFTs will be distributed and how the ecosystem’s economic cycle structure will be formed.
Part.5 — Team & Investors
Core Member
Mark Otero (CEO) established ‘Klick Nation’ in 2008, which produces Free2play RPG games, and developed it into a studio of nearly 80 people in a short period. It has since been successfully acquired by Electronic Arts (EA). The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Mark Otero later served as a General Partner in the new division at EA.
Mark Otero successfully developed Supreme Heroes, Heroes of Dragon Age, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes at EA, and in particular, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, the last development to participate at EA, won the title of EA’s all-time hit mobile game (earnings: $1.4B, downloads: more than 100 million). After that, he announced his retirement from the game company. But now, he is building Azra Games by seeing a highly evaluating the possibility of Web3 Games.
He has continued to develop in the collectible & combat RPG genre so far, and the upcoming Legions & Legends will be his ninth game. Mark Otero’s success in the Collectible & Combat RPG genre further raises expectations for Azra Games.
Team Member
With the exception of Advisor, around 40 to 50 team members have joined Azra Games to focus on developing their first game project, Legions & Legends.
Team member experience: Star Wars, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Marvel, Battlefield, Assassin Creed, etc.
Investor
‘First’ Seed-Round Funding
Funding Amount: $15M
Andreessen Horowitz(A16Z), NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Justin Kan(Twitch, Fractal), Gabby Dizon(YGG), Roham Gharegozlou(Dapper Labs)
‘Second’ Seed-Round Funding
Funding Amount: $10M
Andreessen Horowitz(A16Z), NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures, Franklin Templeton
Total Funding Amount: $25M
Azra Games completed the first seed round funding of $15 million, followed by an additional seed round funding of $10 million to the same investor. It is quite interesting that additional funding is received from the same investors, although investors generally change when attracting additional investment.
Based on the average 10% to 15% of tokens allocated to Seed Round Investors, it is estimated that Azra Game received a valuation of between $150M and $250M.
Part.6 — Roadmap
Now, Azra Games are entering Phase 3. Sneak-peek of the first game ‘Legions & Legends’ continues to be released, raising expectations for Gameplay Trailer.
Like the team’s vision not to be limited to a single chain, there will be additional announcements about the L2 Layer.
Part.7 — Opinion
Azra Games wants to form a universe starting with Legions & Legends, a collectible & combat RPG genre. These genres usually include a strong gamer base. Along with its genre characteristics, the success DNA of ‘Mark Otero’, which developed many games in the RPG genre and led to great success, makes me look forward to the future of Azra Games.
One of the factors that make Azra Games optimistic about its future is that it is so well-received by VCs that it can attract additional investment from existing investors in a market situation where even funding is difficult.
Many game and metaverse projects are becoming a common trend to focus value on Land and diversify NFT types. In this situation, it is quite impressive to focus a lot of value on the free-minted Genesis NFT to simplify the game process. It was also very interesting to extend the definition of Profile Picture (PFP) to the scope of Play Forever Pass. However, since the specific Tokenomics has not been released yet, it will be the Azra Games’ task to make a sustainable economy in combination with the concentration of values in Genesis NFT.
There are some things to judge from the information that will be released in the future, but as mentioned above, Azra Games has more to look forward to. Let’s look forward to the web3 RPG game with a solid storyline and wrap this up.
Tudor Yoon
-Researcher at Pro Gamer DAO
Twitter : @baby_tudor
E-mail : tudor.yoon@progamerdao.com
