PROSPECTIVE GAMING PROJECTS BUILDING ON NEAR PROTOCOL

Ubong Ephraim
5 min readDec 15, 2021
Photo by Yan Krukov from Pexels

GameFi has been a surprisingly solid adoption narrative for blockchain technology in recent times.

The blockchain gaming ecosystem has seen exponential growth and adoption due to the play-to-earn model it offers. Traditional gamers are streaming to GameFi where they can have fun playing games and also get paid while at it.

The play-to-earn GameFi ecosystem holds so much prospects that top VCs in the blockchain are investing heavily in the sector. Top blockchain ecosystem projects are also doing all they can to not get left out of the GameFi gold rush.

We’ll be looking at one of them today which is NEAR protocol and also looking at the prospective GameFi projects building on the blockchain.

NEAR protocol is a high speed, scalable layer-1 blockchain facilitating the elimination of barriers hindering web3 adoption. NEAR protocol offers a super scalable blockchain which is made possible by its sharding mechanism — a partitioning of the NEAR protocol — which splits the work of processing transactions across many participating nodes. NEAR protocol also offers low fees and a super functional UX.

These features are what makes NEAR protocol an ideal infrastructure to power a robust GameFi ecosystem. NEAR protocol is also encouraging the development of GameFi by investing about $100M into gaming and metaverse projects launching on NEAR. This investment fund would definitely spur on more GameFi builders and developers to bring their amazing ideas on the NEAR blockchain.

We would now be looking at some of the interesting gaming projects building on NEAR.

1. BATTLEMON

Battlemon is a 3D Battle third-person shooter game developed by Human Guild.

In Battlemon, users play with unique NFTs and with a variety of weapons and they have the ability to hang various combat modules. Each NFT character used in-game has unique and distinctive features.

There are different game modes available for players which includes 1-on-1 dueling, team match-ups and free for all modes.

Battlemon uses Unreal Engine 5 for game customization and NEAR protocol for developing smart contracts governing the game mechanics.

Players would be able to earn by playing battles. After a battle, a juice token is generated based on the performance of the player.

Game development is still ongoing as the website, the marketplace and beta version of the game is still being developed.

More information on Battlemon.

Website: https://battlemon.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/QNmnYAaDgw
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BATTLEM0N

2. HASHRUSH

Hashrush is a free-to-play real-time strategy game running on Vorto Network.

The game is set in a fictional galaxy called the Hermeian galaxy. It is a large gaming world where users can perform different activities and tasks. Players mine crystals, build mines, defend their bases, and defeat monsters. Enemies are attacked to get crystals and colonies are strengthened to prevent attacks.

The main objective of the game is to manage your colony, advance
into neighboring territories and transform your little colony into the
envy of the entire solar system.

More information on Hash Rush.

Website: https://hashrush.com/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/4YMBHbw
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayHashRush

3. NEAR LANDS

Near Lands is a pixelated land game on NEAR. A multiplayer 2d world where you can create and chat together with friends.

With Near Lands players can create their own characters and items, talk to friends, and engage with other participants in the online universe.

Near lands could potentially be the SandBox of the NEAR ecosystem.

More information on Near Lands.

Website: https://lands.near.page/
Telegram: https://t.me/NEARLands

4. INITE

Inite are the recent recipients of the NEAR grant program receiving a funding of $50,000 to develop their NFT marketplace on NEAR protocol.

Inite is a unique motivational game based on a scientific approach where players receive daily tasks to boost their creativity. Inite could be said to be ideate-to-earn as users have to generate 10 concepts daily, broaden their outlook, get acquainted with like-minded people, unite as teams, fight bosses, improve their well-being, and earn tokens.

Players’ ideas are issued as unique NFTs which can be sold on the Inite built-in idea market.

Developed by Crypto Gaming United, Inite is an interactive game that will reward players for flexing their intellects.

More information on Inite.

Website: https://inite.io
Twitter : https://twitter.com/initeio
Discord: https://discord.gg/nhAXrxdGqZ

5. PIXEL PETS

PixelPets is an NFT game for pet trading and battling. It combines “collect to earn”/”play to earn” concept via the built-in pet marketplace and by a few days lasting tournaments with a prizepool for the best players running each week.
Each token represents one of a total of 60 different pet types. Each pet has a certain rarity type (common, rare, epic or legendary) which affects their strength beneath other stats like quality and level.

More information on Pixel Pets.

Website : https://ecosystem.pixeldapps.co/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/PixelDapps
Discord : https://discord.gg/vm3bvCMnWC

These aren’t the only gaming projects building on NEAR but they are my top picks. With the NEAR protocol dedicating a special fund towards gaming projects and the MetaBuild hackathon around the corner, we should undoubtedly see more GameFi projects springing up on the blockchain and in no time have a robust gaming sector in the NEAR ecosystem

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