Lessons From Pixelmon's Comeback
Mark Kennedy & Manuel Olumorin
April 26, 2023
GM GM! It's Lootbox, your very own NPC grinding web3 gaming news resources for you.
Here are the gems we found for today
Another killed by FTX
What we can learn from Pixelmon's comeback
The Sneakies - NFL launches first blockchain game
Tweet of the Day
Storybook Brawl Shutting Down
FTX The Grim Reaper continues its killing spree.
This time, it's a game that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) loved and FTX acquired that is going under - Storybook Brawl
On behalf of everyone on the SBB team, we'd like to thank you for your support. We’ve explored different options, and unfortunately there is no path forward. We’ll be shutting down the servers on May 1st - please enjoy SBB until then, and thanks for all the memories ♥️
— Storybook Brawl (@StorybookBrawl)
Apr 25, 2023
Here's what we know
Storybook Brawl is a web3 game developed by Good Luck Games. It is a competitive card game similar to Activision Blizzard's popular Hearthstone.
SBF loved this indie game so much that he told The New York Times it helped him unwind and clear his mind after FTX collapsed. We've all been there - the game that took us through bad times.
Well, FTX acquired the game 13 months ago, but its bankruptcy has led to the game shutting down on May 1st after Good Luck Games couldn't find a new way forward.
Good Luck Games itself might be liquidated as part of the bankruptcy stuff, which means they have to stop supporting the game and turn off the servers.
It seems their troubles started way earlier when FTX bought Story Brawl. Their modest player base of 2,770 concurrent users on Steam started to shrink once folks heard about the deal and the possible NFTs getting added.
RIP 🪦 Storybook Brawl. In another life, run when you see FTX.
Learnings From Pixelmon's Epic Comeback
Pixelmon went from Hype -> Failure -> Near death experience -> Epic rise.
Talk about a phoenix story...
@apixtwts dropped some insights on how.
Let's get to the meat
@apixtwts attributed the sudden revitalization of @Pixelmon to a few great AMAs and big holders/whales sweeping the floor (buying up the cheapest NFT in the collection). But that tells us nothing, so they went deeper.
The blueprint
There are five core principles that @Pixelmon used to achieve their success, according to @apixtwts.
1/ Full transparency
@Pixelmon was really transparent, having the whole team on the website, even the community team members. They provided regular dev updates and one of the best documentation in the industry.
2/ Make use of the treasury
@Pixelmon has one of the bigger treasuries in web3, and instead of sitting on the money and burning through it, they went out and employed industry professionals to get the project going. This was crucial in showing signs of activity and delivering their plans. Web3 is notoriously impatient.
3/ A Yuga Lite approach
Yuga has been big on putting out new experiences frequently and NFTs at "any budget" for their community to consume. @Pixelmon took the lite version of this approach.
4/ Community-focused
After acquiring Pixelmon, @GiulioXdotEth spent a lot of time talking to the community, answering questions, and listening to them. Throughout this whole time, the team kept a community-first approach, which is essential for building a strong community. Basically, open communication = a strong community.
5/ Public work and partnerships
While solidifying the core of your project, it's also important to get the message out to the public. @Pixelmon did that through constant AMAs with selected projects, and this is one of the key reasons why so many people are talking about them again.
Lootbringer take
@apixtwts believes that every NFT project should follow these five principles. We couldn't agree more.
While it is true that not every NFT project has $70 million in its treasury to spend on development, each of these steps can be applied on a smaller scale without any issue for projects that want to do right...
The Sneakies
Google launches cloud program for web3 projects and startups, offering up to $200,000 in Google Cloud credits, early access to Google Cloud Web3 products, hands-on learning labs, and VIP access to global Web3 events to support the development of decentralized apps, web3 tooling, and services.
NFL launches their first blockchain-backed mobile game in collaboration with Mythical Games, where players can run their own teams and play as their favourite players in arcade-style gameplay while also being able to buy, collect, and trade NFT digital items.
One of the biggest gaming acquisitions is on the rocks as the United Kingdom blocked Activision Blizzard's $69 billion takeover by Microsoft.
Tweet of the Day
Events can be a powerful driver for both retention and sales.
They usually fall in to one of two buckets:
🪣 In-game events
🪣 Social/community eventsHowever, they don't need to be mutually exclusive. In fact, the most efficient events pour into both buckets. (3/9)
— DollieDaddy.eth (@DolliesNFT)
Apr 26, 2023
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