After the temporary decline in the popularity of TON mini-games, the voice of the blockchain gaming sector seems to have quieted down. However, at recent industry exhibitions, such as Token2049 in Singapore, THBW2024 in Bangkok, and Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, the vibrant life of blockchain game projects can still be seen, with both new and old blockchain games actively appearing at key booths. Among them, Seraph, with its positioning as a next-generation AAA blockchain game and eye-catching design, has attracted a lot of attention. This article will attempt to analyze the game design, economic model, and globalization strategy of Seraph, exploring how blockchain game projects can break through bottlenecks and the potential insights they may bring to the future development of GameFi.
Project Background
Seraph is a AAA loot game developed by Seraph Studio. The project has raised over $10 million in funding, which is beneficial for achieving its goals in technology research and development, game development, and ecosystem building.
Seraph began its alpha test in April 2023, followed by beta tests, Chaos Legacy Test, Preseason, and Season 0. It will soon start Season 1, with official data showing 90,000 participating players. It is currently a leading game on the BNB Chain. At the BNB Incubation Alliance (BIA) events, there are Seraph booths, and it was showcased near the main exhibition hall entrance during the Binance Blockchain Week event in Dubai, with Binance CEO Richard Teng sharing a photo, indirectly demonstrating BNB Chain's strong support for its leading ecological projects.
According to data displayed by Seraph officials, its player base is very broad, covering multiple countries and regions globally, with relatively prominent presence in Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia markets, characterized by rapid user growth and high activity levels. The Southeast Asian market may have higher acceptance of blockchain games, showing a more obvious player count and growth rate. Currently, Seraph has achieved over $10 million in revenue, mainly from players' in-game purchases and service fees from the free trading of NFT equipment among players.
Game Content: Classic gameplay validated by the market
Seraph currently supports PC and Android, and will soon launch on Steam, Google Play, and iOS. The game graphics and gameplay belong to classic ARPG (action role-playing game), where players use magic or combat skills to defeat monsters and bosses in a dark world of Western fantasy. As players face higher difficulty challenges, they continuously obtain stronger attributes and cool-looking weapons and equipment through monster drops.
In simple terms, after entering the game, you first create a game character, then take on quests to experience the storyline, operate the character to move, attack, and cast skills to defeat enemies and clear a series of challenges, continually familiarizing yourself with the character's skills and gameplay until you reach level 60. After level 60, you begin to enter the core gameplay of the game, which is treasure farming. Players repeatedly challenge more difficult monsters and bosses in dungeons to obtain higher-level and rarer equipment to enhance themselves, forming a positive cycle of treasure farming gameplay. Coupled with multiple difficulty levels and different gameplay seasonal modes, players can experience more challenging and fresh game experiences.
It is important to note that the dividing line between Web2 and Web3 in Seraph lies in the treasure farming phase after level 60. Although farming can continue to be played, if players want to farm and trade to earn profits during the gameplay process, they need to purchase an NFT equipment with real money (equivalent to a "ticket" and initial capital to earn money) and then participate in specific challenges to obtain randomly dropped treasure chests that may contain valuable NFTs, NFT fragments, or limited edition costumes.
Having seen the common click-based mini-games and light gameplay in the blockchain gaming market, the graphics and content of Seraph can honestly be described as somewhat "surprising". It can indeed be said to be benchmarking against Web2 AAA games. The fundamental systems of character upgrades, skills, and equipment are well-developed and deep, allowing for powerful build combinations through skill learning and equipment pairing. For a Web2 deep game player, these will feel very familiar and easy to grasp. This set of gameplay spans the entire Web2 gaming era and remains popular today, proving to be timeless and fully validated by the market.
Within this gameplay framework and without affecting the underlying fun of the game, Seraph seamlessly integrates the NFTization of equipment with a free trading market among players to build a self-sustaining in-game economic system. This approach is reasonable and easily acceptable for a game player.
Economic Model: "Everything is tradable" and "Play and Earn"
The economic model of Seraph combines the philosophy of "everything is tradable" with "Play and Earn" (earning while playing), creating a self-sustaining and sustainable game economic system by allowing players to trade in-game equipment NFTs.
1. NFT Equipment: The in-game gold farming equipment is all tradable NFTs, and players have a chance to obtain them from treasure chests upon clearing dungeons. These equipments not only have game attributes but also vary in rarity and collectability, and can be sold to other players in the trading market on the game platform for profit.
2. Player-driven Free Trading Market: An in-game trading market where all assets can be traded, players set their own prices, and market supply and demand determine price fluctuations. The decentralized market mechanism allows players to truly own assets within the game.
3. Revenue Mechanism and "Play to Earn" Model: Players obtain equipment and items through treasure farming, monster hunting, and cooperative challenges within the game, and trade them in the market, thus realizing the possibility of gaining actual economic returns through gameplay actions.
4. Self-sustaining Economic Ecosystem: As the number of players continues to grow, the market demand within the game will expand, driving more transactions and liquidity. This continuously enhances the stability of the entire ecosystem, improving gaming experiences and profit potential.
Comparison and Analysis of In-game NFTs and Art NFTs
As previously mentioned, Seraph currently generates over $10 million, with part of the revenue based on the trading of in-game equipment NFTs. We know that the NFT sector seems to have become a thing of the past, and even discussing NFTs can be daunting. However, the NFT ecosystem based on in-game weapons, equipment, and items in Seraph presents a different picture. Here, a simple comparison will be made between mainstream NFTs released by artists/stars and those of Seraph:
1. Source and Acquisition Method: NFTs of artists/stars are mainly valued through personal branding, which is unrelated to their generation and actual use, relying more on the creator's popularity and fan base. This method of acquiring NFTs is singular, usually obtained through purchase, lacking interactivity; Game equipment NFTs are obtained by players through dungeon clearing or synthesis, directly linked to the players' efforts. This method of acquisition increases fun and a sense of achievement, while also giving players a higher recognition of the value of the items.
2. Functionality and Applicability: Artist/star NFTs are primarily collectibles, possessing only aesthetic value or symbolic meaning, lacking practical functionality. Their value derives more from fan sentiment or limited scarcity rather than actual utility; Game equipment NFTs have clear functionality, enhancing player character attributes and improving gold farming efficiency. Players can not only collect them but also trade them in and out of the game to realize economic value. This practicality makes them more attractive.
3. Market Driving Force and Value Stability: Artist/star NFTs depend on the creator's brand influence; if the creator's popularity declines or market interest shifts, their value easily fluctuates or even drops to zero. In contrast, the value of game equipment NFTs is determined by the supply-demand relationship within the game ecosystem, directly tied to rare equipment and market demand. If the game is active, the liquidity and value of equipment NFTs will stabilize accordingly.
4. User Participation and Interactivity: The acquisition process of artist/star NFTs is singular, requiring the user only to purchase, lacking a sense of active participation. This passive consumption mode may lead to difficulties in sustaining user enthusiasm; Game equipment NFTs are obtained by players through gameplay actions, making the participation process interactive and enjoyable. This model encourages players to continue investing time and energy, enhancing community activity.
In short, compared to the singular attributes and volatility of artist/star NFTs, game equipment NFTs perform better in functionality, market driving force, and user participation. Artist/star NFTs overly rely on the personal influence of creators; once popularity declines, their value is hard to maintain. In contrast, equipment NFTs are part of the gaming experience, allowing players to enhance their sense of achievement through use and gain actual economic returns through trading, making them more sustainable. Thus, although the applicability of game NFTs is limited by the audience of the game itself, their design logic and trading value are more rational.
The revenue data from Seraph validates the maturity and effectiveness of its NFT economic model, showcasing the strong self-sustaining capability of this model. The economic returns obtained by players during the gaming experience will further enhance the game's attractiveness, bringing in more players, and more players will further promote the healthy development of the in-game trading market. Based on this, Seraph continues to update game content to provide players with fresh gaming experiences, forming a positive economic cycle.
Asset Management System: Lowering the entry barrier for Web2 players into Web3
The main barrier for Web2 players entering Web3 games is the complexity of blockchain technology, including wallet creation, private key management, and on-chain transaction processes. Seraph associates ActPass accounts and asset management systems within the game, allowing players to log in using email/accounts, abstracting away the management of crypto wallets and private keys, with an integrated MPC wallet managing assets and transactions in ActPass. This design has the following advantages:
1. One-click wallet generation for easier operation: Most Web3 games require downloading and configuring a separate wallet. ActPass is integrated within the Seraph game, allowing players to generate a wallet with one click and directly bind their accounts without switching to external applications. This design is similar to the email or social login methods in Web2 games, significantly lowering the entry barrier.
2. Built-in Asset Management to Reduce Operational Burden: Asset management in blockchain games typically involves complex on-chain transactions, while ActPass directly stores digital assets such as equipment and items in a built-in wallet, supporting quick in-game transactions and management. Players can complete operations without switching platforms, eliminating cumbersome signature processes.
3. Hiding Complexity and Optimizing User Experience: ActPass automatically handles gas fees, allowing players to pay with fiat or stablecoins, shielding most blockchain technical details. Players do not need to learn complex processes and can focus on game content, resulting in a smoother experience. Additionally, due to the low gas costs, speed, and security of the opBNB chain on the BNB Chain, players can save on gas costs for transactions and activities related to props.
In short, such a design keeps a certain isolation between game content and the Web3 asset management system, avoiding the poor experience of repeatedly verifying assets and wallet interactions in many Web3 games. This can effectively lower the technical and psychological barriers for Web2 players switching to Web3 games, leading to higher user conversion rates and market penetration, making it an excellent solution to link Web2 and Web3.
Exploration of Incremental Market: A Bridge Between Web2 and Web3
In the context of fierce competition in the existing market, expanding new user groups has become an important task in the Web3 field. Blockchain games, as representatives of the incremental market in Web3, attract Web2 players to enter Web3 due to their high user stickiness and interactivity. Particularly, AAA-level heavy blockchain games, compared to traditional light blockchain applications, offer new possibilities for converting Web2 users through higher technical levels, stronger immersion, and richer ecosystems.
Based on the analysis of Seraph, here are some design ideas that can be referenced for similar games:
1. Lowering the entry barrier: Integrating a convenient Web3 wallet, simplifying asset management and transaction processes, allowing Web2 players to participate smoothly without complex blockchain knowledge.
2. Strengthening Economic Incentives: Adopting the "Play and Earn" model, players earn NFT equipment through gameplay actions (such as farming and challenging) and gain actual returns through market trading, enhancing participation motivation.
3. Provide an immersive experience: Through high-quality graphics, rich storylines, and diverse gameplay, making the game closer to traditional AAA game experiences, allowing Web2 players to accept and engage more easily.
4. Balanced Economic System: By reasonably designing scarcity and market supply-demand relationships (such as limited equipment or functional items), maintaining an active trading market and promoting long-term participation by players.
The potential of the incremental market for blockchain games cannot be ignored. According to predictions from BusinessResearch, the GameFi market size is expected to reach $90.51 billion by 2031, with growth potential of up to 10 to 15 times. In the current bull market, the blockchain gaming sector has yet to truly take off. It is hoped that with the emergence of more high-quality blockchain games, the simple and rough impression of Web3 games will gradually improve, bringing more players to the Web3 industry.
