After the temporary decline in the popularity of TON mini-games, the sound of the chain game track seems to have quieted down. However, at recent major industry exhibitions, such as Token2049 in Singapore, THBW2024 in Bangkok, and Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, we can still see the vibrant life of chain game projects, with both new and old chain games actively present in key booths. Among them, Seraph has attracted a lot of attention with its positioning as a next-generation AAA chain game and its eye-catching design. This article will attempt to analyze Seraph's game design, economic model, and globalization strategy, exploring how chain game projects can break through bottlenecks and the insights they may bring for the future development of GameFi.
Project background
Seraph is an AAA loot game developed by Seraph Studio. The project has received over 10 million dollars in investment, providing sufficient funding to achieve its goals in technology research and development, game development, and ecosystem construction.
Seraph began A testing in April 2023, going through B testing, Chaos Legacy Test, Preseason, and Season 0, and will soon start Season 1. The official shows that the number of participating players has reached 90,000, making it the leading game on the BNB Chain. The BNB Incubation Alliance (BIA) has set up a Seraph booth at on-site events, and during the Dubai Binance Blockchain Week event, it was showcased near the main exhibition entrance, with Binance CEO Richard Teng taking a photo and tweeting about it, indirectly demonstrating BNB Chain's strong support for its leading ecological project.
From the data displayed by Seraph's official sources, its player demographic is very broad, spanning multiple countries and regions worldwide, with relatively prominent markets in Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia. The growth rate of users is rapid, and their activity levels are high. The Southeast Asian market may show a clearer increase in player numbers and growth rates due to a higher acceptance of chain games. Currently, Seraph has achieved over 10 million dollars in revenue, primarily from players' in-game paid top-ups and service fees collected from the free trading of NFTized equipment among players.
Game content: Classic gameplay validated by the market.
Seraph currently supports PC and Android and will soon be available on Steam, Google Play, and iOS. The game features classic ARPG (action role-playing game) graphics and gameplay, allowing players to use magic or combat skills to defeat monsters and bosses in a dark world of Western fantasy, continuously obtaining stronger attributes and visually impressive weapons and equipment through monster drops while facing higher difficulty challenges.
Simply put, after entering the game, you first create a game character, then take on quests to experience the storyline. You control the character to move, attack, and use skills to defeat enemies and clear a series of challenges while continuously familiarizing yourself with the character's skills and gameplay, leveling up to level 60. After reaching level 60, you begin to enter the core gameplay of the game, which is loot farming. Players repeatedly challenge increasingly difficult monsters and bosses in dungeons to obtain higher-level and rare equipment to enhance themselves, forming a positive cycle of loot farming. Coupled with multiple difficulty levels and different seasonal gameplay modes, players experience higher difficulty challenges and fresher and more exciting gaming experiences.
It is important to note that the dividing line between Web2 and Web3 in Seraph lies in the loot farming phase after reaching level 60. Although players can continue to play the game, if they want to use the gaming process to farm loot and trade for profits, they will need to purchase an NFT equipment piece with real money (essentially a 'ticket to earn money' and start-up capital) and then participate in specific challenges to obtain randomly dropped treasure chests containing valuable NFTs, NFT fragments, or limited edition costumes.
Having seen the common clicker-style mini-games and light gameplay in the chain game market, the graphics and content of Seraph are, to be honest, a bit 'surprising'; it can truly be said to be on par with Web2 AAA games. The basic systems of character leveling, skills, and equipment are well-developed and deep, allowing players to form powerful builds through skill learning and equipment combinations. For a deep Web2 game player, these elements will feel very familiar and easy to pick up. This gameplay system has almost spanned the entire era of Web2 gaming and remains popular to this day, proving its enduring appeal and full market validation.
Within this gameplay framework and without affecting the underlying fun of the game, Seraph seamlessly integrates the NFTization of equipment with a player-driven free trading market into the game, constructing a self-sustaining in-game economic system. This idea is relatively reasonable and easy for a game player to accept.
Economic model: 'Everything can be traded' and 'Play and Earn'.
Seraph's economic model combines the philosophy of 'everything can be traded' with 'Play and Earn', creating a self-sustaining and sustainable game economic system by allowing players to trade in-game equipment NFTs with each other.
NFT equipment: All gold-farming equipment in the game is tradable NFTs, which players can obtain from treasure chests after completing dungeons. These pieces of equipment not only have game attributes but also come with different rarities and collectible values, which can be sold in the trading market of the game platform to earn profits.
Player-driven free trading market: The game's built-in trading market allows trading of all in-game assets, with players setting their own prices. Market supply and demand determine price fluctuations, and the decentralized market mechanism allows players to truly own in-game assets.
Revenue mechanism and 'Play and Earn' model: Players obtain equipment and items through loot farming, monster hunting, and cooperative challenges in-game and then trade them in the market, thus achieving the possibility of obtaining actual economic returns through gaming actions.
Self-sustaining economic ecosystem: As the number of players continues to grow, the market demand within the game will continuously expand, driving more transactions and liquidity. This will continuously enhance the stability of the entire ecosystem, improving the gaming experience and earning potential.
Comparative analysis of in-game NFTs and art NFTs.
As mentioned earlier, Seraph currently generates over 10 million dollars, 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 people even change their tone when talking about NFTs. However, the NFT ecosystem based on in-game weapons, equipment, and items in Seraph shows a different picture. Here, a simple comparison is made with mainstream NFTs released by artists/stars:
Source and acquisition methods: Artist/star NFTs are primarily valued by personal brand, unrelated to their generation and actual use, and rely more on the creator's popularity and fan base. This single acquisition method usually involves purchasing, lacking interactivity; game equipment NFTs are obtained by players through dungeon completion or synthesis, directly linked to player efforts. This acquisition method increases fun and a sense of achievement, while also allowing players to have a higher recognition of the value of items.
Functionality and applicable scenarios: Artist/star NFTs are mainly collectibles, possessing only aesthetic or symbolic value, lacking practical functionality. Their value stems more from fan emotions or limited scarcity rather than actual uses; game equipment NFTs have clear functionalities, able to enhance player character attributes, improve gold farming efficiency, etc. Players can not only collect them but also trade them both in and out of the game to realize economic value. This practicality makes them more attractive.
Market driving force and value stability: Artist/star NFTs depend on the creator's brand influence, and if the creator's popularity declines or market interest shifts, their value can fluctuate or even drop to zero. The value of game equipment NFTs is determined by the supply and demand relationship in the game's ecosystem; rare equipment is directly linked to market demand. If the game is active, the liquidity and value of equipment NFTs will stabilize accordingly.
User participation and interactivity: The acquisition process of artist/star NFTs is singular, requiring users only to purchase, lacking a sense of active participation. This passive consumption model may lead to difficulty maintaining user enthusiasm; game equipment NFTs are obtained by players through gaming actions, making the participation process interactive and engaging. This model encourages players to continuously invest time and energy, enhancing community activity.
In short, compared to the single attribute and volatility of artist/star NFTs, game equipment NFTs perform better in terms of functionality, market driving force, and user participation. Artist/star NFTs rely too much on the personal influence of the creator; once the hype declines, it is hard to maintain their value. On the other hand, equipment NFTs are part of the gaming experience, allowing players to enhance their sense of achievement through use and gain actual benefits through trading, which provides higher sustainability. Therefore, although the applicability of game NFTs is limited by the target audience of the game itself, their design logic and trading value are more reasonable.
The revenue data of Seraph is a verification of the maturity and effectiveness of its NFT economic model, showing the strong self-sustaining ability of this model. The economic returns that players gain during their 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. On this basis, Seraph continuously updates game content to provide players with fresh gaming experiences, forming a positive economic feedback loop.
Asset management system: Lowering the entry barrier for Web2 players to enter Web3.
The main obstacle for Web2 players entering Web3 games lies in the complexity of blockchain technology, including wallet creation, private key management, and on-chain transaction processes. Seraph links the ActPass account and asset management system within the game, allowing players to log in through email/account, abstracting the management of crypto wallets and private keys. It features a built-in MPC wallet for managing assets and transactions within ActPass. This design has the following advantages:
One-click wallet generation, making operations more convenient: Most Web3 games require downloading and configuring independent wallets. ActPass is integrated within the Seraph game, allowing players to generate wallets 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 reducing the entry barrier.
Built-in asset management, reducing operational burdens: Asset management in blockchain games often involves complex on-chain transactions, while ActPass stores digital assets such as equipment and items directly in the built-in wallet, supporting quick in-game transactions and management. Players can perform operations without switching platforms, eliminating cumbersome signature processes.
Hiding complexity, 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 complicated processes and can focus on game content for a smoother experience. Additionally, thanks to the low gas fees, speed, and security of the opBNB chain on the BNB Chain’s second layer, players can save on gas costs for transactions and item chain activities.
In summary, this design maintains a certain degree of separation between game content and the Web3 asset management system, avoiding the many repeated validation of assets and wallet interactions that plague many Web3 games. This can effectively reduce the technical and psychological barriers for Web2 players switching to Web3 games, leading to higher user conversion rates and market penetration capabilities, and can be seen as an excellent solution for linking Web2 and Web3.
Exploring the incremental market: A bridge between Web2 and Web3.
Against the backdrop of fierce competition in the existing market, expanding new user groups has become an important task in the Web3 field. Chain games, as a representative of the Web3 incremental market, attract Web2 players into Web3 through high user stickiness and interactivity. Especially AAA-level heavy chain games, compared to traditional light blockchain applications, rely on higher technical levels, stronger immersion, and richer ecosystems, bringing new possibilities for converting Web2 users.
Through the above analysis of Seraph, here are some design ideas for similar games that can be referenced:
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.
Strengthening economic incentives: Adopting a 'Play and Earn' model, players earn NFT equipment through game actions (such as farming loot, challenges) and gain actual benefits through market trading, enhancing their motivation to participate.
Providing 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.
Balanced economic system: By reasonably designing scarcity and the relationship between market supply and demand (such as limited equipment or functional items), maintaining an active trading market and promoting long-term player participation.
The potential of the incremental market for chain games cannot be ignored. According to BusinessResearch's predictions, the GameFi market size is expected to reach $90.51 billion by 2031, with growth potential as high as 10 to 15 times. In this current bull market, the chain game track has not yet truly taken off. It is hoped that as more high-quality chain games emerge, the simple and crude impression of Web3 games will gradually improve, bringing more players to the Web3 industry.
