A Squad RPG game offers inherent synergy between the RPG genre and the transformative capabilities of blockchain technology. The foundational elements of a Squad RPG, namely character collection and squad formation, serve as ideal canvases for blockchain-based enhancements.
Player Ownership: In a Squad RPG, players can summon, collect and customize various items such as characters, weapons, and accessories. By utilizing blockchain, these assets can be tokenized, allowing players to have verifiable ownership and the ability to trade or sell them outside the game ecosystem. This creates a vibrant player-driven game economy and enhances the value and rarity of unique items.
Provably Rare and Unique Items: Developers can create limited edition or unique NFT items with specific attributes or abilities that cannot be replicated. Such scarcity and verifiability enhance the gameplay experience by providing players with sought-after and collectible items, fostering a sense of achievement and exclusivity within the game.
Secure and Transparent Trading Marketplaces: Players can easily buy, sell, and trade their NFT assets directly with other players, eliminating the need for centralized intermediaries. Smart contracts on the blockchain ensure transparent and tamper-proof transactions, reducing the risk of fraud or scams.
Player-driven Game economy and Rewards: A blockchain-based Squad RPG can empower players by providing opportunities for them to earn rewards through their in-game activities, such as completing quests and achieving milestones. This incentive drives player engagement and can attract a broader audience to the genre.
Guild of Guardians is a free-to-play mobile game that operates the game as a service. A range of applications and features can sit on top of the core game, which we expect will be developed over time (by the community or us). Some potential ideas include:
NFT trading marketplace
Community guides, newsletters and analysis
Esports leaderboards competitions, guilds and rewards
Social hub and gathering for like-minded players
Guild of Guardians earns revenue in three ways:
Primary Sales: Guild of Guardians may sell NFTs directly to customers through a website. These NFTs will be usable in the mobile game and can give players access to new strategies within the game. Examples include Guardians, Pets, Guilds and Energy Boosters
Secondary Sales (trading fees): Guild of Guardians takes a % royalty fee from all secondary transactions of NFTs. This allows GOG to align our incentives with the community.
In-App Purchases: In-app purchases will be available for players within the Guild of Guardians game. These purchases will focus on meeting different needs the player might have. Some of these purchases may have the potential to be transformed into NFTs if the player chooses to engage with in-game activities. We want to allow players to make progress on their journey with web2 whilst guiding them towards the more challenging, but ultimately more efficient and rewarding web3 experience.
The annual revenue of the mobile squad RPG market is $5.9 billion and growing at 50%+ year-on-year, making it one of the most popular genres in the world. (Source: Sensor Tower Game Intelligence 2022)
The Squad RPG genre has the second largest target audience base in mobile RPG. In 2022, 25.9% of the total RPG game install came from Squad RPG. (Source: Sensor Tower Game Intelligence 2022)
Spending per player in mobile RPGs is very high because of the deep collectability and retention of these games, as per the examples below. There is a massive opportunity to unlock even more potential by introducing real ownership, tradability and provenance.
The overall Squad RPG market itself is highly fragmented, unlike other RPG sub-genres where the top 5 games dominate most download and revenue. This fragmentation allows lots of room for new entrants to break in and completely disrupt the market.
Guild of Guardians will reach potential users by focusing on the following areas:
Mobile gaming growth is typically driven by paid user acquisition. Our internal A/B testing research shows that web3 games can achieve up to 30% lower acquisition costs than traditional games. This means that Guild of Guardians have a unique advantage in user acquisition.
One of the key drivers to growth is retention - the fewer players who leave the game, the faster you grow. Peer analysis shows that web3 gaming can already increase D30 retention from a typical 4% to 10% or above (Source: Cryptoslate). Guild of Guardians will focus on player retention by leveraging social retention mechanics. Squad-based gameplay creates unique dynamics that incentivises users to play for longer or create a better playing experience for those around them. In other words, you're more likely to play a game if you are making friends and playing with friends.
In our latest Friends and Family milestone, we’ve achieved strong retention rates:
Day 1 (D1) retention stands impressively at 65.85%, 36.85% higher than the average D1 retention of 29%
Day 3 (D3) retention at a robust 58.73%
Day 7 (D7) retention is a remarkable 43.38% retention, 23.38% above the industry average of 20% D7 for successful mobile game projects.
(Source for Average Retention: Adjust Mobile App Retention Benchmarks for 2023)
Read more about our Friends and Family Demo results .
Community is king. Rewarding the community is a must. Combine these two, and it makes sense that we plan to foster the Guild of Guardians community. We plan to deploy unique NFT systems such as share-to-earn or create-to-earn rewards to incentivise mass involvement by the community in promoting the game. We have achieved early results here:
50% of Guild of Guardian Wave 1 Founder NFT sales were from referrals
100k+ email sign-ups were from referrals
30k Discord members joined due to a viral giveaway campaign that was shared among communities
In addition, in partnership with Guardians Guild Limited, there may also be community grants and token allocations to encourage third party developers and operators to build on top of the Guild of Guardians universe.
Our mission is to bring the joy of digital ownership to every player in our ecosystem. For a game like Guild of Guardians this means that free-to-play players who account for the majority of gamers on mobile will have pathways to become owners of NFTs. We have carefully curated our player journey in a way that enables smooth onboarding of millions of players into the web3 ecosystem while simultaneously preserving the stability of our game economy. Our goal is to create an experience where players are naturally motivated and curious to discover how to engage in the game ecosystem, and are incentivised to participate in our vibrant communities, all while having fun and competing for exciting rewards.
The $GOG token is an ERC-20 utility token that is the centerpiece of the Guild of Guardians universe. It is designed for rewarding ecosystem participation and growth in the Guild of Guardians universe, including but not limited to content creation, gameplay achievement, community engagement, mentorship amongst other pro-game activities. Immutable is not the issuer of the tokens. The token issuer is Guardians Guild Limited. Guardians Guild Limited received the Digital Worlds Foundation (the Foundation), ), a British Virgin Islands business company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands with limited liability. Immutable, the publisher of Guild of Guardians, is an independent service provider to the Foundation.
The $GOG token will be distributed by Guardians Guild Limited to players and broader ecosystem participants alike as an incentive alignment tool - in service of promoting the overall growth of the game.
The $GOG token is the primary gateway to NFT creation (aka ‘minting) of Guardians, simultaneously unlocking digital ownership, and enabling players to trade with each other. $GOG will also be available as rewards for competing in the game’s leaderboards and other challenging in-game activities.
We know web3 gaming needs to provide all of the top-tier entertainment that web2 gaming brings, while also tackling key challenges that have yet to be solved in the web3 space.
Historically, players can only enjoy the short-term entertainment value of a game without being able to truly own the in-game assets.
The user experience within the web3 ecosystem falls short of being seamless, posing a barrier to widespread adoption among mainstream users.
We believe that a roguelite squad RPG has the best chance of delivering on the four key goals in the summary. It's a genre that lets us deliver a captivating experience, for the widest audience, whilst integrating web3 game features in a sustainable way.
Work with a web2 partner that can deliver an amazing web2 gaming experience that allows us to focus on the core challenge of creating a seamless experience in the integration of web2 and web3 on mobile.
Implementing a two-track in-game economy that nurtures traditional players who are new to web3 integrations, enabling them to naturally and organically explore the benefits and resources of the web3 ecosystem.
