A New Platform
Discord has positioned itself as a modern replacement for IRC/chatrooms with a focus on gaming in particular. Many blockchain communities use Discord as a primary means of engagement and communication with their members due to the variety of features and plugins available. Notably though, some blockchain games are being developed with Discord as the primary platform - playing the game through Discord rather than a web interface.
It's an interesting shift, and one that can aid in building communities - players of the game are already in a centralized location for announcements and conversations. In the three games detailed below, NFT assets are used in game and stored on the WAX chain. This is enabled by linking an account to the Discord and enabling those assets to be read from the account. Due to the offchain nature of this, no on-chain resources are expended taking actions in the game.
Underpunks
Underpunks can be described as a tabletop role playing game based in Discord. Thematically, it's based around a lost underground world hidden deep under a 1980s retro-futuristic cyberpunk city where players are able to mine and adventure within the world.
It's a slower paced, largely passive game with much of the timing enforced by the "slow mode" in Discord. Given the depth and interactions between players and the world, it's surprising that it was able to be built in Discord. Once approved by the GM, players are able to mine with tools that are held in their WAX account for loot within the mines and explore the world, moving between different rooms of the server to simulate movement in game.
One of the most vibrant aspects of this game is the role playing within the community. The GM has created a separate alphabet for use within the game that players must decipher to progress within certain quest lines. This is a great example of "old school" mechanics where some games had manuals or riddles that must be solved outside of the game itself. Community members have created their own artwork with that alphabet, and have a strong sense of "staying in character" when engaging in certain chats.
Underpunks is an ambitious project, and for it to deliver the roadmap entirely through Discord is astounding - something that speaks to the dedication and efforts of its GM.
Journey to Godhood
Journey to Godhood is another Discord based game, though working through direct interactions with a bot, rather than open channels. Like Underpunks, Journey to Godhood leverages NFTs on the WAX chain to tracker player equipment. The fantasy adventure game offers players a chance to earn tokens which can be used in the in game store by going on adventures. These adventures are automated, though can offer players a choice as to how to approach a situation - save a man, or use him as monster bait for example.
Actions per day appear to be limited based on player and gear level - with a fully automatic/idle mode able to be unlocked after leveling up. The whitepaper and roadmap has evolved over time and does offer players the opportunity to "Play to Earn", though it does seem a minimum level needs to be reach to withdraw tokens from the game. A player governance system is in place, allowing players to exchange in game tokens for governance tokens. This gives players a bit more control over how the game may change over time, and removes the notion of a dedicate game master.
The Adventurer's Guild
Currently in pre-alpha, The Adventurer's Guild is a NFT-based RPG developed by SixPM Software, and powered by the WAX blockchain. It's worth noting that SixPM is the developer of the Honeycomb Discord bot, a service used by many communities for wallet linking and whitelisting. This, combined with dynamic NFTs they've created in the past, brings a lot of potential to this project. Most notably is the Candelight non-custodial staking aspect which claims "essentially every NFT on the WAX blockchain can be used to enhance your character".
The screenshots posted in the game's Discord show an interface that is bot based and similar to Journey to Godhood. Holders of the Original Adventurer NFT should be getting access with version 0.3.0, which might be coming soon based on recent announcements. With tokens already on mainnet, and the pedigree of the developer, this is certainly an interesting adventure to watch.
Thanks for reading, and if you enjoy discussing blockchain gaming and discovering new blockchain games, consider joining the Crypto Gaming Guild on Discord.