Welcome
Today I would like to share a more difficult update with you.
MonsterCards.store will operate only until the end of May 2026.
This is not a decision I made suddenly. This project has been with me for a long time, and over the last few years it has given me a lot of satisfaction. MonsterCards.store started as a small additional market for Splinterlands, and over time it received many features that I personally wanted to have as a user.
There was the payback system, statistics, transaction history, support for new sets, the asset market, changes related to new fees, auto-withdrawal, and many smaller improvements that often required much more work than it may have looked like from the outside.
Unfortunately, at this point I no longer have enough time to maintain and develop MonsterCards.store at the level I would like.
Why I am ending this project
MonsterCards.store has always been a project created in my free time.
I am a full-stack developer, I have a regular job, family, home and other responsibilities. On top of that, I am now developing a completely different project which is currently much more important to me and gives me much more energy.
For a long time, I was still able to maintain MonsterCards.store after hours. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but the project continued to work. However, with each year it became more difficult to find time for bigger changes, reacting to all Splinterlands updates, and developing something new at the same time.
I also have to honestly admit that other projects in the ecosystem are doing better. They have better funding, bigger teams, and people who are much deeper inside the Splinterlands world. This is not a complaint. It is simply reality.
MonsterCards.store was mostly a one-person project, and at some point you have to realistically judge how much more can still be done alone.
A few words about Splinterlands
Splinterlands was a very important project for me. Thanks to this game, I learned many things, created my own market, got to know part of the community, and for a long time had the motivation to build something extra for players.
Over time, however, I started to see more clearly that developing an external tool around such a dynamic ecosystem requires much more time and energy than I am currently able to give.
Some decisions and changes in recent years also made me more cautious about investing my time into projects whose direction depends largely on decisions made outside of my control.
I mean, among other things, changes related to market fees, the history of Soulkeep, which from my perspective for a long time looked like a project put aside and later handed over to be continued outside the main Splinterlands team, and many smaller changes that external tools simply had to adapt to.
I understand that Splinterlands needs to evolve and adjust to the market situation. At the same time, I also need to choose what I want to focus on as a developer.
That is why I see the closure of MonsterCards.store as a calm ending of one chapter and a transfer of energy to a project over which I have full control.
A few words about NFT and crypto in games
Over the last few years, my view on NFTs in games has also changed.
At one point, I looked at this model with much more enthusiasm. Over time, however, it became harder for me to ignore the fact that in many projects, NFTs, tokens and other digital assets lost value as the years passed. This applies not only to Splinterlands, where at the time of writing CoinGecko shows SPS around 99.6% below its all-time high and DEC around 97.6% below its all-time high, but also to many other web3 and gaming projects.
And this is probably one of the more brutal lessons of this market: the word “ownership” alone does not make a digital item automatically become lasting value.
The biggest issue I see is that NFTs often give the feeling of owning something permanent, while in practice their value still depends on the decisions of game developers, the state of the servers, the future development of the project, market liquidity and the interest of other players.
The NFT itself is only an identifier in a system. Without a living project, real utility and an active market, it can quickly become something that technically still exists, but practically no longer has much meaning.
That is why I want to approach this much more simply and carefully in Randoria. I do not plan to build the game around NFTs. If a crypto layer appears in the project, I want it to be as simple and clear as possible, based on one token, not on the promise that every digital item is an investment asset.
For me, the most important thing now is that the game is simply enjoyable, developed in a predictable way, and based on mechanics over which I have full control.
What will happen to MonsterCards.store
Until the end of May 2026, I will try to keep MonsterCards.store running as stable as possible.
After that date, I do not plan to continue maintaining the market.
If needed, before the end of May I will prepare one more short technical update so everyone knows what to expect.
I want users to have time to calmly move their activity to other available tools and markets.
What comes next - Randoria
This does not mean that I am done creating games and projects.
Quite the opposite.
Right now, most of my energy goes into my new project:
Randoria is an idle game that I am creating completely independently. It is a project over which I have 100% control and from which I get 100% satisfaction, even though for now it is still a very early alpha version.
I want Randoria to be a game with calm, long-term progression. Not a game where everything is reduced to endlessly increasing every number, resetting progress, and adding more layers of artificial inflation. I care much more about a game where the player slowly develops their village, unlocks new possibilities, and makes choices that actually matter.
Choices are important in Randoria. Which building should you develop first? Which map should you send your production to? Should you focus on faster basic resource gathering, more power, better drops, tools, runes, or preparing for the next stage of progression? I do not want the optimal strategy to always be: “upgrade everything one by one.” For me, it is much more interesting to design a game where different development paths can make sense.
My approach to monetization is also very important to me. Of course, realistically, I know that the game will need some form of microtransactions if it is going to continue growing and maintaining itself. But I do not want microtransactions to distort the balance or turn Randoria into a typical pay-to-win game. My goal is to create a system where optional payments can help support the project, but do not take away the meaning of calm gameplay, progression, and the decisions made by the player.
At the moment, Randoria focuses on village development, production buildings, maps, resource gathering, crafting, tools, and runes. It is only the foundation, but it is exactly the kind of foundation I wanted to build: easy to understand, possible to expand gradually, and independent from the decisions of an external project or another team.
It is not a finished, complete game yet. Many things are still changing, many features are still under construction, and the balance will definitely need many adjustments. But this stage is exactly what gives me the most fun right now. I can decide the direction of development, mechanics, economy, balance, and pace of changes myself.
If you like idle progression, developing a village, collecting resources, maps, crafting, tools, runes, and slowly building your account, I will be very happy if you check out Randoria and give me feedback.
Thank you
I would like to thank all users of MonsterCards.store.
Thank you for using the market, for your transactions, bug reports, comments, patience, and for everyone who supported the project during this time.
I would also like to thank the Splinterlands Team for the adventure we had together so far. Even though I did not agree with every decision, Splinterlands gave me the opportunity to create something real for players and gain experience that I can now use in future projects.
It was an interesting chapter.
Now it is time for the next one.
Thank you all and I wish you good luck.
GL&HF.
P.S. And now, after writing this update and making all these decisions, I am going on a one-week vacation. I think my brain also deserves a short maintenance break.