Arweave TX
If you’ve been on Crypto Twitter the last few days you may have noticed an interesting rise of viral survival games, namely the ETH based ‘Crypto: The Game,’ (CTG) and the Delphi Digital backed SOL based ‘GG’ known colloquially as “The Solana Hunger Games.” Besides the synchronicity that these games have sorta similar themes and launched around the same time (which was totally unplanned, at least on the part of the CTG team) – these games signal a welcomed return of FUN back to Web3.
Crypto: The Game opened sign-ups less than 24 hours ago (at the time of writing this) and already has 30 Ξ in it’s prize pool, at a .1Ξ entry point, this is insanely impressive. But despite having many avid supporters, there are plenty of skeptics. Including, admittedly, me at first.
The facts are arresting and keep many would be players apprehensive. There is no shortage of scams, rugpulls and here today gone tomorrow viral onchain games. According to a recent CoinGecko study, a staggering 75% of all web3 games fail, with 2,127 out of 2,817 launched games abandoned or inactive. A failed game is defined as one witnessing a more than 99% decline in activity from its peak. This, coupled with the larger downturn of the entire crypto market has created a semi-hostile reaction from some towards viral game creators like Dylan Abruscato of CTG who is genuinely just building a game that is super fun.
I had a chance to talk to Dylan about his highly anticipated game, how viral game mechanics are designed and how CTG will sustain the hype.
CYNTHIA: I see you’re doing a lot of marketing for CTG!
DYLAN: Yeah, my background is in marketing. So I've definitely thought about the viral mechanics of this game and the referral loops and things like that. I actually started my career in TV. I was a producer and an NBC Page out of college. I got the Saturday Night Live Page assignment. Kenneth Parcell, the Page from 30 Rock, is like a fictionalized representation of my first job. So I was an assistant for the cast, the crew, and the musical guests, and I was bit by the live TV bug. Then, I got into tech by way of HQ Trivia, which was this massive live interactive game show – we had millions of live concurrent viewers.
Courtesy of CNN
The Rock hosted an episode, Robert De Niro, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Kimmel made appearances; it was a huge pop culture phenomenon. The reason why I joined HQ and was so excited about it was because of the idea of a Live Interactive TV Network. In the same way that [HQ] took a traditional game show and made it live, mobile, and interactive, the same concept could be applied to a Shark Tank format, or a talent competition, or a dating show.
As a huge fan of the show Survivor, I have always been obsessed with this idea of a massive digital survivor game where everyone buys in and is randomly assigned to a tribe, just like the show ‘Survivor’.
There's just so much fun to be had on the internet and crypto enables that.
- Dylan Abruscato
CYNTHIA: How is CTG Played?
DYLAN: Over the course of the season, players vote each other out one by one and the last person standing wins the prize pool. And then sprinkled within that are different ways to earn immunity as an individual and different challenges to win tribal immunity. So every day their will be different games to win, ranging from classic arcade games to crypto puzzles and digital scavenger hunts. And whichever tribe wins that challenge is saved from the vote that night. Every other tribe has to vote people out. And then on the last night, everyone that was previously eliminated comes back on and votes for the winner. So you can't just backstab your way to the top you almost have to be a little ruthless but respected. CTG also borrows a couple of my favorite viral loops from HQ trivia. For example, in HQ trivia if you referred someone into the game, you received an extra life. In this instance, if you refer someone into the game, you will receive an individual immunity that you can play.
CYNTHIA: What would you say to those who are questioning why you’re building this?
DYLAN: I grew up opening baseball cards and collecting things, experiencing that nostalgic excitement. I didn't truly feel that again until I minted an NFT for the first time. It was like reliving that thrill seeing what I got and checking if it was rare, etc.
There's just so much fun to be had on the internet and crypto enables that. And so two reasons:
I love Survivor and I always wanted to play Survivor (I would apply every year and never got in) and I thought why not create the ability for people to play it digitally? I've never seen a fun internet version of it.
I think it's a really cool social experiment, and I'm excited to see it play out on Crypto Twitter, which is so tribal in nature. Do players vote someone out because of their PFP? Do players vote out someone who is a VC or a Crypto Twitter influencer? Do people think they're a target because they have too much status or they have enough clout? If someone's really good at the daily challenges, are they a threat and now everyone wants to get rid of them? Or are they someone players want to keep in because the more their tribe wins immunity, the further they get in the game? So yeah, it's a fun social experiment.
Courtesy of Survivor, CBS
CYNTHIA: A few folks [on twitter] were saying that the entry price is too high…
DYLAN: That's 100% on purpose. I want to test the system and control the environment to ensure there aren’t any glitches. It's a live concurrent interactive game and HQ, for instance, was filled with glitches from too many people joining and playing at once. It's V1; this is our first season so I just want to make sure the system can handle a couple hundred people playing live. Also just because it's a game that has 10 tribes, it's so much more fun of a game to have 20 to 50 people within your tribe – that feels more communal, you will have an opportunity to get to know each other and you can easily form alliances within your tribe, you recognize them, you can talk to your tribe in the chat. But if there's 10,000 people in this game then you're just randomly picking people to vote out and that's not fun to me.
CYNTHIA: Given the fact that CTG has sort of gone viral in Web3, especially within the Ethereum space – how are you guys planning on sustaining the hype?
DYLAN: Yeah, well honestly Survivor has done a great job of that. I think it's on it's 50th season or something crazy like that. What survivor does, which I really like is that a lot of people join, you vote people out and one person wins the pot – that basic loop stays the same, but every season there's a unique twist. There are also breaks between seasons. So that's my goal. I have ideas for future seasons. I want to get progressively more onchain with each season. My idea for season two is tentatively called “Anon Island,” and you will mint an NFT, which is your slot in the game, and that NFT burns when you get eliminated but it actually has a bit more functionality.
You could hypothetically sell that NFT which is your spot in the game at any point throughout the competition and hypothetically, as you get closer to the prize pool your NFT would be worth more and more.
CYNTHIA: Wow. So you're gonna include even more game mechanics in it?
DYLAN: Oh, yeah, this is just the beginning!
Thanks for reading this edition of MINDS AT PLAY! Which new games will survive the crypto hype cycle — let me know in the comments below.
Thank you to Dylan for your time and excellent insights! Enter to play season one of Crypto: The Game before Jan 31st Noon PST. And may the best player win!
- Cynthia ౨ৎ ⊹ ‧ ♱
Thanks for reading MINDS AT PLAY! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
MINDS AT PLAY