At the peak of the NFT bull run, blockchain gaming was one of the most exciting prospects in web3. Everyone was talking about the potential of acquiring digital assets in video games that could be exchanged for real value. 

However, with the crypto market’s sharp decline in 2022, GameFi has slowly become an afterthought as many hyped-up projects failed to show significant development. Fortunately, this hasn’t always been the case because many game development studios are still creating significant progress with games such as The Beacon.

The Beacon Game

The Beacon is an RPG roguelike video game that has a similar art style to many of the retro video games from the late 80’s and early 90’s when pixel art was at its height. The game takes place in a fantasy world that takes inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons and The Legend of Zelda. 

Players will be able to create their own character for free or use a paid character that includes additional perks. They can then go on quests alone or as a group, raiding dungeons, and acquiring new loot like most other video games from its genre. 

There are also base building mechanics so that players can create, build, and customize their own in-game homes with items found within The Beacon. 

Finding NFT loot in dungeons

An enormous appeal of The Beacon is how it will utilize NFT technology to act as special rewards for players. Users will be able to earn special NFT loot at the end of dungeons and in the form of prizes. This is a far cry from the common complaint brought up by gamers that believe NFTs will ruin games through predatory marketing tactics. 

However, the team behind The Beacon are clearly positioning NFTs as a reward for effort which also creates value for the NFTs as harder dungeons and accomplishments will result in more valuable loot, just like regular video games. Only this time those items can be exchanged with cryptocurrencies instead of fake in-game currencies. 

Is it free to play?

The game will provide players with multiple options for play between its free-to-play model or by using paid characters that can be blessed for additional rewards. This is similar to Digi Daigaku, which is also built on the concept of free-to-play, removing the obstacle of overpriced NFTs acting as a barrier to the game. 

Although the game offers players a way into the game without charging them anything, there is still the aspect of the paid characters and if they will add an element of pay-to-win which has plagued a majority of popular web2 video games through the past decade.  

While it makes sense for paid characters to provide players with access to more content, it is still a fine line that needs to be followed because pay-to-win schemes are not going to convince the web2 community that blockchain gaming is genuine. 

The Beacon does put an emphasis on uniqueness though, and has made it clear that a large portion of their NFTs will be cosmetic. So, the risk of pay-to-win mechanics may be undeserved; but the criticism will remain among web2 gamers until proven otherwise.