A Comprehensive Understanding of Gala Games: A New Web3 Game Aggregation Platform, How Traditional Gamers Shape the Blockchain Game Version of Steam?

Source: Deep Tide TechFlow

How Does Gala Games Work?

Gala Games is a blockchain game aggregation platform where games and in-game assets (NFTs) are issued on Ethereum. In the future, Gala Games plans to launch a more user-friendly public chain for game users and developers. Many people understand it as the Steam platform in the Web3 world.

According to OKLink data, thanks to the explosion of the Play2Earn model, the daily active users in the GameFi market experienced explosive growth in 2021. During this period, Gala Games seized the opportunity and made significant progress in 2021.

According to official data from Gala Games, its monthly active users have exceeded 1.3 million, with over 26,000 NFTs sold. However, with the cooling of the GameFi market, the price of the GALA token began to gradually decline after reaching a new high in November 2021. Although the performance of the Gala Games token price is strongly correlated with the GameFi market, the P2E attribute of Gala Games' games is not strong. As the team wrote on the official website, Gala Games places more emphasis on "Fun First."

They believe: "We believe the blockchain should be invisible in our games. We use simple game mechanics that all players can enjoy, whether or not they consider themselves to be blockchain pros. We believe the blockchain should be invisible in our games. We use simple game mechanics that all players can enjoy, whether or not they consider themselves to be blockchain pros."

Currently, Gala Games has confirmed the launch of 8 games, namely Legends Reborn, Spider Tanks, Town Star, The Walking Dead: Empires, Mirandus, Legacy, Last Expedition, Echoes of Empire, and Fortified. These eight games cover various game modes including card games, strategy, RPG, MMORPG, fighting, simulation management, FPS, and TD.

The game content encompasses styles such as space, medieval, zombies, punk, adventure, casual, and farming. Among them, the simulation management game Town Star is already officially operational, allowing players to participate via a web interface. The remaining 7 games are in various stages of development, testing, and awaiting node voting.

The following sections will analyze the fundamentals and future development potential of Gala Games from the perspectives of nodes, GALA tokens, game content, team, competitors, and risks.

Nodes

The decentralized node network is the foundation of Gala Games. Through Gala Games' founding nodes, users can vote to decide which games Gala Games will launch. For individual games, Gala Games has also set up game nodes, such as Town Star, to reduce the server pressure on Gala Games.

The maximum limit for Gala Games founding nodes is 50,000. According to official data, there are currently over 16,000 founding nodes operated by players, collectively supporting the ecological development of Gala Games.

We can understand this as Gala Games acting as a主体, decentralizing the entire game network through distributed nodes. The主体 Gala Games is responsible for providing operations, curation, marketing, and maintenance services for the entire decentralized network, covering services such as Gala Games Network, node software updates, and maintenance development, ultimately promoting the development of the Gala Games Network in collaboration with the community.

According to official explanations, the Gala Games node network ecosystem consists of five parts: the主体 Gala Games, NFTs in games, random allocation algorithms, public databases, and nodes.

主体 Gala Games

The主体 Gala Games is responsible for planning and executing governance-related matters regarding various games (such as game launches). At the same time, Gala Games aims to provide toolkits for more studios to create and publish NFTs, welcoming more game studios into an open ecosystem.

According to official explanations, "Gala Games' goal is to make it easy and quick for any company to add their games to the Gala Games ecosystem and use toolkits to generate standardized crypto packages, NFT libraries, and wallets to integrate into their games." The number of game studios is a key determinant of the future development of the Gala Games ecosystem and is one of the important indicators for assessing Gala Games' potential.

Public Database

The Gala Games community has established a public database through GALABASE.io. We can think of it as a blockchain explorer. The function of the public database is to help the developer community participate more easily in the Gala Games ecosystem through its accessibility. The game studios under the Gala Games ecosystem are the main components of its developer community.

In addition, the public database also supports its random allocation algorithm. We can also use it to query the support of different nodes for the Gala Games ecosystem. However, after testing, the application of the public database GALABASE mainly manifests in NFT queries, and the display of information regarding contributions from Gala nodes is relatively vague.

Founding Nodes and NFTs

The benefits of becoming a Gala founding node mainly manifest in two aspects:

• 1. Founding nodes can vote to decide which games will be launched on the platform;
• 2. Founding nodes receive operational income from Gala Games and the game (Town Star);

Additionally, according to the random allocation algorithm, NFTs from new games will also be airdropped to founding nodes. The NFTs in new games are provided by game studios and traded in the Gala Games store.

Apart from voting, although becoming a Gala founding node requires providing equipment such as computers, as mentioned earlier, the specific contributions required to become a Gala node are not clear, and there is no specific information disclosed to the public. Moreover, the active node data in its database was last updated three months ago.

It is possible that the functions of Gala founding nodes will become more apparent with the launch of more games in the future.

Node owner @Alchemy believes, "The sale of nodes is a disguised fundraising method for the project party. The project party has stated that selling nodes is to avoid regulatory risks in the U.S. Currently, there are still 10,000 nodes for sale; how much can the project party sell them for? About $750 million."

GALA Token

GALA is the ERC native utility token of the Gala Games ecosystem, currently cross-chain to BSC, with a total supply of 50 billion and a circulating supply of 6.98 billion. Currently, GALA has a market capitalization of $1.7 billion, ranking 63rd.

It is reported that the GALA token did not undergo an ICO and has been listed on several exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, OKX, Kucoin, Gate.io, and Uniswap, covering multiple trading pairs such as GALA/BNB, GALA/USD, GALA/USDT, and GALA/ETH.

Gala Games nodes can earn daily points by running nodes for 6 hours, which can then be exchanged for GALA token rewards. The more points earned, the larger the share in the daily GALA token distribution. In addition to running nodes, inviting users to join nodes and having invited users run for more than 6 hours can also earn points for the inviter.

Every July 21, the amount of GALA token distribution will be halved------as time goes on, the selling pressure of GALA decreases, but the payback period for becoming a node becomes longer. Furthermore, Gala Games has not conducted any financing------as a result, the founding nodes of Gala Games are essentially the investors of Gala Games.

Through founding nodes and node sales, Gala Games has already obtained sufficient funds to support their continued development. According to statistics from First Class Cabin, as of January 11, Gala Games has earned $510 million and 8,681.8 ETH from node sales.

In addition, Gala Games has another source of income: gold membership subscriptions. Gold members have the right to receive priority information, special NFT rewards, and early access to game testing opportunities.

The GALA token serves as the payment medium for all matters in the Gala Games ecosystem, including nodes, gold memberships, and NFT sales in the store. This is also the main empowerment of the GALA token. After Gala Games launches Project GYRI (the public chain project of the Gala ecosystem), the GALA token may serve as a gas token within it.

In the future, in addition to serving as an important transaction medium in the Gala Games ecosystem, the GALA token is also a crucial means for early investors in Gala Games, namely the Gala founding nodes, to recoup their investment costs.

If the GALA token price does not meet expectations, the payback period for new Gala nodes will lengthen, and potential investors' desire to become nodes will weaken, making it difficult for Gala Games to obtain sufficient funds for long-term operations. Of course, as of now, Gala Games still has ample funds.

On February 8, Gala Games confirmed that it will allocate $5 billion in the next year to expand its NFT and other products. Of this, an estimated $200 million will be used for game NFTs, $1 billion for studio music NFTs, $1 billion for movie NFTs, and the remaining $1 billion for Gala theme park NFTs.

The growth in the number of nodes will also become an important KPI for Gala Games. Only by continuously promoting the development of Gala Games' own ecosystem and enhancing investors' expectations for the value of the GALA token can more nodes and players be attracted to participate. This is a positive feedback loop.

Games

Town Star

Currently, the only game launched by Gala Games is Town Star (Spider Tanks is still in the testing phase). Town Star is a Play2Earn blockchain game built on the web.

It is a simulation management game where players can build a dynamic town system by constructing farms, ranches, lumber mills, factories, and other infrastructure, hiring workers, processing in factories, and selling resources. Although Town Star is a web-based game, its game mechanics are very comprehensive, and players can play for free without any barriers.

For basic GameFi players, Town Star has a high difficulty level and a certain entry threshold. While it is not as complex as traditional simulation management games, players still need to invest time and effort to familiarize themselves with the game process.

First, players need to understand the roles and costs of workers, materials, and infrastructure, balancing development until various resources can support the processing needs of the oil refinery. Among them, gasoline is the most important resource in the game; we need gasoline to run vehicles to sell our products for profit. Gasoline cannot be purchased; it can only be obtained through the oil refinery. Once gasoline runs out, we cannot produce gasoline, and the game enters a death loop------we can only start a new game.

The Play2Earn model in the game is not the traditional model seen in the GameFi market, which is DeFi gamification. Traditional GameFi combines NFTs and FTs (fungible tokens) to provide participants with some gaming experiences, but its essence remains DeFi. Town Star embodies Gala Games' "Fun First" principle, placing greater emphasis on player experience------even if players cannot achieve quick economic benefits.

The Play2Earn model of Town Star is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

• Daily Challenges: Completing daily challenges earns token rewards;
• Gala Power: The setting of Gala Power encourages players to hold GALA tokens and TOWN tokens------the quantity of both determines the player's Gala Power level. The higher the Gala Power level, the more NFTs players can earn in Town Coin;
• Season Pass: Through the season pass NFT, players can complete competitions within a specified time to earn TOWN token rewards.

Of course, Town Star also offers paid content (NFTs) to help players achieve higher earning efficiency. At the same time, these paid contents (NFTs) can also be freely traded in the market. Players can purchase those NFTs in the Gala Games store, and the rarer the NFT, the higher the efficiency of earning TOWN.

Players can use the TOWN tokens earned through gameplay or purchased from third-party exchanges in the following three ways:

• Purchase exclusive NFT items for TownCoin;
• Use TownCoin for in-game upgrades and benefits;
• Holding TownCoin can achieve a higher Gala Power level.

In addition to earning TOWN tokens through Play2Earn, another way to acquire TOWN tokens is by becoming an operational node for Town Star. Node operators receive TOWN tokens as rewards for operating their Town Star founding nodes during daily distributions.

In fact, we can see Gala Games' attitude towards ecological games from the example of Town Star. As mentioned multiple times earlier, "Fun First," games in the Gala Games ecosystem are more likely to develop towards a model where "ordinary players enjoy games, and professional players earn rewards," resembling Contest2Earn rather than Play2Earn.

This is also another reason why Gala Games is considered a Web2.5 product. A fun game will attract not only crypto users but also more ordinary players, serving as a bridge between Web2 and Web3.

At the same time, non-crypto industry players can create their own crypto wallets through Gala Games' email registration (still need to record the mnemonic phrase), without needing to download wallet software like Metamask. This, to some extent, lowers the cognitive threshold for players regarding the blockchain/crypto world.

Gala Games Ecosystem NFT VOX

VOX NFT is an NFT based on the Gala Games ecosystem, with a total of 8,888 pieces released. VOX NFTs can be applied in games within the Gala Games ecosystem, such as being staked in Town Star to earn TOWN token rewards.

Currently, the second series of VOX Collectibles inspired by MMORPG, MirandusVOX, has been launched.

In the future, after the launch of the Gala Games Metaverse, it will serve as an Avatar within it. Additionally, Metaverse participants can earn VOX Coin through VOX NFTs. VOX Coin will be used in the Metaverse or exchanged for other cryptocurrencies.

Founders and Team

According to the introduction on Gala Games Medium, Gala Games was founded by former Zynga co-founder Eric Schiermeyer, one of the first miners in the cryptocurrency field and holder of multiple blockchain technology patents Wright Thurston, and creative director Michael McCarthy behind popular games like Farmville 2.

Among them, Eric Schiermeyer serves as the CEO of Gala Games. Before founding Gala Games, he was a co-founder of Zynga. As a gaming company, Zynga launched many popular web/mobile games, such as Farmville, Farmville 2, and Zynga Poker.

For easier understanding, we can think of Farmville as the QQ Farm that was once popular in China, except that Farmville is built on the Facebook social network. Farmville 2 is a 3D upgraded version of the first generation. Zynga Poker is a mobile game based on Texas Hold'em.

Eric Schiermeyer does not have experience in large-scale game development; the results show that games like Farmville reflect more of his marketing capabilities. However, the blockchain gaming industry is still in its early stages, and the unsuitability of AAA game masterpieces will provide more development space for lightweight games.

In addition to the main founders, game department director John Osvald also previously worked at Zynga, focusing on game design. His career experience is primarily concentrated in the gaming field, having worked at companies like EA and Carnivore Inc., with experience mainly in mobile gaming.

T. Elliot Cannon served as the director of Gala Games' first game, Town Star, and has 27 years of experience in the gaming industry, having participated in the design of major games like Unreal Engine, Unreal Tournament, Crysis, and Doom. In February of this year, T. Elliot Cannon has begun preparing for the next game that Gala Games is about to launch.

Other Information

Gala Music

Gala Music aims to build a decentralized music network that is more suitable for artists and fans. Gala Music will also expand the network's influence through node sales, allowing players to earn rewards by running nodes to play each song NFT, meaning that node operators, NFT owners, artists, and listeners can all earn rewards through listening, which is Listen2Earn. The previously mentioned Project GYRI is also an important support for Gala Music.

Currently, Gala Music has reached a partnership with Snoop Dogg.

Recent News from Gala

• In the coming weeks, the Gala Games ecosystem public chain Project GYRI will be launched;
• Gala Games is collaborating with the GRIT team to launch the western wilderness battle royale game GRIT: A Wild West Royale.

Gala Social Media Data

• Twitter Followers: 328.2K
• Discord Members: 148.8K

Short-term Growth Expectations

• Launch of Spider Tanks

• Launch of Project GYRI public chain

Competitor Analysis

As a game aggregation platform, Gala Games also has many competitors, such as Axie Infinity, which initiated the GameFi Play2Earn era, or Immutable X, which is dedicated to building NFT Layer2.

Comparison with Axie Infinity

To solve Ethereum's scalability and high fee issues, Axie Infinity built a sidechain called Ronin for gamers. In addition to addressing Ethereum's pain points, Ronin also integrates a payment gateway to facilitate player deposits and withdrawals. It can be said that Ronin is the foundation of Axie Infinity's success.

With the fatigue of Play2Earn, Axie Infinity's development focus has shifted more towards building the Ronin sidechain rather than exploring more game content/mechanics. With the launch of the decentralized exchange Katana on Ronin, investors' attention has also shifted from GameFi to DeFi, as Katana provides new empowerment for SLP (the reward token provided to players by Axie Infinity)------as long as SLP/ETH is paired as LP, it can participate in the liquidity mining of the native token RON of Ronin. After its launch, on December 3, 2021, Ronin's locked funds reached $1.5 billion, setting a historical high.

However, under the PoA (Proof-of-Authority) consensus, the Ronin network is relatively centralized. Sky Mavis plans to develop Ronin further until it becomes more stable and mature before introducing more new games.

As mentioned earlier, Gala Games is also testing and hopes to launch a public chain project called Project GYRI. Unlike Axie Infinity, the GYRI launched by Gala Games is the first blockchain aimed at addressing the needs faced by game developers in games. According to the official statement, "We have never wavered in our stance of 'games first, blockchain second.'"

Additionally, with Gala Games simultaneously promoting eight games, the gaming ecosystem of Gala Games will undoubtedly be highly competitive. Quantitative changes will lead to qualitative changes, and new challengers will emerge from the many obscure blockchain games to challenge Axie Infinity's leading position.

Comparison with Immutable X

Similar to the Project GYRI launched by Gala Games, Immutable X is a Layer2 that provides infrastructure services specifically for games and NFTs.

Immutable X aims to address the main challenges currently faced by the Ethereum NFT ecosystem:

• Scalability;
• Long confirmation times (transactions take minutes to confirm);
• Gas costs;
• Liquidity (most NFTs have never been traded);
• Developer experience (NFT project teams spend more time on technical development rather than project improvement);
• Environmental impact (barriers to mainstream adoption).

These are the most pressing needs in the current Ethereum NFT market. Immutable X takes these needs as a starting point and collaborates with StarkWare to use ZK-Rollup technology to build Immutable X as a Layer2 friendly to NFTs.

Although Immutable X hopes to inherit Ethereum's NFT ecosystem, the reality is that only sufficient incentives can attract more liquidity funds------despite the infrastructure having sufficient advantages. The initial development of the ecosystem largely relies on incentives from the official foundation; only when more excellent blockchain games are built on Immutable X can it have the opportunity for longer-term development.

This is also where Gala Games differs from many blockchain infrastructure development ideas. Gala Games is more like a Web2.5 product, composed of centralized entities and decentralized nodes, developing various tools and infrastructure to meet the needs of game developers based on games.

Compared to Immutable X, we cannot arbitrarily conclude which is superior, but from the perspective of gaming, Gala Games' operational and marketing strategies are undoubtedly successful. Meanwhile, Immutable X will still need time to settle and develop after launching its infrastructure services.

Risks

First, unlike other Web3 projects, Gala Games' code and white paper have not been open-sourced. Gala Games resembles a Web2 company, and its lack of transparency and semi-centralization will affect the investment enthusiasm of crypto investors.

Second, the current games of Gala Games do not meet the gold mining needs of crypto players. Taking Town Star as an example, compared to other GameFi projects with payback periods of days, weeks, or months, Town Star has a payback period of over a year. A small-scale game cannot provide the immersion that players need, meaning players cannot spend long periods on a small game. Perhaps future game launches will change this.

Third, whether the Project GYRI public chain can meet the expectations of game developers is also a potential risk point. If Project GYRI's performance is unsatisfactory, it will deter more developers------this poses a serious threat to the development of the Gala Games ecosystem.

Conclusion

In essence, the success of Gala Games is closely related to the rich game development and marketing experience of its founders, which has played a significant role in the node sales and game operations of Gala Games. Users attracted by the games in the Gala Games ecosystem will also be retained in the Gala Games community and social media, and the short-term traffic demand for new game launches will be quickly met.

As the transaction medium in the Gala Games ecosystem, the GALA token has a rich variety of consumption and application scenarios, thus gaining effective support from ecological users. The NFTs in the Gala Games ecosystem also enjoy greater liquidity compared to NFTs in other ecosystems------Gala NFTs can be applied across various games in the ecosystem.