GameFi New Narrative: How Game Space Drives Mini Game Chain Reform to Become a New Trend

Author: Luna

In the context of a deep bear market in the crypto space, the GameFi sector has suffered significant setbacks, yet the blockchain gaming market remains one of the fastest-growing segments in the Web3 industry, with the number of daily active independent wallets reaching as high as 800,000 at certain times. Recently, Game Space organized the industry's first tour event, which, supported by Spinterlands, ImmutableX, and Big Time, achieved 200,000 interactions on Twitter alone. Within a week, nearly 20,000 blockchain game players participated in the event, attracting participation from popular blockchain game streamer Sky Vee, who has millions of fans.

After the decline of GameFi V1.0, represented by Axie Infinity, AAA-level large-scale GameFi has become the most anticipated expectation in the industry. People hope that high-quality blockchain games will address the issue of early Play-to-Earn games being uninteresting. However, a year has passed since the rise of the first-generation blockchain games, and why are there so few AAA-level GameFi projects coming to fruition?

Why is it Difficult for AAA-level GameFi to Materialize?

Although on-chain users remain enthusiastic about top-tier blockchain games, since the rise of GameFi, there has been continuous demand for AAA-level large-scale blockchain games, yet few have materialized. Several traditional gaming giants, including Zynga and Ubisoft, have made high-profile announcements about entering Web3 and GameFi, but their actual implementations have been slow to appear. The CEO of Game Space, Michael Cameron, who previously incubated the industry's first AAA-level MMORPG blockchain game "Bless Global," stated that the barriers to creating AAA-level blockchain games are extremely high, with teams needing to secure over $50 million in funding just to barely enter this category. Additionally, long development cycles, difficulties in monetization, and the effects of the bear market are all critical reasons.

Michael's team once launched the industry's first GameFi as a Service (GaaS), hoping to provide traditional gaming companies with rapid blockchain transformation solutions to address issues such as high participation barriers for early GameFi users and non-closed transaction loops. However, the overall cooling of the GameFi industry during the bear market has slowed the entry pace of traditional gaming companies, and no explosive new games have emerged in the industry.

In the midst of seeking adjustments, an accidental experiment opened up a whole new world for Michael—Casual GameFi, or the blockchain transformation of casual mini-games.

Big Games Fail, but Mini-Games Make a Comeback?

To promote the GameFi SDK, Game Space developed blockchain versions of classic mini-games like Merge Bird in 2022, showcasing how to complete blockchain transformation in just seven days to game developers. This small initiative inadvertently brought nearly 20,000 followers to their official Twitter account. The blockchain transformation of mini-games reignited the interest of old fans, who began flocking to the Game Space platform.

Subsequently, Game Space launched the hit blockchain mini-game "Goat! Goat!" based on classic match-three gameplay. In its first week, "Goat! Goat!" conducted launch events with over 50 DAOs and organizations from around the world, including BitKeep, Nawarat, and Meta Galaxy, creating a sensation in countries like India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, achieving 600,000 weekly active users in its first week.

"Goat! Goat!" incorporated classic NFT avatars with strong metaverse and Web3 styles as game elements based on classic match-three gameplay. The game requires no complex operational skills and no understanding of complicated economic model designs. Both the entry barrier to the game and the content and interaction aspects are designed to be as simple as possible.

In addition to being fun, players can earn blind boxes of varying rarity levels such as gold, silver, and bronze after completing levels. These blind boxes can be sold on the NFT Marketplace and have the chance to yield USDT or different levels of Merge Bird NFTs. The random incentives introduced by the blind boxes greatly stimulated user participation enthusiasm. Twitter data shows that "Goat! Goat!" completed over 6 million rounds, producing over 2 million blind boxes and yielding 1.5 million Merge Bird NFTs, setting a historical record for a single Casual GameFi (mini-game blockchain transformation).

The unexpected success of "Goat! Goat!" inspired Michael greatly, as he quickly realized that the playability brought by popular mini-games significantly outweighed that of Play-to-Earn gold mining games, marking the first time blockchain games achieved high playability, high stickiness, and low costs.

Michael began to capitalize on the momentum in mini-games, subsequently launching "Magic Pot" and "MythMania." Among them, "Magic Pot" consumed over 1 million Merge Bird NFTs, making it the largest asset consumption scenario in Casual GameFi. In "MythMania," through payment, blind box incentives can amplify earnings by tenfold, enabling the entire platform to achieve sustained profitability. Especially in a bear market where the platform has yet to issue tokens for user incentives, achieving a break-even point while maintaining growth is particularly rare.

Why Can Casual GameFi Grow Against the Trend?

Statistics show that casual mini-games have over 4 billion users globally, with the casual gaming market exceeding $500 million in 2022. Historically, mini-games have always held substantial power; their development cycles are short and their difficulty low, making their economic models relatively easy to design. Mini-games account for a staggering 77% of user share, with over 1 billion monthly active users, yet they are often overlooked by the mainstream market, effectively acting as the "sleeping giant" of the gaming industry.

Michael believes that the success GameSpace has achieved in the Casual GameFi layout can be attributed to several key reasons:

First, ease of access. They are easy to play, flexible, and meet the demand for fragmented entertainment, attracting a considerable user base and user stickiness. Compared to AAA-level games that require complex logins and account setups, this is a characteristic and advantage inherent to Casual GameFi. Game Space's GaaS SDK allows users to log in with traditional Web2 accounts, such as Google or Apple accounts, without needing to purchase any tickets, significantly lowering the barriers for users to participate in blockchain games.

Second, selecting hit games. From "Merge Bird" to "Goat! Goat!" and then to "Melon Fusion," Michael insists on transforming currently or previously popular hit mini-games into Casual GameFi, ensuring the playability of each game.

Third, efficient production capacity. Michael stated that based on Game Space's GaaS SDK, all transformations of Casual GameFi are completed within seven days, which is a crucial reason his team can continuously chase market trends and achieve breakthroughs.

A loyal Game Space user, Santhosh (Twitter), stated: "Mini-games are a category that anyone can start playing, with low barriers to entry. I used to spend 1-2 hours a day on Voodoo (a traditional mini-game platform), but since discovering Game Space, I don't play anything else because the games they select are all hits I love, and there are even blind box rewards on top of that. Besides having games to play, I can often make money."

The "Building Block Effect" Triggered by Casual GameFi

In addition to being simple and fun, Santhosh (Twitter) praised the "combinability" of several games on Game Space, stating: "I spend 2-3 hours a day in 'Goat! Goat!' to earn gold blind boxes, then I open them tenfold in 'MythMania.' Generally, I can earn 10 USDT and 10-20 level 1 Birds. Then I go to 'Merge Bird' to synthesize a level 20 Bird NFT, and finally complete the smelting in 'Magic Pot.' There might even be a chance to earn 1-10 USDT. Although opening blind boxes requires payment, I can basically earn it all back."

In Santhosh's description, the combinations formed by multiple Casual GameFi seem to offer richer gameplay than a single large game. This chemical effect brought about by application combinations is also a reason for the explosive growth of DeFi in the last bull market. For example, Uniswap developed the underlying protocol for the AMM mechanism, which can be used in various lending platforms like Curve, while projects like YFI aggregated the yields from various lending protocols. Each project may have only a few or dozens of developers, but the building block-style stacking of multiple projects forms the entire vast DeFi ecosystem.

The building block effect is vividly reflected in Game Space's Casual GameFi: by launching a series of Casual GameFi to form a matrix, each Casual GameFi has its own independent output and consumption scenarios, while the USDT, game items, NFTs, and Game Points (GP) produced in the games can interconnect and convert, creating effective synergies. The assets obtained can be used to play other games at any time; for example, the blind boxes obtained in "Goat! Goat!" can be used in "MythMania," and the Merge Bird NFTs obtained in "MythMania" can be used in "Merge Bird."

The combination of multiple games not only adds cumulative fun to the gameplay but also strengthens the economic model of the entire system, avoiding the short lifecycle of single games during the Play-to-Earn era.

GameSpace to Launch the "Galactic Plan"

In 2023, Michael, who accidentally "collided" with an ideal start, does not hide his ambitious aspirations.

After successfully validating the Casual GameFi model, he plans to expand Casual GameFi to over 10 titles in Q1 2023 and further to 20 titles in Q2. In his view, each new quality Casual GameFi added will exponentially increase the playability offered to users on the platform. Currently, Game Space's Twitter follower count is nearing 100,000. He anticipates that through the Casual GameFi strategy, the platform will accumulate 1 million users by the end of the year, laying the groundwork for explosive growth in the 2024 bull market.

In addition to self-developing Casual GameFi, Michael plans to further open up platform capabilities. In the upcoming Galactic Plan, Game Space will invite more mini-game development teams (CPs) to quickly integrate into the platform, bringing more innovative gameplay and collectively embracing the growth dividends brought by Casual GameFi. The games joining the "Galactic Plan" must still balance professionalism and refinement, novelty and classic elements, while ensuring a smooth gaming experience and sufficient mass appeal. He will also explore future-oriented social games with partners, integrating DID and exploring Social GameFi.

Michael expressed that he is most excited about the team's new slogan—"Let Web3 bring one more hour of happiness every day." This is the source of his relentless efforts.

Conclusion

After the Play-to-Earn era represented by GameFi V1.0, the GameFi sector once flourished. The rise of Casual GameFi has ignited a faint light in the darkness of the bear market. As a disruptor attempting to lead changes in the GameFi industry, Game Space allows us to see more innovative strategies emerging and provides a reference for future market entrants in terms of ideas and development directions. As we approach the next bull market, whether Casual GameFi can sustain the vacuum period before the large-scale entry of AAA-level games remains to be seen.