On this week’s Subnet Spotlight GoGopool will be highlighting a first-person shooter (fps) game building its own subnet on Avalanche’s blockchain. Here’s everything you need to know about one of the most anticipated projects in GameFi this year, Shrapnel.
Game Lore
Shrapnel is set in a gritty post-apocalyptic world in which a massive asteroid has collided with the moon, causing lunar meteorites to bombard the band around Earth. This area becomes known as the Sacrifice Zone. In the game, it is simply referred to as “The Zone.” The Zone is a mysterious area believed to be filled with an allusive material known as Compound Sigma. According to Shrapnel’s whitepaper, Compound Sigma “allows quantum mechanics behaviors to manifest in the classical physics realm.” In other words, Compound Sigma is an unknown substance with unknown abilities, adding to its mystery and intrigue.
Gameplay
As a player, you are tasked with entering The Zone as an operator. The goal of an operator is to find and excavate valuable resources, including Compound Sigma; however, there are several other operators vying for resources in The Zone. This creates a highly competitive environment where death is lurking around every corner. As the player pool shrinks, extractions become more dangerous and choices become more meaningful. Shrapnel requires players to stay strategically alert, thus intensifying the gameplay.
Of course, Shrapnel would not be GameFi without NFTs. All operator equipment prior to entering The Zone comes in the form of an NFT that can be looted from players after they have been killed in action. Therefore, players can not only extract story-related resources like Compound Sigma, but other players’ gear as loot, which can be maintained within the looting players’ inventory and equipped for later missions.
Additionally, Shrapnel is heavily focused on user-driven development and provides opportunities for players to not only create their own items as NFTs, but also to create their own maps which are usable by other players. Maps require land, another valuable commodity on Shrapnel, which is split into two different categories: The Arena and The Podium. The Arena is where maps are developed and promoted. As maps gain popularity and attract players, the map can move closer to the Podium, the competition space.
Game Economy
At its core, Shrapnel is a blockchain game. There is an entire economy built within the subnet with the game’s own token, SHRAP. Thus, not only are NFTs a central feature, but players, creators, curators, and land owners can all earn rewards for contributing to the community. Creators can take advantage of Shrapnel’s creative space to build unique items, maps, and Gear which can all be bought and sold using SHRAP within the Shrapnel marketplace, a peer-to-peer trading environment. Curators can discover and promote items or maps with the best performing content, and land owners can buy and sell land, further influencing map development and progression.
There are two different rewards users can earn: vanity and mission rewards. With vanity rewards, community members who stake SHRAP on vanity items like NFTs will be rewarded based on the content’s price and performance. Mission rewards, on the other hand, allow players to have an opportunity to receive SHRAP rewards at regular intervals by participating in goal-oriented missions.
Any user can stake Shrapnel’s token on any item or map and earn rewards based on its popularity and performance, which is decided by the Shrapnel community. People who contribute to the competition-tier content by promoting, curating, or SHRAP staking are rewarded based on the performance of the content, how much they staked, and how much time they have engaged with the content. For instance, a curator with a high performing map will move closer to the podium. Here, they will receive greater engagement, higher-performing items, and greater promotion. Shrapnel ensures that the community’s best creations are the ones who receive the most attention and staking rewards.
SHRAP will be released as an ERC-20 token and will have four primary uses: governance, operating validator nodes, buying, selling, and creating content, and user rewards. Upon release, 3 billion tokens will be minted with 33% devoted to community rewards.
Shrapnel Team
Shrapnel’s compelling storyline, gameplay, and system of economy is brought to the crypto community by a visionary team of founders, investors, and advisors. For a detailed list of team members, check out the “team,” “investors & partners,” and “angel investors” sections in their whitepaper.
Funding
More than a few notable projects have invested in Shrapnel including Avalanche, Spartan, Benqi, Guildfi, and Polychain capital among others. Additionally, individual investors, namely Dennis Gond the co-funder of GGWP, have taken note of this project. Shrapnel also held a token genesis event for its seed funding and strategic partnership sales.
Why are they building a subnet?
The team at Shrapnel went the subnet route so the game could be both high-performance and customizable. They also wanted to take advantage of the energy efficiency of Avalanche which emits almost no carbon (it uses 0.0005% of the energy Bitcoin uses to be exact!). According to their whitepaper, “Avalanche enables SHRAPNEL to provide best-in-class performance with its unique subnet architecture, innovative snowman consensus, and unparalleled safety guarantees.”
Plans for the future?
Shrapnel has big plans for the future. They are preparing to partner with multiple tech companies determined to ensure a fantastic player experience. One such company is Amber Group, a Hong-Kong based global crypto financial services provider who will gift Shrapnel with a suite of institutional quality products and services. Shrapnel’s partner Byron is bringing state-of-the-art security to the game that will make it virtually tamper proof, and Unreal Engine 5, a company with an illustrious reputation for its many award-winning AAA titles has also promised a partnership.
For more information on SHRAPNEL, check out our video at GoGoPool TV. Take a listen to our Twitter space with Calvin Zhou, head of business at SHRAPNEL, or join our community of validators and developers in discord.
