Welcome to the eleventh edition of Web3 Game Review, where I share my unbiased analysis on Web3 games, from a retail investor / gamer's perspective.

Our template will be as follows:
📝 Overview
👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 Founding Team
🤝 Advisors and Partners
📈 Tokenomics
🛣 Roadmap
🐂 Why I'm bullish

Disclaimer: For educational purposes only. Nothing in this article is financial advise. Invest at your own risk!

Overview

Gameplay

Eternal Dragons is a novel IP created by Trailblazer Games. The franchise is sub-divided into four game experiences currently on development: Eternal Dragons - Prologue: Genesis, Eternal Dragons - Chapter 1: Strife, Eternal Dragons - Chapter 2: House of Dragons, and Eternal Dragons - Chapter 3: War of Kings.

For Eternal Dragons - Prologue: Genesis, a collection of 10,000 unique Genesis Eternal Dragons, and one dynamic collection of Descendant Eternal Dragons will be released to seed the Eternal Dragons universe with valuable assets, and reward early adopters and advocates in the community. A Genesis Eternal Dragon has different traits. It can have any of 12 affinities, which define its primary color, 9 classes, which dictate its general look and playstyle, and 5 rarities, which influence power. The Genesis Eternal Dragons will have uncapped breeding potential, and Eternal genes that are unique only to the first Eternal Dragons generation. These genes cannot be inherited, but it will allow owners to qualify to get Descendant Eggs through Nesting, ahead of the release of the breeding game. Owners will also receive royalties from secondary market sales in the form of $ETERNIUM, the utility token required for breeding. Other perks include exclusive access to pre-sales of future collections within the Eternal Dragons series, and developer Discord channels.

A player doesn't necessarily need to own a Genesis Eternal Dragon to fertilize a Descendant Egg, as he can rent the Genesis Eternal Dragon from the market. This system prevents inflation by allowing the inflow of new dragons to be controlled by the availability of Descendant Eggs, rather than the number of Genesis Eternal Dragons that are newly minted. This combats the inflated supply brought about by the free-for-all breeding. In the breeding process, $ETERNIUM is used as a currency for the fees.

The gameplay of Eternal Dragons - Chapter 1: Strife, is similar to auto chess and auto battler games. The player is pinned versus other players in the arena, alternatively a set of NPC heroes or bosses in PvE mode. Minions initially fill out the battle roster, if the player has not collected enough dragons. For each round, the number of minions and dragons that players can deploy is limited by the activity points. Units are strategically placed from a randomized roster into the battlefield, and the game commences without player interactions. For every loop, the amount of action points increases, until only one player's hero remains. Players are encouraged to acquire more Dragons and level up their Dragons, as rewards are more valuable and competitions are really high stakes in the higher ranks. The more experience you have with your Dragon, the more $ETERNIUM winnings you get which you can even reinvest into your Dragons' power progression to increase its market value, and make your Dragons stronger.

The utility of Dragons from Chapter 1: Strife can be extended to Eternal Dragons - Chapter 2: House of Dragons, as the Dragons will be a vital to seed the land and harness its resources thru affinity-specific bonuses when building. $ETERNIUM can also be invested in yield-bearing assets like resource producers and mines, town halls, guild houses, and decorations. Community will play a big role in the gameplay as it will be centered on trading and collaborating to sustain an efficient resource management system. It will greatly depend on the strategy of players based on the boosts provided by the Dragons they own. A House in Eternal Dragons universe equates to a guild, which acts as a sub-DAO of Eternal Dragons DAO. It will be set-up in a trustless way, with a pre-determined set of rules on how revenues will be split, in order to attract highly skilled players, and seek additional investments.

Previously formed alliances will be put against each other in a 4x setting in Eternal Dragons - Chapter 3: War of Kings. Houses of Dragons battle for glory, and show off their prowess with hero skins, mounts, or familiars. $ETERNIUM can be further utilized for teleportation, spell casting, and creation of potions. Land will also be introduced, to deepen the value of optimally organizing alliances, since specialization plays a big role.

Founding Team

Trailblazer Games

Trailblazer Games is a Web3-native gaming studio composed of veterans in the gaming industry. Members have worked on top companies ranging from King, EA and Microsoft. They are highly experienced in designing and scaling sustainable free-to-play economies, as they've worked on award-winning games and franchises like Sim City and Candy Crush. They also focus on infrastructure for growth and engagement powered by data and Al.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trailblazergames/

Alex Arias, Co-founder and CEO

Alex is the former Vice President for Data Products at King, the studio behind Candy Crush. He is also the CEO of several companies like Omniata Inc., a customer data platform that enables marketing, product and data teams to analyze and optimize the customer experience across channels. Customers of Omniata included Rovio, EA, Supercell, Spotify, Social Point, Seriously, Next Games, Glassdoor, Lifesum, and more. It was acquired by King on Jan 2017. Alex also held senior roles in game studios like Digital Chocolate, where he was VP, Director, and Senior Manager for CRM and BI; and Electronic Arts, where he was the Head of Product for the Data and AEM (Acquisition, Engagement, Monetization) Platforms.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexarias/

Bertrand Lamarque, Co-founder and CTO

Bertrand has over 18 years of experience in the games industry. He is a former Technical Director at Electronic Arts and was in-charge of two major projects: Playfish: SimCity Social on Facebook, and The Sims Social on Tencent. Bertrand was also the Lead Server Developer for Playfish, the studio behind Restaurant City (5.5M DAU) and Country Story (2M DAU).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bertrandlamarque/

Andreas Risberg, Co-founder and CPO

Andreas started his career at Nonstop Games as Product Lead and Content Manager. He was responsible for Nonstop Games' revolutionary real-time multiplayer mobile strategy game, that received main banner featuring on the App Stores in China and SEA: Heroes of Honor. After that, he joined King as Senior Producer and Head of Product for Candy Crush Soda Saga.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/risberg-andreas/

Advisors and Partners

Trailblazer Games secured an $8.2m seed funding round on March 2022, led by Makers Fund, Play Ventures and Fabric Ventures, and renowned angels.

Tokenomics

There will be an $EDQ governance token. Details to follow.

$ETERNIUM will be the utility token of the Eternal Dragons Universe. It will be used for breeding, leveling up and healing Dragons, competition entry fees, and more. Players will earn $ETERNIUM by completing quests, playing PvE and winning PvP matches, and performing certain actions as rewards for extraordinary achievements. It will be traded freely on several trading platforms, and initial liquidity will be provided by the Eternal Dragons Treasury. Genesis Eternal Dragons owners who will nest their Genesis Eternal Dragons ahead of the release of the breeding game will also be rewarded $ETERNIUM.

The other resource in Eternal Dragons is Dragon Feed, an off-chain resource that is required to enter the battlefield in Eternal Dragons universe. Dragon Feed replenishes after a certain period of time, and functions to pace the content, session, and gameplay, increase the longevity of the game, prevent burnout, and protect against exploit and abuse.

Roadmap

✅ 2022: Genesis Eternal Dragons Sale, Eternium Launch, Dragon Nesting, Descendant Eggs, Chapter 1: Alpha Demo, Chapter 1: Alpha Early Access

⬜ 2023: Tournaments, Breeding and Descendant Dragons, Chapter 1: PvP, PvE, all classes, own Dragons integration, Chapter 1: Open Alpha, Project X, Chapter 1: Beta Access, Chapter 1: Open Access

⬜ Late 2023: Eternal Dragons Chapter 2: Concept and design, Chapter 2: Alpha Access, Chapter 3: Concept and Design started

Why I'm Bullish

Incentives for being early. A collection of 10,000 unique Genesis Eternal Dragons, and one dynamic collection of Descendant Eternal Dragons will be released to reward early adopters and advocates in the community. The NFTs that they will be receiving will have uncapped breeding potential, and possess Eternal genes that are unique only to the first Eternal Dragons generation. These genes cannot be inherited, but it will allow owners to qualify to get Descendant Eggs through Nesting, ahead of the release of the breeding game. The NFTs are designed to reward owners of the Genesis Eternal Dragon with a portion of the breeding fee paid in $ETERNIUM.

Creative twist on breeding, with anti-inflation measures. The inflow of new dragons is controlled by the availability of Descendant Eggs, rather than the number of Genesis Eternal Dragons that are newly minted. This combats the inflated supply brought about by the free-for-all breeding, and is essential to keep a good equilibrium between supply and demand and keep prices healthier in the long run. In the breeding process, $ETERNIUM is used as a currency for the fees. It's good to see projects like Eternal Dragons pay attention to addressing what went wrong with Axie Infinity's ponzinomic model. Creating a fun first game with a balanced gameplay is essential to keeping the players engaged, and maintaining a stable economy.

Off-chain resource for burnout prevention. Dragon Feed is designed to serve as a return driver for players. It has other functions like pacing the content, session, and gameplay, increasing the longevity of the game, preventing burnout, and protecting against exploit and abuse. The gameplay of Eternal Dragons is designed to be addictive, and Dragon Feed is a good way to not bore the players.

E-sports compatibility. As players acquire more Dragons and level up their Dragons, they improve and become more powerful. That means they can engage in higher stakes competitions with more valuable rewards. They can initiate e-sports style tournaments themselves, and even set an entry fee, and invite competitors to battle it out for the rewards pool. This is really good in terms of scalability because e-sports encourages players to be more competitive. A lot of content can be made around competitions of this type and this also means additional marketing for the game.

Twitter Thread

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Web3 Game Review: Eternal Dragons (@EternalDragons_)

A gaming franchise by Trailblazer Games with an auto-chess battler, a city building game, and a 4X game.

Lets dig deep right into why I'm bullish about the game.