Web 3 game studio MetaKings has received $15 million in a seed funding round that also included Makers Fund and Bitkraft Ventures, according to a press release obtained by CoinDesk. The funding will be used for game development and a marketing campaign for the studio's first game, Blocklords, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) title set in the Middle Ages and set to launch next year.
Other participants in the funding round included Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, WW Ventures, Spartan Group and Huobi Ventures.
Blocklords' gameplay was inspired by titles such as Total War, Age of Empires, Civilization and Crusader Kings, MetaKing co-founder and CEO David Johansson said in an interview with CoinDesk.
"What we're trying to do is make the first big MMO strategy game with features from turn-based strategy and also real-time strategy," Johansson said.
The MetaKings Studio team was founded by game industry veterans Johansson and Nicky LI and consists of more than 100 artists, designers and developers with experience at leading game studios such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.
What makes the game
Blocklords combines real-time combat, fantasy storytelling and a detailed lineage system. Players own non-fungible token (NFT) hero characters that can develop skills, trade, participate in battles and build a bloodline through marriage and birth.
Players can join Blocklords for free, as the game provides a starter hero character.
"You're not going to be a powerful lord or lady or king or queen, but you can join another lord's banner, start your own little farm and start gathering resources that way," Johansson explains.
"I believe that getting into a game should be free, and then as you get deeper and deeper into the game, we as game designers can offer users different ways to get involved, either by paying for resources or playing with skills," he continued.
The first Hero Mints will take place this summer on Immutable X, the carbon-neutral Layer 2 blockchain for NFTs. Johansson ultimately sees a multichain future for blocklords.
After the NFT sale, Blocklords will launch in an early access phase with farming and city-building programs. Combat features will launch next, followed by the full game in 2023.
"MMOs have a clear product-market fit within blockchain games as they enable more diverse and dynamic in-game economies," Bitkraft contributor Jamie Wallace said in the press release. "As for Blocklords, it not only has deeper gameplay than current blockchain-based games on the market, but is also designed to attract a wide range of player types, ultimately creating a more inclusive game that appeals to all stakeholders within the Web3 universe."