Unicorn Labs, the development team behind the Web3 Search for Animera massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), today announced its launch on ImmutableX, a platform for building and scaling Web3 games on Ethereum.

By partnering with ImmutableX, the developers of Search for Animera can ensure that players enjoy the convenience of high-speed transactions and zero gas fee minting and trading combined with the strength of native Ethereum security, said the team.

Unicorn Labs will also benefit from Immutable’s ZK (zero knowledge) scaling solution, which has been in production for over two years, allowing them to focus on delivering a game.

Andrew Sorokovsky, Immutable’s vice president of global business development, said in a statement: “We are dedicated to finding the most innovative games to collaborate with to enhance and expand our web3 ecosystem. Our goal is to bring cutting-edge gaming experiences to gamers around the world, and partnerships with projects like Search for Animera bring us closer to achieving that. By seamlessly combining AAA gaming with the speed and scalability of blockchain technology, we are unlocking a world of new possibilities for gamers for years to come.”

Search for Animera is an MMORPG of conquest, exploration, and interplanetary exploration. Set in a galaxy far away, the game tells a cosmic story of exploration, conquest, and colonization of unique planets, new life forms, and vast resources, all presented within a highly engaging and graphically superior gameplay environment.

Within the Animera universe, players will explore and colonize the Cloud Galaxy, filled with unique planets and life forms; navigate the challenges of an interspecies battle in space; and experience a thriving player economy in an ever-expanding sandbox, all while teleporting into deep space and immersing yourself in a mix of procedurally generated and handcrafted worlds.

There will be three different game modes to choose from, each geared toward specific people, including Explore mode, Story mode, and Star Siege mode.

Animera was built from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5 by Unicorn Labs, a team of veteran game developers, vendors, and smart contract creators. Prior to joining Animera, co-founder and production lead Thomas Dimi spent a six-year stint recruiting Konami Gaming franchises, including Metal Gear Solid and Pro Evolution Soccer, while co-founder Adil Khan spent a decade focused on marketing strategy. digital, marketing performance and analytics, primarily at Wunderman Thompson.

Designed to be as accessible as possible for mainstream gamers, the game takes advantage of Magic Link, a set of tools available in ImmutableX that allows developers to make Web3 onboarding easy, secure, and non-custodial.

Magic Link enables seamless onboarding of crypto-nascent Web2 gaming audiences by offering a much simpler user experience. Users can launch the game simply by logging into their game client, while the tool automatically creates a fully integrated non-custodial Web3 wallet for them.

Animera will be able to offer players true ownership over their assets, as well as the ability to be more directly involved in the creation of new content. The company said this puts the power back in the player’s hands and overhauls the microtransaction model of releasing new content that has long frustrated many players.

“I think the annoying prerequisites for playing most of today’s Web3 games, including gas fees, additional crypto-specific knowledge, and icy transactions, have overcomplicated the web3 gaming experience. We are very excited to partner with ImmutableX, a protocol in much the same ethos as our own, to change this and bring gamers back to what really matters: the pure and simple excitement of real, engaging gameplay,” said Khan, co-founder of Unicorn Labs, in a statement.

In Q1 2023, Search for Animera will also launch its Genesis Character Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collection on ImmutableX, consisting of in-game characters, each belonging to unique factions of the game’s escapist lore, and Equipped with customizable cosmetic enhancements. skins, ships and more. These NFTs will have the added benefits of early access to the alpha and beta versions of the game, and while the game is free-to-play, Genesis Character Collection NFT holders will have exclusive access to its Story game mode, the company said.

Unicorn Labs will soon reveal its whitelisting experience, Program X, intended to selectively onboard quality gamers and contributors, including gaming guilds, influencers, DAOs, and hardcore gamers, into its community.

Players can also expect a public beta test of the PvP game, with a full release of the game in late 2024. Additionally, in the second quarter, the Search for Animera team plans to launch its native token, ANIM, on both Centralized Exchanges and decentralized.

Unicorn Labs has 12 full-time employees and six independent contractors. The studio has been started primarily among the founders along with a small flow of capital coming from Apex Digital VC and angel investors in their network of friends and family.

A runaway AI in a dystopian future within a sci-fi setting has always been a thought worth pondering as we’ve been sci-fi fans. When applying open-world concepts to such MMOs, the company said it felt the game was always limited with a heavy focus on routine-based gameplay, making these games a bit unappealing to outsiders.

With Search For Animera, the founders said they are creating a more exciting game with a strong focus on combat on the ground or in space while including significant exploration of the game’s distant galaxy, with each planet connected to the lore of the game. game, as this is something that sci-fi fans have been deprived of in today’s popular game titles.

“Our goal with SFA was to always create a universe that gave players an immersive experience of the outside world. In order to provide a truly engaging experience for our community, we knew that everything in the game had to be designed and developed with sci-fi realism,” the founders said.

They added: “To ensure this, we have built hyper-realistic ships with 4k textures, high-polygon character models, realistic control platforms, flight controller-based flight systems, ballistic engine-based shooting mechanics, and PathTracer for realistic lightning effects, Niagra Cloth. systems and much more.

They acknowledged some player backlash against NFTs. The company said that NFTs have been treated as extremely speculative investments where they are promoted and passed on to the next buyer, without regard to in-game utility. In fact, this has attracted the speculative crowd and not the large-scale players. In essence, gaming-related NFTs should be equated to in-game assets and allow users to progress through a game.

“Web3 gaming economics models are less than three years old, and in hindsight, play-to-win models have painted an unrealistic picture that all players could benefit from a game,” the company said. “It takes the excitement out of the game and creates a pseudo-financial product that traditional web2 gamers don’t want to know about while playing.”

Web3 games have a bad onboarding experience where core players are expected to create Metamask or other wallets, load balances before even experiencing the game. This creates a massive sticking point. The uncertainty involved in paying gas fees along with the network congestion time just to process a game-related NFT (in-game assets) would be a deal breaker for any Web2 player, used to a seamless experience.

“At SFA, we are addressing these concerns by creating a quality game where NFTs are in-game assets with direct utility,” the company said. “By simplifying the onboarding experience (via backend rather than front-end wallet creation) and removing gas fees from the equation through IMX chain selection, we are ready to onboard to core gamers who can start playing frictionless and continue to enjoy a game through the gasless experience on the IMX chain. More importantly, the in-game economy is designed for users to increase their inventory/collectibles list instead of ditching assets. Users who earn financial rewards through the game consist of: token holders, those who win in competitive items, and loyal players.”