NFTs are the hottest new concept in gaming. They exploded in popularity in the past year and are sure to remain a staple of the gaming world in the years to come. But what purpose do NFTs serve in games? What can you do with an NFT? In this article, we go through some of the most innovative upcoming games in the blockchain space and analyze how they innovate on the utility of NFTs in games.

One perk that almost all blockchain games share when it comes to NFTs is the concept of digital asset ownership. In traditional games, items, skins, characters, and any type of digital asset exist only in the game and hold no value outside of it. Depending on the terms of use of the game, the player may not even own what they created in the game.

With NFTs, players hold a certificate of ownership of online assets, allowing them to be traded, staked, or sold to other players. This is also the first building block in creating the NFT metaverse, which will allow users to transfer and even use their digital assets on different platforms. Imagine taking an item from one game, and using it in another. All of these features are made possible through the core philosophy of play-to-earn gaming, which is to rest ownership of digital assets with those who deserve it, the players.

Some of the upcoming games in the blockchain gaming world have taken different approaches to ensure NFT utility. Here are some of games whose team has clearly thought innovatively about the utility of NFTs.

Project Hive

The experienced team behind Project Hive understands a basic but often overlooked rule of digital asset valuation. To make it desirable, you must make it look good. And that is exactly what they have done with the concept design of Project Hive. With art direction by, Marcin Rubinkowski, the accomplished artist behind the concept design of games like Destiny2 and Ghostrunner, as well as the Netflix (NASDAQ:) series Love Death+Robots, has brought the high-tech low-life aesthetic of cyberpunk to the Play-to-Earn gaming space, creating highly desirable NFTS. The developers have also created a feature that allows players to create textures and model skins for in-game 3D items and earn from their artwork.

In Project Hive, most in-game playable items are NFTs. Players remain in full control over their in-game property, which allows players to create, upgrade and trade NFTs to receive additional income and participate in the actual game development. There are endless NFT item combinations with unlimited variety, and players can use five different game mechanics to interact and earn money on NFTs. This project is totally awesome and we’re all here for it. Moreover, Project Hive will allow artists to offer their texture and model skins’ designs for regular community voting events, with skins receiving the most votes being introduced inside the game and tradeable on the open market. The designer of the skin will be paid for their designs through a predetermined fee.

Project Hive’s NFTs and utility are among the most innovative in blockchain gaming. If you want to get in on Project Hive as much as we do, don’t miss out on their NFT mint happening on March 28th. You can access the sale here.

Apeiron

Another path to in-game utility is enabling players to create new NFTs. Apeiron, the upcoming god simulation game offers NFTs in the form of Planets, Stars, and Relics, which will be sold in public marketplaces. The main gameplay loop happens on the Planet NFTs themselves. Stars are like the “lands” in other NFT games, and will offer powerful passive bonuses for Planets that orbit them, and Relics are game objects – such as Avatars, planetary wonders, or special items. The NFT technology allows for a cool feature they call celestial conjunction, wherein players can merge the essence of two planets to create a new one with traits of both.

Planet Mojo

Planet Mojo, like all other ambitious NFT games, is building towards a future metaverse where their characters can roam. In this game, players will have the ability to own their in-game playable 3D characters as NFT’s and compete in ongoing play-and-earn tournaments. It will also include crafted Battle Stone NFTs made in Biome (Land) play. But the grand goal is to enable players to take their customized teams into a suite of interconnected games and experiences set inside the Planet Mojoverse.

Cradles

The soon-to-come game Cradles truly pushes the envelope by developing the first entropy-based metaverse. Blockchain technology allows developers to introduce the concept of entropy-increasing worlds to gaming. Cradles is also innovating on the tech front by developing a brand new NFT protocol, EIP3664, which helps limit some of the drawbacks of the predominant ERC1155 protocol. ERC1155 was not enough for imbibing props-rich features and functions into the smart contract. The EIP3664 protocol is made fully compatible with ERC1155 in order to help game developers expand their operations with gaming NFTs.

Penguin Karts

As one of the most fun games on the list, Penguin Karts is set to offer 2D and 3D NFTs, minted on the blockchain. Collectors can buy or sell on the secondary market, or stake these NFTs in the contract on Ethereum, then join the game and harvest the rewards as in-game loot boxes claimable on the Fantom chain. This process allows the game to reach the wide Ethereum audience but avoid the exorbitant gas fees.

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