Jam City is betting big on its first blockchain game, Champions Ascension, and today it disclosed details for the game for fans in a white paper.
The white paper is an attempt to get the fan community to buy into the Champions Ascension game, which is a major project for mobile game publisher Jam City as it moves into the world of blockchain games. The white paper, in keeping with the traditions of the crypto gaming community, is an attempt to disclose everything relevant so that players can invest their time and money into the game. I’ve detailed what is in the white paper here because this is one of the rare blockchain games so far that is being built by an established game company that is deadly serious about making the transition into non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Jam City already has a strong track record with 1.3 billion in lifetime mobile game installs and $2.5 billion in lifetime bookings. It operates more than 20 games, including a dozen associated with big brands. But CEO Chris DeWolfe believes that NFTs are as big an opportunity as free-to-play games were at the dawn of iPhone and Android games a decade ago.
The white paper said Jam City is building a true “play-and-earn experience,” where players can have fun playing a game but can choose to sell the items they buy in the game when they want to do so. Jam City is setting up the community as a collaboration between players and developers, and the players can gain ownership and decision rights that allow them to collaborate with the company on the game’s future.
The white paper says Jam City’s mission is to create a living, breathing world: a theme-park metaverse where everyone can play, earn, socialize and create new content for years to come. In that way, it’s more ambitious than just one more game. Champions Ascension is the start of something bigger.
The game is set in the fantasy world of Massina. The company hopes that the model of collaboration will appeal to collection enthusiasts, “savvy crypto users,” and passionate gamers alike.
But in contrast to a lot of the crappy crypto games we’ve already seen, Jam City vows it will be player-first, meaning it will build on its track record of building fun, long-lasting, engaging experiences that millions of people enjoy around the world.
And this time, players will be able to store their items, characters, rewards along with other attributes securely, with an
immutable record of ownership. That’s what NFTs, which use the blockchain to authenticate unique digital items, will enable, Jam City said.
Jam City said the city of Massina will be like a metaverse with high-end visuals. Players can engage in the Champions Ascension game, where gladiators duel with each other, or they can climb the steps of a daunting Imperial palace, or trade back alley tips with rogues and swindlers.
Players will make allegiances and seek to change the political climate, as well as own real estate and upgrade their
houses; or just chill with friends in the tavern.
“Everything about Champions Ascension is built to move us towards a metaverse where any number of different activities and entertainments can be had,” the white paper said.
Players will be able to create value and use the game economy to cash in on it in the community by selling items in a marketplace. Jam City hopes to make the NFT game accessible to a global audience, whether they are familiar with blockchain tech or not. And it will develop the game with help from the community.
Game overview
Players will collect, train, equip and manage their own stable of brave and brutal gladiators. They can aspire to become battle masters, an ingenious alchemist, a rich Imperial business magnate, or more. In the gladiator arena, players can lose their characters (except for the eternal ones) or earn big rewards in combat.
“In Massina, they worship the god of combat. Blood on the sand is the sacrifice, as legends are made in the Colosseum
Eternal. You can bring honor and power to your House by competing with other players for fortune and glory. Make new allies, venture out together into Massina, and experience an immersive world, with taverns, games, adventure and
political intrigue. Together, we will build the kingdom of Massina— full of risk, wealth, and possibility,” the white paper said.
Champions hail from many different worlds and backgrounds, but they have all come to Massina to chase a
dangerous, glorious dream: to conquer the Colosseum Eternal. For some, it is a personal mission. For others, a
question of honor.
You can collect your unique Champions and hone their fighting prowess in the arena. You can breed your Champions to create new gladiators. Aim to ascend them to higher tiers for access to more features and even greater power.
Combat can take place on diverse battlefields and dungeons in various game modes. Players can use Champions to
explore and defeat monsters, bosses (and other Champions!) for fame, glory, and wealth.
Jam City will introduce and support different battle modes in the game. Some will be AI-controlled auto-battle,
while some others require players to command their own Champions on the battlefield to Move, Attack, and Use
Abilities.
Champions won’t always fight with their default weapons. There are many different types of resources that can
be won through player-versus-player (PvP) and player-versus-environment (PvE) battles, as well as other sources like mining and quest rewards. Some of those are the raw materials for forging gear.
Other than the materials, gear forging requires Gear Blueprints, which are also limited in the world. Champions of
certain tiers can be assigned tasks to forge gear for their owners. Forged Gear are limited print NFTs that players
create, which can be equipped by the player’s own Champions, or be sold to other players.
To craft gear, players will need to get access to a gear forge, blueprints and spend $ESSENCE tokens to craft gear from
those blueprints. The player owns this gear and can either use it in the battles to improve chances of winning or sell it
on the marketplace for others to use it. The $ESSENCE tokens can be earned via gameplay.
Land ownership
Jam City will also follow other blockchain games by selling digital land. Players can buy land and will be able to build Dwellings, Shops, Forges, Mines, and many more types of other facilities on the land plots that they own and then they will be able to serve the larger community’s needs.
To construct these buildings, there will be limited Building Blueprints (NFTs) that are able to be purchased by players
with the $MASSINA tokens or through anticipated public sales. Construction of the buildings takes time and costs
resources. Once built, the building owner can open it to the public or keep it private.
The $MASSINA tokens can be purchase with real money.
Champions
Champions are your bread and butter in the world of Massina. Each Champion is unique and offers different
advantages and options in gameplay. Players can use them to explore, go on quests, craft gear, and fight vicious battles in the arena against other competitors. Collect and trade Champions – or use their genes and breed new Champions of their own.
Each Champion belongs to one of 12 families grouped in 6 Classes, 2 Families per Class. There are also 7
Essences that each Champion gets their core power from. In other words, there is a lot of variety possible, and lots of things about these Champions can affect combat results. And if you breed your Champions right, they can produce powerful offspring. The Champions are rendered as 3D models and they can wear cosmetic items.
The Champions come in four tiers. If they are successful, the Champions can rise, or ascend, from the lowest level, Challenger, to Gladiator, and to Eternal. The Eternal stage means the Champion is immortal. To ascend, you need to expend toeksn and in-game resources that you can earn through gameplay and fighting other champions. Prime Eternals, however, are immortal and there are only 7,622 of them available. Players have purchased those characters in an auction. Those Prime Eternals will never be released again.
Along the path of Ascension, Champions and Utility tokens will be consumed (burned on the blockchain) to help strengthen the player-to-player economy, and balance the supply of Champions and Utility tokens.
Death & Resurrection
Should your Champion fall in a deathmatch battle, it will enter a Soul State that lasts a limited amount of time.
Eternals that entered a Soul State will be resurrected and made whole in their House Temple. Other champions can
be revived by the Necromancer for a fee.
If you decide against reviving or if the Soul State ends, you can take the bloody remnants to the Ministry of Bone, and harvest them for raw materials: $BONE and $ESSENCE tokens, which you can use to start again or forge new gear.
Prime Eternals and their parts are aligned with the Life, Death and Arcane Essences. In order to expand the
population with Champions and parts of all Essences, Jam City is planning on releasing Elementals, who are Eternals
aligned with the Fire, Water, Earth and Wind Essences.
These Elemental Eternals will have new parts, and through breeding, players will be able to create Champions that may have a combination of any of the existing Essences and the parts.
Prime Eternals, Eternals and Gladiators can be used to breed a new Challenger. To breed a Challenger, you need two
Champions of the same tier. Challengers cannot be bred, but they can be ascended to a tier that can be bred. In order
to breed, you will need a specific combination of in-game tokens. Depending on the current breed count of your
breeder Champion and the tier it is in at the time of breeding, the number of tokens needed to breed will vary.
A balanced economy
The utility tokens in Champions Ascension are tokens that have no defined supply cap. These are tokens that players
can earn by completing certain objectives in the game, can trade them between each other and use them to
complete in-game activities.
Trading these tokens will be done on Jam City’s own proprietary exchange. You will be able to trade these tokens for $ETH (Ethereum), supporting the player-to-player economy once the exchange is available.
In order to establish a stronger player-to-player economy Jam City will never sell these tokens directly. Utility tokens will be minted when players claim their earnings and they will be burned when players use them.
The $ESSENCE token can be won by winning battles and completing challenges. It can be used in many different ways including breeding new Champions and crafting new gear. The $MASSINA token is earned gradually when staking a Prime Eternal. It is accumulated daily, for as long as the player has their Prime Eternal staked.
The world you’re building will allow you to use $MASSINA to claim specific Land Plots that are only available for $MASSINA and also to construct different types of buildings, where players can craft items or get access to some services for in-game use. For example, you will be able to create a new sword in your forge and use it in battles against other Champions.
The $DIAMOND Token
Like $MASSINA, $DIAMOND is also earned gradually when staking a Prime Eternal, and accumulated daily, for as long
as the player has their Prime Eternal staked. It can be used to acquire Diamond Gear items, such as the Diamond
Gauntlet which can only be obtained with $DIAMOND.
Only a Prime Eternal can create $DIAMOND, through staking the Prime Eternal. If you’re wondering why all of this is important, the answer is that if Jam City designs the economy right, then players will be able to sustain in the game for a long time, make some money, but not have to worry about the economy crashing down or being manipulated.
Jam city plans to expand the “metaverse” experience in Massina with the addition of more tokens and modules. At the same time, the $ESSENCE token will always be the core token used and burned across many different actions in the game from fighting to breeding to building and more.
DAO compatibility
Jam City said the goal is to create a game that is attractive to many different types of ecosystem contributors. To accomplish this, it will continue to design ther game with an eye toward future compatibility with the inclusion of a potential governance token either new or existing that can be used within the player economy; below is an example of how the inclusion of a potential decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) token could work.
The cloud-scale game is being built in Unity and the backend is being built using proprietary server technology and cloud-based systems that the company has battle-tested and proven to scale in several existing projects. It will be using a gas-free chain that allows bridging to and from Ethereum L1. That means it can have faster transactions, easy access to MetaMask and other wallets, and low environmental costs. The company plans to operate on a blockchain that will enable a large-scale game. But it is initially delivering functionality on a privately hosted Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchain called Evmos.
This allows Jam City to easily bridge assets in and out of the Ethereum mainnet while also providing a friendly onboarding experience for all users with custody wallets and payments in both fiat and Ethereum. The platform is built to serve many products in the U.S. and around the world. Jam city is building the game with an authoritative server that is resistant to cheats as well as weak internet connections.