Investing in Proof of Play
Composability is one of the most powerful forces enabled by blockchains: for the first time, users can take code, assets, and items from one application and use them with another. In previous eras of the web, this was impossible because every social network, marketplace, exchange, and game engine has its own system of closed servers, but in web3 everyone shares the same open database. On-chain developers can build new smart contracts which augment an existing protocol, artists can launch derivative works, and anyone can create new frontends that render code in different ways.
These benefits extend to on-chain games: permissionless extensions, new clients, forked code, and opportunities for artists are all possible. For decades, many of the world’s most popular games have benefitted from modding and user-created plugins: Counter-Strike initially started as a mod of the 1998 game Half-Life (which itself was developed on the 1997 Quake II game engine). Sid Meier, the creator of Civilization, has said that “the strength of the modding community is, instead, the very reason the series survived.”
On-chain games bring modding from the background to the foreground – something the entire community can own.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’re leading a Seed investment in Proof of Play, an on-chain game studio and technology company led by Amitt Mahajan. Amitt is a brilliant founder who is uniquely native to both games and crypto: he founded MyMiniLife (acquired by Zynga), co-created the Zynga game FarmVille and was the co-founder and CTO of early NFT marketplace Rare Bits.
Proof of Play is focused on building fun, complex, and innovative games that push the limits of modern blockchains. Its first on-chain game, Pirate Nation, is a social role-playing game (RPG) that went live in December. On the surface, Pirate Nation looks similar to other RPG games, but under the hood it’s very different. Its on-chain game contracts act as building blocks for developers to create their own games, or extend out from the core Pirate Nation world. If you want to build a RTS shooter game for the Pirate Nation NFTs, or a dynamic sim for one of the pirate characters, you’re able to.
Amitt and the entire Proof of Play team are committed to a gaming future where composability, interoperability, and permanence are at the core of gameplay: you own your assets, and anyone can create their own game on top of another. They’re expanding their studio and technology team to create immersive new games, and build decentralized infrastructure that enables players to craft and scale autonomous worlds.
We’re thrilled to be backing Proof of Play as they build towards this vision. If you’re a gamer, give Pirate Nation a try, and if you’re interested in helping Proof of Play build the future, the team is currently hiring.
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