Big Time: The 3A Blockchain Game - Is the Gold Farming Craze Back?

On October 11, 2023, the highly anticipated AAA blockchain game Big Time officially launched a three-month preseason. In addition to players who previously obtained a pass, new users can also enter the game experience through an invitation code.

This game is developed by a seasoned team in the industry, emphasizing game quality and playability, with gameplay similar to "Diablo". Big Time has established a gold farming mechanism, allowing players to earn the in-game token BIGTIME by clearing dungeons and defeating monsters.

Recently, several trading platforms have launched the BIGTIME token, which has skyrocketed in price from $0.01 to over $0.15 within 24 hours. This wealth effect continues to attract new players, and a new wave of gold mining craze seems to be brewing.

Game Overview

Big Time was established in April 2021 and is a multiplayer action role-playing game for PC. It combines elements of fast-paced action combat, NFT collectibles and decorations, as well as time-traveling adventures, making it one of the early blockchain games that focused on the AAA concept.

The game is deployed on the Ethereum chain, using a "on-chain assets, off-chain game" two-layer architecture to ensure a smooth experience. To address the issue of high Gas fees for on-chain transactions, the project team has developed an official open market using patented Vault technology. This technology has achieved a highly secure off-chain data storage system that maintains real-time synchronization with the on-chain asset circulation status. Therefore, players can not only trade assets on-chain by themselves but also use various payment methods to achieve Gas-free transactions in the public market.

After more than a year of testing and iteration, Big Time officially launched its preseason on October 11, 2023. Currently, new users need to obtain an invitation code from early players or purchase a specific SPACE NFT to enter the game. It is expected that after the preseason ends, the game will be open to all users with no access restrictions.

Elite Team

The development team of Big Time is impressive, bringing together senior talents from the gaming industry:

• CEO Ari Meilich was the former co-founder and CEO of the well-known metaverse project Decentraland.
• CTO Matt Tonks has 18 years of experience in the gaming industry, having worked at well-known companies such as Electronic Arts and Epic Games.
• Chief Engineer Martin Sweitzer is a co-founder of BitMonster and has over 20 years of experience in game development.
• Chief Animator Ken Harsha has over 31 years of experience in animation production and has provided art direction for several well-known games and animation projects.

The other team members mostly come from top gaming companies such as Epic Games, Blizzard, EA, and Riot, and have participated in the production of well-known games like "League of Legends", "Fortnite", and "God of War".

Financing and Asset Issuance

In May 2021, Big Time completed two rounds of financing, raising a total of $21 million. The leading investors included well-known institutions such as FBG Capital and North Island Ventures.

In addition to financing from the primary market, Big Time has sold virtual assets such as game pass NFTs in the testing phase, mystery boxes, and SPACE NFTs through multiple platforms from July 2021 to January 2023, with total sales exceeding $70 million.

Gameplay

The game storyline revolves around players traversing time and space to defend history. Players can form a team of up to 6 people to battle monsters and bosses, clearing dungeons to obtain legendary items. Various historical figures will appear in the game, and players can collect armor and clothing NFTs from different periods as loot. In the preseason, players can earn $BIGTIME token rewards through ranking points.

The game features four major classes: Time Warrior, Space-Time Sorcerer, Shadow Blade, and Quantum Restorer, corresponding to the Warrior, Mage, Assassin, and Support roles, respectively. Players can use the Pocket Watches item to switch classes.

The virtual items in the game include decorative NFTs and functional NFTs. Functional NFTs include SPACE, Time Guardian, Furnace, Armory, and Hourglass, among others. SPACE NFT is similar to a personal metaverse in the game, with a total of 600,000 units, divided into multiple rarity levels and sizes.

SPACE holders can use the furnace and armory NFTs to craft weapons and armor. Almost all NFTs have a rarity distinction, ranging from the lowest tier to unique levels. Higher-level SPACE can support more and higher-grade devices, producing rarer items.

Big Time introduces a game creator economy that allows players to freely produce game items and circulate them in the market. In addition, the game also features a rental market where SPACE holders can rent out their assets to earn income.

Economic Model

Big Time adopts a single-token model, $BIGTIME is the only token in the game, with a total supply of 5 billion, all generated through the game, with no reserves or financing distribution. $BIGTIME is primarily used for crafting equipment and paying for dungeon entry fees.

In the upcoming preseason, the official will airdrop 97.5 million $BIGTIME. The amount of the airdrop is based on the real-time leaderboard of points within user accounts, where points are positively correlated with user level, the use of functional NFTs, participation in dungeons, inviting friends, and other factors.

$BIGTIME is generated through the game and has multiple consumption values within the game, contributing to a sustainable economic cycle system. However, as the token output increases, market selling pressure rises, and the healthy operation of the internal economic system needs further observation.

Highlights and Challenges

The main highlights of Big Time include:

1. Significantly enhanced playability and game quality, presenting AAA quality.
2. Lower the entry threshold, allowing free players to participate in the game experience.
3. The public market based on Vault technology reduces the complexity and cost of on-chain asset trading.
4. Fair distribution of tokens, no pre-mining.
5. Establishing partnerships with multiple gaming guilds is beneficial for early launch.

However, the project also faces some challenges:

1. The game runs on off-chain servers, which poses a centralization risk.
2. Game development is still in the early stages, and there is uncertainty regarding the quality and completion of future content.
3. The blockchain gaming industry is still in the exploratory stage and lacks successful models.
4. The sustainability of the economic model remains to be verified.

Conclusion

Big Time represents the development direction of the new generation of blockchain games, with significant improvements in production quality and playability. As traditional gaming talent enters the Web3 space, the blockchain gaming ecosystem is expected to continue advancing. However, due to the performance limitations of blockchain, the current mechanism of "on-chain assets, off-chain games" can only serve as a transitional solution, and the lack of decentralization remains a problem that is difficult to resolve in the short term.

Nevertheless, the arrival of the great sailing era of blockchain games has opened a new chapter for the development of GameFi. With the advancement of blockchain technology, we can expect more mature and decentralized large-scale blockchain games to emerge in the future.