Page One #43
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TLDR:
Art Gobblers announce October 31st mint date
BAYC founders Yuga Labs subject of new SEC probe
The Beacon brings roguelite RPGs to the blockchain
BeVee brings Ramdaram’s signature style to avatar form
Clone X teases companion collection Project Animus
CyberBrokers announce first formal roadmap
DigiDaigaku bolsters marketing efforts with Super Bowl ad
Dust Labs sets royalties to 0% on DeGods and y00ts
Flameys establish Tribo Games’ core community
Street Machine will tell a sprawling story in graphic novels
Valhalla holds pre-sale to test market before main release
Yu-Gi-Yn brings Tokyo culture to a multi-faceted metaverse
News and Notes:
BAYC founders Yuga Labs subject of new SEC probe
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported the SEC is investigating “whether certain [Yuga] NFTs… are more akin to stocks,” as well as whether the distribution of ApeCoin violated federal laws. The investigation remains in early stages and no legal action has yet been taken against Yuga Labs. Regardless, the news sent the NFT space at large into a flurry. BAYC and MAYC topped daily volume charts, with the large majority of sales coming as accepted offers. While we may not hear more details about the SEC investigation for some time, it is now undoubtable that NFTs are on regulator radars.
Clone X teases companion collection Project Animus
It’s shaping up to be a busy end of 2022 for RTFKT. The Clone X creators shared a short trailer for Project Animus last Friday that shows a Clone walking into the incubation chamber with two alien-like companions. All we know for now is that Clones will receive an Egg sometime in November which will then hatch in early 2023. The trailer caused a rapid spike in volume, placing Clone X second in the weekly charts. They’ve certainly got more in store as well - the MNLTH 2 quest should be kicking off over the next couple weeks and holders can stay entertained until then by speculating about the newly-announced collaboration with luxury luggage company RIMOWA.
CyberBrokers announce first formal roadmap
In the time since mint, the world-building collection from veteran cryptoartist Josie Bellini has held interactive quests, rewarded participants with swappable cosmetics and built a newsletter. Today they released their first formal roadmap which will focus mostly on more of the same. New collectibles, more in-game resources, an upgraded quests website and burn-to-reveal Mechs are amongst the highlights. The announcement led to some increased volume in the collection on Thursday.
DigiDaigaku bolsters marketing efforts with Super Bowl ad
LimitBreak founder Gabriel Leydon had been teasing a marketing announcement for days and announced the Super Bowl ad spot on Thursday morning. Leydon ran SB ads for his previous games with MachineZone and believes the strategy will be effective, telling VentureBeat that no one “has done something quite like we are planning” in an SB commercial. The Digi team has no intention of slowing down, saying the next airdrop will be detailed tomorrow alongside the Heroes reveal.
Dust Labs sets royalties to 0% on DeGods and y00ts
The conversation around royalties has been ongoing for the past few months but Dust Labs is one of (if not the) first to voluntarily remove royalties from their collections. In their announcement last week, the DeGods and y00ts creators said this is “the best decision for their business at this time,” implying they already have plans to supplement the income formerly provided by royalties. Elsewhere, some expressed disappointment on Twitter after the Dust Labs daily updates revealed they are still reworking the y00ts artwork more than a month after minting.
DeGods: 270◎ floor | 10,000 supply | 3◎ mint | minted 10-8-21
Hyperspace | Twitter | Discord | Website
Recent Launches:
BeVee brings Ramdaram’s signature style to avatar form
South Korean animator Ramdaram has created an instantly recognizable aesthetic by combining her animations with music, often garnering millions of views on Youtube. Her Feel Good music video serves as inspiration for this CC0 collection, which promises little besides the opportunity for fans to own a piece of her work. While an exact reveal date has not been announced, the project tweeted that it will be “very soon.”
Flameys establish Tribo Games’ core community
With a team comprised of veterans from the mobile gaming industry and $1.2M of funding from investors including Play Ventures, Tribo Games is joining the push to create games that better serve their players. Team members have previously worked on Angry Birds, Candy Crush and Plants vs. Zombies, among others. While they’ve yet to share details regarding what their first game will be, the free-to-mint Flameys collection serves to establish their core community. Owning a Flamey provides holders with perks including early access to games & other to-be-announced benefits.
Street Machine will tell a sprawling story in graphic novels
After some hiccups during their mint, Street Machine was one of the only new projects to see substantial volume over the past week. The avatar collection inspired by sci-fi, cyberpunk and anime pop culture will expand into a world of characters through online graphic novels while giving holders a voice in how the story unfolds. The team is working on transitioning their smart contract to allow tokens to be manually revealed after holding a Twitter poll asking if holders would prefer this. Their estimated reveal date is now sometime next week.
Yu-Gi-Yn brings Tokyo culture to a multi-faceted metaverse
A collaboration between Yu-Gi Labs and Tokyo-based project developer TNZ NFT DAO, Yu-Gi-Yn entered the ever-competitive anime arena on Wednesday with some uh, interesting art. The two groups note the prevalence of western-founded NFT projects focused on Japanese culture and believe their native presence in Japan can be an asset when working with web3 projects and web 2 companies alike. The 3D avatar project is building a native metaverse where users can play various games, browse the shopping district or attend events in the clubbing area.
Upcoming Launches:
Art Gobblers announce October 31st mint date
The innovative project from Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland and Paradigm announced their mint will be held on October 31st. While many are excited to see Roiland’s signature style in generative form, the collection’s main draw is within its smart contracts. Gobblers will employ variable rate gradual Dutch auctions, VRGDAs, to emit $GOO on a schedule built with longevity in mind - read more details on the technical mechanics here and read our previous preview from a few weeks ago here. So far, the only way for the public to get a spot on the mintlist is through their meme contest, so get to memeing.
The Beacon brings roguelite RPGs to the blockchain
A fantasy roguelite RPG crafted for browser play, The Beacon seeks to satisfy players of all kinds with its free-to-play structure. Anyone can sign up, receive a standard character and settlement and crawl through dungeons, slaying monsters to increase their skills and earn cosmetic rewards. Their initial collection, though, will feature 4,096 Blessed characters, each of whom will receive a pet that boosts their in-game rewards. An uncapped supply of paid characters will also be available, allowing players to further customize their characters.
Settlements will be the first portion of the project to launch, followed by the pets mint sometime in Q4. An alpha version of the game should be released sometime in the beginning on 2023, while the full game is planned for release later in 2023.
Valhalla holds pre-sale to test market before main release
The gaming-streetwear project from parent company Stacked opened a limited presale on Wednesday. 500 tokens will be distributed to selected buyers for 0.25Ξ each. These 500 tokens will be subject to a 3-month locking period during which they cannot be transferred. The purpose of the presale, as CEO Alex Lin explained on Twitter, is to measure demand for the project before the full sale while rewarding devoted community members for their conviction.
Over 5,500 bids have already been placed in the presale, which ends on Sunday. While Valhalla has not yet set a mint date, the presale is a good sign that it could come soon. Read our previous coverage of the project here.
NFT Market Overview:
Very little has changed about the overall NFT market in the past month. Volume and users remain relatively consistent, telling us it may largely be the same degenerates passing chips around the table. While new projects are still finding success occasionally, many seem to fizzle out quickly. A number of larger projects like Art Gobblers, Memeland, and Valhalla remain on the horizon, providing some hope that their debuts could bring a wave of volume back to the market. Still, shaky macro conditions force traders to tread lightly.
Other Stuff Happened/ing
NFTs:
Avalanche NFTs are live on OpenSea
The CryptoPunks app is getting a facelift
Forgotten Rune Wizards Cult details in-game combat system
KPR opens mintlist applications
OpenSea rolls out new analytics page for collections
General News:
CNN retires its NFT collection after less than a year
Formula One files new NFT and metaverse trademarks
Visa partners with FTX to offer debit cards