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The video game industry is one of the most explosive fields currently around, with continual growth over the last 20 years and massive technical expansions making this a cutting-edge space. The US gaming market alone is worth almost $100 billion, up three times what it was ten years ago in 2012. Part of what facilitates the incredible growth that this industry has seen is the active embracing of new technologies and adapting to new trends on a global scale. One needs to only trace the movement through major consoles and across new technology to see that gaming is continually refining itself. What’s more, considering that gamers are a market that is deeply integrated into tech, they’re much more accepting of new changes in the industry. Over recent years, a prime example of this is the rise of blockchain gaming, with this industry positioning itself at the intersection of gaming and blockchain technologies. In this article, we’ll be diving into one of the leading blockchain gaming companies, demonstrating exactly how First Light is revolutionizing the typical gaming experience for users across the globe. Going Beyond Traditional Gaming with First Light Traditional gaming structures fall into two categories, pay-to-play and free-to-play. These two formats allow gamers to buy a game and play it or download it for free. While both formats have seen major success, the rise of blockchain gaming has disrupted this field by bringing another contender to the table - play-2-earn gaming. Play-2-earn gaming is about rewarding players with digital assets when they play a certain game, giving them a further incentive to play and interact. These digital assets are typically either NFTs that can be sold/traded or a cryptocurrency that can be traded for fiat currency if a player so desires. One company making waves within the play-2-earn gaming scene is First Light. The team behind this company includes huge names in the industry, with Neil McFarland and Anil Das-Gupta heading acting as CEO and CPO. They’ve built a web3 games studio that actively creates earning opportunities for both players and the studio simultaneously by using blockchain technologies. With over 100 years of combined experience within AAA games across their team, FirstLight has all the right experience to radically push the bounds of what people thought was possible in gaming. Their first game, BlastRoyale, garnered over USD 5 million in seed round investments, pulling in funds from major names like Polygon, Dragonfly Capital, Mechanism Capital, Animoca Brands, etc. What Exactly is Blast Royale? Blast Royale is a web3 game where 30 players are entered into an arena. Each of them can find weapons along the way, discovering new items for their inventory and gaining rewards as they progress to the end. In elimination combat, the 30 players fight it out until there is only one person left alive, with their rewards scaling depending on how long they survived and how much of an impact they had within the game. This fast-paced system is reminiscent of some of the largest games in recent history, with the battle royale format seen in Fortnight and PUBG generating a combined $16.5 billion since their launch. However, the central difference that sets Blast Royale apart from these competitors is the integration of the P2E (play-2-earn) system. This new way of playing ensures that players are actively rewarded for spending time within the game, allowing them to generate an income from simply enjoying the experience. With a game offering both entertainment and monetary gain, this dual approach is profoundly disruptive to the gaming industry, with blockchain gaming paving a new way to experience modern gaming. How do P2E Elements Fit Into Blast Royale? For those unfamiliar with the idea of P2E, the concept of earning currency for playing a game may sound far too good to be true. Yet, there are currently over 400 active blockchain games, each offering players the possibility of earning digital assets while playing. Within Blast Royale, players are able to generate income through two distinct mechanisms, one rewarding NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and the other supplying players with Blast Tokens ($BLST). Let’s break these down further. NFTs in Blast Royale Within a match of Blast Royale, users are able to explore the map and pick up different items that they may find. The central difference between Blast Royale and other deathmatch arena games in this regard is that the equipment found is stored as an NFT on the blockchain. An NFT is a digital asset that cannot be duplicated, with its uniqueness giving it inherent value. For example, within gaming systems, ownership of an NFT means that one Blast Royale player could sell a powerful item that they’ve found to another player. Different levelled weapons are minted as different NFTs, with unique visuals and different power levels, ensuring a scaling system in terms of rarity and inaccessibility. By finding NFTs in-game, users can either equip them in their inventory and use them to gain an advantage or sell them directly to other players on the marketplace. What’s more, there is a crafting mechanism within Blast Royale, with players being able to join together different NFTs to create higher levelled ones. The minting of a whole new NFT through the crafting system will allow them to become more powerful in-game while also giving them another objective besides eliminating other players. Furthermore, these extra-powerful items can be sold for more, giving other players an advantage when using them. This NFT ecosystem created by Blast Royale provides players with a reason to continually explore, with those that enter in a battle royale being able to find new NFTs, craft exciting items, and generate a form of earning income through their gameplay. Of course, this brings even more to the gaming experience, with the team at First Light seeing this to make the gaming community even more immersed in their titles. Earning Blast Tokens in Blast Royale Equally, the Blast Token ($BLST) is a cryptocurrency that’s created on Ethereum’s ERC-20 system, with players also being able to earn them as they play. By participating in games, winning tournaments, buying and selling equipment, and crafting new items in-game, users will be able to generate currency. This system rewards players who spend time in the game, ensuring that the best players get larger amounts of tokens each game. Just from playing the game, the incorporation of $BLST gives further reason to play, generating income while players earn in-game experience and improve their characters. Part of what sets Blast Royale apart from other blockchain games is that they plan to use this native $BLST token in the future as a governance token. Governance tokens are a voting system where users can put up some of their tokens to demonstrate that they agree or disagree with a certain proposal in the community. If First Light wanted to create two new features, the community could decide which is developed first by demonstrating their support with these governance tokens. Through these systems, gamers are given more of a voice over the games that they love, with Blast Royale providing the means of earning voting power and a place to deploy it within one community. Inseparable P2E Gaming Instead of only being an additional element of the game, like many blockchain games have demonstrated, First Light has been sure to place play-2-earn at the very core of the Blast Royale gaming experience. Before starting a game, users must equip three different NFTs to their player to be allowed into the lobby, instantly placing the digital assets at the user experience centre. This further the value of the NFTs that players can obtain, but it ensures that this always remains an important part of gameplay, quite literally being vital to start playing. Equally, an NFT item that is equipped will gain experience over time, making the items that a player has selected also grow as the player improves. NFTs can be improved by playing a lot, increasing their value and providing further incentive to keep playing. As the top five players of each match gain more Blast Tokens, the very best players will become the richest in-game, creating a skill-based economy. With the future introduction of governance voting, this will mean that the most experienced and devoted players will have more of a say in how the game develops and progresses. Placing Gamers First First Light’s Blast Royale is a wonderful example of how blockchain gaming gives further agency to players worldwide. Beyond only offering a fantastic gaming experience, P2E gaming creates an earning opportunity for players, incentivizing gameplay and creating a rewarding system that benefits the most devoted players. Offering both NFTs and $BLST tokens that can be sold, exchanged, and traded across the community, gamers within Blast Royale are offered a way of earning while enjoying this gaming experience. As Blast Royale gears up for its first public launch, this is definitely a project on which to keep a close eye. Its gamer-centred experience further pushes the bounds of what people are offered within the gaming community.