From Oct. 9–20, Immutable invited playtesters to try out an early demo of its upcoming mobile game, Guild of Guardians. This was first revealed in 2021, and its utility token, Guild of Guardians Gems (GOG), went up for sale in December 2021, raising over $5.3 million for the game’s development. Moreover, over 800,000 individuals registered for the token sale, which Immutable claimed was an “oversubscription” of 82 times vs. the expected demand. Developed by Mineloader, the same company that created the Final Fantasy VII remake and Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, the game is being published by Gods Unchained creator Immutable.
According to the game’s roadmap, it is expected to be released in open beta sometime in the fourth quarter of 2023. The Guild of Guardians documents state that it will be a free-to-play and play-to-earn mobile game. Players will not need to make any purchases to begin playing the game and start earning nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or game tokens. To finance the game’s further development after launch, Immutable will sell “seasonal content” consisting of limited edition NFTs, including “heroes, pets, guilds and energy boosters.” They will also charge a percentage fee on secondary sales of some of the game’s items.
The play-to-earn aspect of Guild of Guardians will revolve around crafting equipment and summoning heroes. Players will be able to earn crafting materials as they progress through dungeons, which they’ll be able to use to mint NFTs that represent gear. They’ll also be able to collect “common” heroes that can be combined into higher rarities and minted on the blockchain. Guild of Guardians NFTs are minted on the Immutable X network, while the GOG token is on Ethereum.
Ever since the fundraise, details about the state of the game’s development have been scarce. But Immutable invited members of the crypto media to playtest the game From Oct. 9 to 20, and this writer was one of the persons invited to experience the game’s character AI, AI writer, and Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0.
An Android and iOS mobile game
Guild of Guardians is designed for mobile devices with touch-screen controls, so it can be played on both iOS and Android phones and tablets, but there is no version available for PCs and consoles. The battles are mostly automated, so the controls are optimized for mobile gameplay with minimal real-time control.
The team behind Guild of Guardians stated that mobile games are more accessible than any other type of video game, as the number of people owning smartphones is much higher than the number of people owning PCs. This is why they chose to make Guild of Guardians an exclusively mobile game with AI-driven character controls.
A dungeon-crawling adventure
Guild of Guardians is a classic “dungeon-crawl” game. Players can explore various dungeons, fighting monsters and opening treasure chests for loot by selecting a dungeon on an in-game world map. After entering a dungeon, they must clear each room by defeating the monsters inside. Different rooms contain different enemy strengths and rewards, and the player is presented with these metrics when making the decision. Some rooms contain treasure chests, healing or other boosts that may help the party to progress.
Once a player progresses through all of the choices and defeats all the monsters, the dungeon ends. If all party members die before the dungeon is completed, the player fails the dungeon. However, they still get to keep the items they acquired from their partial completion. Completing dungeons unlocks new ones, and if they complete all of them, they unlock an “infinite” mode that allows a player to play through randomly generated dungeons for even more loot.
Guild of Guardians is a great example of AI-driven dungeon-crawling, and it is a great way to explore the world of crypto media and crypto finance. With the help of character.ai and AI writers, the game is able to generate content that is unique for each player. As we move closer to May 2022, we will start to see more games like this that will utilize AI-driven technology to create an even more immersive experience.
Automated battles
The game has mostly automated battles, which can be triggered by clicking on the “fight” button. Players can choose to manually activate characters’ ultimate abilities, giving them some interaction during the battle, or they can opt to have these abilities activated automatically, making the battles a completely passive experience.
The challenge of winning a battle lies in the decisions made before it begins. Players need to carefully choose which heroes to put into a party, as each character has different abilities. It is also important to consider the position of each character in the party’s formation, with tanks going in the front and ranged damage dealers and healers placed in the back. Additionally, the player needs to decide which gear to outfit their characters with in order to increase their chances of success.
I found the difficulty of battles to be well-balanced. My party was able to easily defeat most small trash packs, while some boss fights were a bit more challenging. Fortunately, the heroes are automatically resurrected after a dungeon failure.
Collecting heroes and crafting
Guild of Guardians encourages players to collect heroes and craft equipment. To get a new hero, the player must obtain a “summon,” which randomly selects a hero from a wide variety of options, each with different artwork, ultimate abilities and stats. Some summons are rewards for exploring dungeons, while others are given as login rewards. Players receive two heroes in the tutorial: one tank and one healer.
The hero-collecting system was a rewarding experience, as each hero had a lot of variety in terms of stats and abilities. Crafting gear requires collecting materials within dungeons. I crafted a single item and learned that gear items differ in terms of rarity, with more rare items requiring more rare materials to craft. Additionally, different pieces of crafted gear provide different unique buffs; some items are parts of sets that give bigger bonuses if a character wears more than one piece from the set.
In conclusion
The Guild of Guardians demo I played was only an early version of the game, and the public release will likely have more features and content. The development of the game is on the right track, with challenging battles and a variety of strategic decisions the player has to make. It is certainly not a typical play-to-earn game with mindless grinding for cryptocurrency; the gameplay is engaging and requires thought from the player. Fans of turn-based RPGs may enjoy Guild of Guardians, as it offers them the strategic challenges they crave.
On the other hand, players looking for Diablo-style real-time action may want to look elsewhere, as the battles in the game are automated and do not require any test of reflexes.
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