Crypto.com has marked its entry into the Web3 gaming sphere with the launch of “Loaded Lions: Mane City”, its first-ever game. Working closely with the Cronos Play‘s SDK team, “Loaded Lions: Mane City” enters as a tycoon simulation game where players have the reigns to shape and design their ultimate cities and mansions. Players can build in this virtual landscape with gold and diamonds generated from their in-game land holdings. From gyms and banks to music stores, the game offers a range of business ventures in a game where creativity meets strategy.
Early Access with First Frontier Land NFTs
To access the initial release of Loaded Lions’ Mane City, players simply need to possess a Land NFT from the “Land – The First Frontier” collection offered by Crypto.com. Although this collection sold out in December 2022, players can still enter the game by buying the land in secondary marketplaces, Crypto.com NFT or Minted.
Once they join, players will find that each Land NFT acts as a piece of land in the game, where they can start building their city within Mane City. The First Frontier Land NFT collection is spread out over a fixed number of deeds, divided into five rarity levels: Starter, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical. Each rarity allows a different number of spaces to set up businesses, which is a crucial part of earning gold in the game. It also affects how quickly players can earn diamonds passively. Furthermore, owning a Loaded Lions NFT, the debut NFT collection of Crypto.com, gives players special perks like faster in-game progress with the help of boosters.
Mechanisms for Gameplay
As players explore the game, they’ll find a constantly changing world. Currently in its beta stage at launch, “Mane City” is preparing to add new features to boost fun and keep players hooked. One expected addition is a competitive mode and also letting players invite friends, even those who don’t own Land NFTs.
In the words of Henrik Johansson, Global Head of Growth at Crypto.com, “We are thrilled to partner with Cronos on advancing Web3 gaming with the launch of Loaded Lions: Mane City on the Cronos Chain. This is the first-ever game for Loaded Lions, our flagship NFT collection, and we hope our community finds the experience exciting and engaging as we pioneer and evolve the technology.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Ken Timsit, Managing Director of Cronos Labs, said, “GameFi in particular is a high priority for our ecosystem development and it is important that we continue to diversify our dApp offerings in our quest to onboard the next billion users to Web3 and DeFi.”
Navigating a Competitive Edge in Gameplay
Injecting a dose of competition, the game introduces a leaderboard where players are encouraged to gather as much gold as possible throughout a season, with their rankings directly influencing their rewards depending on game rules. This element of competition is enhanced through unique features that allow for increased personalization and strategic planning as players are free to expand, multiply, and upgrade their buildings.
Of these features, ‘Mansion Personalization’ is a highlight, allowing players to decorate their mansions, impacting their progression and unlocking ways to create new businesses, generate gold, and level up characters. This goes hand in hand with the ‘Dynamic Prize Pool’, which updates live throughout the season, allowing players to share in the prize pool and race for the top spot for even more rewards.
Additionally, the freedom to choose building placements presents more opportunities for skilled players to carve out strategic advantages. Finally, the game incorporates an integrated marketplace, facilitating the buying and selling of businesses and blueprints.
These gameplay additions add depth to the gameplay and encourage players to craft strategies to climb up the leaderboard, with prospects of securing an edge in the subsequent seasons or even translating their winnings to Cronos’ native CRO token.
Crypto.com’s Inaugural Journey in Web3 Gaming
As Crypto.com makes its inaugural entry into the Web3 gaming sphere with its flagship NFT collection, “Loaded Lions”, it marks the beginning of a promising journey with Cronos. To foster an open ecosystem where developers can birth their own DeFi and GameFi applications, Cronos aims to reach a global audience exceeding 70 million users. To further invigorate this initiative, Cronos Labs unveiled a $100 million Accelerator program earlier this year, aiming to spur the creation of new projects and propel the Web3 movement within the Cronos ecosystem.