• Illuvium, the first AAA game on the blockchain, launched its second private beta on May 18.
• The game boasts features like IBG, MMORPG and is developed using Unreal Engine 5.

The gaming industry has revolutionized since the amalgamation of blockchain technology. The earliest launched games based on blockchain were axle infinity, decentral, sandbox, and many others, providing players with play-to-earn opportunities. They could earn tokens and NFTs in the game and use them in DEX platforms to make money. 

However, these games were known as Web2, the indie games. They were simple, developed by small dev teams, and did not have any financial or technical support from a large publisher. It could not attract mainstream gamers, who just like to play for leisure and experience. Blockchains lacked a AAA game, or do they now?

Illuvium, The AAA 

Illuvials is set to be the first AAA game to be launched on blockchain technology. It will be the first Interoperability Blockchain Game (IBG) with a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) experience. The ethereum based game is led by Kieran Warwick and Aaron Warwick ( Warwick Brothers) and promises to offer the finest gameplay in the crypto ecosystem. Illuvial comes packed with realistic graphics, stunning visuals, and the best in-game mechanics. 

Illuvial Gameplay

The game has players as the survivors of an interstellar spaceship that crashed into a planet with extreme weather and diverse environments. Most of the planet’s landmass is covered with a crystal ocean and only a small fraction of land is accessible. 

The game has demigods-like creatures called Illuvials who possess immense strength, and you are set up as a hunter, who hunts and captures them. A player needs crystal Shards, acquired from the planet’s natural resource, to capture these illuvial. Throughout the game, the player must unlock Obelisks, which lets them open more places on the map and rebuild their spaceship, The Leviathan.                                                         

Image 3 shows some Illuvials, the Pokemon-like demigods of Illuvium.

In-game NFTs and Market

The Illuvials of the game are all unique and rare. There are 100 of them and act as in-game NFTs. The player has to acquire powerful Shards, without which they can’t capture these Illuvials. Furthermore, some basic Shards will be provided, others can be purchased from the Illuvi DEX. The player has to capture these Illuvials, by defeating them, and once defeated, the player will have full ownership of these Illuvials/NFTs. They can keep them and roam the planet, capturing other Illuvials, or sell them in NFT marketplaces for profit. The planet is filled with other resources too, which act as in-game NFTs, and the player needs to locate and capture them. 

Illuvial Fusion

To make Illuvial rarer and provide a personalized touch, the user can combine the powers of his captured Illuvials, through an in-game feature called Fusion, to create even more potent beasts with distinct attributes. 

Illuvial Affinities

The developers have made remarkable relations between Illuvials and the five elements, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and Nature. Each illuvial remains aligned to these elements. Some have an affinity for two different elements like Frost (Water + Air), others just a single like Inferno ( Fire + Fire). 

Illuvial Classes

Illuvial are of 5 different classes, Fighter, Bulwark, Rogue, Psion and Empath. The players must choose their Illuvial classes to win a P2P combat strategically. 

 

 

Image 4-7, shows the different Illuvials out of the total 150 unique on the planet.

Image 8,9, shows the different elements and their combinations.

Interoperability

Illuvium presently has three distinct games in its universe, Arena, Overworld, and Zero. 

Overworld allows players to explore the NFT-rich cosmos of Illuvim, and capture Illuvials in their Illuvitars (your personalized avatar in the cosmos).

Once you have captured them, you would like to battle them against other players’ Illuvials. The arena is a P2P mode, where each win rewards players with NFTs they can trade in physical markets to make profits.

On the other hand, Zero is a land management game with a simulation mode for players to acquire land and set up operations to rebuild the spaceship. 

 

Image10 shows the focus of Illumium on the interoperability of their different games, allowing the purchased, and earned in a game to be fully operational in another game. The effect on your assets in one game would be felt across all the games.

Image11, shows, however, the limitation of Illuvium to interconnect with other games launched by other studios. 

Image 12 shows what a metaverse would look like, where not only several games of one studio are interconnected but other games from different studios as well.

Illuvium Tokenomics

The game has launched its native tokens called ILV, which can be used for governance and in-game purchases. Players can buy several utilities with these tokens from Illuvium DEX, and even exchange their earned tokens with others through popular exchanges to make a profit. The users can even participate in yield farming and stake their tokens to earn incentives. 

Final Thoughts

Illuvium has partnered with ImmutableX, which will prevent it from paying the minting fees of millions of NFTs the game has hidden. ImmutableX, through its partnership with GameStop, promises to bring a community of 50 million gamers to the Illuvium platform. 

The game has taken care of making the onboarding process as simple as a Web2 game, allowing even casual gamers with little or no knowledge of blockchain to play the game.