Ascenders, an up-and-coming AAA blockchain game, continues to build and expand its influence despite market fear and looming recession. The game has partnered with GuildFi, a large Crypto Gaming guild, to give away 50,000 AGC tokens in a new limited-time mode.
Ascenders is an open-world story-driven game with a decentralized player-driven economy to deliver a new ARPG (Action Role-playing Game) experience. Built by Legendary Foundry Limited, the game is powered by the Avalanche blockchain and features a dual token economy and NFTs created by players. The Ascenders ecosystem consists of various opportunities for competition and trade. Players can choose from various play-to-earn roles and specialize in them with its challenges and resources.
If you want to learn more about the game and its various mechanics, we have published a previous article diving deep into tokenomics, gameplay, NFT use, and the roadmap ahead. This article will primarily be looking at gameplay and development as markets capitulate the play-to-earn industry suffers.
While the game is still in the development stage, Legendary Foundry has released a comprehensive combat demo to showcase the possibilities of the game. One of the more striking aspects of Ascenders is the quality of both gameplay and graphics. Below is a screenshot from my own time playing the Ascenders combat demo.
In sharp contrast to other games in the Play to Earn genre thus far, Ascenders has the graphics and world-building to rival many traditional games.
Gameplay Experience
Sitting down to play Ascenders was a genuinely fun experience. As of the writing of this article, the game had two major modes. The first of these was the traditional hack and slash gameplay of the player vs. an army of machines that the game has featured since mid-march. The second mode was the polar opposite: the player takes control of a robot and plays against an army of humans in a timed survival challenge.
I had a blast playing through each of the individual modes. The team behind Ascenders has clearly made an effort to make gameplay easy and intuitive, while also being fun and addictive. The Demo featured a small and enclosed area of what will eventually be a massive open-world experience, and once the game is released in full, it seems inevitable that it will attract a significant player base.
Events
Ascenders has also been deliberate with the organizations that they partner with. GuildFi, a major gaming guild in the crypto space, partnered with Ascenders to sponsor the Robot v. Human limited time event mentioned earlier. This partnership is only one of many, as this is the 3rd limited-time event since the initial release of the combat demo in March.
Previous Limited-Time Events
- Easter Egg Hunt Challenge
- Rolling Robot Time Trial
- GuildFi Survival Challenge
Each of these events has featured a new take on the gameplay of the first combat demo. The Easter egg hunt had players collecting hidden items across the map, while the rolling Robot challenge had players jumping through rings and speeding around the map sonic style. What stands out the most from any of these events is how the Ascenders team keeps building and shipping new gameplay to their community.
Partnerships
In addition to high-quality gameplay and consistent building, Ascenders has been building out its investor showcase. Since the Avalanche summit in March, they’ve expanded their backers and feature industry names such as:
- Paramount Capital
- Defiance Capital
- Blizzard
- Firestorm Capital
With the help of Paramount Capital, Ascenders has raised in excess of 6 million USD to act as funding while the company works to build its core gameplay and world. With these backers, it’s unlikely that Ascenders will fail from financial issues. As crypto markets flounder, this may become essential to success for game studios.
With the potential for a bear market looming, teams that build good products and provide for their followers and fan bases will be in the best positions for success when markets inevitably return to a bull mentality. Ascenders plans to ship their full game in late 2023, and if the early combat demos are any indicator, there is massive potential hiding in this ecosystem.
The combat demo and any active limited-time events are available for PC and Mac on the official Ascenders Website.
