Chicken Derby first entered open beta back in March of 2022. And since then, thousands of chicken races have been run, with cash prizes at the end of every one. In addition, there have been several competitions that rewarded additional prizes. But something was missing from the races. Something… important. Well, now that piece is in place! And now, the Chickens of Chicken Derby are ready to utilize their Talents to gain an advantage in the races! Chicken racing as we know it is no more.
Passive racing games are not new to blockchain gaming. Zed Run has been around for quite a while. And we have more recent additions such as Pegaxy and Riot Racers. And while betting on your NFTs beating other NFTs in a simulated race can be fun, the replays left something to be desired. If you had a horse in the race (or car, or pegasus, or whatever), you would have some interest in the results. But watching the races was mostly uninteresting. Though at least Chicken Derby had some different animations when a racer would speed up or get tired.
Chicken Derby Talents
But Chicken Derby always had an ace up their sleeve in regards to making the races a more interesting spectator sport. And that was the Talents. Every Chicken in Chicken Derby has a special Talent. There are twenty Talents in all, each with its own effect. Some give the Chicken a boost and some slow down the other contestants. Talents have special animations, leaving no doubt as to what just happened.
Talents are now live in-game. They trigger randomly during races, though some Talents tend to trigger more often than others. Also, to avoid too much craziness, the number of Talents that can be used in each race is limited to the length of the race. 100M courses can have no more than two Talent triggers during the race, while 200M courses can have up to five. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more craziness! Perhaps the team could add some alternate races with a significantly increased Talent limit? It could be fun!
The addition of Talents shakes up racing strategies significantly. Not only does this provide a bit more randomness to the race results, but supposedly, Talents can also be affected by the race conditions. What exactly this means is left up to the racers to discover!
What is Chicken Derby?
Chicken Derby is a chicken racing simulation built on the Polygon network. Each Chicken is a unique NFT that can be entered into races for paid prizes! The original, ‘Spicy’ stock of 33,333 Chickens sold out, though many are available on secondary markets.
Chickens come in four Heritages — Serama, Sultan, Lakenvelder, and Dorkling, in order of rarity. In addition, there are a number of random cosmetic traits for each Chicken. Ranging from standard white feathers to tiger patterns to robot chickens! Every Chicken also has a special Talent that can trigger during races. This can be something as simple as a short flight, or as extreme as creating a black hole!
Chickens have Perfection ratings, which affect their race performances. All of the original Spicy breed Chickens have a Perfection Rating of at least 90%. But it’s not always the 100% Perfection Chicken who wins the race. Each Chicken also has hidden preferences for track distance and type as well as a Consistency rating. Discovery of these hidden traits is left up to the players. With seven different terrain types, six different track lengths, and twelve Chickens per race, each with their own preferences, abilities, and racing styles, Chicken Derby features enough variation to ensure that the race outcomes won’t be predetermined.
The game auto-generates races throughout the day, some free, most paid. Players enter their Chickens in a race, and once the race is full, anyone can watch the race unfolds live, or view the replay later. In a refreshing change, Chicken Derby does not have a token. All entry fees and payments are made in WETH. Future, planned updates include Breeding to create new Chickens, cosmetic wearables, and a social hub!
