Gala Games is a web 3 gaming project that aims to create a decentralized gaming platform that empowers both developers and players. The team behind Gala Games is led by CEO Eric Schiermeyer, who co-founded Zynga, a leading social gaming company. The platform includes a variety of games and genres ranging from MOBAs, RPGs, turn based strategy and card games. 

Value Proposition:

The gaming industry is currently centralised, with developers and publishers holding most of the power. This has led to issues such as limited creativity and control for developers, and poor experiences for players due to pay to win mechanics, poor customer support, and limited ownership of in-game assets. Furthermore, players have no say in the development direction of a game, further exacerbating their lack of agency in the industry.

Gala Games aims to address these issues by creating a decentralized platform that enables developers to have more control over their games and allows players to own and trade in-game assets. The platform is built on blockchain technology, which allows for transparency, security, and immutability.

Development:

As of now, Gala Games provides a selection of 14 games on their platform, four of which are already playable - Town Star, Spider Tanks, Legends Reborn, and Superior. The platform also comes equipped with a built-in marketplace where users can trade NFTs for all available games within the ecosystem. Its user interface is simple and aesthetically pleasing, making it user-friendly even for those unfamiliar with blockchain technology. Notably, Gala Games has amassed a substantial monthly active user base of 1.3 million users, according to their website.

Despite many of the games still being in development, there is a significant amount of hype within the web 3 gaming community for upcoming releases. Among these highly anticipated games is Mirandus, developed by Gala Games themselves. The game is set in a fantasy world where players can explore, fight, craft, and interact with other players in real-time. It features an open-world environment, where players can make their own choices and progress through the game at their own pace. Mirandus is designed to be player-driven, meaning that the actions of players can have a significant impact on the game world and its story. The game will also incorporate the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which can be used to represent in-game assets, such as items and equipment, and can be traded or sold on the game's marketplace. Many believe this will set the standard for web 3 games. Other notable games set to be released include Grit, a Western-themed battle royale expected to launch on the Epic Games Store, and The Walking Dead: Empires, a survival MMORPG inspired by the popular TV series on the AMC network, The Walking Dead.

Team:

The team behind Gala Games includes experienced professionals from both the gaming and blockchain industries.  Gala games was founded by Eric Schiermeyer, Wright Thurston and Michael McCarthy. Eric, one of the founders, and Michael, the art director, played key roles in the development of Zynga, a prominent social gaming company responsible for creating successful games such as Zynga Poker, Farmville, and Words with Friends. They are also supported by 90+ employees with some of the team members having worked at companies like EA and Coinbase. This is quite an impressive roster to help pioneer the new age of gaming.  

Partnerships:

Gala Games boasts not only an experienced team, but also strong partnerships, including Flare, Mazer Gaming, Bitrue, Brave, and Polygon as highlighted on their website. Their most notable partnership to date was announced in 2022, with the news that Grit will launch on the Epic Games Store. This collaboration is significant for Gala Games, as the Epic Games Store has approximately 31.3 million daily users. Grit's inclusion on the platform will provide a great deal of exposure and potentially serve as a gateway to introduce mainstream gamers to the world of blockchain gaming. More recently, January 2023, Gala Games announced that their Film division, Gala Film, has been collaborating with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Seven Bucks and Mark Wahlberg's Unrealistic Ideas for production. On top of all the corporate partnerships, Gala Games has implemented a savvy marketing strategy to sponsor prominent web 3 gaming influencers, providing them with a more relatable source of exposure to audiences already familiar with the web 3 gaming landscape.

2023 Roadmap:

The Gala Games team has a clear roadmap for the development of their platform, which was recently shared with the public.
For the games division, Gala Games has over 40 titles in development, with 12 expected to launch in 2023. Among these 40 titles, 26 will be cross-platform or mobile games, and 5 will be of AAA quality. Additionally, Gala Games plans to continue providing updates, focusing on mobile gaming, safeguarding the utility of their tokens, and increasing visibility in the gaming industry.

Gala Games has also announced the development of their own layer 1 blockchain called GYRI, which is designed to:

• Handle fast, micro transactions at scale

• Lower the cost associated with minting

• Reduce energy usage/impact on the environment

• Work with the gala founders node network

• Facilitate easy transfer of items to/from Ethereum

Apart from gaming and blockchain, Gala Games is dedicated to improving its music and film divisions. The music platform is set to release on March 28th, 2023, while the full platform launch for Gala film is expected to be six months away. Gala film has promised the release of 10 titles in 2023. There will be many benefits from the cross platform development and will employ exciting features that will enhance the content experience for both early NFT holders and future film fans and streamers.

How does the Platform operate?

Nodes

Gala Games nodes are computers that participate in the Gala Games network to help process and verify transactions on the blockchain. These nodes are also known as founders’ nodes.

The Founder's Node is a key component of the decentralized gaming network known as the Gala Ecosystem. With a limited quantity of 50,000 nodes available, owning and operating a Founder's Node contributes to the growth of the network and offers real ownership of assets and content to players. GALA is distributed daily to Founder's Nodes that have operated for the required time in each cycle. Distribution is based on a point system, which awards points for running a node for six hours in a cycle. GALA's circulation across the network will continue to yield earnings for Founder's Nodes even after a distribution is complete. The network will adapt to its needs, so the kind of work that will be required to run a Founder's Node will depend on what resources the network needs at the time. A consensus vote is a powerful tool available to all Founder's Node operators, allowing them to vote on important matters such as which games come to the Gala Games platform. Founder's Nodes can be purchased on the Gala Games website, and their compatibility with various operating systems is dependent on the requirements listed in Gala Node Software Requirements.

In 2023, Gala has officially transitioned to Node V3, which has brought changes to the operation of nodes. The Gala blockchain GYRI will now be serviced by founder's nodes, which will perform crucial functions for various use cases within the ecosystem. Additionally, there are now nodes dedicated to games, music, and film, such as the Spider Tanks planetary node that will manage all the game's workload. Node operators will receive token rewards, specifically the $SILK token.

Tokenomics:

Gala games is also looking to revise its current tokenomics for 2023. In 2020, the $GALA token was first launched. It is an ERC-20 utility token for the gala ecosystem. $GALA is the game token for the entire Gala ecosystem, as well as the gas token for its Layer 1 blockchain GYRI. $GALA is distributed through the founder’s node network and has a maximum supply of 50,000,000,000 tokens. Gala games has stated that 2023 will see some revisions made to the $GALA token so that the supply can be managed better. They have committed to a quarterly burn of 500,000,000 $GALA in 2023. They will be burning all its game store revenue from January 1st ,2023 until April 1st, 2023.

Proposals have been put forth to change the current emissions schedule for $GALA. Originally modelled off the Bitcoin halving schedule, which occurs on the 21st of July, recommendations are now suggesting that the halving should be based on total supply. The timing of the halving would adjust based on certain milestones and the level of demand. During periods of high token usage, resulting in a greater number of tokens being burned, the current emission would continue for a slightly longer time. However, during times of low usage, the halving would continue forward yearly with flexibility allowances introduced by burns.

Think of the halving as a train on a track that moves forward every year. The train represents the token emission rate, and the track represents the timeline. Every year, the train moves forward one station, which represents the halving event.

However, the train's speed can be adjusted based on the level of demand for the token. If many tokens are being burned, it's like putting more coal into the train's engine, which enables it to continue running for longer before reaching the next station. This means that the halving event will be delayed slightly to accommodate the current level of demand.

On the other hand, if there is little usage of the token, the train will continue to move forward on the track yearly, and the halving event will happen as scheduled. However, there may still be some flexibility introduced by burns, which can slow down the train's speed slightly.

Token Utility

The GALA token is a digital utility token designed to facilitate payments and settlements within the Gala ecosystem. It serves as a primary reward mechanism for the Founder's Nodes and can be used to purchase NFTs for games like Town Star and licenses for nodes such as Founder's Nodes on the Gala Games store. While GALA is transferable between users and exists on multiple blockchains, it does not represent any shareholding, participation, right, title, or interest in Gala Games or any other company. Additionally, it does not entitle holders to any promise of fees, dividends, revenue, profits, or investment returns and is not intended to constitute securities.

Despite addressing the supply side issues of the tokenomics, Gala games has yet to address the demand side. Transactions within the ecosystem are currently the only benefit that $GALA holders receive. Furthermore, the ability to purchase items on the GALA games store with Ethereum undermines the value of $GALA. However, the introduction of the GYRI layer 1 blockchain could potentially increase the value of the $GALA token. The launch of GYRI will provide a legitimate reason for people to use $GALA, especially if music and film additions are integrated into the ecosystem. If Gala creates a decentralized Spotify or Netflix that is adopted by the mainstream, the GYRI blockchain could see a significant increase in activity.

Adoption and User Engagement

Gala Games is making significant strides in the web 3 gaming industry, as evidenced by their impressive social media following. With 424.5k Twitter followers and 29.8k YouTube subscribers, their presence continues to expand. Additionally, they recently acquired a mobile gaming studio, which will bring over 20 million existing players into the Gala Games ecosystem. Despite the bear market conditions, Gala Games' growth shows no signs of slowing down, and their reach is expanding exponentially.

Conclusion

Gala Games is a formidable player in the web 3 gaming industry, with a highly experienced team and a compelling platform vision that may ultimately attract mainstream gamers. However, before they can claim the mantle of the "Steam" of web 3, there are still significant questions that need to be addressed. It is crucial to release more high-quality games, improve tokenomics, and enhance the token's utility. Moreover, the company's forays into film and music could potentially divert resources from their primary focus of gaming. As they strive to execute a complex ecosystem, it will undoubtedly be a challenging journey for Gala Games.