Treeverse is a web 3 mobile MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) that employs a classless system with MOBA style combat. Like many other MMORPGs, Treeverse offers players a chance to explore a large open world but with a unique isometric top-down viewing angle that embraces simplistic, anime like graphics inspired by “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Journey”. Within this open world of Arboros, players can quest for NPCs, build dream homes on a personal plot of land, gather resources, forge unique weapons and fight powerful creatures with a group of teammates. However, unlike traditional MMORPGs, Treeverse utilises blockchain technology to give players true digital ownership over their in-game assets. These in game assets range from cosmetic skins, currency/resources and land that virtual homes are built on.
Treeverse Development
The development team behind Treeverse is Endless Clouds. Endless clouds is made of 55 team members (at the time of this article) and boasts team members involvement in big gaming titles like League of Legends, Rainbow 6 Siege, Horizon Zero Dawn, Dark Souls 3 and Marvel Spiderman. Unlike other Web3 gaming projects, majority of the team’s roles are dedicated to the development of the game and not to the business elements (e.g. advisor, marketing and etc.). This is important as it demonstrates the priority to develop the game first. The team is also financially backed by venture capitalists – IDEO CoLAB, Animoca and Skyvision Capital.
Treeverse has had an impressive run of development since 2021. They have expanded their team from 17 to around 55 now and have managed to release a working pre alpha version of the game. The overall reaction to the twitter videos and screenshots of the pre alpha suggest that community members are happy and excited for the future of this project. Since 2021, Treeverse has done a great job at releasing monthly development updates. These updates are very detailed and cover everything from concept art, engineering, animations, job openings and the funds left in the treasury. On top of this, their twitter is always leaking new gameplay footage and art so their commitment to keep the community updated on their progress is admirable.
Treeverse Gameplay
As of writing, Treeverse just completed its pre alpha stage of development. Many members of the community were able to trial and test the game to give the developers feedback. With this, we were able to witness some amazing screenshots and short clips of the gameplay. The fluidity of the game is impressive. The movement of your character is smooth, and the combat animations coupled with the sound effects are timely. Finally, a web 3 game that doesn’t have clunky animations.
On top of the amazing animations, the overall aesthetic of the game is very clean, bright and exciting. It is evident that the user interface has been carefully curated to ensure that the screen is not crowded with too much information. It’s also clever that they haven’t loaded players with a ton of different spells and combat items because it has been specifically designed for mobile gaming. Despite the limited number of spells and combat items, the combat still looks engaging and doesn’t fall into the mindless hack and slash genre. It is clear from some of the pre alpha footage that there is an importance on spacing your character away from your enemies so that strafes and dodges are timed to avoid incoming damage.
As well as combat gameplay, the pre alpha also gave us a small insight into the customisation of characters. Screenshots of the inventory screen confirm, yet again, the development’s focus on brilliant user interface. Player’s will have the ability to customise their character’s equipment down to the ring. Character’s have 8 equipment slots – headgear, arms, back, body, legs, necklace/amulet and two rings. There are also two weapon slots, and most players seem to be wielding either a bow, sword or an axe. Skill trees are introduced to the weapons so players can unlock and upgrade certain skills based on the level. You can also equip special abilities to your weapons to strengthen your basic attacks. These weapons can be swapped between, so it feels like you are playing a completely different class.
We unfortunately do not get a good overview of the progression of equipment and weapons, but we can assume like many other MMORPGs, the constant desire to kill stronger creatures will design an addicting loop to keep players coming back for upgrades. Since there is going to be a large demand for gear upgrades, it appears that players who specialise in crafting and forging will be sought after in the Treeverse ecosystem.
Treeverse NFTS
Treeverse, like many other web 3 gaming projects, incorporates NFTs. These NFTs are categorised into three different collections.
NFTrees – NFTrees were originally designed to be collectable artefacts with no utility within the Treeverse ecosystem. However, the development team decided to give it some utility. Once the game launches, players who own an NFT tree (only 420 of them) can place their trees inside the map and other players can interact with it by paying $SEEDs. Players who interact with the tree will be given a fruit that gives you some in game benefits and boosts to your character. All fruits will have unique stats.
Land – Treeverse first launched 10,420 land plots, in 2021, with the future promise that these land plots would have utility within their MMORPG game. Currently the land is expected to act as a public home that has personal customisations for the owner. Owners can also use it as a teleport destination and extra storage. If players are not going to directly utilise the benefits of their land, they can always rent them out to someone who will. Until the game is fully launched it is difficult to determine whether these current benefits justify their costs. At the time of writing, the floor of these land plots are 0.7ETH ($1,141).
Timeless Characters – These are the skins that can be used inside the Treeverse. There are enough unique attributes like wings and race (human or skeleton) that should create demand for player’s who want to differentiate themselves from the rest of the player base. However, there are currently no in game benefits of wearing the skin apart from cosmetic reasons.
Does Treeverse create a unique mobile MMORPG experience by incorporating Blockchain?
Treeverse’s main incorporation of blockchain technology is using NFTs. NFT land and NFT skins are common uses for blockchain technology among many web 3 games. However there has been a ton of criticism, particularly towards land, because they are sold off well before their utility can be determined in game. Treeverse sold all their land two years in advance and even though the pre alpha has ended, we still have not seen any land gameplay. The value of the benefits (‘extra storage’ and ‘teleport destinations’) are yet to be proven.
NFT skins are basically a progression to the skins we see in the traditional gaming space. By minting skins onto the blockchain, players can have digital ownership over their skins, and it allows them to freely trade them on both internal and external marketplaces for real money. Even though there is nothing innovative about Treeverse’s ‘Timeless’ skins, the many variations of cool character models should serve players with a unique way to flaunt their characters. Of course, these skins derive value from a playable game, so it is important that Treeverse continues to develop and publish a game for early investors.
Something that will be interesting to follow is the implementation of NFTrees. Currently there is not a lot of information surrounding the benefits of the fruits for players and thus making it difficult to understand the impact of these NFTs. The fruit’s impact on a player will determine whether these NFTrees are valuable. There are also some balance concerns that arise with the addition of these fruits. However, In the Treeverse FAQs they have specifically said the pay to win elements will be limited and thus we can assume that fruits may assist in player’s convenience as opposed to the strength of their character.
Since there is a lack of information behind the purpose of the land plots and NFTrees, it is difficult to determine whether the addition of blockchain will enhance the gamer’s experience relative to other mobile MMORPGs. The integration of multiple NFT collections and crypto tokens ($SEED) creates a concern on the management of the entire Treeverse financial ecosystem. It is very difficult to manage large scale economies particularly when there are financial incentives for player’s to exploit weaknesses. However, blockchain technology would solve the “black-market real-world trading” issues we see in traditional MMORPGs by removing dodgy third party providers and ensuring better security for owning and trading in game assets (currency, skins, land, items).
Summary
Overall Treeverse has proven itself to be a genuine competitor in the mobile MMORPG genre. The pre alpha gameplay footage proved that there is a dedicated team working hard on delivering a game that is fun and engaging. The team has also been proactive in communicating with their community via regular twitter posts and professional monthly updates to keep themselves accountable to early investors. The only concern is whether the Treeverse development team can ensure a healthy and sustainable economy with the inclusion of NFTs. NFT skins alone are definitely manageable as they do not directly impact the mechanics of the game. However, Land plots and NFTrees will affect the gameplay for many users and if these additions are not correctly balanced, we could see some backlash from the community.
