Skyweaver joins the trend of trading card games making it big in the blockchain gaming space. The title from Horizon Games however, starts by capitalizing on web2 technology while slowly incorporating web3 elements.
Game Overview
Skyweaver is a free-to-play TCG or trading card game available on the Windows PC, Mac, Android, iOS and even Linux platforms. The game has multiple PVP modes, each with different play-and-earn mechanics and a PVE practice mode for learners. Skyweaver employs a unique play-to-own system for in-game assets. They also describe it as a “win and earn game” as players can trade or sell cards earned via playing for free in the marketplace. The game plans to include playable cards into its NFT collection although despite an OpenSea collection already available, no clear info yet if these NFTs already have in-game utility.
Mechanics
Skyweaver’s core mechanics follow many popular TCGs like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone. Aside from cards, players can also pick heroes that help determine their playstyle. Each hero plays a specific Prism or Prisms determining which type of cards they can use. This mechanic is similar to Magic: The Gathering’s mana alignment. Each hero also has their own unique ability, a mechanic similar to the one in Hearthstone.
For cards, players can use a deck with cards that can either be Units, Spells or Enchantments. At the start of each match, each player will be given a selection of starting cards, they then need to choose which ones to discard and which ones to use as their opening hand. Cards also have sleeping sickness. This means that they cannot be used right away and will have to wait until the next round before they can attack or perform an action. Each card has an equivalent number of point requirements or mana requirements that players need to meet before they use the cards. Players start with 1 mana and gains additional mana each round.
Cards have 2 main attributes or stats – Attack Value and Health. If a card attacks they deal damage to the enemy card’s health points, your own cards also take damage based on the enemy card’s attack value. This means that both cards will take damage during an attack. If a card’s attack value is higher than the enemy card’s health points, the enemy card will be destroyed. Winner is decided after a player reaches 0 health on their hero.
PVP
Skyweaver has 2 main PVP modes, Conquest and Ranked. Ranked is the standard PVP where players play to earn points in leaderboard rankings and earn rewards. Conquest is a winstreak PVP mode where players can earn rewards such as new cards after winning 3 times in a row. While playing in Ranked is free, Conquest requires an entry fee through the form of cards. Players can win rarer or higher value cards when playing Conquest making it a big factor in the play-and-earn loop.
Both conquest and ranked are divided into 2 subcategories:
- Discovery – Players will play random pre-constructed card decks based on a chosen hero
- Constructed – Players will be using their own constructed deck
NFT Assets
As stated, NFTs in Skyweaver include the playable cards. NFT cards consists of 2 rarities – Silver and Gold. It is worth taking note though that these rarities are more cosmetic as cards are also available in their base or common form. Silver cards are used not just for playing but also for trading of entry tickets into Conquest Mode where players can earn Gold cards. As NFTs these cards are all tradable in the Marketplace.
Despite having NFTs though, Skyweaver does not have its own in-game token but rather uses USDC for all transactions.
The Team
Skyweaver is developed by Horizon Games. Aside from Skyweaver the development studio also worked on Sequence Wallet and a web3 product called “DAPP Platform”. The team’s core members are experienced in working with mobile apps, and even office solutions like e-mail clients.
Partners
Horizon Games list of backers include
- Initialized
- Golden Ventures
- BitKraft
- Coinbase
- CMT Digital
- Consensys
- Digital Currency Group
- Regah Ventures
- Polychain Capital
- Inovia
- Xchange
Roadmap
Skyweaver is now out and free to play for Windows PC, Mac, Android, iOS and even Linux. The game recently released a new expansion titled Clash of Investors which included new cards and decks. In addition to a themed content patch, the game has also recently implemented the following features:
- Hero Skins
- Stickers
- Card-backs
- Match Replay and Spectator Mode for esports
- In-game guilds
- Puzzle Scenarios
- Developer and Tournament APIs
In contrast to many web3 or blockchain projects, the development team has no static roadmap available but rather releases development updates after via blog posts. This approach is more similar to traditional or web2 gaming developers.