Highlighting the maturation of the GameFi space, Shrapnel is the first AAA game to build on the network, opening the Avalanche community to a new cohort of top tier projects.
Shrapnel, the world’s first blockchain-enabled moddable AAA first-person shooter game, has selected Avalanche, the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as the network to underpin a new gaming experience.
Shrapnel is being developed by a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning team of game industry veterans with unmatched experience in transmedia, virtual production, and gaming-as-a-service. Designed to reward and empower players and creators, its high stakes gameplay is fueled by user generated content. In order to facilitate this ever-evolving design, Shrapnel requires a high degree of customization. As the premier platform for individuals and enterprises to create powerful, reliable, and secure networks with uniquely customizable implementations, Avalanche offers the ideal foundation to build Shrapnel upon.
Don Norbury, Head of Studio at Shrapnel, said: “Shrapnel is being built from the ground up, with community involvement driving gameplay and development at every stage. Choosing Avalanche, with its blazingly fast, low cost, and eco-friendly network, was a no brainer for our team. The ability to run Subnets and define our own parameters provides the flexibility needed to facilitate the type of adrenaline-pumping, extraction-based shooter that Shrapnel is. We know that reducing frictional elements and minimizing risk will be key for bringing players on board. With Avalanche as our foundation, we are excited to showcase all the features of AAA gaming that players know and love, while also enabling new modding capabilities and reward mechanisms.”
Low-latency, seamless, glitch-free gameplay is a basic requirement for players plugging into blockbuster games. With its unmatched processing power, Avalanche is well-equipped to enable the quick loading speeds and smooth player experience that Shrapnel players will expect. Avalanche’s breakthrough consensus protocol is efficient and scalable, with the ability to handle high levels of throughput. This means that the game will also easily support a growing number of players and a more complex economy as Shrapnel’s popularity increases.
The Avalanche network consists of a core set of public chains, as well as custom, application-specific chains called “Subnets”. Subnets enable developers like Shrapnel to fully customize their implementation based on the needs and rules of the game. Gaming sessions and in-game asset trading activities will take place in their own Subnet, enabling a gasless environment to keep players focused on gaming.
As an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chain, Avalanche enables all of Shrapnel’s in-game assets to be interoperable with EVM compatible chains. This functionality allows players to transfer their assets from Shrapnel’s marketplace to Avalanche C-chain, trade with other players and community members, and then bring them back in game sessions. This dedicated subnet guarantees the reliability and speed gamers expect from a AAA experience.
Ed Chang, Director of Gaming at Ava Labs said, “Shrapnel’s entry into the market is symbolic of the maturation of GameFi towards AAA quality. Since launch, Avalanche has cemented its position as one of the fastest organically growing ecosystems in crypto with over 500 projects building on the platform. Now, welcoming its first AAA game into the ecosystem will showcase how Avalanche’s unmatched flexibility, speed, cost, and eco-friendly credentials make it the perfect foundation for top tier gaming projects to build upon.”
The news follows the close of a successful seed funding round for Shrapnel, who raised $10.5 million USD from leading players including Griffin Gaming Partners, Polychain Capital, and Forte.
