Axie Infinity Teases Land Gameplay for 2022

By Shiela Bertillo

“The world of Lunacia will soon present many unique experiences for both you and your Axies to better get to know each other.”

On New Year’s eve, gaming firm Sky Mavis unveiled another teaser and the latest updates about the upcoming Land gameplay of Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn non-fungible token (NFT) game. 

What is Axie Infinity Land?

Land or Lunacia, is the metaverse of Axie Infinity; it is divided into tokenized plots of land, which will allow players to build up a base by gathering resources and building structures and decorations. It would eventually let players fight for control of neutral territory and resources.

Earlier last month, Sky Mavis priorly gave a sneak peek on the upcoming gameplay where the community members had a one-week glimpse of Project K (K short for kingdom) which gave all landholders a chance to play with the first concept build of the game.

“We shared it primarily to test some gameplay concepts with the community, get your feedback, test our server infrastructure, and to make it clear to the community that our ecosystem is truly committed to different gaming experiences. It was a tiny part of our ultimate vision for Project K, but it was great to see the positive feedback it received,” the developers stated.

Sky Mavis shared that they have made “considerable progress” on Project K in 2021. According to them, they have developed a number of foundational elements for the game, including an infrastructure that enables social interactions between players, and the ability to create distinct, yet interrelated gaming modes as special “seasonal” events that players can enjoy.

The developers also posted “an extremely early prototype of an event their software engineering team has been playing around with.”

The screenshot provided shows a gameplay mode being tested where armies of Axies come together on massive battlegrounds for control of Lunacia which they “intend for experiences like these to make Project K a game that delights all types of gamers, whether they prefer building, battling, puzzling, or even decorating.”

Moreover, they also revealed that they also welcomed a new senior game designer who refined the pre-existing design of Project K, and also brought a considerable number of fundamental design improvements to the core gaming experience.  

A new art director was also welcomed to the team to “make the necessary strong stylistic choices which allowed us to hone and clarify the game’s core aesthetic.” His art is displayed below.

“We’ve been incredibly busy growing Project K in every conceivable way throughout 2021. Today’s team is 15 people and growing, each member putting their full effort into a game that we can’t wait to reveal,” the developers said.

Further, Sky Mavis stressed that the developers look forward to “introduce a whimsical, high fidelity world for Axies, consisting of a number of interrelated gaming experiences.” 

“Our primary focus however, is centered on the fact that the best games create fun, emotionally engaging experiences with people from all walks of life. This is the primary goal of Project K,” they stated.

Accordingly, Project K will release “aspects of this multi-experience game” over time covering 3 phases at a time.

Phase 1 will focus more upon simulation and land management such as production, resource gathering, building, and trading.  Phase 2 will build in additional management gameplay elements like skill trees, jobs, and social/cooperative activities. And Phase 3 will focus more on group strategic gameplay.

“Throughout the continuous evolution of Lunacia, features will be added, and Axies will have an ever-expanding set of experiences they will encounter. However, between each event and game release phase, major events that affect all of Lunacia will occur, giving players a sense of progression at a world scale,” Sky Mavis stated.

Initially, according to the Axie Infinity’s whitepaper, the release of the land gameplay was originally set for December 2021. Regarding this, Sky Mavis addressed this and said that ‘the game candidly felt constrained, and borderline impossible within the 2D art style we released last year.” So, the development took a step back, and rewrote the core engine in 3D. 

They noted that the changes are “considerable new challenges for us, but the results to date have made us super excited for the opportunities these engineering choices create.“

“In short, building something of this scale requires considerable time and effort. This is why we decided to delay the release of the Project K alpha this year. We appreciate your patience, and think you’ll find that it was well worth the wait. To give you a view into the future, we wanted to prepare a teaser video for you all as our holiday gift to the community. We hope you enjoy it,” Sky Mavis added.

This article is published on BitPinas: Axie Infinity Teases Land Gameplay for 2022