Unlike developers found in the traditional gaming industry, the future of Gala Games is not shaped in a vacuum. Instead, decisions are controlled by its players in a fully decentralised ecosystem. And they're doing a good job.
Gala Games has quickly established itself as a leader in the NFT Gaming space. It's done this through the successful deployment of fun games with good economies, and by acquiring and signing up developers with clout (Peter Molyneux, Will Wright) or genuine gameplay quality.
Learn more about the studio and how its ecosystem works in our Gala Games review.
About Gala Games
Gala Games is a blockchain-based gaming platform that integrates play-to-earn (P2E) mechanics and non-fungible tokens (NFT), allowing players to vote on key game development decisions and retain full ownership of their in-game assets.
The Gala Games network consists mainly of player-run "Founder's nodes", its native token GALA and a series of emerging blockchain games. Gala Games has a staggering number of titles under its wing, the vast majority of which are in active development. And it claims to have 1.3 million+ monthly active users.
In the Gala Games ecosystem, players can submit game proposals, which are voted on by the community to decide if it should be funded and developed.
Gala Games was founded in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer, Wright Thurston and Michael McCarthy. The name Eric Schiermeyer may be particularly familiar to gamers, as he founded and ran social gaming giant Zynga (Farmville) for over 15 years. According to its website, the Gala Games team has over 90 employees and is supported by notable partners including Flare, Mazer Gaming, Bitrue, Brave and Polygon.
What is GALA?
The Gala Games Coin (GALA) is the digital utility token of the Gala Games ecosystem. It's an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, but it also exists on the Binance Smart Chain as a BEP20 token.
GALA serves several functions:
- Vote on key decisions that shape the Gala Games network
- Reward incentives for node operators
- In-game rewards for players who participate in the platform's games
- Payment for NFTs and items in the Gala Shop
- P2P payments
Pros
- Players are incentivised with in-game rewards for their participation.
- Free-to-play options available.
- Wide range of high-quality games in development and playable titles are well-received.
- Partnered with One Tree Planted project to stay carbon-negative throughout its entire suite of products.
Cons
- No secondary trading for Gala Node licence.
- Currently operating on the Ethereum blockchain, which often incurs high gas fees for transactions.
- Faces tough competition from other decentralised games including The Sandbox and Decentraland.
List of Gala Games titles
As of July 2022, there are 17 games in development or launched on the Gala Games platform.
Town Star
| A strategic farming and town-building game that allows players to earn TOWN tokens. Compete with other champions and work your way up the leaderboard. | Genre: Simulation
Development status: Beta
Platform: Browser |
Spider Tanks
| A free-to-play PVP brawler where players deck out unique tanks with weapons and battle it out in an arena. | Genre: PvP Brawler
Developer: Gamedia
Development status: Beta
Platform: PC |
Superior
| Explore a sprawling hyperstylised universe in this co-op, third-person shooter as you hunt down superheroes that have turned into evil abominations. | Genre: Rogulite, Third-person shooter
Developer: Drifter
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
The Walking Dead: Empires
| A multiplayer survival game set in the treacherous world of AMC's The Walking Dead. Gather supplies, team up with allies, compete against maniacal foes and stay alive. | Genre: Survival MMORPG
Developer: Ember Entertainment
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
Legends Reborn
| Build your dream deck, summon mythical creatures and battle your way to the top with this strategic card game. | Genre: Card, Strategy
Developer: Kung Fu Factory
Development status: In development
Platform: Mac/PC |
Mirandus
| Explore deep woods and dungeons, battle monsters and more in this open-world fantasy RPG. | Genre: Fantasy RPG
Developer: Gala Games
Development status: In development
Platform: Mac/PC |
Legacy
| Unleash your entrepreneurial side with this P2E business simulation game. Build and customise your own town and products to maximize your profits. This game comes from the mind of legendary developer Peter Molyneux (Fable, Populous, Black & White) | Genre: Business Sim
Developer: 22cans
Development status: In development
Platform: Mac/PC |
Last Expedition
| Face off against a hostile alien world in this AAA first-person shooter game powered by blockchain technology and play-to-earn mechanics. | Genre: Survival FPS
Developer: Certain Affinity
Development status: Pending node vote
Platform: PC |
Echoes of Empire
| Bring glory and defend the galaxy in this epic, 4X sci-fi strategy game. Recruit heroes, craft legendary weapons and assemble your own starship fleets as you battle other factions. | Genre: Strategy, 4X
Developer: Ion Games
Development status: In development
Platform: Mac/PC |
Fortitude
| An intense and action-packed PvP tower defence game. Fortitude is set in a dark fantasy world where players compete against one another to both invade and defend villages. | Genre: Tower Defense
Developer: Round2
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
Town Crush
| Town Crush is a Town Star themed match 3 puzzle game, created by the Gala Games team and designed as the first provable use case for our proprietary blockchain, Project GYRI. | Genre: Match 3
Developer: Gala Games
Development status: Testing
Platform: Browser |
GRIT
| Ride or die in the ultimate Wild West battle royale, where there's more to winning than aiming true. Saddle up and ride across town, building the best poker hand from found weapons to make a killing. Grab the best shooter to-hand and gun your way to infamy on the new frontier. Explore the towns, oil fields and plains of the untamed west as you try to hitch a ride on the last man alive train. | Genre: Battle Royale
Developer: Team GRIT
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
Battlestar Galactica
| Battlestar Galactica is a MMO 4X strategy game that takes place after The Fall. Players find themselves scattered throughout the galaxy following the attack from the Cylons with the goal of retaking their home system as a surviving member of one of the Twelve Colonies. Rebuild your resources, reunite with your faction, and reclaim the Twelve Colonies. | Genre: Strategy 4x
Developer: Revolving Games
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
Eternal Paradox
| Eternal Paradox follows the standard 4X basics: Explore, Exploit, Expand and Exterminate. One major difference is the addition of RPG-style turn-based combat. This blend of 2 genres makes Eternal Paradox especially interesting. | Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer: Ndream
Development status: In development
Platform: PC, iOS, Android |
Champions Arena
| In Champions Arena, players can collect over 100 different, fascinating and unique NFT Champions and various NFT items. Summon your Champions to dispatch them on missions, or control them directly in real-time tactical, turn-based battles. | Genre: CCG
Developer: OneUniverse
Development status: Awaiting Founder's Node vote
Platform: iOS, Android |
Freestyle Football 2
| Freestlye is a massively popular sports game franchise well-known worldwide for its ability to really bring players into the on-field experience of their favourite sports. | Genre: Sport
Developer: JoyCity
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
Forever Winter
| Not too much is known about this game, but based on the trailer it's a co-operative third-person shooter for PC coming in 2023. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, where your team, as the survivors, must fend off waves of zombie/alien enemies. It aims to be AAA quality, and is being built on Unreal Engine 5. | Genre: 3rd-person shooter
Developer: Fun Dog Studios
Development status: In development
Platform: PC |
*Note: Information provided is accurate at the time of writing, 1 July 2022.
Gala's NFT collection
On 27 April 2022, Gala Games launched its own AI-powered digital pet NFT collection known as Fuzzles. These Fuzzles are ERC-721 NFTs native to Ethereum and come in a limited supply of 9,997.
Aside from being cute and whimsical, each Fuzzle reacts and adapts to human speech to develop its own assertive personality. Learn more about these metaversal companions in our Fuzzle NFT guide.
What is a Gala Node?
Gala Games operates on an NFT-based node system that's supported by users who manage the nodes from their home computers.
In return for their contribution to the network, node operators earn rewards in the form of tokens, exclusive NFTs and other perks. However, the nodes must be active for at least 6 hours daily to unlock these rewards.
Gala Games offers 2 types of node licences, which will be minted as NFTs:
- Founder's node. Supports the Gala Network and rewards operators for their contribution to the network in GALA, individual game tokens and NFTs.
- Game-specific nodes. Supports a specific game ecosystem to receive in-game rewards. Only Town Star Nodes are sold at the time of writing. Owners also have the ability to earn the in-game token, TOWN.
How much do Gala Nodes cost?
For every 100 gala nodes sold, the price increases by $100. This pricing structure is designed to deter large investors (commonly referred to as whales) from scooping up a massive amount of nodes and trying to control the network.
At the time of writing, a Gala Founder's Node is priced at 1.51055 million GALA, which is approximately US$101,448.39.
YouTube channel for NFT games
Chris Stead, Finder's game expert here. I've been covering video games since the mid-1990s, and I've turned all that experience towards providing honest feedback on NFT and P2E gameplay.
Epic Games partners with Gala Games
On June 6 2022, Gala Games announced it was partnering with huge AAA gaming behemoth Epic Games. Epic Games is famous for a string of blockbuster IP, including Fortnite, Rocket League, Gears of War, Fall Guys, Unreal Tournament and Infinity Blade. It's also the creator of the widely used Unreal Engine middleware. Plus, it runs the mammoth PC games retailer, Epic Games Store.
As of 2021, Epic Games had some 500 million players registered, and many believe that number is now pushing 600 million.
The partnership will see Gala Games release its NFT and blockchain experiences to PC gamers through the Epic Games Store. This is a huge deal as it's the first instance we've seen of a AAA publisher not just selling an NFT game through its store, but partnering on that release. The first game to hit the Epic Games Store from Gala Games will be GRIT, a Western-themed battle royale experience.
What is the Galaverse event?
If you're familiar with the traditional games industry at all, you'll know it loves a good conference. The most notable is E3, which happens in early June every year. Or at least, every year there isn't COVID. Not to be outdone, Gala Games has looked to put itself in lights during this time, too.
Galaverse is an E3 style conference. The 2022 Galaverse event unfolded in Malta over a couple of days in early June. Hands-on experiences, gameplay trailers, developer interviews and new announcements were part of the fun. Forever Winter, Freestyle Football 2, GRIT and Champions Arena were 4 big new game announcements at Galaverse.
Gala Games has several social media channels available for its community to connect with its team. Get the latest dibs on Gala Games on:
- Twitter
- Discord
- Facebook
- YouTube
Project GYRI blockchain
Back in January 2022, Gala Games announced that it's in the final stages of launching its very own blockchain. The main reason behind the development of its proprietary blockchain is to overcome the obstacles the platform is facing, specifically Ethereum's high transaction fees and network congestion.
In addition, Gala Games revealed other exciting offerings, including its own NFT music site titled Gala Music in February 2022. This project allows creators to distribute their music as NFTs and earn from their proceeds.
Bottom line
While we expect further expansion of the Gala ecosystem in the near future, its roadmap is somewhat unclear at the moment.
So if you're deciding to invest in Gala Games – whether to own and operate a Gala Node, purchase GALA tokens, or play any of its blockchain-based games – dive into its socials to check out what its community is saying before putting your money into it.
