Meta Battler: The Story
As a creator, I’m always keen to know the thought processes and ideas behind projects, so I thought I’d share the inspiration behind our brand new game, Meta Battler.
Meta Battler initially comes from three places. The legendary Mortal Kombat; fun, social game, Club Penguin, and a pretty obscure handheld console released in the UK during the early nineties, called Barcode Battler.
Mortal Kombat needs very little introduction. It’s a game I’ve adored ever since I slammed it into my Megadrive (or Genesis to our friends from the States). I loved the characters and their stories, the special moves, the progression up the tower. I loved the blood. Now while Meta Battler might not be packed with blood — unless you’re playing with Horrors legendary cards that is — the characters and their stories, the special moves, the progression — it all finds its way into the mix, in one way or another.
Basically, Barcode Battler allowed you to scan any barcode — on any cereal box, beer can or condom box — and create a completely unique in-game monster with individual stats and attributes. Honestly, it was pretty crappy, and it was always onto a losing battle against the legendary Gameboy, but the concept always stuck with me.
I loved the idea of turning something as useless as an empty cereal box into something fun. Making something magical out of the mundane. Let’s be honest, there’s nothing more useless than an NFT from a project that’s rug-pulled!
I also loved the idea of having pretty much infinite options at my disposal — every barcode in the world generating a new beast to battle with. A game that never ends, essentially. For a kid in the nineties, that was pretty mind-blowing.
Now, I wasn’t all that familiar with Club Penguin, until one of Meta Battler’s developers introduced me to it. It’s a simple and fun social game drawing on the rock, paper, scissors format, but adding a few tweaks and buckets of character. At first I wasn’t convinced. I thought it was far too simple and lacking in depth to keep people playing. But what I soon realised — when I started playing Meta Battler — was that there was a surprising level of complexity to it. Each game I would adopt different strategies, trying to psych out and outsmart my opponent. And I soon realised the game was super intuitive, really easy to pick up for a casual, but with enough depth and incentive to keep you coming back.
But as we’ve developed the game, other influences have become apparent. Most notably, rogue-like deck-builders such as Slay the Spire (one of the greatest games ever made!) and the wildly popular Balatro. As the game develops, Meta Battler will add layers of complexity by giving players the chance to use unique buffs and nerfs, as well as building their squads and decks from the hands of vanquished foes. These abilities will range from simple stat boosts to more exciting and interesting game mechanics such as being able to shrink an opponent’s hand, and so much more. I’m very excited by the prospect of taking something really simple and building and iterating on top of it to create something complex, exciting and addictive.
Metaverse is a fuzzy term, no one knows what it really means because it can mean so many things. For me, it’s about a community growing around a project in this newly developing space. It’s a place where people can build and create and thrive. I see an ecosystem evolving from and around our game. Creators creating sets and using the utility to build their own communities. Stories and narratives emerging. A rich and fascinating adventure unfolding before us. Because Meta Battler will harness the power of this wonderful community. Every single NFT ever created now has utility.
The idea that most projects in this space are greedy and selfish is hardly controversial. They look at how they can extract as much as possible from the community. We look at how we can give back. We believe this is how we can move this burgeoning technology forwards — by opening up possibilities for people, giving them utility and inspiring creativity.
We’re so excited to see what you create!
Play the game here!
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