Whitepaper

Introduction

Nemesis Downfall is a play-to-earn, multiplayer, first person shooter video game that offers modern gameplay and uses blockchain as a tool to facilitate in-game economy.

The blockchain is simply a decentralized, incorruptible means of recording asset ownership utilizing distributed computers, or nodes, over a duration of time. Over the course of the last decade, the practical, real world use case of cryptocurrencies and tokens, which either represent fractional ownership of a blockchain network or reside on top of a given blockchain, have been largely speculative, controversial, and heavily debated. It goes without saying that there are many far-fetched theories regarding use-cases for crypto; however, as the blockchain has matured, software engineers have created brilliant ways of using the technology as a tool to make existing systems such as banking and the internet more efficient thereby unlocking value. Much of crypto is finance-centric, but there is tremendous potential for the blockchain to disrupt industries outside of finance as well- gaming is perhaps the most exciting.

Market Analysis

The total global market capitalization of the video game industry is larger than that of the film and music industries combined. As of 2023, the video game industry is worth over $300 billion, and with a projected compound annual growth rate of about 12% through 2028, that number is forecasted to well exceed $400 billion later this decade. Currently, more than 3 billion people actively play video games- that’s over one-third of the population of the world.

Over time, game development companies have introduced new, creative ways of monetizing their products in an attempt to strike the best balance between profitability and user experience. Many games have even increased revenues and market share by adopting a free-to-play revenue model. Fortnite, a free-to-play game with a user base of 400,000,000 people, generated nearly $6 billion last year- but how does a game make money if it’s free? Free games become profitable both through advertising revenues and through ‘microtransactions,’ or small dollar amount sales of character add-ons and other in-game items at scale. Surprisingly perhaps, microtransactions alone account for about 30% of the entire gaming industry.

Traditionally, games cost $30-$50 to buy, but free-to-play games have experienced rapid revenue growth, outpacing the industry as a whole. In fact, some of the most popular, profitable games globally, such as Call of Duty and PUBG utilize a free-to-play revenue model. In 2023, free-to-play gaming was worth $112 billion. In contrast, the total market share of blockchain-based play-to-earn games, which are not only free, but also allow gamers to earn monetary rewards while playing, was about $5 billion in 2022. This presents a sizable opportunity for play-to-earn games to rapidly capture significant market share going forward, as in theory, the play-to-earn revenue model is superior both from the perspective of gamers, and game developers. That said, to date play-to-earn games have struggled to gain meaningful adoption for two main reasons: complicated UI/UX design, and poor gameplay.

Problems With Play-to-Earn Gaming to Date and Solutions Offered by Nemesis Downfall

There are over 3 billion active gamers globally, and only 300 million crypto users. Thus most blockchain-based, play-to-earn games inherently exclude the majority of the mainstream gaming market by requiring players to use crypto-centric, difficult-to-use interfaces that they are not familiar with. For instance in many cases, even simple tasks such as signing up and logging in, require knowledge of decentralized blockchain wallets that most gamers are simply not privy to. This significant UI/UX problem, combined with the poor quality of gameplay offered by most web3 titles, has prevented blockchain-based games from achieving mainstream adoption and profitability despite the many benefits they offer players such as the ability to earn and have true digital asset ownership. Nemesis Downfall solves these problems both by offering gameplay that is competitive with mainstream games that are played by billions of people such as PUBG, Valorant, and Call of Duty, and by incorporating blockchain and its many benefits into a UI/UX that is familiar and easy for everyone to use.

Regardless of their crypto knowledge, anyone can play Nemesis Downfall in a matter of seconds. Simply create an account with your email and a password as you would with any web2 game or website, and an in-game blockchain wallet associated with your new account is automatically created for you. Download the game, login, play and earn. This process will feel no different than any other web2 experience. Inside Nemesis Downfall, the currency, $ND, is a crypto-token, and all in-game assets such as weapon skins are NFTs, but the user experience is recognizable, straightforward, and accessible, allowing mainstream gamers to easily and seamlessly participate in the web3 economy.

Many web3 games missed the mark because they were overly focused on token economy and neglected the most important and fundamental mission of game development: to create a great game. Some web3 game development companies even used their game as a marketing tool to pump their crypto token, which is a losing and unsustainable endeavor. Again, 3 billion people around the world play games not because cryptocurrency is involved, but because they enjoy playing. First and foremost, Nemesis Downfall will be a great game (Please see ‘Deep Dive’ for more information on Nemesis Downfall gameplay).

Nemesis Downfall Web3 Features

Nemesis Downfall integrates blockchain into its code stack allowing players to earn and own digital assets while playing. These assets, represented by NFTs that reside on blockchains, can be bought and used inside the game just like the add-ons in free-to-play games, but they can also be traded, grow in value if they are rare or have been used by a legendary player, and be sold by players for profit. The idea of asset marketplaces is not new in gaming- for instance CSGO has incorporated a highly-profitable asset marketplace, which trades millions of dollars of volume, wherein users can trade unique weapon skins, some of which sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. That said, linking in-game assets to blockchains presents players with a greater degree of ownership over them. Blockchains allow players the autonomy to transfer items to third-party platforms, trade them for cash or cryptocurrency, send them to friends, and even use them in other games. Nemesis Downfall will offer a blockchain-based digital assets marketplace which far exceeds the capability offered by traditional web2 gaming marketplaces.

When players win matches, they will receive $ND token rewards that can either be used to purchase in-game assets such as weapon skins/upgrades or withdrawn and staked or traded for other cryptocurrencies or cash. $ND tokens can also be used to enter tournament matches- in these matches, players pay a small entry fee to join, and the winner gets the pot.

Player stats are tracked across all game-modes and are posted to a public leaderboard; top performing players will be rewarded. Stats are linked to an achievement and leveling system which presents players with opportunities and unlocks rewards and abilities as they progress and level up.

Game-mode specific, players will have the ability to locate and fight over loot-chests which will yield rewards of varying rarity. Additionally, players will be able to take the assets of enemies that they kill. If a given player comes into possession of a rare or valuable asset that they would like to leave the game with before the game ends in order to avoid the risk of losing it, they must convince their entire team to locate an ‘escape zone’ so that they can get to safety. Weapon and armor fragments can be looted and combined to create custom, ‘modular NFTs.’ All Nemesis Downfall NFT assets can be sold on our in-game marketplace or transferred to external NFT marketplaces for sale.