The gaming industry is a highly competitive, fast-growing, and challenging market to penetrate. The increasing adoption of blockchain technology and popularity of Web3 gaming has expanded the industry. Within the gaming community Web3 games often mirror existing Web2 games and add NFTs and tokenomics to call themselves a Web3 game - hardly the most creative approach. Current game developers are reaffirming key values in games with enjoyability, accessibility, and creative gameplay top of their minds. Being able to add value to the market with something new is key for a game to gain traction and market share. 

One way that games differentiate through the genre.

 Another well-known games genre are God games, which allows players to control and manipulate the lives of virtual characters or civilizations. Since its introduction, God games have, through technology, advanced into including more elements of strategy and simulation. Popular Web2 God games include Black & White, Sims 2, Dungeon Keeper, and Populous: The Beginning. 

A game looking to revolutionize the God game genre is Morningstar Ventures portfolio company 

 – the first play & earn God game on the blockchain. The game empowers you to experience what it is to be a God, and it’s also empowering Web2 gamers to be onboarded to Web3 through an easy-to-understand, accessible, and fun game. We are diving deeper into our portfolio company Apeiron for this month's project review. In the review, we will cover everything from the founding team behind the game, the tokenomics, the business model, and unique gameplay. As always, we will end the review with our thesis of what we like about Apeiron and where we see potential challenges for the project. 

What is Apeiron, Founding Team, and Fundraising

 is the first play & earn adventure God game on the blockchain. Developed by 

, Apeiron is a decentralized ecosystem built on the Polygon blockchain that aims to combine NFTs and DeFi through an accessible and fun-to-play God game. Apeiron features a fast-paced real-time card-based combat system and simulation gameplay inspired by classic God games such as Populous and Black & White. The game recently released its NFT Marketplace, which aims to support its tri-token system and drive the utility of its governance, play-to-earn, and premium team-to-earn tokens, which all contribute to the game’s token economy. 

Apeiron has already released its Battle Demo Alpha and is gearing up to release the Season 2 Battle Demo open Beta this April and May. The full launch of the game is set to go live in 2024. Currently, Apeiron has around 

140K wallets connected to their online game and 94.5K total users. 

The founding team behind Apeiron consists of experienced professionals in the blockchain and gaming industries, including CEO Frank, COO Orange, and CTO Gem, who all have over a decade of experience in game development and publishing. Since the game’s inception in 2020, the team has grown to 82 people, with its headquarters in Hong Kong. 

Apeiron has raised over $17M at the close of its seed round, receiving over $3M from pre-seed investments and $10M from seed investments led by 

 Additionally, the project received over $4.5M from NFT sales during their first mint. 

Tokenomics, Business Model, and Marketplace

Apeiron's tokenomics model is driven by the marketplace, and monetary reward system used for governance, staking, and yield farming. The in-game operations rely on Apeiron’s tri-token system:

The idea behind the tri-token system is an idea borrowed from physical card games centered around seasonal tournaments and community competitions. Both APRS and ANIMA are used to create and enhance the cards, while RNGU is used to unlock the newest wave of each gaming cycle. 

The team aims to put the power back into the hands of the players. They do this by giving the players ownership of what they create in Apeiron’s NFT Metaverse and through the play-to-earn token Anima. During the game, players can earn Anima, which they can feed back into the economy to progress in their gameplay, or take it to the marketplace and exchange it for cryptocurrency. 

Apeiron's business model revolves around the gameplay, tri-token model, and marketplace. Players can control and manipulate the lives of virtual characters and civilizations using NFTs, which can be purchased and sold on the Apeiron marketplace. The project's ecosystem also includes staking, yield farming, and a governance system, which provides additional revenue streams. The project’s revenue streams include taking a percentage fee from marketplace transactions, NFT sales, and merchandise. By utilizing the tri-token system and 4 NFT collections, they can filter the different types of players and investors into different asset classes, gameplay, and investment styles, which relieves the selling pressure and guarantees a balanced healthy economy where all participants are incentivized appropriately for their actions and avoidance of pure price speculation in the token economy of the game. 

The main gameplay happens on Planet NFTs, which players can purchase on public marketplaces such as OpenSea, or on the official Apeiron Marketplace. Apeiron players are called Godlings - newborn gods - and use their in-game divine powers to answer the prayers or punish the sins of cute little creatures called Doods. The real-time card-based combat system allows players to release their Godling Avatars - powerful elemental constructs - into battle to turn the tide of the war against Chaos. Throughout the game, players can breed their Planet NFTs and purchase more in-game assets via the ANIMA token to grow and gain utility. 

Players are in charge of their Planets, have unique biomes, and use the four elements of air, water, fire, and earth to reshape the world in their image. Players can grow their Planets through these natural elements to fit their gameplay strategy. The Doods that inhabit the Planeets build their societies and react to the elemental miracles that happen through your divine influence. The Planet is a unique NFT that is up to the player to grow and develop; they can also breed these planets through a holy event called Celestial Conjunctions. By breeding more Planets, they can increase their godly power or simply profit by selling off excess Planets.

By heading into procedurally generated dungeons on each Planet, players can get powerful rewards and collect Dood Apostles to fight alongside their avatars. In the dungeons, players can uncover Artifacts to collect, bosses to fight, unique story events to experience, and colorful characters to meet. The PvE Dungeon system is currently in its early builds, but it is playable - if you are interested in playing, visit the Apeiron Discord, and you can potentially get access to try it out for yourself.

We can surmise that there are three essential pillars that make up Apeiron’s Key Game features: 

 They are the main gameplay loop of Apeiron. Players can acquire their first Planet NFT by (1) joining a gaming guild to get a non-transferable seed Planet to try the game or purchasing any Planet available on the marketplace.

 These NFTs are comparable to “Land” in other games, as the Star has one or more tracks on which the Planets could be parked. The Apeiron Godiverse is made up of 11,493 Stars, and they are a necessity in the later progression of the game. 

 These are unique NFTs that can be openly traded with others. Relics provide a form of permanent progression for players, incentivizing them to interact with the marketplace. They are created after an Armageddon event where players can change their Artifacts and Apostles into Relics. 

Being the first God game in the blockchain is both a strong advantage for Apeiron and a potential challenge in the future. It is imperative for the team to create a game that is successful in onboarding not only Web2 gamers but also captures the attention of existing Web3 natives. Below we highlight some elements we like about the project and where we see potential challenges in the future.

Over the next months, the Apeiron team is set to launch their private Beta and, later on, the public launch of the game. 

We look forward to the upcoming developments and the open beta later this year. For more information on upcoming releases, follow Apeiron’s channels below. 

🌐  Official website: https://apeironnft.com/

📡 Official Global Telegram Community: https://t.me/ApeironAnnouncements

🐦 Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/ApeironNFT

📜 Medium: https://blog.apeironnft.com/

📚 Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.apeironnft.com/apeironnft/ascension-what-is-apeiron

🕹️ Discord channel: https://discord.com/invite/dYpdSckNnd

Deep dive into Apeiron's gameplay, the founding team, and recent investments for this month's project review. 

Apeiron - Project Review

 A Unique God Game Franchise on the Blockchain

Project Review: Apeiron

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