Introduction：

Nyan Heroes is a AAA-level blockchain game currently in development. It offers early access gameplay and airdrop rewards. This article will introduce its background, funding, in-game economic system, airdrop activities, and future development plans.

Nyan Heroes is a third-person shooter game based on the Solana ecosystem, where players transform into a cat piloting a giant mech to engage in fierce battles with opponents using their unique abilities. The game is built with Unreal Engine 5, and the 9 Lives Interactive team aims to deliver a AAA-level gaming experience with stunning visuals and smooth motion capture technology, rivaling third-person shooter games like Epic Games’ Fortnite and Respawn’s Apex Legends. If successful, this could become the first AAA-level blockchain game.

On March 26, 2024, Nyan Heroes was launched on the Epic Games Store, but it is still in the “Early Access” phase. During the two-week pre-alpha test period, the game performed exceptionally well, with over 1.3 million user registrations, over 700,000 unique active wallets, and over 45,000 daily active users. During this period, Nyan Heroes surpassed 200,000 downloads on the Epic Games Store, ranking among the top five most popular games on the store and one of the top 30 most popular games globally.

Although this is a Web3 game, most players downloading the game are not from the Web3 community, as Web2 players can play the game without interacting with tokens or NFTs, without compromising their gaming experience.

Nyan Heroes: AAA Blockchain Game on the Solana Ecosystem

Source: store.epicgames.com

The World Needs Brave Cats

Nyan Heroes is an FPS game that looks like Overwatch and plays like Overwatch, but the protagonists are cats piloting different mechs. Readers can experience the game design and level of development in the Pre-Alpha gameplay video released by the official team in April 2024.

“Nyan” comes from the Japanese word for “meow,” and every pixel of the game pays homage to adorable cats. The mechs’ design is inspired by felines’ agility, allowing players to experience dynamic battles akin to EVA in every fight. Both the visual effects and game mechanics are filled with cat elements.

The company even aims to “save 1 billion cats in the real world” and donated $350,000 to animal welfare organizations in 2023.

This also brings to mind Overwatch, which featured the famous line in its early trailers: “The world needs more heroes.” Now, Nyan tells us that the world needs brave cats piloting mechs and heroes who fight alongside these brave cats.

Team Background

Developing a AAA-level FPS game requires an experienced team, and the team behind Nyan Heroes fits the bill perfectly. Most of the team members come from AAA game developers such as Riot Games, Ubisoft, and EA and have worked on well-known game projects like World of Tanks, Destiny, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo, and Mass Effect. The 9 Lives Interactive studio currently has over 60 developers working remotely worldwide, bringing diverse backgrounds to the project.

In addition, the Nyan Heroes project is supported by several ecosystem partners, including industry companies like Razer, Xterio, Immutable, Superverse, NeoTokyo, Elixir, Hyperplay, and Saga. The project has also established partnerships with esports organizations such as G2 Esports, Fnatic, and Evil Geniuses. In the future, it plans to collaborate with mainstream streaming platforms like Twitch to host esports events.

Funding and Endorsements

On November 4, 2021, Nyan Heroes announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round led by Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, and DeFiance Capital. Other participants in this round included investment firms such as Sino Global Capital, Infinity Ventures Capital, Solana Ventures, Skyvision Capital, Yield Guild Games, and Merit Circle, as well as individual investors from Twitch, Riot Games, and MatrixPort.

In May 2022 and March 2024, the project completed additional strategic funding rounds of $7.5 million and $3.5 million, respectively.

On May 21, 2024, the project launched the $NYAN token, which is now listed on Bybit, Gate.io, HTX, MEXC, and Backpack Exchange. Three months after its listing, the token’s circulating market cap was around $10 million. The token’s price at the time of the TGE (Token Generation Event) was $0.10, and it currently trades between $0.07 and $0.08. Given the current market conditions and that Nyan’s game is still developing, $NYAN has demonstrated strong resilience against price drops.

Earn Airdrops through Gameplay

Nyan has conducted two rounds of airdrop activities, only requiring players to genuinely experience the game through the Epic Games Store and earn points by participating, without mandating the purchase of its tokens or NFTs. However, buying NFTs can accelerate point accumulation.

Looking back at the first Play-to-Airdrop season, it was initially planned to distribute 2.25% of the total $NYAN supply, including 20 million tokens for season one players and 2.5 million tokens for OG NFT holders. However, only about 18.76 million tokens were claimed, with an additional 3.74 million remaining unclaimed and reallocated to the community pool. This suggests that Nyan indeed has a significant number of non-Web3 players.

The second season was held in June this year, and 5 million $NYAN tokens (0.5% of the total supply) were distributed.

The project is currently running its third airdrop event, with the playtest period from September 4 to September 25. The reward pool is also set at 5 million $NYAN tokens (0.5% of the total supply), corresponding to a market value of approximately $500,000 at the current price. Players must collect MEOW points by participating in daily, weekly, and unique in-game missions. After the game test ends, MEOW points will be converted into $NYAN tokens.

To participate in this airdrop round, you need to meet the following three conditions:

• Link your Solana wallet to your Nyan Heroes account.
• Associate your Epic Games account with your Nyan Heroes account.
• Earn at least 2,000 MEOW points during this game test period.

Tokenomics and P2E

As a blockchain game, Nyan had to consider the impact on the game environment and economic system when designing its tokenomics. Initially, Nyan Heroes planned to launch a dual-token model with $CTNP and $NYAN, where $CTNP would serve as a governance token and $NYAN as an in-game utility token. However, Nyan Heroes later revised this plan. They issued only one native token, $NYAN, on the Solana chain, replacing the initially considered in-game token $CTNP, with a traditional virtual currency called CATNIP. CATNIP is not an on-chain token.

Nyan stated that, in designing its current tokenomics model, it aims to:

• Support secure and real-time transactions within the game
• Enable players to own and control their digital goods and assets fully
• Protect the in-game economy and players from market speculation fluctuations
• Create real income opportunities for all players
• Fairly reward and incentivize players based on their actual contributions to the ecosystem

It is important to note that $NYAN does not represent any equity, ownership, participation, or rights in the project in any way, and therefore is not a governance token. As the native utility token within the game, $NYAN can be used for various in-game functions, which increases its demand. These include:

• Players can spend $NYAN to mint or “awaken” their in-game items to unlock NFT reward pathways
• Marketplace transaction fees
• In-game asset rental fees
• Tournament entry fees
• Players can lock their $NYAN to gain additional special access, privileges, and rewards
• Decentralized community governance, allowing holders to provide feedback on future features and upgrades of Nyan Heroes (not applicable to the company’s operations and management)
  

The diagram above illustrates the envisioned Web3 economic flywheel for the project, with the gray area representing off-chain activities, the light green area representing the in-game traditional virtual currency CATNIP, and the yellow area representing on-chain activities based on the $NYAN token. This means Nyan will be a game with play-to-earn attributes, where the team will continuously distribute token rewards to players, but ultimately aims to transition to a sustainable balanced state by using the real player funds flowing into the game ecosystem to balance the outflow of funds from P2E activities.

According to the latest white paper from June 2024, the total supply of $NYAN is 1 billion tokens, with the allocation as follows:

• 33.5% - Community/Incentives
• 22% - Early Contributors
• 18% - Team + Advisors
• 16.5% - Ecosystem
• 7% - Strategic Contributors
• 3% - Market Making + Liquidity

Roadmap and Future Development

The white paper outlines that Nyan’s upcoming plans include: implementing staking for the $NYAN token, conducting closed alpha testing of the game, and launching the Guardian Mech Drop (minting in-game dropped items as NFTs).

As an AAA-level game, a long development cycle is common. Nyan Heroes has navigated multiple Web3 bull and bear cycles but has not raised significant funds. Unlike many projects that are unclear about their progress post-funding, players can already experience the unfinished version of Nyan Heroes through the Epic Games Store, and the community feedback has been quite positive, justifying the current level of investment.

Moreover, as a blockchain game with crossover appeal, Nyan is crucial to the Solana gaming ecosystem. Solana Ventures has invested in the project, and the Solana official account has promoted it. It is anticipated that upon its official release, Nyan will have an even greater impact and better development prospects.