In-depth Analysis of the Big Time Game on the 3A Chain: Is a New Wave of Gold Mining About to Arrive?

On October 11, the highly anticipated AAA blockchain game Big Time officially launched its three-month preseason. In addition to players who previously obtained a pass, new users can also experience this game for the first time through an invitation code.

Big Time is developed by industry veterans, with a strong emphasis on game quality and playability, similar to Diablo. Like the previously popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, Big Time also establishes a mechanism for earning in-game currency, allowing players to earn the game token BIGTIME by completing dungeons and defeating monsters.

Recently, several trading platforms have successively launched the BIGTIME token, whose price has rapidly risen from $0.01 to $0.15 within 24 hours. This significant wealth effect is attracting a large number of new players, seemingly heralding the arrival of a new gold rush.

Project Overview

Big Time was founded in April 2021 and is a multiplayer action role-playing game for PC. It combines fast-paced action combat, NFT collectibles and decorations, as well as time-traveling adventure elements, and is regarded as one of the earliest blockchain games featuring AAA concepts.

The game is deployed on the Ethereum chain. To ensure a smooth gaming experience, it adopts the current mainstream "on-chain assets, off-chain games" dual-layer architecture.

A significant feature is that the project team utilizes patented Vault technology to create an official open market to address the high Gas fees associated with on-chain asset transactions. In short, the team has constructed a highly secure off-chain data storage system through Vault, where records of created or purchased items are stored in their own database and kept in real-time synchronization with the on-chain asset circulation status. Therefore, players can not only trade assets on-chain by themselves but also use various payment methods to achieve Gas-free transactions in the public market.

After more than a year of upgrades and iterations, Big Time officially launched its preseason on October 11, 2023. The preseason has an entry threshold, and new users must obtain an invitation code from early players or purchase designated SPACE NFTs in the game to enter. Currently, invitation codes are very scarce in the market, and it is expected that the game will only be open to all users without thresholds after the preseason ends.

Team Background

The team lineup of Big Time is considered luxurious in the field of blockchain games. The founder and CEO was a former co-founder and CEO of a well-known metaverse project and has experience in venture capital and entrepreneurship.

The CTO has been deeply involved in the gaming industry for 18 years, having held important positions in several well-known gaming companies and co-founded a gaming company.

The chief engineer is also an experienced professional in the gaming industry, with over 20 years of game development experience.

The team's chief animator and creative director has over 31 years of rich experience in the animation and gaming fields, having participated in several well-known film, television, and game projects.

In addition, other development team members of Big Time come from top gaming companies and have participated in the production of several popular games.

Financing Situation

Big Time completed two rounds of financing in May 2021, raising a total of $21 million. Among them, $10.3 million was led by well-known investment institutions, with several prominent investors in the blockchain field participating. The remaining funds were mainly used to invest in other game companies.

In addition to first-level market financing, Big Time has launched various in-game virtual assets through multiple platforms from July 2021 to January 2023, with total sales exceeding 70 million USD.

Game Mechanics

The storyline of Big Time revolves around players traveling through time to protect history. Players can form teams of up to 6 people to fight against monsters and bosses, collecting legendary items by clearing dungeons. Throughout the game, players will encounter various historical figures and collect armor and clothing NFTs from different periods as loot. In the preseason, players can earn BIGTIME token rewards through ranking points.

The game has set up 4 major professions, corresponding to warrior, mage, assassin, and support (healer) roles. The game also features a job change mechanism, allowing players to switch professions during their growth.

Virtual items in the game include decorative NFTs and functional NFTs. Decorative NFTs are mainly used for character decoration and do not affect combat power. Functional NFTs include SPACE, Time Guardian, Furnace, Armory, and Hourglass, among others, which play important roles in the game.

SPACE NFT is similar to a personal metaverse in games, with a limited total supply, divided into different rarities and sizes. Many NFTs required in games need to be built in SPACE for equipment production. SPACE holders can also manufacture weapons and armor through specific NFTs.

The NFTs in the game are differentiated by rarity, and rarer items may also have additional skills. Typically, higher-level SPACE can support more and higher-level devices, thus producing rarer items. Players equipped with higher-level gear will have stronger combat power.

By introducing SPACE, Big Time has created an in-game creator economy that allows players to freely produce game items and trade them in the market. In addition, the game has set up a rental market where SPACE holders can rent out their assets to earn income.

Economic Model

Unlike the common dual-token model in chain games, Big Time has only one token, BIGTIME, with a total supply of 5 billion, all generated through the game, with no allocation or financing distribution. In addition, "skin" NFTs are another core asset in the game, with rare NFTs showcasing status and uniqueness, and allowing players to enter restricted areas or exclusive dungeons.

BIGTIME is mainly used for crafting equipment and paying entry fees for dungeons in the game. During the testing phase, a certain amount of BIGTIME has been generated in the game, but the market circulation is not much.

In the upcoming preseason, the official will airdrop a large amount of BIGTIME over a period of three months. The amount of the airdrop is based on the real-time leaderboard of points within user accounts, where points are positively correlated with user levels, the use of functional NFTs, participation in dungeons, inviting friends, and other factors.

Overall, BIGTIME is generated through games and has multiple consumption values within the game, which helps achieve a sustainable economic circulation system. However, as the output of BIGTIME increases and market selling pressure grows, it remains to be seen whether the internal economic system can operate healthily.

Project Highlights

1. Playability has been significantly improved: Compared to early blockchain games, Big Time has shown a notable enhancement in game quality and playability, presenting AAA quality.

2. Lower entry barriers: Ordinary players can enter for free and participate in the gaming experience without purchasing NFTs. In addition, the public market based on special technology has reduced the complexity and cost of on-chain asset transactions.

3. Fair Token Distribution: No pre-mining, all tokens are fairly distributed through the game.

4. Strong cooperation network: Established partnerships with multiple gaming guilds, which is beneficial for early user acquisition.

Potential Risks

1. Centralization risk: The game runs on off-chain servers. If the team abandons operations, on-chain assets may face the risk of becoming worthless. In addition, the development team has significant decision-making power over the game's development direction and the distribution mechanism of rights.

2. Development Uncertainty: Game development is still in the early stages, and there is uncertainty regarding the quality and completeness of subsequent content.

3. Industry Risk: The entire blockchain gaming industry is still in the exploratory stage, lacking successful examples, and any project faces uncertainty.

4. The sustainability of the economic model needs to be verified.

Conclusion

Big Time represents the development direction of the new generation of blockchain games, with significant improvements in production quality and playability. As traditional gaming talents enter the Web3 space, the blockchain game ecosystem is expected to continue to progress. Currently, there are several other highly anticipated AAA blockchain games on the market, all of which are dedicated to transforming the game economic model with Web3 technology in the digital economy era.

However, due to the performance limitations of blockchain, most chain games currently still adopt the "on-chain assets, off-chain games" model, which can only serve as a transitional solution. In the long run, this gaming model that exists between Web2 and Web3 has potential risks such as insufficient decentralization, which is a problem that is difficult to fully resolve in the short term.

Nonetheless, the booming development of the blockchain gaming industry has opened up new development space for GameFi. With the continuous advancement of blockchain technology, we have reason to expect that more mature and comprehensive full-chain game works will emerge in the future.