Play-To-Mint: The Rise Of Innovation And Earning Models In The NFT Gaming Space

The NFT gaming universe is growing at a rapid pace and despite the recent crypto downturn these platforms still attract millions of players. The growth is impressive, but more importantly, NFT gamers are finding a purpose in their hobby. Over the past two years, sales of NFTs have risen from a little under $90 million in 2020 to over $30 billion in February 2022, data from DappRadar shows. As the numbers show, the passing blockchain gaming fad is here to stay and NFT gaming is one of the areas showing massive potential to boost creativity in the gaming ecosystem. 

If you are unfamiliar with the term NFTs, these are digital pieces of art, music, videos, and files, that are immutably stored on the blockchain. NFTs have been used to represent any asset on the blockchain, but in this piece, we focus on how blockchain gaming is integrating NFTs and the wild nature of innovations it brings to the gaming ecosystem. 

Simply NFT games provide utility to NFT collectibles allowing players to use them within the gaming metaverse. For example, players can represent their character, avatar, or gaming equipment as an NFT. These digital assets can also be used as rewards or “collectibles” that you can find when playing the game. The NFTs can then be swapped or traded with other players or on the secondary market to make a profit. Labeled play-to-earn (P2E), this model allows players to generate a passive income while they enjoy playing the game. 

The P2E model awoke a wave of innovations in the GameFi industry (Gaming + Decentralized Finance, DeFi) with gaming titles bringing new features every other day to make blockchain gaming even more interesting. One of the new models rising quickly to catch the attention of users is play-to-mint models, a gaming model that awards mint rights on NFTs as you play the game. 

The Rise of the Play-To-Mint Blockchain Gaming Model 

Play-to-mint is still a relatively new concept in blockchain gaming. Most players are used to the play-to-earn model, whereby you play through the game to win tokens. In the play to mint model, players need to play through levels for a chance to win an NFT mint. Kind of like a raffle ticket but with a realistic goal. 

Leading the play-to-mint is Bullieverse, an open-world, 3D metaverse gaming platform that runs on Unreal Engine. Recently, the gaming platform launched the first-of-its-kind play to mint NFT gaming title, Quest: Bear Hunt. In Bear Hunt, the bulls are required to lock and load their weapons and fight their way through progressively more difficult levels to try and earn one of 10,000 limited edition Bear NFTs if they emerge victorious. 

The biggest challenge yet!

The fight for the legacy of Bulliever island is on! 👊

Will you be the last bull standing to etch your name in history?🔥

Play Bear Hunt now: https://t.co/evqsSltkuL$Bull #NFT pic.twitter.com/UD5itBG8bz

— Bullieverse (05.27) (@Bullieverse) May 27, 2022

The Bear NFTs offer players additional utility within the game to boost their characters and pass levels easily. The NFTs also provide utility for multiple games, events and features that are added to the Bullieverse in the future. Additionally, Bullieverse intends to launch an NFT renting mechanism on its platform that will give holders a way to earn passive income on their NFTs when they’re not using them themselves. 

What sets the game apart from others in the metaverse is the latest integration of Chainlink’s Verifiable Random Function (VRF). Added to the Polygon and Ethereum versions of the game, Chainlink VRF will provide a fair and transparent distribution model of the Bear NFTs. Chainlink also provides a decentralized network of oracles that enables Bullieverse’s smart contracts to securely interact with real-world data and services that live off-chain. 

Conclusion

As the NFT gaming ecosystem grows, players are offered more opportunities to earn while entertaining themselves. Game-Fi is creating new economies that are changing how people can earn using NFTs.  To make money in blockchain gaming, it’s not just about earning the native token while playing but players can now mint their own NFTs via play-to-mint games. 

Lastly, play-to-mint games open up the ecosystem for creators and collectors alike. Creators can partner with gaming titles to introduce their NFT mints and collectors/players earn more NFTs as they play the game.