MetaKing Studios Raises $15M to Launch Web 3 Strategy Game Blocklords

CORRECTION (May 25, 15:36 UTC): Headline and first paragraph corrected to reflect company's name is MetaKing Studios, not MetaKings.

Web 3 game studio MetaKing Studios has raised $15 million in a seed funding round that included Makers Fund and Bitkraft Ventures, according to a press release provided to CoinDesk. The funding will be used for game development and a marketing campaign for the studio’s first game, Blocklords, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) title set in medieval times that’s slated to launch next year.

Other participants in the funding round included Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, WW Ventures, Spartan Group and Huobi Ventures, among others.

The gameplay of Blocklords was inspired by titles like Total War, Age of Empires, Civilization and Crusader Kings, MetaKing Studios co-founder and CEO David Johansson told CoinDesk in an interview.

“What we’re trying to do is have the first MMO grand strategy game with features from turn-based strategy and also real-time strategy,” Johansson said.

Founded by game industry veterans Johansson and Nicky LI, the MetaKing Studio team includes more than 100 artists, designers and developers with experience at top game studios such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.

What the game is like

Blocklords combines real-time battles, fantasy lore and a detailed lineage system. Players own non-fungible token (NFT) Hero characters, who can develop skills, trade, participate in battles and create a bloodline through marriages and births.

Players will be able to get started in Blocklords for free with the game providing an entry-level Hero character.

“You’re not going to be a powerful lord or lady or a powerful king or queen, but you’ll be able to kind of join up under another lord’s banner, start up your own little farm and start gathering resources that way,” explained Johansson.

“I do believe games should be free to get into and then once you get deeper and deeper into it, us as game designers can unleash different ways for users to get involved either by paying resources or playing with skills,” he continued.

The first Hero mints will happen this summer on Immutable X, the carbon-neutral layer 2 blockchain for NFTs. Johansson eventually sees a multichain future for Blocklords.

The NFT sale will be followed by an early access Blocklords launch with farming and city-building game features. The battle features will roll out next, followed by the full game in 2023.

“MMOs have a clear product-market fit within blockchain games as they allow for more diverse and dynamic in-game economies,” said Bitkraft associate Jamie Wallace in the press release. “When it comes to Blocklords, it not only has deeper gameplay than current blockchain-based games on the market but it’s also designed to attract a wide range of player types, ultimately creating a more inclusive game that caters to all stakeholders within the Web3 universe.”

Read more: The Game Is On: The Hunt for Web 3 Gaming Models