Blockchain gaming company Gala Games has announced the alpha launch of its first project on its custom Gala blockchain. Town Crush open alpha is the first phase of Project GYRI, the testing and preparation process. This will eventually lead to Gala’s complete migration to a custom blockchain ecosystem run by and for gamers.
Summary
- Gala first announced its own blockchain at the end of February 2022
- The alpha test starts on April 11, 2022
- Town Crush is a simple match-3 game
- Play-to-earn TEST tokens now, but these tokens don’t represent any value
- Town Crush is intended to put GalaChain under stress and help the team learn
Gala Games is a blockchain gaming and media ecosystem powered by the GALA token. The token follows the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain and is therefore compatible with BNB Chain.
The launch of the Town Crush Alpha is the initial phase of Project GYRI. For the first time, players can experience playing a game on Gala’s blockchain. They hope this will demonstrate many of the different operations of the blockchain that will eventually be used to power the entire Gala Games ecosystem.
How to play Town Crush
Those that already have a Gala Games account can start playing Town Crush immediately in their browser. Alternatively, interested players can set up an account on the website and dive in. The objective of Town Crush is to gather as many points as you can to complete levels and take the farmer further down the path.
Players earn Stars as they complete levels, then use those Stars to buy extra lives or in-game items to gain an edge in the game. If you run out of lives, it’s not a problem, and a certain amount will be given out for free,.
To play the match-3 game, you need to tap and drag to switch one symbol with another adjacent symbol. The game won’t allow players to make the switch unless it’s a color match. There is no timer, but you only have a certain amount of moves to reach the required points for the level. Moreover, it’s a simple game with basic play-to-earn mechanics intended to build a strong following. Already we see strong interaction through the lens of the Gala block explorer.
TEST Token
A critical component of the test is a new temporary token called TEST. It exists on the Project GYRI blockchain, which is currently referred to on the Gala Games platform as GalaChain. Here are some essential things to know about TEST.
When you first launch the game, you are prompted to grant an allowance for TEST tokens to be spent. This is to allow in-game purchases with TEST tokens, which may be implemented at a future phase of Project GYRI. This concept is a taste of the features players can expect to see in the blockchain Gala are building. Moreover, while players will not have any TEST tokens in their Inventory, they may at some point during the testing process.
TEST is an actual token on Gala’s Chain, but it is not transferable and has no monetary value whatsoever. It exists solely to test the blockchain.
Testing, feedback, and next steps
Gala plans to get as many players as possible into this initial Town Crush playtest in the hope that they can overcome critical mass issues and power through to deliver a fully operational, scalable game. More importantly, it is intended to put GalaChain under stress and help the team learn the breaking points. Minor issues in execution are expected and beneficial in some situations. Town Crush was conceived and created entirely as a test, and while the creators did an excellent job, it should not be looked at as a fully developed or complete game. Instead, think of it as a fun test for the Gala Games blockchain.
Additionally, Town Crush has been designed differently from other Gala games players may be used to. The team has intentionally created more interactions on the chain than necessary to locate any breaking points, allowing Gala to support much larger audiences for much more significant games. Community members are encouraged to play and report bugs and issues via the team’s official Discord channel.
Gala getting stronger
Gala Games is a blockchain game startup created with assistance from Zynga cofounder Eric Schiermeyer and is promising exciting things. At Zynga, Schiermeyer was a proponent of casual games that could appeal to everyone, such as Zynga Poker and moreover FarmVille. At Gala Games, his team, including lead game designer Michael McCarthy has created the popular play-to-earn competitive farming game, Town Star.
Furthermore, Gala’s footprint in the music world is growing. Recently they collaborated with world-famous rapper Snoop Dogg on his new music-themed project Stash Boxes. These NFTs dropped on the official Gala Music website, and represent the rapper’s new “Bacc On Death Row” album as NFTs.
The introduction of its blockchain from which to operate sees Gala follow a similar trajectory as Axie Infinity with Ronin and DeFi Kingdoms DFK Chain. Gala wants to build its thriving ecosystem away from networks like Ethereum and other Layer-1 and 2 solutions. The native GALA token is currently the 75th cryptocurrency with a market cap of 1.6 billion dollars. Its current price is around $0.2, and it has increased 671% in the last 12 months.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
