According to the SEC filing data (Form D), this was an equity deal
PG started in 2021 and has largely been operating as a self-funded studio. Only in 2024, it held a private + public NFT sale (more on this later)
One of the investors, FlyQuest, is an esports organization that worked with championship teams across LoL and Valorant, among other titles. The partnership between them and GT extends beyond capital in a long-term collaboration through competitive expertise and a creator network
So, it looks like breaking into the competitive scene will be a larger part of the game’s GTM. But it’s quite different from your usual MOBA…
GT is a pirate-themed 4v4 MOBA “that breaks the genre wide open” through open-world exploration, dynamic objectives (treasure hunting), naval combat, and deeper progression and player agency. You can watch the Golden Test Playtest Trailer here
"The MOBA genre created some of the most beloved competitive games of the past fifteen years, but the formula has grown stale…" ~ Devin Richman, CEO at Psychedelic Games
I don’t think GT will appeal to the hardcore MOBA players, but it can to the more casual ones. Additionally, the “adventure” elements (open-world, treasure hunting, etc.) of the game open it up to players of other genres like BR and extraction, and pirate-themed games (e.g., Sea of Thieves)
The game reminds me of Sparkball, which is also an innovator of the MOBA genre, and it only raised funding after years of being bootstrapped
PG claims to be an indie studio (on Reddit at least), but the team is larger than someone would define as an “indie” with 50+ (previously even 70+) developers. Leadership is based in the US, in Dallas, Texas, but it seems they largely outsourced development to Asia (Indonesia or China, I believe)
Frankly, it would also be impossible to build this game with a “shoestring budget” in the US
Regarding the crypto side of the game, there is an NFT collection that was launched in 2024, but the game “shifted away from their focus” on crypto:
The Golden Tides Gen1 Skins is an 11,000-supply collection that minted in March 2024. There was a private sale for communities and KOLs with discounted pricing. Golden Packs sold for 0.09 ETH each (containing 3 heroes) during the public sale
These NFTs will be cosmetics in the game, but won’t have any value beyond that. Some people expected a token allocation for holding these NFTs. However, the team clarified that “there will be no earning nor tokens”
Overall, I’m happy to see Psychedelic Games raise to bring a cool title that innovates on the MOBA genre to life. However, is this still a “crypto game”? Not anymore
In other fundraising news, Verse8 announced they raised $5M in a seed round backed by Story Foundation, NEXPACE, Neowiz, MARBLEX, and NEXUS to accelerate the expansion, creator tools, and creator growth of their AI-game development engine
It was notable to see NEXPACE (makers of MapleStory Universe) on this table, and I assume this investment was part of the $50M Ecosystem Fund they announced in late 2025, focused on AI, builder tools, and UGC
This is likely part of their ecosystem expansion strategy of getting more Synergy Apps (derivative MapleStory experiences)
So, what’s Verse8? It’s an “AI-native creation layer that turns your ideas into interactive games and stories”, closely connected to Story Protocol. Through this partnership, Verse8 kind of functions as the AI-game creation frontend, while Story is the onchain IP backend
As we’ve seen with its competitor Remix (more on this later), becoming a co-creation and IP proliferation platform is one of the major ways to grow. So, there seems to be a lot of synergy here with Story
If you’ve been reading Sidelined, you must be somewhat familiar with Verse8, as we mentioned it a couple of times, as part of the news + we have mentioned the “Casual Game Hackathon” with our partner YGG Play a couple of times, including today
According to Verse8, it achieved the following numbers so far, since its stealth launch in July 2025: 3.5M+ MAUs, 5,000+ monthly active creators, and 25,000+ games created
Growth is driven by initiatives such as its creator partner program, Kaito Guild + build challenges, a points campaign + referral program, and its IP partnerships
Remix reports they have 954K total players and 29K live games in comparison
I assume that the funding that will be used for “creator growth and creator tools” is their lever to get more creators on the platform/convert more users into creators
What I’m curious about is whether there will be any strategy for Web2 growth, through a creator or short-form content strategy. There’s definitely a larger market for these AI tools than just CT
But let’s put my “sceptical hat” on for a minute and look at the defensibility of these platforms. The tech is cool, and the tooling is probably only getting better from here, but at this point, both platforms are simply churning out hypercasual titles and not much more. I’m unsure whether this genre can work (monetize) in crypto (excl. direct games of chance/casino-adjacent)
So, you have to go Web2 to monetize (through ads mainly) and scale, but to compete in this space, you’d have to spend heavily on UA
To add on to this, these tools will likely become democratized in the (not so far) future. So, the only moat that’s left is distribution and UA. Do note that this puts Verse8 in a stronger position, as they have an (Web2/3) IP-pipeline
Overall, it’s great to see Verse8 gain initial traction, but again, whether the platform (and business model) can succeed is something that remains to be seen
Just yesterday, a new title launched on Abstract called “Rugpull Bakery” from Onchain Chemists. An onchain game about collective strategy in which you’re tasked to bake the most cookies with your clan
The game loop works as follows: Join or create a bakery (clan) → start baking cookies (onchain) either manually or automatically → reinvest cookies to buy (temporary) boosts to increase output or “rugs” to hinder the competition → at the end of the season, the best clan divides wins the prize pool (distributed pro rata among members)
Important to note here is that you pay a gas fee for every cookie you bake. With the “auto-cooking” feature, this can rack up a good amount of fees quickly, around $10-$15 an hour
There’s a referral mechanic that rewards the referrer with a +1 cookie for every 20 the referred one bakes
The prize pool started at $2,500 and grows each time a new clan is created or someone joins a clan (0.02 ETH fee). Today, around 14 hours later, it climbed to $5,955
I played around with the app for a little while myself, and while the app is “cute”, I lost interest rather quickly. It (kind of?) positions itself as a Ponzi game (it’s literally called “Rugpull Bakery”), and it’s mostly idle. The gameplay features that try to introduce depth fall flat. But then, the earning potential is far from a Ponzi-like game, so what is it trying to be?
Let’s do some napkin math on the earning potential. At the moment, the clan that’s in the first spot, “Cockring Cakehouse” (S/O to Skarly), has 271 members. Furthermore, a season takes ~14 days, and let’s assume that at the end, this clan hits ~500 members, and the prize pool reaches $50K
If my fictional contribution to the total of my clan is 1%, it means I earn $500. That means, I need to reach a 1% contribution rate by running my bakery for a maximum of 40 hours, assuming $12,50 in fees per hour (40 x 12,50 = 500). And it also means that my bakery (clan) needs to win
At this point, I might as well play other games of chance on Abstract
Rugpull Bakery uses the IP from three different NFT projects on Abstract, including RUYUI, Fugz, and Bearish. However, surprisingly, both Bearish and Fugz reported that they didn’t permit the usage of their IPs in the game
Lastly, I’d add that Abstract has been under a lot of scrutiny lately, and whenever “shit happens,” an already unsatisfied community will shout how “terrible Abstract has become”. When/how will ABS win back its community?
