An MMO monster-capture RPG with NFT assets. Do I have your attention? 

B-Side Games’ newest game, Chainmonsters, is a 3D massive multiplayer online RPG where you catch, battle, trade, and explore. Chainmonsters has been in development for the past five years. B-Side Games’ 2017 premiere game, Three: Twenty One, was developed to bring awareness to Winston’s Wish, a UK-based charity that supports bereaved children. The studio’s seven-person core comprises Max, Lena, Max, David, Harshad, Luke, and Marco. Chainmonsters’ mix of retro-style chiptune sounds with modern futurepop tracks are composed by David J. Franco for the original soundtrack.

B-Side Games have partnered with Rocksalt Interactive to assist with 3D assets including monsters, environmental props, general 3D objects, and additional concepts. Rocksalt Interactive is a game art and animation outsourcing studio with presence in India, Singapore, The Philippines, and Denmark. Their specialties include 3D & 2D game art, concept and marketing art, animation, AR VR, VFX, and asset integration services.

In Chainmonsters, players explore the world of Ancora by visiting its eight islands, joining the N-Corp agents, and discovering the cause of mysterious anomalies that are affecting the world. Replicate (capture) your favorite Chainmon and amass a faithful team that can assist you on your journey. There will eventually be 161 unique Chainmon species in the base game, each with their own stats and role in team comps.

Take part in 2v1 and 2v2 turn-based battles using your Chainmon against wild mons and fellow trainers! Each species of monster is connected to one of eight different elements: Pyro, Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, Hydro, Crystal, and Cryo. Each element comes with its own strengths and weaknesses against the other elements, as well as unique effects when two elements are used together. Combine your monsters’ elemental attacks to deal status effects and other effects in battle. Mastering the elemental attack combinations will greatly increase your battle prowess! 

Every Chainmon will have six stats, which will be the same for each species. For example, Stingloreon A & Stingloreon B will have the same stats if they both have the same level, potential, and are wearing the same gear. Monsters’ HP, ATK, and DEF will increase depending on their level and potential. The other three stats—Stamina, Elemental Mastery, and Speed—will be mostly constant. They can, however, be increased by buffs, gear, family bonuses, and other modifiers. Family bonuses can help differentiate monsters of the same type in various team compositions.

Every Chaimon will receive experience from battles until they hit the limit of their level range. This level range occurs every 10 or 20 levels and will push players to release the monsters’ potential so they can enter to the next level bracket. For example, if a player’s Stingloreon reaches level 10, its potential must be unlocked before it can earn any more experience points!

I know what you are probably thinking: what about moves? At the time of this article’s release, each Chainmon will have three moves called ‘abilities’. The first will be a normal damage ability called Slam; the second will be the monster’s elemental attack; and finally, an ultimate attack that will slowly be charged/unlocked as the battle progresses. Each ability can be improved by using in-game resources in order to deal more damage. 

Lastly, this game will utilize NFTs powered by Flow Blockchain as part of their player-driven economy. The average player will not touch this side of the game. They can play the game as much or as little as they want. If they decide they want to buy anything, they will opt to purchase the season pass premium tier directly from the developers/game. As of early December 2021, players will need a Chainmontsers account and a connected Blocto wallet in order to play. All information about this can be found on the Chainmonsters website. Later in the development of the game, this external wallet will not be needed. For those who do want to partake in the NFT side, you can start now. Simply purchase the premium season pass and move the NFT items into your external wallet. From there they can either be stored in the wallet or listed on the Chainmonsters marketplace for other players to purchase. Again, this is entirely optional and is akin to other games where players may choose to purchase assets to quicken their progress. 

I’m most excited to see the evolution of games giving players more control of their in-game items and cosmetics.

Chainmonsters will be available for free when open beta is released in February 2022 for Android and iOS. It is planned for release on PS5, Switch, and Xbox in May 2022.