My Neighbor Alice has emerged as one of the most popular blockchain-based metaverse games since launching in early 2023, yet its creators have much bigger plans in store. Ultimately, they aim to make MNA so much more, creating a virtual universe that goes well beyond the existing game.
That’s according to the game’s business director, Antonio Palma, who was asked about what the team has in store for users in the coming year during his appearance at the GeckoCon 2024 Web3 gaming event earlier this week.
Put on the spot during a panel discussion, Palma said he’s happy to introduce three alphas that the My Neighbor Alice team has in the pipeline, with plans to introduce them all sometime in 2025.
In order to help the game scale and grow, Palma said his team is currently working on a “new technology” that will enable My Neighbor Alice to run on any device, including mobile devices and tablets. He didn’t say much about the tech itself, but we can imagine it involves some kind of cloud-based streaming, given the game’s existing requirements for a PC running with Windows 7 OS or newer, an Intel i5-6400/Ryzen 5 1600 or superior chipset, at least 8GB of RAM and 6GB of storage space, plus an Nvidia or AMD-based GPU.
“We’re probably one of the first Web3 games to experiment with this technology, and it will allow us to have our game on any device, as opposed to only running on Windows,” Palma said.
The other aspect of the plan is to streamline the onboarding process, which currently involves way too much effort for casual gamers.
“Right now I think we have seven clicks needed to get into the game and get started, from creating a wallet, signing up etc.,” Palma said. “But we will get to just one click in. We’ve been testing it, it’s really complex technology and hopefully it’s going to be ready next year.”
Those updates should help make the game much more accessible to the kind of non-crypto-native players that My Neighbor Alice says it’s trying to attract. The game itself is designed to introduce newcomers to the world of blockchain in a way that’s fun and enjoyable, gently easing them into concepts such as NFTs, wallets and crypto.
The game can be thought of as a kind of metaverse-based virtual world, similar to something like Minecraft or Animal Crossing, and allows players to create and explore virtual worlds, collaborate with others and take part in various activities, such as buying land, building, gathering insects, farming, fishing and beekeeping.
In the game, players’ land, avatars, buildings, plants, trees, flowers and animals are all represented by NFTs, and it provides various easy-to-use tools for them to personalize their virtual worlds and manipulate the landscape. Players can buy and sell these items through the in-game marketplace, spending ALICE tokens which are earned by completing missions, collaborating with others and winning competitions. Once players have created their virtual worlds, they can also monetize them in various other ways.
Palma said the way the in-game economy works is set to undergo some big changes. He revealed very little, simply stating that “we’re testing a new economy” and that we might have something to announce regarding this and the ALICE token next year.
Last but not least, My Neighbor Alice appears keen to leverage its status as one of the most popular Web3 games by taking the opportunity to partner with various other players in the industry, which could lead to various integrations in the coming months.
“We have secured a big partnership with one of the biggest IPs in the space,” Palma said. “We haven’t announced anything yet because we are still building the experience, and we never announce stuff until we have built something first. But this is in the making and coming soon.”