Star Atlas held its IEO in FTX last January 26. This full guide talks about the inner workings of the Star Atlas platform.
In the past year alone, we have witnessed an immense rise in blockchain-based gaming projects. The unique combination of gaming and traditional financing has become quite appealing to a community of blockchain enthusiasts. The introduction of titles like Yield Guild Games and Binamon has truly legitimized the decentralized gaming sector.
Star Atlas and other gaming projects alike have shown the importance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for a viable gaming ecosystem. Moreover, Star Atlas leverages on recent breakthroughs to build a “futuristic science fiction experience that is entirely new and groundbreaking”.
Table of Contents
Background
Introduced earlier this year, Star Atlas was designed by an ambitious team of blockchain and gaming engineers, as well as financial experts. The gaming project integrated on the Solana network has already gained widespread popularity in the blockchain-based gaming sector, mainly due to its real-time game mechanics, next-gen engine, blockchain mechanics, and economical system.
The team built this unique metaverse to expose players to a different gaming experience through a smooth combination of both traditional core gaming and blockchain mechanics. So far the platform has partnered with the likes of Sino Global Capital, Yield Guild Games, and Animoca Brands to “revolutionize the meaning of immersive experience”.
Michael Wagner, Co-founder & CEO of Star Atlas believes that his gaming project has a place in the blockchain. He firmly understand that the platform “will provide the most powerful opportunity in human history for players to realize economic benefits through the extraction of in-game virtual earnings into real-world income”
So far, his statement stands true, as Star Atlas is among the most sought-after gaming projects in the blockchain ecosystem.
What is Star Atlas
Star Atlas is a blockchain-based and next-gen gaming metaverse built on Unreal Engine 5. The decentralized game is powered by real-time graphics, decentralized finance (DeFi), and multiplayer gaming allowing for hyper-realistic and interactive gameplay.
All in-game scenarios are set in the distant future, in 2620 where the world is divided into 3 different Factions, being the MUD Territory controlled by humankind, the ONI Region for all alien races, and the Ustur Sector controlled by sentient androids.
In short, all 3 factions are in a constant struggle for power, territories, and resources. As valuable citizens of Star Atlas, users have a role to play in the “intergalactic conflict”, enabling them to earn numerous rewards and prizes. Since the introduction of the Solana protocol, blockchain has managed to establish an immense serverless and reliable gaming environment through which Star Atlas is now thriving.
Furthermore, Solana’s unique protocol facilitates gameplay connection between assets to be actively recorded and essentially skips the need for a robust traditional server for online multiplayer games like Star Atlas.
Additionally, NFTs and crypto trading within the Star Atlas ecosystem emphasizes the importance of real-world assets and ownership to build a strong in-game economy.
Star Atlas Gameplay
The Star Atlas experience is deeply rooted in blockchain technology, where mining and staking are core operations to legitimize decentralized assets. In the next-gen game, exploration is required of miners to discover valuable assets. Additionally, participants can actively establish mining and staking nodes, enhancing gameplay and raising earning value.
The overall wealth derived from mining opens new earning avenues for participants and contributes to their growth within the community. This gives them an opportunity to embody unique career choices and specializations, such as trading raw and refined ore, cargo hauling, and crafting retail components for the marketplace.
As a grand strategy genre, Star Atlas players are introduced to a claim staking mechanism to expand their empire. Moreover, Players can establish tactical trading routes either for offensive or defensive plans of action. Further by exploration and fuelled by an intergalactic conflict, the grand strategy game opens players to deep-space, crewed spaceships to discover celestial and terrestrial assets.
In exploration mode, participants can explore a galaxy full of riches that can be mined, refined, and traded in the in-game marketplace. Furthermore, the exploration mode enables players to enjoy cinema likes graphics, with a top-down space view exposing the spaceship’s exterior, an x-ray view to enjoy the interior of the ships showcasing crew members, and a first-person cockpit/bridge view for players.
Through an immersive space flight simulation, gamers are given a sense of ownership, allowing players to use state-of-the-art equipment such as virtual reality head-mounted displays, flight sticks, throttles, multi-functional button control panels, and head tracking hardware.
Monetary assets (POLIS and ATLAS)
Overall, Star Atlas relies on four groups of assets, ensuring the well-being of its economical structure. In both on-chain and in-game, players benefit from monetary assets, In-game items, Land ownership NFTs, and In-game resources which are crucial mechanisms of the game economy.
POLIS
POLIS is the platform’s governance token and is used for all decision-making regarding the project’s development. Token holders nearly have all the voting power in the DAO, treasury control, and financial stake in the game. As of now, POLIS has a fixed supply that is unchangeable, unless governance decides otherwise in the future.
Furthermore, the token’s DAO is also tasked with minting, distribution, and redistribution of the payment token (ATLAS) in the treasury, where some returns made in ATLAS are used as funds for all platforms development voted for.
ATLAS
Known as the payment token, ATLAS is used as a medium of exchange in the Star Atlas economy. The token is inflationary by design and aims to match the growth of the in-game economy. Additionally, it was primarily made to provide a solid monetary base for in-game economical interactions and onramps to enter the game.
As the designated in-game currency, ATLAS is used to reward in-game activities. However, the burning and minting of the token are directly related to game adoption and user growth.
Tokenomics
Currently, the governance token is available mainly by request from the Star Atlas team who is charged to sell to potential governors. However, secondary markets are available, where the token can be bought and sold with lockup/vesting schedules. Additionally, through in-game rewards, players can also have exclusive access to the governance token. Among other means of access to the token are governance participation by staking in the DAO and activity that continuously rewards participants.
In regards to non-monetary assets, all in games items are NFTs and traceable to their creation events. The Star Atlas marketplace has made available a wide variety of items, purchasable with ATLAS and other currencies supported by Solana.
NFTs within the ecosystem are mainly utilized to reflect items’ ownership, attributes (weapon hit-points, armor class, skill boosts, etc.), and rarity.
Conclusion
Star Atlas is the latest jewel of Unreal Engine 5, which opens players to a different way to enjoy gaming. The platform is the perfect product for the current blockchain ecosystem. Through its multiplayer game mode, real-time graphics, and DeFi implemantation, Star Atlas is definitely among the leader within the decentralized gaming sector.
Implementing the often neglected Grand Strategy multiplayer genre establishes an OpenWorld ecosystem unlike any of the blockchain-based games on the market. Players are now empowered to stake and mint assets to increase their in-game value, allowing them to make huge earnings.
The governance and exchange tokens (Polis and Atlas) are very unique, however, manage to serve complementary roles for the well-being of the protocol.
Star Atlas is the full package, offering all players an “ entirely new and ground beaking” experience.