Illuvium co-founder shares plans for new ‘interoperable blockchain game’ model

Kieran Warwick, co-founder of the blockchain role-playing game Illuvium has lifted the curtain on a game concept he says has never been done before – the interoperable blockchain game (IBG).

Speaking to Cointelegraph during Token2049 in Singapore, Warwick said that Illuvium has three games under construction that will be underpinned by the same economy, governed by a single token (ILV), and connected by the blockchain – making it an interoperable experience.

“We are building something that has never been done before, not in the mainstream and not in Web3.”

IBG, a term coined by Illuvium, is a series of interconnected blockchain games, forming an ecosystem of interconnected titles that share NFTs, a common in-game currency, or both.

Aside from trying to carve out new territory in the industry, Warwick says Illuvium is first and foremost a “fun game”, with player enjoyment as a cornerstone, rather than play-to-earn (P2E) and non-fungible token (NFT) aspects which some titles in the GameFi space have tended to focus on.

He hopes the shift in focus can be the key to attracting players from the ordinary market.

“In our genres that we’re hitting, there could be like 500 million people that we can bring in that literally don’t know they’re playing a crypto game.”

The first game is a city builder, one that Warwick says is a “combination of Sim City and Clash of Clans” where players can build and mine resources for use in the second game, “Overworld”.

Overworld focuses on exploring and capturing creatures called “Illuvials,” which Warwick likens to Pokemon, which can then be fought in the third game, which will be similar to online battle arena titles like “Teamfight Tactics or DOTA.”

Warwick says they may not stop at three games, adding that at some point they want to “build another six games on top.”

“Imagine taking one of these assets and then going over to the racetrack and playing a Mario Kart game, but you’re not buying a new Nintendo game, it’s just an asset that can be used across a whole universe of games. “

At this stage, Illuvium still doesn’t have a formal release date, but Warwick hopes to have a working beta in the next two or three months, with plans to publish on mobile, PC and Mac.

“I expect sometime very early next year we’ll have open beta with ROI and all the aspects we need, but not fully polished.”

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Illuvium is governed by the Illuvium DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization. Warwick said they were initially going to raise $350 million in funding during the bull market, but the ongoing crypto winter has seen them scale back to between $10 and $20 million.

Warwick also revealed he made the Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich List again this year – but market conditions mean the billion dollar he was worth last year is a distant memory.

Warwick jokingly noted that this was not a concern as his main motivation is just to be richer than his brother Kain Warwick, the founder of Synthetix, who also made the Australian Financial Review’s 2022 Young Rich List.