Retro-Style Ethereum NFT Metaverse Game Worldwide Webb Raises $10 Million

Most metaverse games choose 3D environments, with varying degrees of successbut Worldwide Webb has charted a different path: this massively multiplayer online (MMO) world chooses a retro, Super Nintendo-esque stylebut it supports more than a million Ethereum NFT avatars.

And it is expanding, among other things thanks to a new round of financing.

Worldwide Webb, founded by artist and game designer Thomas Webb, today disclosed a $10 million Series A round funded by VC firm Pantera Capital. It’s the game’s first outside funding round since its initial debut in 2020.

Despite looking like a throwback from the early 1990s, Worldwide Webb is a fully browser-based experience that allows players to connect to an Ethereum wallet and use their NFT avatars from hundreds of popular collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Doodles, Cool cats, Deadfellasand much more.

Each supported avatar is converted into a 2D pixel character that players can then guide through the world, interact with other players, explore the environments and even soak in the story.

Worldwide Webb also has its own NFT plots in the form of digital apartments that users can customize, and these NFTs have delivered results more than 80 million dollars to date value of trading volume.

Webb, the founder and CEO, said Decrypt that the funding will help expand his development team, with ambitions to double the number of employees from the current number of 30 people.

“We’ve moved quickly and we’ve shipped products,” Webb said. “But for us it’s about wanting to move faster. We want to build faster, and we want to innovate faster.”

What’s next for the World Wide Web?

The next big step forward is Blockbusterz, a player-versus-player (PvP) competitive mode that allows teams of five to battle.

Thanks to NFT interoperability, players will be able to bring monkeys, cats, punks and more into the mode, as Webb demonstrated for Decrypt.

It looks like a streamlined multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, similar to mobile hit Brawl Stars, as players attack each other and try to control the battlefield.

The cinematic 3D trailer embedded above gives a sense of the mood of the cross-project experience, with a brief taste of the actual 2D gameplay shown at the end.

“Because we have over 200 collections integrated, I wanted to see Deadfellaz versus Doodles,” Webb said. “I wanted to see CryptoPunks versus Bored Ape Yacht Club in competitive matches – and then for us to issue rewards.”

The PvP mode will introduce a “compete-to-mint” mechanic that allows players to earn NFTs simply by playing and excelling in competitive mode. Webb said the game mechanics are purposefully designed to be difficult to cheat via an automated bot or script — a hurdle Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs faced with its recent Dookey Dash Game Contest.

Longer term, Webb aims to take even more inspiration from time-absorbing gaming classics like RuneScape and Ultima Online, and keep players hooked with richer gameplay and narrative. He said the funding will help attract more veteran talent so they can grow Worldwide Webb into a “massive, sprawling universe.”

Finally, Webb said he is keen to create native iOS and Android apps about Apple and Google become friendlier to Web3 business modelsand similarly aims to bring the game to console platforms if giants like Nintendo and PlayStation eventually play nice with NFTs.

And period eye-catching 3D trailers are purely cinematic teasers – not indicative of a visual transformation for the game – his team is exploring potential ways to bring 3D elements into the experience without losing its retro allure.

He pointed to Square Enix’s RPG Octopath Traveler as an example of an effective hybrid aesthetic.

The 2D look is a differentiating factor, and even with one less dimension on the screen, Webb doesn’t see it as a limitation. He still wants to deliver a large-scale metaverse mix across projects like “Ready Player One,” albeit with pixel graphics. Fortnite currently it serves that kind of cross-IP affair, but within a limiting, closed garden ecosystem.

“What I was really hoping to do was see a metaverse game that people can go into, but they can bring these things in,” he said, “in a permissionless way.”