After four years of watching Web3 games struggle to find their audience, Yield Guild Games decided the industry had to rethink how it matches players with the kind of games they're actually in for: lighthearted chaos, in a “casual degen” vibe.
Instead of chasing broad mainstream adoption, the gaming guild launched YGG Play, a new game publishing unit dedicated to games that embrace the degen culture, with LOL Land, a web browser-based game explicitly designed for crypto-native players who live in the proverbial trenches.
“People play casual games on their phones while commuting, waiting in line, or taking a break,” Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG, told Decrypt. “They do it for fun as well as rewards like streaks, badges, or collectibles. And they happily spend a lot of real money on those games.”
Through its years of establishing a foothold with Web3 gamers by pioneering the so-called “play-to-earn” movement from 2020, YGG has learned “what's fun, what works and what doesn't,” leading it to develop “some very strong opinions on how to best serve the crypto market,” Dizon explained in a separate statement shared with Decrypt.
The move represents a strategic shift for YGG from investing in Web3 games to creating them directly. Rather than targeting mainstream gamers, the guild is focusing on crypto-native users who trade memecoins, mint NFTs, and engage in speculative activities.
The new game, LOL Land, features four thematic boards, including YGG City, Beach Day, Carnival, and Ice World Wonderland, which showcases Pudgy Penguins IP with playable characters based on community members like Aaron Teng and Rusk0f.
The browser-based board game surpassed 100,000 pre-registrations before launching exclusively on Abstract Chain, according to YGG.
For LOL Land, players can earn YGG tokens and [you] can use them to claim NFTs, Dizon explained.
The game draws directly from Dizon's experience in casual games and his experience in Web3 gaming thereafter.
“Before getting into crypto and founding YGG, I was a game developer for a little bit over 20 years,” Dizon shared with Decrypt. “I was making casual games for much of my career.”
Degens over mass market
The publishing strategy deliberately targets crypto enthusiasts rather than attempting to onboard traditional gamers. Dizon argues this approach addresses an underserved market segment larger than hardcore Web3 gaming.
“If you look at people who are trading memecoins, minting NFTs, or trading on exchanges, these are people that you can consider to be possible players under the 'Casual Degen' label,” Dizon said.
Asked about how he thinks Web3 games could last, Dizon, who claims to prefer playing single-player RPGs like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, told Decrypt it's a matter of perseverance.
“I do think that Web3 games can have a lasting impact on people,” he said. It's hard to make games in general. It's even harder to make games that have new technology and figure out what the right format is for that technology, for people to use it.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair