Building with Labrys: The ChronoForge Story

As blockchain technology becomes more commonplace, game developers are seizing opportunities to level up their traditional gaming models, incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Gaming and Decentralised Finance (GameFi). Minted Loot Studios is one such developer. Its hotly anticipated release, ChronoForge, sits at the intersection of multiplayer RPGs, AI and Web3 tech. While players can enjoy the game without the monetised elements of crypto and NFTs, the game experience is enhanced by the latter.

There are some radical differences that make ChronoForge a, well, game-changer. The first is the strong community element: collective actions of players can either make or break parts of the ChronoForge world - a reflection of real life, says CEO Lachlan C. .?

“In our game, you have to work together to build up your bases, establishing trading companies where you get to make better, more powerful gear for your characters. Players have to collaborate and cooperate to get to that sort of pinnacle,” Lachlan explains. “But the big catch is that, once you’ve reached the top tier of these facilities, players then collectively decide to activate [a powerful force known as] ChronoForge. And if too many ChronoForges get activated in one week, there's a global wipe [of all players trading companies]. So, it's an analogy for the carbon emissions crisis: if too many players try to use the most powerful materials in one go, then the whole world is destroyed.”

Another unique element is the intricate AI character system, where every playable character is given a complex backstory and is capable of self-generating endless missions for other players. Players can also interrogate each other’s characters to uncover secret memories and form inter-character bonds, which in-turn boost combat abilities when playing together.

Bringing in Labrys

With so many complex and dynamic requirements within the ChronoForge project it was important for Lachlan and the team to partner with a single Web3 development agency. The agency needed to handle all those requirements simultaneously and ensure a seamless play experience.?

For Lachlan, enlisting Labrys from the beginning was an easy decision. “They’re Australia-based, for starters,” says Lachlan. “The work we needed required knowledge of a few areas. So, you need web development, some understanding of game development, the Web3 side of things, little bits of mobile app experience…? I found the Labrys team was very good in its ability to absorb quite a complex ecosystem of features that we needed to develop.”

Building in the bear

Like many projects at the time, the biggest challenge facing the ChronoForge team was trying to stay viable in a bear market.??

Says Lachlan: “We maxed out like most folks in the last bull; we gave ourselves a lot of obligation to fulfil as well.?

“We survived by the smallest strings to get through the bear. A lot of holders sold their assets. I didn’t have a salary for two years. We were sitting there in September 2023, saying, ‘Okay, we're going to run out of money at the end of November.’ And then, we had our first public test in October, which went amazingly well and sparked a massive turn around in our fortunes. Players have now traded our game characters and items for over $18m USD in volume and we have almost just shy of four-hundred thousand followers on X.”

According to Lachlan, the investment in the production or live release with Labrys was a no-brainer. “If you really care about the quality, and the trust side, it's worth it for us,” he says.?

A flexible team, working for your long-term success

As the last couple of years have demonstrated, the landscape changes quickly in Web3. Therefore, it’s important that your Web3 development partner remains agile and responsive to changing priorities and deadlines. Our multi-skilled, full project squad means that we’re able to scale up or down as project needs change.?

“We haven't seen any other Australian-based blockchain firm with the same depth and breadth of engineering capacity,” says Lachlan. “The project manager approach and testing was the most thorough we've encountered.”

Ready for live launch?

After two years of meticulous planning and development and several successful public playtests, ChronoForge was approved for an EPIC Games Store launch in May. Additional funding has also meant that the ChronoForge and Labrys teams are afforded a final push to test and perfect the gaming experience before official launch.??

“We’ve acquired more funding so we can redo some of the game. ChronoForge was fit for purpose in a short timeframe, but now we can polish it up again and put the things back in that we took out,” Lachlan says. Exciting times ahead, so watch this space!?

Looking for a Web3 development agency that can service your multi-faceted project with ease? Our developers are all 100% local and ready to help you make things happen. Get in touch here to find out more.?