Illuvium is an open-world exploration, building, and battle fantasy game that would allow players to explore an interconnected universe of three games, with web3 components built on the Ethereum blockchain.
Illuvium Labs
The Illuvium studio was founded in September 2020 and its headquarters is currently in Sydney, Australia. The studio is a decentralized one and some of the core team members include the co-founders Kieran Warwick, Aaron Warwick, and Grant Warwick. It is currently made up of over 150 hardworking individuals from all over the world all dedicated to bringing the Illuvium vision fully to light by Q4 in 2023.Â
Gameplay
The gameplay varies across the different Illuvium titles. In Illuvium Overworld, the main activity for players is to capture Illuvials (the beasts in the world with powerful abilities) and then train them to increase their power while building your Illuvials team for the game. In Illuvium Zero, the players are to engage in city-building tasks by using resources they have extracted for building and upgrading their personal complexes. In Illuvium Arena, the focus switches to battles with opponents. The players could assemble their teams and face off against other players in the arena. You can have a detailed look at the Illuvium gameplay.
Illuvium Game Strategy
For players to properly plan their strategy in-game, there is a deck builder to explore various combinations of Illuvials they have gathered. Here, the classes (such as fighter), the affinities (such as fire or water), and other special attributes such as attack strength and speed of the Illuvials would become very important for the players to analyze. The players would need to make sure they are creating as balanced a team as possible based on these factors to beat opponents. While combining different Illuvials, players would also be able to discover nice fighting combos to outdo the other side.Â
Ownership
Illuvium gives players 100 percent ownership of their assets by virtue of the power of Blockchain technology. Every Illuvial captured by a player appears in their IMX wallet as an NFT. The same applies to every weapon and suit in the game. Basically, a wallet functions as a pouch for everything you need in the game, keeping it as safe and secure as possible. Ownership belongs to the players, not the game and this is further evidenced by the fact that the players have full liberty to trade all their assets on exchange platforms including the IlluviDex, which requires zero gas fees. However, from every fuel sale made on IlluviDex, five percent of them goes to the benefit of those who stake in the ILV tokens. Â
ILV Token
$ILV is the official token of the Illuvium game. At the time of writing, it has a market cap of about 230 million dollars and a total amount of about 132 million dollars currently staked. It also currently has a value of over 40 dollars per token. This token can be staked or vested. When tokens are staked, they can not be withdrawn at a period earlier than one month and they can be locked for up to twelve months. As for claiming yield rewards, the tokens must have been vested for a period of twelve months.Â
Community
There is a very big community backing Illuvium, which is expected due to the massive hype associated with being the first AAA web3 game. The official Twitter account of the game studio has gathered over 380k followers at the time of writing. Illuvium’s discord is also very packed and active, and it is the location for the Community Sub-Council Town Hall meetings where members meet to discuss important details such as the Roadmap and Governance information. There’s other sub-councils too to explore.Â
Illuvium DAO
The DAO is made up of over 150 contributors which include the co-founders and other core members of the team, as well as over a thousand token holders who have been granted involvement with important decisions involving the future of the game. Governance is an interesting part of the game as members of the Illuvium DAO, where members are able to make, approve, or decline proposals related to how the game is being run. This helps to ensure that decisions are being made in the interest of the players. This process takes place via the platform Snapshot. The members of the DAO are also involved in nomination and election processes. The DAO members have also minted a collection of different NFTs that are under various categories such as genesis promo, cosplay, and gameplay reveal. The Genesis Promo NFTs help mark the start of the Illuvium journey.
Illuvidex
As mentioned earlier, the IlluviDex is an exchange platform specifically for Illuvium where players can trade their assets without having to pay gas fees. It is the most accessible and convenient marketplace for all purchases and sales related to the game. For Illuvium Zero, the players are free to sell the fuel they have extracted from the game on IlluviDex. Depending on the demand, a lot of money can be made from this. Also for Illuvium Overworld, the Illuvials captured by the players can also be easily sold or bought on IlluviDex.
Illuvium Roadmap
The picture above illustrates the current state of the Illuvium roadmap and what players are still to expect to come. The team shared this information through a recent Twitter thread in anticipation of what is to come in Q3 of the year. As evident in the picture, Q2 came with the achievements of Illuvium Zero- Season One which allowed players to maximize their acquired lands even more, and also the launching of the Illuvium store, where players were able to purchase new equipment. The Private Beta 2 for Illuvium Overworld was also launched and it brought with it more regions and new Illuvials to make the battle experience even better for the players.
The Road Ahead for Illuvium
As you can see in the roadmap, the team is only really just halfway in terms of completion of its plan stretching into next year. For the next quarter, players can look forward to Illuvium Overworld and Arena Private Beta 2 where further improvements will be made with regard to new Illuvials and battle locations to make the fighting experience even tastier than it already is. Q4 will come with the highly anticipated Private Beta 1 for Illuvium Zero as well as Private Beta 4 for Illuvium Overworld and Arena. Q4 will end with the Illuvium Public Beta launch which is certain to make strides in the web3 space. There is still quite some work to be done next year as well but the standout target as of now is definitely the launch of Illuvium Arena- Mobile which a lot of mobile gaming enthusiasts will definitely be looking forward to.
Treasury, Vaults, and Distribution
The Illuvium DAO structure has set up a treasury to ensure that the interests of the token holders are duly upheld and protected as development continues to progress. The Treasury has the power to carry out actions that require funding for the progress of the Illuvium ecosystem. The Vault serves as some sort of bank for the ecosystem where all revenue generated from the game is kept inside. The Vault then has the duty to use these funds to purchase ILV tokens, which are then to be distributed among the existing token holders. These distributions ensure that the token holders are truly rewarded for their faith and investment in the game.
This article has been written by The Web3 Game writer Emmanuel Bisuga, and edited by Jeffrey.