The gaming industry is constantly evolving and growing, and game developers are always on the lookout for the best tools and technologies to create <a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/reports/immersive-media-market-overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">immersive</a> gaming experiences. Two of the most popular game engines currently used in the industry are Unity and Unreal Engine. Both engines have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of which engine to use depends on the specific needs of the project. However, the question remains: which gaming engine will dominate virtual worlds of the future? &nbsp;<h4>Unity</h4><h4>&nbsp;</h4>Unity is a popular game engine that is known for its ease of use and versatility. It is used by both indie game developers and large studios to create a wide range of games, from mobile games to virtual reality experiences. One of the strengths of Unity is its cross-platform capabilities, which allows games to be developed and published on a variety of platforms including PC, consoles, and mobile devices.&nbsp;Unity also has a large community of developers who share their knowledge and resources through forums and online tutorials, making it a great choice for beginners. The engine’s user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it easy for non-programmers to create games and interactive experiences. &nbsp;<h4>Unreal Engine</h4><h4>&nbsp;</h4>Unreal Engine, on the other hand, is known for its advanced graphics capabilities and is often used by larger studios for creating high-end games and virtual reality experiences. It is a powerful game engine that allows developers to create realistic environments, characters, and objects. One of the strengths of Unreal Engine is its visual scripting system, which allows developers to create complex gameplay mechanics without the need for programming.&nbsp;Unreal Engine also has a strong community of developers who contribute to the engine’s development and share their knowledge through online forums and resources. It is often used for creating AAA games and has been used in the development of popular games like Fortnite, Gears of War, and Batman: Arkham Knight.&nbsp;<h4>Which Engine Will Dominate Virtual Worlds?</h4>&nbsp;It is impossible to predict which engine will dominate virtual worlds of the future as both Unity and Unreal Engine have their own unique features and advantages. Unity’s ease of use and cross-platform capabilities make it a popular choice for indie developers and mobile game developers. On the other hand, Unreal Engine’s advanced graphics capabilities and visual scripting system make it a great choice for larger studios and high-end game development.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, other game engines like CryEngine and Godot are also gaining popularity in the gaming industry, and it is possible that they may become dominant players in the future. The choice of which engine to use ultimately depends on the specific needs of the project, the experience of the development team, and the target platform.&nbsp;Unity and Unreal Engine are both powerful game engines that are widely used in the gaming industry. Ultimately, the key to success in game development is choosing the right tool for the job and having a talented and dedicated development team to bring the vision to life. &nbsp;<hr>Join the conversation on <a href="https://discord.com/invite/everyrealm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">discord</a>.

Which gaming engine will dominate the virtual worlds of the future?

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Unity vs Unreal Engine: The battle of the game engines

Read the original article in GamesBeat <a href="https://venturebeat.com/games/everyrealms-hometopia-is-the-house-building-game-for-adults/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Everyrealm’s <a href="https://hometopia.com/">Hometopia</a> is one of the first mainstream metaverse games centered around home design, building and renovating virtual real estate. The free-to-play Web3 game is looking to tap into the addictive nature of home designing games like The Sims, Animal Crossing or <a href="https://venturebeat.com/games/robloxs-year-end-data-reveals-its-metaverse-advantage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Roblox</a>.&nbsp;In fact, Roblox players might find Hometopia’s mechanics familiar. The in-game experience of Hometopia resembles Roblox experiences like Bloxberg, or Brookhaven.&nbsp; In true Web3 fashion, unlike with Roblox, Hometopia home owners actually own what they create or acquire.&nbsp;“Hometopia will capture those looking for a more realistic home design and world creation game as they age out of the homebuilding games they loved as a kid,” said Hometopia boss Alex Ahlund, in a statement to GamesBeat. “Hometopia stands to become this generation’s The Sims, one of the best-selling PC games of all time, which sold more than 11 million copies generating more than $5 billion in revenue.”<h2>&nbsp;</h2><div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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<hr></div>&nbsp;<h2>The reality is that reality isn’t always fun</h2>&nbsp;You know what one of the biggest problems with the metaverse is? Nobody is entirely sure what the point is. It’s harsh, but true. Oh, there are certainly ideas floating around. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg is desperate to <a href="https://www.extremetech.com/internet/340118-meta-force-metaverse-developers-horizon-worlds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">force his own employees</a> in there, for example.&nbsp;But if you don’t work for the company formerly known as Facebook, then what’s the hook? I think, if we can be vague about it, that it’s about experiences. Metaverses should be about getting to do stuff that’s either improbable or impossible in reality.It’s improbable that I will ever own a home, for example. With prices skyrocketing and wages not exactly following, every year that goal gets farther away. Beyond home ownership, home design is most definitely not in the cards. For real, actual houses that’s better left to the professionals.&nbsp;In a video game, though? I can build the perfect dream home. I can decorate things however I want. In Hometopia, I can do that without listening to NPCs babble in a gibberish language. I can do that without developing a crippling turnip addiction. More importantly, I can do that without needing to play a multiplayer game for kids.&nbsp;Hometopia is aiming to officially launch in mid-2023. Interested gamers can check out the game’s <a href="https://twitter.com/HometopiaGame" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a> or Discord server for ways to get involved.

Everyrealm’s Hometopia is one of the first mainstream metaverse games centered around home design, building and renovating virtual real estate. The free-to-play Web3 game is looking to tap into the addictive nature of home designing games like The Sims, Animal Crossing or Roblox.

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Everyrealm’s Hometopia Is the House Building Game for Adults

One of the most popular <a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/education/5-blockchain-games-to-watch-for-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blockchain-enabled games</a> on the market today is one you probably haven’t heard of:&nbsp;<a href="https://ev.io/">ev.io</a>. It’s a quick 'load and play' combat-style game built on Solana (think&nbsp;<a href="https://www.halowaypoint.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Halo</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Destiny/NewLight" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Destiny</a> – but in web3)!&nbsp;&nbsp;The game saw&nbsp;<a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/ev.io/#traffic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1.3 million</a> visitors in April 2022 (with monthly visits in the April to June quarter averaging 1 million), and has become a hotbed for sponsors to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/03/02/2395211/0/en/Enthusiast-Gaming-and-Hut-8-Sign-Multi-Year-Strategic-Partnership.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">advertise in-game</a>. We attribute ev.io’s rising mass popularity to its immersive, competitive First-Person Shooter (FPS) gameplay that seamlessly integrates web3 components.&nbsp;Why is this game leading the ranks of blockchain gaming? What can other web3 titles learn from ev.io’s successes? And how does the blockchain behind ev.io&nbsp;really add value to the gamer? In this article, we unpack all you need to know.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h3>Development and Design</h3>&nbsp;ev.io is the brainchild of&nbsp;<a href="http://addictinggames.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Addicting Games</a>, a UK-based publisher that’s been creating highly accessible casual games for decades. ev.io launched in January 2021, and has gained traction among gamers and advertisers alike.&nbsp;&nbsp;ev.io seems to have gotten many things right. It’s:&nbsp;<ul><li>free-to-play with high replayability</li><li>lightweight yet fun&nbsp;</li><li>casual yet competitive</li></ul>&nbsp;Players are instantly loaded into a match the moment they visit the website. Buying NFTs is completely optional – and if you want to cash out you can collect your winnings in Solana.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>ev.io Gameplay</h3>&nbsp;ev.io boasts 7&nbsp;<a href="https://ancient8.gg/article/ev.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">game modes</a>, including the extremely competitive ‘battle royale’, ‘survival’, and ‘capture the flag’ variations.&nbsp;The gameplay’s default ‘deathmatch’ setting means it is every-player-for-themselves; users must eliminate their opponents to increase their score. Players stop at nothing, using all the weapons (rifles, shotguns, and swords) and utility (frag grenades, smoke grenades, even teleportation) at their disposal.&nbsp;&nbsp;Players familiar with the FPS genre will be able to quickly grasp the mechanics with much of a learning curve.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VL3sHCI6yfPV2_siLzd4FxmivZGv1UmKF3Nkx9m9GzDwIQWFPYDkh8zSuqDRGr7DRvZyAwrd9ng3veZSbZKhgMJn0_-lLOK93FltRBSym5oGMK4_7AcZ2xciBUmyu47JgVkq_7KGOjbSu0fYoGM42o-Kypgbl8Odv2X5DueLIydLH9Gb9xgHOF1SuA"> &nbsp;&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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<hr></div><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Web2 to Web3&nbsp;</h3>&nbsp;ev.io is built on Solana, but adopts a ‘blockchain-lite’ approach; its core focus remains on immersive gameplay that is simply fun.&nbsp;&nbsp;Perhaps that’s why the game isn’t experiencing the drops in player base numbers that we’ve seen across&nbsp;<a href="https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2022/07/axie-infinity-blockchain-game-dau-loss.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">other blockchain-enabled games</a> which tend to focus on crypto-earning mechanisms first, and gameplay second, or even last.&nbsp;&nbsp;Any time a game centers itself primarily around financial incentives or some derivative of play-to-earn, it will fail to be as recession-proof as a traditional game, and will continue to witness large drops in users as the market goes down.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>The Blockchain Value-Add</h3>&nbsp;Does blockchain affect gameplay? To put it plainly – no. Or perhaps more accurately –&nbsp;it shouldn’t.&nbsp;The driving force of an excellent game is still, as always, its&nbsp;gameplay. In ev.io, the blockchain only affects cosmetics and wearables, and has zero effect on a user’s experience when it comes to direct gameplay; there are no avatar-enabled features that provide in-game utility or pay-to-win blockchain mechanics to drive up your score.&nbsp;&nbsp;That’s what helps the game remain casual and fun. It doesn’t require any sign-ups, NFTs, crypto, or even wallet connectivity. It is truly frictionless and&nbsp;forces users to&nbsp;play before they can&nbsp;judge. Perhaps that’s why you may never have seen the game on any “Most Popular Web3 Games” list – its web3 element is completely optional – and it works!&nbsp;&nbsp;ev.io offers three blockchain integrations: Avatar NFTs, Weapon NFTs, and the Economy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Avatar NFTS</h3>&nbsp;ev.io has roughly 2,400&nbsp;<a href="https://magiceden.io/creators/evio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">characters</a> that can be used within the game. In a twist from other blockchain-based games, ev.io’s avatar NFTs are strictly used for cosmetic purposes and provide no additional in-game attributes.&nbsp;&nbsp;As many successful web2 games have shown us, micro-transactions from in-game cosmetics are extremely popular. Gamers are already familiar with purchasing such assets in-game, and they enable titans such as Activation Blizzard&nbsp;<a href="https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2494/#:~:text=Cosmetic%20microtransactions%2C%20the%20act%20of,one%20pays%20for%20virtual%20items" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">earn billions annually</a>. The current floor price for a character NFT in ev.io is&nbsp;<a href="https://magiceden.io/creators/evio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">roughly $100</a>.&nbsp;Providing such use cases through blockchain technology helps developers provide gamers an alternative way to purchase assets, encouraging free trade over time, enabling open economies.&nbsp;<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/feUkipgRAKLiiee_C0987D-aQ66EcBQ-lR7_ApXfQSw86EbCRJK_eUm76fCruv0DPl0U5yrkZfj1bpHk7ePrFOZk5AJTZ236p6tJqdPmdUQI6L8I8FnM-5C-9R_tuFWjIiGhuw3k_X-G79C51z0gVb868YfR7tX_iKQ3p7LdXSZNseDf3BSjp-Hd4A">&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Weapon NFTs&nbsp;</h3>&nbsp;Just like character NFTs, weapon and sword NFTs within ev.io are strictly cosmetic and don’t provide any in-game advantages. There are roughly 1,500 weapons and 2,500 swords in circulation.&nbsp;&nbsp;The only difference between character integrations and weapons or swords is the play-to-earn activation element; weapons unlock an earning mechanism for their owners.&nbsp;&nbsp;What’s interesting is that on ev.io, earning is minimal by design. By keeping the ‘play to earn’ revenues low, ev.io has ensured less speculation with its assets.&nbsp;&nbsp;If, say, a game were to make each skin an NFT, players would need to determine the appropriate strategy to maintain their affordability vis-à-vis web2 game cosmetics which could be ~$1.99 (Minecraft) or ~$80+ (Valorant - shown in the image below). And if players could earn a significant amount of money by playing, NFT sales would naturally increase, resulting in in-game items becoming inaccessible to those users who seek affordability. Ev.io successfully demonstrates a good balance.&nbsp;<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/eUhwYvSz2ksvXjcXIbP2Vuzl80_OWIrzOdWEdx_JmoNAe3wMfPlKpzjV9BpkM3uFG5qQoxLI5BlIFHzXisbtmKaJUfDhUzE-osIy2ZLNAVkYa9mVM3n1W0AazzwcXH9upUTrq5jLswAIKUvnMGDVQ3oUFi0epyfQbUefiOi2uzMRGajmxE2UeK_GNQ">&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Earning in ev.io</h3>&nbsp;ev.io does not have a token. You heard that right: one of the most successful blockchain games doesn’t have a token! Here’s a quick breakdown of the economy:&nbsp;<ul><li>ev.io’s economy is driven by players earning an off-chain currency called “e.”&nbsp;</li><li>Once they’ve won over 1,000e, they can convert their winnings to Solana.&nbsp;</li><li>It can take over 2,000 matches for a player to earn $50 worth of Solana.&nbsp;</li></ul>&nbsp;Therefore, while we can say that ev.io is ‘play-to-earn’, it demonstrates that the earning component is not the main reason why the vast majority of ev.io players, especially those coming from web2 gaming, play. There are&nbsp;over 1 million monthly active users playing the game, and less than 5,000 NFTs available to the public at a relatively low floor price. If players truly cared about ‘play to earn’, the game would see the demand for the weapons/swords drastically increase in price.&nbsp;<h3>ev.io’s Roadmap</h3>&nbsp;ev.io first released its game in January 2021, without NFT or blockchain integrations. The NFT announcement came only in March 2022 – more than a whole year after the game was released. It wasn’t until May 2022 that players could get character skins and weapons in-game. There’s been no land sale (although one is scheduled). And there’s no dedicated crypto token.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Conclusion</h3>&nbsp;ev.io’s popularity boils down to a combination of solid, competitive, immersive gameplay with a muted play-to-earn element enabled by the blockchain. You could say that the play-to-earn aspect of ev.io makes for clever user acquisition for guilds to enter their scholars in the game, but players are ultimately staying for the competitive aspects of it.&nbsp;&nbsp;Blockchain is not a reason to play a game, but rather, a better and alternative way to develop a game. Web3 gaming isn’t mainly about onboarding web2 users; it’s about supplementing existing gameplay with genuine value-add using blockchain elements.&nbsp;&nbsp;The more that founders understand this, as well as ev.io’s team has, the better the games are likely to be received in this sector. Perhaps that’s where the web3 gaming market is headed: learn how to win the hearts and minds of the authentic gaming communities that truly drive a game’s long-term success.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Want to learn more about the latest developments of blockchain gaming? Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, <a href="http://everyrealm.substack.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everyrealm Edition</a>.

One of the most popular blockchain-enabled games on the market today is one you probably haven’t heard of: ev.io. It’s a quick 'load and play' combat-style game built on Solana (think Halo and Destiny – but in web3!) 

Gaming.

// Gaming

Unity vs Unreal Engine: The battle of the game engines

// Gaming

Everyrealm’s Hometopia Is the House Building Game for Adults

// Gaming

Why ev.io has quickly become one of the most popular web3 games