Welcome to 2024, Gotchigang! We’re nearly through our first month of the new year, and shipping rates here at Pixelcraft Studios are already approaching all-time highs! 📈📈📈

Here’s a snippet of what we’re covering in this dev update:

• Launch details for the Aavegotchi Gaming Console
• Updates on the 3D Gotchiverse development
• New features coming to Spirit Force Arena
• A first look at the HOT new map for Gotchi Guardians
• NFT rewards for Licky’s Escape 
• The latest on AavegotchiDAO-supported games beyond Pixelcraft Studios
• …and much, much moar!

Now, let’s get into it!

🎮GAMING🎮

Aavegotchi Gaming Console

Our vision for Aavegotchi has always been to create interoperable gaming avatars across a wide variety of games, where progression in one game potentially influences that of another. 

Although Aavegotchi’s onchain stats are a great starting point, to truly achieve this vision, we devised the Aavegotchi Gaming Console – an onchain layer that stores and shares granular player and Gotchi data across multiple games, enabling developers to craft deep “meta-level” progression and achievement experiences for players. 

Gotchichain is a key element of this gaming console, as it allows us to store large amounts of data onchain without being cost prohibitive. This onchain data is fully accessible to game developers and players, allowing infinite new ways of understanding games and players. 

For players specifically, the AGC adds depth to the gaming experience by offering: 

• Unified, cross-game Player (and eventually, Gotchi) profiles
• Game-specific achievement systems
• Gameplay stats
• Cross-game rewards
• Leaderboards
• Friend lists

One example use-case of the AGC for cross-game interoperability is with Badges. 

The console’s Profile Badges are on-chain assets minted upon achieving in-game goals and immediately sent to a player's profile. These are soulbound tokens that will accrue in a dedicated area of the profile’s inventory. Earning Badges also award points, which level up your Profile. Increasing Profile Levels enables players to earn even more rewards, such as profile customization options, in-game items, and more. 

These onchain Badges are accessible for other games to view and use, so the possibilities are endless for games to introduce novel token-gating or progression systems based on achievements in other games, deepening the player’s meta-layer experience.

Expect to start seeing the beginnings of the AGC coming as soon as February!

Spirit Force Arena

Gearing up for its full launch in March, Spirit Force Arena's January update includes:

• Social login and wallet support
• Play as your own Aavegotchi (nakey… for now. Wearable trait bonuses will apply but won’t be visible yet)
• New Champions* like Monk Archer, Hazmat, Captain Aave, and more!
• HUD and Gameplay improvements
  • Player stance / primary weapon / special weapon
  • Special Weapon drops visibility. 

*Champions are Aavegotchi avatars for non-NFT holding players to unlock. As players progress through Spirit Force, they can unlock more Champions to play with. Aavegotchi NFT holders will always be able to play with their owned Gotchis, in addition to the unlocked Champions.

All of the above updates are confirmed for the January 26th build of SFA, with the full version of Spirit Force Arena launching in March. Upcoming features include more in-game content such as loot boxes, further integrations with player profiles (over 250 badges in the works!), and refined trait balancing to distinguish individual Aavegotchis from one another.

Gotchiverse 3D

With principal work on Spirit Force Arena wrapping up soon, the Gotchiverse team is now beginning to shift full focus back to the Gotchiverse.

On this front, we have three major updates:

Firstly, we’re nearing the final stages of creating 3D versions of all Aavegotchis and their wearables! In the next few months, we expect 100% of all 250+ wearables to be ready for Unity-based gameplay. These assets will enhance not only the Gotchiverse and other Pixelcraft games but will also be accessible to external developers through the upcoming Aavegotchi SDK.

Secondly, the team has begun planning sprints to introduce PvE experiences into the Gotchiverse. It's possible an alpha version of this experience will be live in February, although it will likely come after the launch of SFA in March.

Finally, we are also continuing our work to polish and finalize all of the legacy Gotchiverse farming / aesthetic equipment for the launch of Gotchiverse Farming.

Gotchi Guardians

Gotchi Guardians has had a number of playtests recently, both in real life and through Twitch streams. Although most feedback was overwhelmingly positive, there were some points made about the lack of endgame content, map variety, and in-game progression. 

Luckily, those are the exact things Jason Slama’s team is working on! The next build of Gotchi Guardians won’t just feature minor tweaks; it will be a full-bodied version of the game, including:

• A revamped main menu and matchmaking lobby for a smoother experience
• The Tier 2 “Sus Nest” tower, adding a new strategic element
• The Tier 2 “Lick UFO”, a new aerial enemy to spice up players’ strategies.
• Customizable Skins for towers, enemies, and entire maps
• The “Mount Oomf” battle map, bringing a new battleground to explore.
• An expanded collection of stickers to emote during battle
• Enhanced animations and SFX for a more immersive experience
• A “Guardians” system for in-game progression and usage of onchain Aavegotchis

Frankly speaking, this will be the biggest Guardians release yet, and we’re super excited to showcase this perfect combination of on-chain Aavegotchis and casual gaming to the world!

Licky’s Escape

We’re excited to announce the completion of Aavegotchi’s first steps into the mobile gaming space! Just hours ago, we put the finishing touches on this rich, story-driven puzzle game, and it’s now being submitted to Apple for its listings review. Assuming all goes well, we will be completely on target for the launch of Licky’s Escape in February.

We’re incredibly proud of the final product and can’t wait to share it with the GotchiGang and gamers worldwide. Join Licky and get ready to: 

• Solve over 120 challenging puzzles across 5 beautifully hand-drawn worlds
• Experience an unfolding story full of twists and engage in challenging boss battles.
• Unlock one of six rare crypto artworks as you progress fully designed by celebrated Aavegotchi artist, stellarhobbes.

DAO-led Games

Gotchi Battler

The aptly named idle battler is full steam ahead with a major 100k GHST series of three tournaments kicking off this week. Registration for the first tournament has closed, but know that two more tournaments are fast approaching. 

To participate, simply assemble a team of five Aavegotchis and join the fray!

Don’t own five Aavegotchis? You can hit up the on-chain lending market now and assemble a quality team!

Ripples of the Gotchiverse 

The Gotchi French Army-built adventure is going live on our dedicated Sandbox estate starting in the first week of February! To prepare, you can bookmark our dedicated Sandbox estate right now by clicking HERE.

Dropt: The Fallen Gotchi (formerly Gotchi Crawler)

After a successful demo that saw over 1200 games played by more than 1500 Gotchis, the Dropt team recently secured funding to build the full Alpha version of the dungeon crawler. 

This gives the team a 12-month ramp to launch the next big installment of Dropt: The Fallen Gotchi. 

For January, the team is heavily focused on laying the foundation for the Unity build as well as rounding out the Alpha build design plans. Join the Dropt Discord today to follow along.

Strategotchi

The grid-based strategy game where players control a squad of three Gotchis continues to make strides toward its first play date, which is now confirmed to begin Wednesday, January 31st!

Following the team's Discord, we can see progress has been made on a revamped HUD that better organizes info for the upcoming demo. The first iteration is confirmed to focus on mining and defending your loot. The objective is laid out in each level where players strive to hit the target Harvest before the round timer ends. 

Mecha Gotchis

Since gaining DAO support in December last year, the Mecha team has made significant strides. V1 is under development to ship as a 10-player battle royale where our frenly Aavegotchis pilot mech bodies and engage in high-octane combat. 

The team has completed work on the mechs, UI, and multiplayer lobbies. Work continues on environments and ultimate weapons while they also bug test. Incorporating on-chain Aavegotchi traits, specifically base rarity scores, is a stretch goal for the first alpha playtest that the team remains optimistic about. The first playtest dates have not yet been announced but are certainly something to expect before the conclusion of Q1. 

Join the Mechagotchis Discord to take part!

Important Dates*

*Confirmed, but may be subject to changes

• Jan 26 – New Spirit Force Arena build
• Jan 31 – Strategotchi Playtest
• Feb 5-11 – Gotchi Battler 30k GHST Tournament
• Feb 19-25 – Gotchi Battler 60k GHST Tournament 
• Feb 23 – New Gotchi Guardians Build
• Feb 21 – Licky’s Escape full launch (pending Apple review)

Aavegotchi Dapp Upgrades

Our Dapp team is continuously improving the main Aavegotchi.com experience, the most immediately noticeable of which is the addition of dark mode! However, there are actually a number of improvements to share:

• Dark Mode
• Cross-Chain Swapper, powered by SquidRouter
• Major and minor bug fixes

The Gotchichain version of the Dapp will also feature the game console’s cross-game player profiles and display all on-chain badges, titles, scores, etc. 

Aavegotchi SDK

Aavegotchi was founded with the vision of delivering open-source gaming avatars with on-chain characteristics.

Today, we’re thrilled to confirm that the Aavegotchi SDK is making significant progress. With it, present and future Aavegotchi game developers will be empowered to do much more right out of the box. This includes Unity-ready access to:

• All 2D+3D rigged Aavegotchi types and collaterals
• All 2D+3D Aavegotchi wearables
• An ever-growing library of animations
• Standardized integrations for Player Profile achievements, points, and other rewards
• And more!

Much of the SDK content comes from the work put into the Gotchiverse, Spirit Force Arena, and Gotchi Guardians. The following videos showcase some of the tooling devs can look forward to engaging with:

IN SUMMARY

We hope this latest update from Pixelcraft Studios has both informed, inspired, and excited you! Our team is wholeheartedly committed to bringing you the Aavegotchi Gaming Console, packed with compelling gameplay while also offering a rich meta layer through the Player Profiles. The update marks the culmination of over a year's effort in creating a Unity-based on-chain ecosystem. And we are almost there!

We're also super excited about Licky's Escape's upcoming launch in February. With its captivating art and story, it's the perfect introduction to the Aavegotchi universe for a broader and more casual audience. If the game’s reception goes as planned, you can certainly expect an Android-compatible version in the near future too!

Our DAO-funded game development is also gaining remarkable momentum, with more teams on board than ever, each bringing their unique, ambitious projects to life. We’re sure this trend is set to continue. 

Whether you're here to create, support, or play, join our Discord community. The year 2024 has just started, and it promises to be unforgettable for GotchiGang!

Stay aavesome, frens!

Pixelcraft Studios