CyBall: Web3 Card Battler

Opportunity

Traditional gaming lacks true ownership of in-game assets, players spend hours grinding or making in-game purchases without the ability to extract value from their achievements. Riding the growing trend of digital collectibles and asset ownership, we explored integrating digital ownership into gaming to empower players with control over their hard-earned assets.

Solution

CyBall, a football-themed card-based battler game where players collect, trade, and battle with unique cards of varying rarities that influence match performance. Players can fuse cards to spawn new players with similar pedigrees, watch their cards gain experience, and grow stronger with each win. CyBall also includes a marketplace for buying and selling cards, creating a free market for gamers to exchange assets and unlock value.

Impact

CyBall sold out all game cards during pre-sale, raising over $1.6 million, and has since reached 15,000 daily active users (DAU). The game boasts an impressive 30-day retention rate of 45%, showcasing strong player engagement and satisfaction. Players spend an average of 40 minutes per session, reflecting high levels of immersion and gameplay value. The in-game marketplace has facilitated a total transaction volume of over $12 million, highlighting the thriving player-driven economy. CyBall also grew a community of over 80,000 members, fostering a vibrant ecosystem, and achieved a major milestone by being acquired within 1 year of launch, underscoring its success and value in the gaming industry.

Reflection

As one of the early pioneers in the play-and-earn gaming space, CyBall faced numerous challenges in navigating this experimental and rapidly evolving model. Early on, we discovered that our original tokenomics plan didn’t fully account for the complexities of balancing incentives, preventing exploitation, and ensuring long-term sustainability. One of the toughest hurdles was managing the delicate balance between attracting players genuinely interested in the game itself versus those motivated purely by the rewards a debate that continues in blockchain gaming. 

Additionally, smart contracts, while offering transparency and security, also presented limitations, as certain mechanics became challenging to adjust post-launch. Despite these challenges, the speed of user acquisition and the unprecedented marketplace activity proved the potential of this new model. CyBall has demonstrated how blockchain gaming can transcend traditional “pay-to-win” systems, unlock trapped value, and create open economies where players truly own their assets. This experience has set the foundation for faster experimentation, framework development, and iterative testing in future games. The metrics we’ve achieved, liquidity, trade volumes, and user growth are a testament to the promise of blockchain gaming. While the journey is not without obstacles, it’s clear that this is a step forward in defining the future of gaming.