Forward the Original Title: As blockchain gaming enters its second spring, how will GALA stand out?

Introduction

The remarkable performance of the Bigtime token after its launch has attracted market attention, with major blockchain games showing signs of activity. The GameFi sector has seen a small resurgence, bringing GameFi back into people’s focus after a long period of silence. Among them, Gala Games has led the way, rising from a phase low of $0.012 on October 19th to $0.025 at the time of writing, marking a cumulative increase of over 100%.

What accounts for GALA’s strong performance? With the market stabilizing, the bottom of the altcoins has emerged, and the long-dormant blockchain gaming sector is experiencing a revival, can GALA become a valuable investment target in GameFi? This article will analyze it for you.

1. Project Summary

1.1 Introduction to Gala Games

Gala Games is a blockchain game development company founded in 2018, aiming to build a decentralized gaming ecosystem. Gala Games serves as both a game development platform and an aggregation platform.

As of now, while some games are still in development, Gala Games’ official website has confirmed the launch of 18 games, including various genres such as role-playing, simulation, card, tower defense, and shooting games. In addition to Spider Tanks, which has become popular in the blockchain gaming community this year, Gala Games has also collaborated with the traditional gaming platform Epic to release a battle royale game similar to PUBG called GRIT.

1.2 How Gala Games Operates and Analysis of the Node System

Gala has established its own network nodes to maintain and ensure system security. The node system will provide decentralized computing power support, transaction validation, and storage services for the gaming ecosystem. The entire gaming ecosystem runs on a distributed node network, rather than on centralized servers controlled by a single entity. The founder nodes of Gala will power the operation of the Gala ecosystem. In Gala Games’ decentralized node network, node users can decide which games can be launched on the Gala Games platform through consensus voting. Additionally, all major decisions in the community are determined by node voting.

Gala node operation diagram

2. Project Analysis

2.1 Team

The co-founders and CEOs of Gala Games, Eric Schiermeyer and John Osvald, both hail from Zynga. Eric previously served as the CEO of Intermix Media, the parent company of Myspace, and was also a co-founder and creative director at Zynga. Similarly, John has spent most of his career in the gaming industry at Zynga. Zynga, founded in 2007, is a social gaming services provider and a global leader in the interactive entertainment sector, with widespread influence in over 175 countries and regions worldwide. It boasts a diverse portfolio of popular games and has accumulated over 20 billion downloads on mobile devices. Notable titles like the FarmVille series and Zynga Poker have contributed to Zynga’s success.

The FarmVille series

Warren Marshall and Craig Matchett are engaged in 3D design work for games. Warren is a co-founder and artistic director at Gala, having previously worked at Epic Games and contributed to the development of Fortnite. As for Craig, given his mastery in the field of 3D design, Gala’s official announcement of his participation even warranted a separate post.

You may be familiar with the Dead Space series and the Battlefield series; these are all projects Craig has been involved in designing. His work is the result of a natural sensitivity to shapes and colors, as well as a passion for exploration and discovery. He is an artist in the field of 3D design.

A Showcase of Craig’s Masterpieces

Gala’s Blockchain Director, Jason Brinks, has been Gala’s spokesperson and PR representative on Twitter, engaging with the community and discussing all things Gala. Most of Gala’s AMAs are also hosted by Jason.

Jason previously worked at the United Nations, and his primary motivation for joining GALA was the potential of gaming to help lift people out of poverty in developing countries. Having witnessed corruption in these international organizations, he hopes that decentralized protocols will eventually replace them.

Jason’s Twitter account

2.2 Financing situation

Gala has not conducted an ICO or any form of fundraising; all the funds for founding Gala have been provided by the founders. Therefore, we can speculate that Gala Games has received strong support from Zynga.

Additionally, the author personally believes that, from a results-oriented perspective, the sale of founder nodes is actually a form of disguised financing. Gala’s official statement emphasizes that “founder nodes are not investments, and becoming a founder node should not have expectations of profit or return,” perhaps also due to the stringent regulatory policies of the US government.

2.3 Overview of Gala Ecosystem

Gala is an open platform that expands beyond gaming to include Gala Film and Gala Music within its ecosystem. The future of the Gala ecosystem will be integrated into Gala’s own blockchain, Project GYRI. Additionally, Gala has partnered with Unity to create the Gala metaverse, VOXverse. Here are some of the most popular games in Gala’s main gaming section:

1.Town Star

Town Star is a farm simulation and management game developed by the Gala team. It is also Gala Games’ first game, and its gameplay perfectly inherits the legacy of Zynga’s FarmVille series. Players need to use funds to plant crops and build factories, balancing consumption and economy, and earn profits by climbing the game leaderboard. Additionally, players can purchase NFTs to speed up production on the farm, similar to making in-game purchases.

2.Spider Tanks

Spider Tanks is a PvP competitive game played on the PC platform. Players need to purchase NFT game equipment and engage in team PvP competitions with other players on the game map to obtain resources. The game is developed by a Dutch game studio called Gamedia and is the first game launched on the GYRI project.

1. Mirandus

Mirandus is a fantasy role-playing RPG game where players have complete control and freedom. In the game, players have absolute freedom of choice. They can venture into the wilderness alone, confront monsters in the depths of forests and dungeons, join one of the kingdoms, serve as knights in their courts, or establish shops in one of the five great cities. Ownership of in-game assets by players is a core mechanism. Although the game has not yet been launched, players’ expectations are high.

4.GRIT

GRIT was launched on the Epic platform on June 6, 2022, making it the first Web3 game to be launched on a traditional gaming platform. It features a battle royale mechanism similar to PUBG, set in the Wild West. The game boasts superior production quality and excellent detail, allowing players to purchase firearms and weapons in the NFT market.

5.Gala Music and Gala Film

Gala has brought movies and music onto the blockchain and has signed contracts with many artists, such as The Rock for Gala Film and Snoop Dogg for Gala Music. Players can purchase NFTs of movies or music albums and earn rewards while watching movies or listening to music, known as “Watch to Earn” or “Listen to Earn.”

1. VOXverse

In June last year, Gala Games collaborated with Unity Technologies to develop the “VOXverse” 3D metaverse project. VOXverse will integrate all high-quality projects in the Gala ecosystem, including games, music, and movies, centered on the NFT-related digital avatar “VOX Collectible Series”. Each player in the game will have a VOX collectible avatar. They will use that avatar as their virtual appearance.

3. Gala Operations

3.1 Major Historical Events and Pric K-Charts

First, let’s take a look at the major events in Gala since its inception.

2019 - 2020

The Gala team completed early project preparation and planning, including the production and distribution of the hit games Town Star and Mirandus.

2020.9

Gala Token is available for trading.

2021.3.22

The Wall Street Journal published an article about Gala Games

2021.3.22

Gala Games announces sponsorship of Mazer gaming.

2021.3.27

Reached a strategic partnership with PAC Global. PAC Global is a network built using cutting-edge blockchain technology, employing proof-of-stake and deterministic masternodes. This collaboration’s node exchange plan has laid a solid foundation for the secure and efficient operation of Gala’s nodes.

2021.3.31

Partnership with Polygon

2021.7.10

Node voting passed, and Spider Tanks officially joins Gala Games.

2021.8.5

Gala tokens were successfully bridged to the BSC chain using the cross-chain bridge P.Network.

2021.8.10

VOX NFT sale

2021.9.4

Spider Tanks starts closed beta.

2021.9.13

Gala Token was listed on Binance.

2021.9.18

The launch of the P2E reward token, Town Coin, for Town Star marks the official start of Gala’s play-to-earn journey.

2021.10.7

Announced a collaboration with Wemade Tree to jointly promote the global development of blockchain gaming.

(The MIR series games released on Wemix are representative works of Wemade.)

2021.11.6

Town Star node went live, similar to the founder’s operation method and function.

2021.11.12

It officially announced that Mirandus VOX will be launched on December 6.

2021.12.12

Three new games have been launched on the Gala platform, including the business simulation game Legacy, the multiplayer post-apocalyptic survival game The Walking Dead: Empires, and the AAA-level first-person design game LAST EXPDITION.

2022.2

Gala Music officially launched, expanding the Gala ecosystem from games to the world. Gala announced a collaboration with renowned rapper Snoop Dogg, deploying his latest album (B.O.D.R) onto the blockchain, with tracks sold as NFTs.

2022.5

Gala previewed the release of its own blockchain, Project GYRI, integrating all future Gala ecosystem components onto this chain.

2022.6.6

Gala announced a collaboration with Epic Games. The Epic Store officially announced the launch of the Web3 battle royale game, GRIT. This collaboration marked a historic milestone as Web3 gaming began to enter the mainstream, altering the global gaming landscape.

2022.6.6

Gala Film officially launched

2022.11.4

Hackers discovered a misconfiguration in the P.Network cross-chain bridge and launched an attack, creating an unlimited supply of pGala on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and arbitraging it into exchanges. This event caused Gala to experience a maximum price drop of 30% in a single day. Although compensation was later provided to affected users, it generated significant FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) within the community.

2023.1.9

Gala announced on social media that Gala Film is collaborating with renowned actors Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg to produce two films. However, this tweet has since been deleted for unknown reasons.

2023.3.31

Gala established a strategic partnership with Huobi to collaborate on Web3 ecosystem development and community building.

2023.5.15

The Gala token underwent a Gala (V2) contract replacement and upgrade.

2023.8.17

A new governance proposal passed through node voting, reducing the reward points obtained from running multiple nodes to encourage decentralized node operations.

2023.9.4

The Gala Games team faced internal strife, with founder and CEO Eric Schiermeyer and co-founder Write Thurston filing lawsuits against each other, alleging accusations of “coin theft and market manipulation” and “misuse of funds,” involving Gala assets valued at up to $730 million.

3.2 Business Operations Data Analysis

The business segments of Gala primarily consist of two parts - the sale of founder nodes and the sale of game NFTs. It is worth noting that Gala’s official website is relatively centralized, and the data in the store is not stored on the blockchain. Therefore, we primarily rely on website data for analysis. Let’s start with the sale of founder nodes.

According to the Gala official website, the number of active nodes has reached 44,854. Active nodes refer to founder nodes that run Gala servers for over 6 hours per day and receive Gala token rewards. The actual number of nodes is likely higher than the number of active nodes.

The total limit for nodes is set at 50,000. The initial price for founder node qualification was $2,000. After selling 19,000 nodes, Gala implemented a progressive price increase model, with prices increasing after every 100 nodes sold. Therefore, the later nodes are sold at higher prices. Buyers not only face high prices but also the issue of extended breakeven or profitability periods due to the halving of founder node rewards on July 21st each year. Gala has already sold over 44,000 nodes, indicating success in node sales.

Then, there’s Gala’s NFT sale. According to the official website, more than 26,000 NFTs issued by Gala have been sold. The more important NFTs in the basic game will be sold out in a short time. In the secondary market, we have also made a more detailed table on the royalty income of Gala’s most popular series of NFTs.

Gala NFT series has many collections, and the ones with relatively low secondary market trading volume are not included. We can observe that both primary issuance and overall royalties income from Gala NFTs are considerable.

3.3 Community Operations Data Analysis

From the perspective of social media, Gala Games currently has 466,000 followers on Twitter and approximately 200,000 members on its official Discord server. Despite the bearish market conditions, whenever Gala Games’ official Twitter account or the “PR” representative Jason tweets, the interaction rate in the comment section is high. The community activity level is also high in the official Discord chat group.

Gala Games Twitter page

Gala Games Discord Chat Channel

4.$Gala Token

4.1 Token Utility

The primary current use cases for $Gala include purchasing founder nodes and acquiring in-game NFTs. Additionally, the official statement mentions that in the future Gala’s Project GYRI will enhance the role of $Gala tokens within the ecosystem.

Regarding founder nodes: Currently, the price of founder nodes on the official website is around 5 million Gala, which translates to approximately $100,000 at the current market price. After purchasing the node license, users can run founder nodes on personal computers or virtual private servers without staking any tokens. The maximum number of founder nodes issued is 50,000, and once purchased, they are permanent and cannot be resold on the secondary market. The current number of active nodes is around 44,000.

Purchasing founder nodes with Gala is akin to mining. These nodes function as proof-of-stake (POS) nodes, with half of the daily Gala production distributed to founder nodes. Users receive reward points for running nodes for a minimum of 6 hours per day, and the rewards they receive depend on Gala’s official scoring system. The longer the runtime, the greater the rewards.

In addition to daily Gala production, founder nodes also receive in-game tokens (such as $Town from Town Star) and randomly allocated in-game NFTs as rewards. On July 21st each year, daily Gala production will decrease by half.

The node price displayed on the Official website

4.2 Tokenomics

The maximum supply of Gala is 50 billion tokens. Prior to January 13th of this year, the tokenomics model included daily production, with half of the daily produced Gala allocated to founder nodes and the other half allocated to the “Gala Games Conservatorship,” which serves as a community vault fund to support the development of Gala Games projects. The daily production of Gala will be halved on July 21st each year.

It’s important to note that the Gala allocated to founder nodes daily is not directly deposited into their wallet accounts by the project team. Instead, nodes need to mint the tokens themselves on the official website based on the daily allocation.

Additionally, to address the issue of reduced motivation for founder nodes to operate due to the halving of daily rewards every July under the current model, Gala introduced the PAY-BY-BURN burning mechanism on January 13th of this year. Under this mechanism, when Gala is used for purchases and payments on the platform (excluding nodes), the Gala used for the purchase will be burned, and an equivalent amount of Gala will be distributed to founder nodes.

Typically, Gala used for purchases would likely flow to the project team, whether used to support project development or sold on the secondary market. However, the PAY-BY-BURN mechanism effectively transfers the tokens that the project team would have received to the nodes, increasing their earnings.

$Gala underwent a smart contract upgrade from the original $Gala token to the new $Gala token on May 15th this year, known as the Gala V2 upgrade. The dashboard accurately records the daily minting and burning quantities since Gala began minting on September 11, 2020, both before and after the contract swap. Currently, it is the 948th day of minting, with a total minting volume of approximately 48.3 billion tokens and a total circulation volume of around 27.3 billion tokens. The maximum supply remains at 50 billion tokens.

Considering the economic model of $Gala, along with this burning mechanism and the halving of $Gala production annually, it is evident that if a blockbuster game is developed leading to increased demand, $Gala could easily transition into a deflationary model. As mentioned earlier, the project team occasionally burns tokens.

For instance, on May 15th this year, the Gala team directly burned nearly 21 billion $Gala tokens (as shown in the figure below) held in their possession. Although Gala officially stated that this income is used to support project development and fund the ecosystem, many members of the community still perceive it as a token economic risk for the project as a whole.

In summary, Gala believes that extensive token burning will help alleviate holders’ concerns, as they may fear that the Gala team will sell off a large number of tokens, leading to price declines.

4.3 Wallet Analysis

Source: Etherscan, Nansen

According to data as of November 22, 2023, there are 18,726 wallet addresses holding $Gala on the Ethereum network. The top 10 addresses hold 42.81% of the total $Gala supply, while the top 100 addresses hold 73.26% of the total supply. Most of the top 10 addresses are exchange wallets.

Source: Scopescan

Additionally, according to Scopescan data, the holdings of $Gala in centralized exchanges (CEX) account for 32.27% of the total supply, with Binance being the exchange with the largest holdings. Binance also holds the largest amount of $Gala among all addresses, accounting for 21% of the total supply.

4.4 Fundamentals Analysis

Binance $Gala Spot Price Chart (Source: Trading View)

According to Trading View data, $Gala hit bottom on October 19th on Binance’s spot market and began to rise significantly in the subsequent market movement. Currently, the price is around $0.025, marking an increase of approximately 100% from the bottom. A standard W-bottom structure has formed at the bottom, with the neckline touching a strong support level from the previous downtrend. It appears that $Gala has likely completed its basing stage, preparing for a potential bull market.

$Gala Contract Holdings Data on Binance

Based on Binance contract data, recent indicators such as the long-to-short ratio, the ratio of large holders’ long positions to short positions, and the ratio of large holders’ accounts all show values significantly above 1. This indicates that both large holders and retail investors have a relatively bullish outlook on the future price performance of $Gala.

5. Industry Analysis

5.1 Current Status of the GameFi Industry

Gala belongs to the GameFi industry, a combination of “Game” and “Finance,” which refers to blockchain games that provide economic incentives for players to earn while playing. The GameFi ecosystem leverages cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and blockchain technology to create virtual gaming environments. Players can typically earn in-game rewards by completing tasks, battling other players, and progressing through levels. They can also transfer game assets and trade them on cryptocurrency exchanges and NFT markets.

GameFi Market Cap Source: Footprint Analytics

Number of Gala’s Active Users (Source: Footprint Analytics)

From the graph, we can see that although there have been signs of recovery in blockchain games recently, the GameFi sector has generally remained subdued from 2022 to the present. The active user count of Gala has also experienced a significant decline and has been maintaining a stable state for a considerable period. This data is derived from the number of addresses interacting with Gala contracts on-chain, representing addresses using Gala for purchases, which may not accurately reflect the actual active users, especially for centralized Gala platforms, but it is still useful for trend analysis.

If the GameFi boom in 2021 was a result of ample market funds and speculation, then the current prices of GameFi tokens still reflect a return to value after the bubble burst, and have reached a stable basing stage.

5.2 Gala’s Advantages in the GameFi Sector

The fundamental logic behind the speculation in the GameFi sector during the previous bull market was the Play-to-Earn (P2E) mechanism, where playing games could earn money. This attracted a large number of people to blockchain games, driving up token prices. Gala also “benefited” from this mechanism, achieving thousand-fold increases during the previous bull market.

Why add quotation marks around “benefited”? Because Gala’s philosophy differs from that of most blockchain games. Gala does not prioritize P2E mechanisms. Taking Town Star as an example, although it is free to play, achieving resource balance in the game is challenging, and players can easily get stuck in a dead end during operation. The game focuses more on providing players with an enjoyable gaming experience rather than quick money-making.

Gala’s true vision has always been to create blockchain games that people genuinely want to play, which is the unwavering mission of the Gala team.

How to understand? That is, Gala wants people to play blockchain games not because they can make money, but because the games are truly fun. While most Web3 game companies such as Immutable Kong came to talk to people about his vision of “making blockchain games you’ll actually want to play.”

Furthermore, in terms of game development teams, Gala Games stands out in the blockchain gaming space with a team composed of well-known developers from the traditional gaming industry. Apart from Blockchain Director Jason, most team members have previously worked in top-tier gaming companies. Compared to other blockchain gaming teams, Gala’s standards of game production and delivery are noticeably superior.

6. Potential Risks in Project Development

1. For Gala to develop high-quality and truly enjoyable blockchain games, the most significant concern is that the game development cycle may be lengthy, which could hinder the short-term increase in token demand.
2. Unlike other Web3 projects, Gala Games resembles more of a Web2 game developer, with its official website, store, and other aspects leaning towards opacity and centralization.
3. It remains to be seen whether Gala can surpass projects like Immutable X, which focus on underlying infrastructure development, with its own Project GYRI. Additionally, Gala’s ability to meet the expectations of game developers and attract more developers is still uncertain. The development of GYRI will have a significant impact on the Gala ecosystem.

7. Summary

To alleviate holders’ concerns, Gala has destroyed 21 billion $Gala tokens and redirected funds originally allocated to the team to support node operations. This illustrates Gala’s genuine commitment to project development and long-term sustainability, prioritizing the interests of $Gala holders and the community.

Furthermore, $Gala token distribution is relatively concentrated, with a substantial amount already released and the token having bottomed out, indicating strong bullish sentiment among large holders in the short term.

Looking back at the success of games like The Beacon by Treasure Dao and concepts like P2E, which experienced hype but eventually fizzled out like the current state of GameFi, it becomes evident that P2E mechanisms are merely fuel for the fire. True success in the gaming industry lies in creating games like League of Legends, PUBG, Tomb Raider, and Assassin’s Creed – games that attract players for the long term and ensure the sustained growth of gaming projects.

As enjoyable games attract more users and increase demand for in-game items, the demand for $Gala naturally rises, leading to an increase in token price. With $Gala’s current price having rebound from the dip and the market exiting the bearish trend, it is undoubtedly a worthwhile investment in the GameFi sector, provided investors can manage risks effectively. I believe that with Gala’s vision and ambition, creating truly enjoyable Web3 blockbuster games and retaining users for the long term is only a matter of time.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [GryphsisAcademy], Forward the Original Title‘As blockchain gaming enters its second spring, how will GALA stand out?
   ’,All copyrights belong to the original author [@EdisonHuu]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
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