XP Foundry migrates mobile game Rooniverse to ImmutableX

XP Foundry, a Web3 game studio, said it is migrating on-chain assets of its mobile game Rooniverse to ImmutableX from Solana.

That’s a small but solid victory in the blockchain wars for ImmutableX, which is an Ethereum-based platform for building and scaling Web3 games.

“We are extremely excited that XP Foundry and its debut web3 title Rooniverse are joining the ever-growing ImmutableX family,” said Andrew Sorokovsky, vice president of global business development at Immutable, which created the ImmutableX platform. “The partnership will greatly help both Immutable and XP Foundry onboard millions of mobile gamers together with a combination of chaotic fun and frictionless blockchain integrations to support what really matters: ownership, trading, and interoperability.”

Rooniverse is a free-to-play “hyper-royale mobile game” featuring cute and savage creatures battling in player-versus-player game modes. Players can also take part in crafting, user-generated content (UGC), and social gameplay. On-chain collectibles are integrated through a fully optional blockchain layer, making the game enjoyable by both traditional and Web3 gamers on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac.

In the game, players pit their “Roos” against each other in multiplayer game modes to win resources, which can be used to craft unconventional weapons and build their own empire in the Rooniverse ecosystem.

XP Foundry’s engineers and artists have veteran credentials in previous games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Game of Thrones, Batman, Call of Duty, The Elder Scrolls, and more.

The studio’s co-CEO and game director James Finley is a former director of technology at Unity Studios with over 15 years of experience in game direction. Additionally, executive producer, James Chung, is a former art director at Electronic Arts and worked on the original Call of Duty team.

With the transition of assets to ImmutableX, Rooniverse offers gamers more user-friendly features such as fast, cost-efficient transactions and zero-fee minting for their on-chain characters and items, this is combined with Ethereum’s robust inherent security.

Unlike general-purpose blockchains, ImmutableX was explicitly designed from the ground up with Web3 gaming in mind, the companies said. That means it has one of the most expansive and innovative blockchain gaming ecosystems to date, in terms of both players and developers.

XP Foundry will gain access to Immutable’s technical expertise in blockchain as well as the team’s hands-on experience working with more than 100 other Web3 gaming studios as well as through Immutable Gaming Studios, the companies said.

“Immutable has great features to facilitate mass adoption like gas-free trading and a development roadmap exclusively focused on serving games,” noted James Finley, co-CEO at XP Foundry and game director for Rooniverse.

“There are superb blockchains and L2s out there, but I am a big believer in platforms who niche down and focus on catering to a specific industry segment,” says Germán Palau, XP Foundry’s co-CEO, in a staetment. “Through our many conversations, Immutable has shown us that they clearly ‘get it’ when it comes to understanding mainstream gamers and getting rid of ‘NFT stigma’ that prevent open adoption. We love using blockchain integrations as features for our game, for this reason, I think we’re making the best long-term decision for the game.”

Previously, XP Foundry had successfully raised $1.5 million at a fully diluted valuation of $10 million during its pre-seed funding round led by Shima Capital. Today, the studio’s backers and partners include Big Brain Holdings, Deep Ventures, Criterion, Double Peak, Snack Club, Magic Eden, 3DGG Labs, Spectre, Citizen Capital, XBorg, Naavik, Battle Arena Gamers Guild, and Stardust, as well as esports organizations such as YGG SEA and the Global Esports Federation.

Rooniverse’s open alpha testing is slated for mid-February, with beta in the second or third quarters and and the full game slated for Q4. XP Foundry has more than 20 people.

During the pre-alpha stage, the company selected certain communities like venture capitlilists, guilds andesport organizations to play the game. The company said in an email it has unanimously received positive feedback for being fun to play and watch.

All stages of the game are open for F2P as well as on-chain players, with progressive gameplay phase-exclusive items to collect. The crafting economy and creator tools (user-generated maps) will come in as expansions to the base game.

Rooniverse was bootstrapped up to the release of Origin Roos, where 4,444 on-chain collectible characters were minted for a total of $1.2 million, kickstarting the game development cycle. Then the XP Foundry team raised $1.5 million in 2022. The next seed round will open in about a month.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz