31/07/2021 Horizon Blockchain Games raises $4.5M for its NFT trading card game and wallet

Horizon Blockchain Games is — as the name implies — a company building games on the blockchain, along with tools to help others do the same.

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The company announced today that it has raised another $4.5 million, bringing its total raised to a little over $13 million.

Horizon’s first game is Skyweaver, a competitive digital trading card game that taps the blockchain to give players more realistic ownership of their virtual cards. Once earned through competition with other players, cards can be sold, traded or taken out of the system and put in storage.

As I previously wrote about Horizon here:

Horizon is working down two paths in parallel here: On one path, they’re building an Ethereum-powered platform called Arcadeum for handling in-game items — establishing who owns any specific instance of an item, and allowing that item to be verifiably traded, sold or given from player to player. Once an item is in a player’s possession, it’s theirs to use, trade or sell as they please; Horizon can’t just take it away. In time, they’ll open up this platform for other developers to build upon.

On the other path, the company is building out its own game — a digital trading card game called SkyWeaver — meant to thrive in its own right while simultaneously showcasing the platform.

“Arcadeum” mentioned above has now been rebranded as “Sequence,” an easy-to-integrate wallet system that aims to hand-wave away the complexities of the blockchain. They want to let users buy and store their digital goods on the blockchain without either the user or an app’s developer really having to thinkabout the blockchain. Horizon co-founder Michael Sanders tells me the rebranding comes with an overall broadening of its focus; the “Arcade” in “Arcadeum” suggested it was all about gaming, whereas the aim is to help manage all kinds of digital items, from virtual gaming goods to NFT art and beyond.

The Horizon team often mentions being built to support “Web3,” a term I’ve been hearing more and more lately. In short (or, at least, as best I understand it), Web3 is a category of online-but-decentralized apps, services and games built around the blockchain (Ethereum, in this case) to give individual users more control of their data. The Ethereum foundation has a breakdown of the concept here.

A match in Skyweaver. Image Credits: Horizon Blockchain Games

Horizon originally intended to open Skyweaver up more broadly in 2020; as of this morning it’s still in private beta, with plans to open widely later this year. Sanders tells me they’ve let in over 66,000 players so far.

The company says that investors in this round (a “pre-Series A round SAFE”) include CMT Digital, The Xchange Company, BITKRAFT Ventures, Khaled Verjee and Zyshan Kaba.

Arts

https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/29/horizon-blockchain-games-raises-4-5m-for-its-nft-trading-card-game-and-wallet/amp/

Interesting NFTs
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.
#63289
By OthersideDeployer
Mistletoe #1231
Uh, hi! My name's Mistletoe #1231. I once peed on Marie Antoinette's cat. They had it coming. When no one's home, I invite my pals over and we listen to Wutang. It's pawesome to meet you!
The Harvest
An anthropomorphic figure stands, wide eyed, staring at the viewer; its body masculine, muscular, and humanoid. Its “mind” dissociates into a conglomerate of structures resembling feathers, grain, teeth–as well as a radial flower “node”, casting linear rays throughout the composition. To his left, a vat of bodies gesture and writhe in a kind of amniotic soup, attended by a video game robot. The bot's red display reads “uWu”. Behind the robot and filling the left side of the composition is an archaic figure composed of a variety of vintage objects and symbols. Among them are a hardbound book with ancient cuneiform scripts, indicating barley, beer, bread, ox, house, and sky, behind which is a grimacing, salivating jagged toothed maw; and an old Commodore floppy drive. The figure’s head tilts toward an illuminated crescent moon, suggesting the Egyptian Sacred Bull. The archaic figure is composed of a variety of mutating cells, which shift in color, and pattern; eventually breaking free into an ephemeral broadcast of bubbles which move across the background. The work came into being against a psychological introspection, which included associations to pop culture such as alien abduction and pod people, as well as quite a bit of reflection on grains as a symbol of civilization, agriculture, sustenance, life, and imbibing (mainly whiskies).
The Rare Pearl Moon with Motion
Motion Version Part of my moon series. This super rare pearl moon has just washed ashore on a remote tropical island beach, fining one of these rare Jems is like a total worldly treasure! These moons, only fall to earth once in a few million years! When I found this one I felt the luck that is said to come with this pearl moon.