Earn Alliance grows its game discovery platform for Web3 games

Earn Alliance wants to help Web3 games break into the mainstream with the introduction of its gaming discovery platform.

This platform not only rewards gamers but also provides an “engagement as a service” solution for developers. Since its launch, Earn Alliance said it has organically grown into the largest Web3 game aggregator and discovery platform with over 450,000 registered users.

The company’s mission is clear: to inspire and empower gamers with enriching experiences. Back in December, Earn Alliance raised $4.75 million.

Earn Alliance has implemented a gamified reward-based ecosystem that offers opportunities for gamers to discover and support blockchain games. By treating engagement as a service, the platform has rapidly attracted engaged gamers, becoming a hub for enthusiasts seeking exciting games.

Addressing a significant challenge in the digital gaming landscape, Earn Alliance acts as a unified hub for gamers interested in blockchain games, providing a seamless search tool. Simultaneously, it offers a unique opportunity for game developers and publishers to test their titles.

Engagement as a service

The ecosystem rewards gamers for exploring new games, creating a pivotal platform for discovering favorite titles. Moreover, it reduces fan acquisition costs for developers by establishing a seamless pipeline that drives users to new games through rewarding engagement.

“We like to call this engagement as a service. And it’s where games essentially pay to acquire gamers,” Cooper said. “It’s just like an ad, but at the end of the day, the gamers are getting rewarded with some sort of NFT which can be an exclusive item for that community. And it’s not just about acquiring new users. It’s also about engaging your existing community.”

The company launched over 75 campaigns last year and it’s now at about 90. For social missions, where someone does something on social media, Earn Alliance charges the company advertising a game about 30 cents per user. For game missions, where you do something inside a game, it’s around 70 cents to $1.50 a user. with such relatively low prices, a lot of developers are becoming customers, as it costs a lot less than other means for acquiring users. And these users are more targeted and dedicated players.

“That’s how we make money today,” Cooper said. “Eventually we’ll have like a subscription platform for the gamer side to get more better rewards. We’re calling it like an industry battle pass where they pay a monthly subscription to get exclusive opportunities and then when they do complete a campaign they can get even more rewards.”

Joseph “Coop” Cooper, CEO of Earn Alliance, said in an interview with GamesBeat that rewarding Web3 creators for their contributions will help Web3 gaming grow.

“As a lifelong gamer and someone who has built their career working on serious gaming projects, I believe the power of web3 is most impactful when communities unite to contribute and are rewarded for their actions, which unlocks new possibilities to discover friends, love, work and passion in life,” said Cooper in a statement. “At Earn Alliance, we believe in a world where games can positively transform the lives of billions, and we are creating that in an ecosystem with the opportunity for personal financial growth, while making discoverability and supporting games fun. Earn Alliance accomplishes that through ‘engagement as a service,’ introducing a cost-effective way for game developers to test their next big game idea and attract like minded gamers to their community.”

Origins

Earn Alliance was started a couple of years ago.

Earn Alliance started as a side project — an asset management platform in September 2021, just as Axie Infinity was taking off as one of the NFT games to get millions of fans. Everyone was excited about Web3 games as cryptocurrency was going through the roof.

Cooper started investing and got a bunch of applicants to join a guild after posting on Reddit. He got about 350 people from India, the Philippines and South America to start using his assets. He wanted to build tools to see how well they were performing and which tokens were doing the best.

“It was kind of a nerd project on the side, and then Axie fell,” Cooper said.

But then things got more serious. With the crash in crypto, Cooper decided that the kind of platform that would do well was one that helped with discoverability for Web3 games. At the time, Epic Games wasn’t accepting crypto games yet, and Apple and Google Play didn’t allow them either.

“We just wanted to make it easy to find these crypto games that are hidden in Twitter profiles,” Cooper said. “So we created a discoverability platform. And it’s becoming one of the largest engagement platforms for the Web3 industry.”

The company raised $4.75 million in November 2022. The discoverability platform debuted in December 2022, and now it’s above 450,000. That’s not counting the bots and farmers that tend to inflate the numbers — like when someone creates 20 different Twitter profiles to farm tokens or creates automated bots.

And now the company has 2,500 curated game profiles on the platform, and about 3,500 Web3 game-related social and content feeds. People start adding blogs, YouTube videos, Substacks and other media. You can do things like search for action games on the Polygon blockchain.

Early success

Earn Alliance’s early success lies in its ability to build an authentic internet gamer community rapidly, launching more game NFTs than most major NFT launchpads combined. With over 75 game NFT launches in 2023, the platform has become a go-to destination for developers looking to raise funds and acquire new users.

The Earn Alliance mobile app, available on both Android and iOS, introduced a Reserve Now, Mint Later functionality, allowing gamers to claim NFTs on-the-go without a wallet.

The platform has seamlessly aggregated over 3,500 Web3 game-related social and content feeds, running engaging campaigns with notable games such as BigTime, Kingdom Story, Stella Fantasy, and Gods Unchained.

In addition to being the home for Web3 gamers, Earn Alliance is developing its own title: Last Remains, a free-to-play stealth zombie battle royale game. The Last Remains developers aim to seamlessly integrate blockchain technology while delivering a realistic, competitive, and immersive gaming experience.

Looking ahead, Earn Alliance is gearing up for its first community airdrop, scheduled from March 28 to April 4. It will release up to 150 million tokens, which represents 15% of its supply. Fans can sign up for the airdrop through various channels, including Epic, Steam, Discord accounts, or by installing the Earn Alliance mobile app. The platform is also set to host a community-wide hackathon during GDC in San Francisco on March 17.

Who are the fans?

Cooper believes there are a couple of different groups who are part of the network. There are Web2 enthusiasts who are more interested in investments on the speculative side of Web3. Then there are gamers who number about 80,000 users who have amassed more than 400 million hours of play on their Steam profiles.
“We know that these are like actual hardcore gamers that like to participate and discover and just learn about what’s happening in the industry,” Cooper said.

After getting the discovery platform done, the company has been helping players to get benefits like gems and create fandom communities. Earn Alliance launched the Free Mints gamified launchpad, where you can get free NFTs for a game if you install a game, play it, kill a zombie and then earn a reward.

Client testimonials

In a statement, Dominik Jurada, CEO at The Last Monarchy, said the company grew its community from 50 users to 15,000 within 48 hours.

“We at The Last Monarchy recently had an opportunity to collaborate with the folks at Earn Alliance and are extremely satisfied with the experience,” Jurada said. “The Earned Alliance team demonstrated efficiency, attentiveness, and maintained effective communication throughout the entire process. We were always kept in the loop and their eyes were kept at the ball. The results met, and even exceeded, our expectations. We are very pleased with the outcome and would highly recommend collaborating with them to other projects in the web3 space. Great work.”

Badge results: Grew community from 50 to 15,000 users within 48 hours.

Earned Alliance also got testimonials from Metabirds, which grew its community by 83%, or 6,400 users, within 24 hours. Aperion grew its community by 30%, or 23,000 users, within 24 hours. Rocket Launcher received 500 highly engage users. Other testimonials came from MagicCraft, Last Resort and Naramunz.

Cooper is originally from San Jose, California, but he’s operating the company out of Hong Kong with a distributed team of 23 people on the Earn Alliance team. There are another 26 working on the Last Remains game.

Rollercoaster of Web3 gaming

Regarding the state of Web3, Cooper said he has been in the industry for two decades and knows how long it takes to make a good game. In fact, he started modding games at the age of nine. By 17, he was making $30,000 a month. He created a few game companies, selling one to Poker Stars. But it wasn’t easy.

“You have to kill 10 games to make one great one, and it’s a very painful process,” he said. “I think the investors are starting to feel that after waiting for Web3 games, which are a beautiful place for people to collaborate and build in the open. But now more people are feeling the pain, like how hard it is to create art, or interactive entertainment. So for me, it’s a time game.”

Cooper believes a lot of veteran talent is still migrating into Web3 gaming.

“You need to find the right people,” he said. “I look at it as how many more people are going to come into this space with the right minds and the right teams.”

People may be more wary about Web3 promises, as there have been a lot of failures and scams that have given entrepreneurs and investors are lot of tough lessons. But a market recovery will help change attitudes, and there may be one under way now with the rise of Bitcoin prices.

Cooper thinks that the Web3 gaming dreams will eventually come true. The beautiful thing about Web3 is that it feels like gaming starting up on Facebook or the first Apple App Store moments where there is less competition and more excitement.

“A lot of the games that we’re going to start seeing now is going to be what I would call early access this year,” he said. “So for me, it’s a time game, and it’s just painful for everyone.”