How one company is reimagining AR by adding a crypto twist.

It’s either a singular, monumental stroke of marketing genius, or it’s the new path forward for how gaming designers can deliver and monetize augmented reality. First, combine all the latest cultural touchpoints: zombies, mindless mobile gaming, and augmented reality (AR), then stuff them in a package with crypto and NFT overtones and launch that pre-sale In-Game token (ticker symbol: YoKen) into the world in time for the first non-pandemic Halloween in three years.

In YoHunt, players venture out into the actual world, to locate and capture virtual zombies augmented and projected onto their mobile devices, collecting more valuable NFT Zombies as they progress. In-app purchases provide certain perks and advantages, but the designers have limited paid hacks in favor of old-fashioned patience and skill. They’ve also emphasized UX throughout the gameplay with artistic (and frightening) encounters with NFT characters.

Enthusiastic beta testers have been helping refine the YoHunt mobile app for some time now, waiting for its actual launch, expected later in 2023. Its creators chose to hold its release until the market would support folks leaving their houses again in large numbers, and to allow the native token: YoKen, to gain attraction inside the crypto community. That’s given them time to ramp up the game play action and create tens of thousands of new characters while ensuring its launch isn’t hit with the same technical issues that plagued the OG of AR games, Pokemon Go.

It’s also allowed them to simultaneously launch an NFT-based trading platform that creates increased gaming excitement while making successful zombie hunters famous (and maybe even rich.) According to YoHunt’s backstory, a zombie queen and her ministers await players if they can hold-on long enough, and kill enough common zombies, to do battle. Every zombie is its own NFT, which can be traded like other tokens. But, killing the one-and-only-one queen or one of her ministers is frustratingly challenging, making them more valuable. Like – hundreds of thousands of dollars valuable.

According to YoHunt’s backstory, a zombie Queen, and her ministers battle players as they attempt to take over the world. Capturing the one-and-only-one queen or one of her ministers is frustratingly challenging, which is why they are assigned higher YoKen values. YoHunt also serves as a trading platform for these in-house NFTs, keeping them all centrally located. The game designers think the queen and ministers could be worth in the high six-figures.

A throwback to a more innocent time (2016)

As technology goes, the winner so far for the biggest gap between promise and delivery is almost certainly AR. Back in 2016, which is possibly the Golden Age of AR, the tech was everywhere. That was the year Facebook, now called Meta, hoped its billions invested in Oculus would pay off with the release of Rift CV1, its first consumer AR/VR headset.

And who can forget the Summer of Pokemon Go? Armed with cell phones and tablets, millions of people across the globe hunted and battled with AR monsters in parks and gyms trying to “catch them all.” 500 million app downloads later, the once-dormant Nintendo’s stock price more than doubled, while its main competitor, Sony, concentrated on adding VR headsets and games to its PlayStation consoles, and Samsung connected its Gear VR to Galaxy devices.

But six years and a technological lifetime later, all that momentum is stalled. Samsung no longer supports Gear, Meta’s Rift and Go are gone (although the Quest has had modest success) and sales of PlayStation VR are only about a quarter that of its mega-popular PlayStation 5. Even Pokemon Go, which started the mobile AR craze, dropped precipitously from 230 million active users in the summer of 2016 to less than 50 million a few months later. Niantic, which created Pokemon Go, has been able to grow revenue recently by adding in-game purchases that cater to diehard fans.

Future-Proofing the Platform by Limiting Content

In-game purchases on YoHunt are made by first acquiring game currency “YoKen ” which can then be used for other items, YoHunt will maintain interest in its game play by limiting the total number of NFT zombies globally. By capping the number of zombies created and by providing a built-in marketplace platform, hunters realize irrevocable value in each zombie captured. They know that their wins can’t be diluted with the addition of more versions and more characters – something that Pokemon Go failed to realize.

It’s the equivalent of another recent collecting craze, Panini’s National Treasures NBA cards. Rather than Panini mass-producing thousands of the same card, it limited certain cards to be one-of-a-kind. That made Panini’s Steph Curry Logoman rookie card sell for close to $6 million in last year’s auction and one featuring LeBron James sold for $2.4 million in the same year it was released.

And with YoHunt, each encounter with rare zombies makes them more difficult to kill, which is equivalent to the extra work it now takes to mine a single bitcoin, therefore increasing its value. It’s the main reason so many players are hoping to get in on the hunt the moment the app goes live, and why so many beta testers are staying mum for fear of generating their own competition.

It’s really about the fun

It remains to be seen how much cash the common zombie will generate, or how many new crypto-riches will emerge from the virtual world-ending apocalypse – will money still be worth anything after all? Most players will be thrilled with the free gameplay and the anticipation of finding a truly rare zombie lurking in the shadows. But should they be the one to capture the solitary queen and save the world, untold glory – and a bunch of cash – awaits.

YoKen currency, the in-game token, launches on October 31. YoHunt, the game launches in 2023 and will be available in the Apple Store and on Google Play.

Yo-Hunt link:

https://www.yohunt.io

https://t.me/Yo_Hunt

https://twitter.com/YoHuntGame

Authored by: Marisol. C