We are less than a month away from the launch of Reyu Genesis, our first Unioverse Hero NFT! Remember, there are only two ways you can get a Reyu:

1. Earn Whitelisting either through achieving status on our Discord or through a partnership we’re doing with another project
2. Earn enough Protens

You can check out a full explainer on the entire process here.

What are protens?

In the story of the Unioverse, protens are the energy source that powers the alien technology. In the world of Unioverse NFTs, Protens are what you earn by owning and holding Unioverse Collectible NFTs (which we’ve been dropping for free for a number of weeks now).

If you’ve been collecting (and keeping!) Unioverse Collectible NFTs, then you have been earning Protens automatically.

How can I check how many Protens I have?

You can easily check your proten count by visiting our Proten Calculator (desktop only). You’ll need to sign in to / up for your Unioverse account, and make sure the digital wallet you used to obtain Unioverse Collectibles is connected to your Unioverse account.

Once all that is done go to the proten Calculator page, click the “Collect Now” button.

You’ll see our system tabulating your total and the official count appearing above the “Collect Now” button.

How often can I check my proten count?

As often as you like, but the number only goes up based on the number of Collectibles you have, the length of time you hold them them and the tier of those Collectibles. So more than once a day is excessive.

Do I have enough protens to mint a Reyu?

We will be releasing the proten requirements for Reyu soon. However, Reyu is just the first — not the only — Unioverse Hero NFT that will mint. We will have many more similar events happening over the coming year and beyond. Protens will always be useful in the Unioverse, so hold on to them; you never know what they could be redeemed for.

My wallet is not connected to my account and I can’t connect it,what do I do?

This is an issue we are aware of and working on a fix for. In the meantime, you can connect it during our next event on a desktop (not mobile) computer.

What is a false collection bonus?

That means there is not a complete set at that time of calculation point

I got a ‘perfect collection bonus = False’, what does that mean?

That means you don’t have a truly complete collection of Collectibles, so you will not get a multiplier on your protens.

Can I mint a Reyu or collect Protens from my phone?

No. You will need a desktop for wallet connect, and for getting reyu!!!

My logout button works but not wallet connect. What do I do?

The best course of action is to connect a wallet during the next claim.

I’ve held my collectibles before 30th Nov. Will mine be calculated from before then?

Protens are calculated daily. It doesn’t go back past 30th Nov but your total proten will be accurate and reflect the depth and breadth of your collection.

Why can’t I change a wallet?

If you have no wallet associated with your Unioverse account the ‘change wallet button’ will not work.

Am I going to miss something because the calculator isn’t working?

No. All the relevant information regarding your collection stays with your account.

What is the criteria for getting protens? I’m seeing zero on my end.

Make sure that your wallet is connected.

Can I combine proten counts from multiple wallets in my Unioverse account?

No. Each wallet represents its own proten count.

I have Collectibles in multiple wallets. Can I consolidate them and keep all my protens?

No. Proten counts are associated with the Unioverse Collectibles in a given wallet. If you transfer those Collectibles to a new wallet, the proten count starts over for those Collectibles.

It’s one thing for us to tell you that Unioverse Heroes are gorgeous, world-class, game-ready NFTs.

But it’s another thing entirely to show you.

Today we are proud to announce the availability of our Unioverse Viewer. With this Viewer, you can browse thousands of unique next-generation NFTs — fully-rendered 3D Unioverse Heroes across all rarities. The Viewer even has manual controls so you can spin, tilt, pan and zoom in to see every little detail that we put into making AAA-quality NFTs. Put a melee or ranged weapon in their hand to see what they’ll look like as they charge into battle.

That’s right. You can preview how they’ll look in action because our Hero NFTs are how players will look in Unioverse games. These aren’t just pretty pictures. Unioverse Hero NFTs have utility. Owning a Unioverse Hero NFT grants you access to all Unioverse games. I’ll say it again just to be clear: All Unioverse games. (Check out our Unioverse Developer Logs to see these characters jump, climb, wall run and more in early game test environments)

The first Hero we’re launching is Reyu, a bad-ass Ja’Din Hunter known and feared throughout the Unioverse. With our Viewer, you can preview thousands of unique Reyus right now. Purple Reyus. Shiny Reyus. Masked Reyus. Each one different. All are awesome. To get the Viewer you’ll need to be on a PC (view full specs here). But once you download it, you’ll be able to sift through and enjoy looking at as many Reyus as you like. And as we announce and add more Hero NFTs, you’ll be able to see those as well.

We’re minting our first set of Reyus on January 8, 2023. The mint is free (you need to pay gas fees), but you’ll need Protens to get a Reyu. To earn enough Protens, you need to be collecting Unioverse Collectible NFTs. It’s all very simple (and free!). Check out our full Collectible/Proten explainer for all the details.

We write a lot about the Unioverse across this blog, on Twitter, on Discord. But, just as the best writing shows and doesn’t tell, sometimes the best way to show off what we’re building is to, well, show you.

Below are playlists for three of our biggest video properties:

• The Danger Room Developer Logs give you a sneak peek at the work we are putting into creating amazing Unioverse characters and videogames
• Worldbuilding Secrets features interviews with writers, artists and more to explain what it takes to make a story worthy of devotion
• The Jump Pod is our weekly discussion show where we chat with industry luminaries about topics and trends in the web3/videogame space

These playlists are automatically updated, so bookmark this page and keep checking in to see the latest episodes. We’ll also be adding more types of videos like story and game trailers, interviews and more. Follow us on Twitter and join our Discord to stay up to date.

Unioverse How-Tos

Unioverse Trailers

Unioverse Danger Room Videos

Worldbuilding Secrets

The Jump Pod

If you weren’t able to make our Founders Corner Twitter Spaces last week, well, there’s no way to sugar coat it. You missed out! We made a ton of announcements, the biggest of which is that our first Unioverse Hero Character NFT, Reyu will be available to mint on January 8, 2023. There will be just 20,000 Reyu Genesis NFTs in this collection. The mint will be free on Ethereum (you need to cover gas fees).

To get your own Reyu Genesis, you’ll need to earn Protens. To earn Protens, you need to collect and hold as many Unioverse Collectibles as you can. We did a whole blog post explaining how it all works.

For more details direct from the Unioverse Co-Founders, Tony and Wyeth, listen to this recording of the most recent Founders Corner!

This post was authored by New York Times Bestselling author, Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw). Graham Jones will also be contributing to Stories of the Reconvergence, the forthcoming Unioverse anthology of short fiction and poetry

You can tell a world—a Unioverse—is a productive storytelling space if, when you write within it, it’s just spinning off more and more story elements. Some science fiction writer from decades and decades ago, who I’m about to violently misparaphrase, said that what makes a place real for the reader isn’t the schematics and the history, the climate and the technology, the language and the look, it’s the third- or fifth-level repercussions of all that climate and language and history. Like, how in Ender’s Game, Ender’s name comes indirectly from protocols built into that culture, that era, but it’s not the first thing you guess when given those protocols. How in Altered Carbon, these re-sleeving capabilities have of course led to military units specializing in gaining control of their bodies quicker, to have a tactical advantage . . . but this also leads to methuselahs. Or, in our own world: introduce franchise horror characters, and, years later, you get Cthulhu plushies and Funko Pop Freddy Kruegers, which I’m pretty sure none of us could have ever guessed.

Drop a pebble into the pond of reality, and characters in stories will be surfing those distant, third- and fifth-level ripples for years and years.

By the time I dropped into the Unioverse, that pebble had already been dropped, and my characters were way out at the edge of the pond, riding the ripples. I’ve written for a few pre–existing properties before, and for each I usually get a bible, outlining what I can or can’t do. But, really, with work done within these pre–existing worlds, the cardinal rule is always “don’t break the place up.” This is why tie-in novels usually happen in a little narrative eddy off to the side, where A) nothing can get broken, and B) everything can reset after, such that the audience doesn’t need to engage this tie-in, but, if they do, it’s not going to mess anything up for them, either. 

The Unioverse is a little different to work within, though. For a couple of reasons. The first is that, unlike nearly every other franchise and property, this one isn’t a snowball that’s been rolling for decades, picking up different, often contradictory “rules” along the way. Rather, the Unioverse has been completely thought-out all at once. In comic book terms, you could say that this is Ultimate Spider-Man, not decades of Amazing and Spectacular done by a host of writers, meant to somehow all be the same character, the same arc. In the Unioverse, there’s no retcon necessary to tell the next installment.

And? “Next” isn’t even the right word, there, which is the second reason the Unioverse is a bit different to work within. This isn’t about sequence or progression, and there’s no quest, no common goal. Rather, the Unioverse . . . it’s sort of like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, I guess? It’s a place where all the stories happen, but across time, and without relation to each other. It’s an open world, where you make your own stories. And, instead of a phonebook of a bible, there’s a wiki you can refer to when making those stories.

Trick is, though, the Unioverse’s inbuilt “rules”—not the right word, quite—aren’t bumpers making your bowling ball find the pins eventually, but rather answers to questions your story or game or adventure is probably already asking, fundaments that push you forward rather than hold you back. They’re the backdrop, they’re the physics, but, if we’re sticking with the bowling thing, then the alley, man, it’s twenty lanes wide: there’s so much room to operate.

Check out Stephen Graham Jones talking about the Unioverse on our Worldbuilding Secrets podcast!

Example: in my story “The Distance,” of course the Creator tech is inviolable—if it’s not, then the physics of the Unioverse crumble. But, since that Creator tech’s been part of things for five hundred years, I had to imagine that, first, there would be all kinds of rumors and theories about its source, its inner workings, its permeability. Second, though—and this was the fun part—I had to suspect that, while people can’t imitate it, they probably can retrofigure back from it, to try to get to some version of the same place. As in, they can see, via Creator tech, that this or that is possible, and so, with that assurance, they delve in with their own limited tech, try to accomplish something . . . if not the same, then in the same vein, anyway. Or, as close as they can get. “Sys tech,” it’s called in my story: wholly inferior to Creator tech, but at least trying to approach that same level of competence.

And then, too, my protagonist being an animal smuggler—everyone’s got their specialty—that left me with the much sought-after obligation to dream up animal after animal, from planet after planet, even down to deep-space carrion mites. 

The only thing I can imagine that might be half as much as fun as dreaming up alien pets would be racehorse naming. But? With these animals, I even get to do a little of that naming, so . . . best of all possible worlds, here, yes. Or, rather, best of all Unioverses, that being the one where I can have giant, world-changing fish-worms and bird-things that spout insults.

Hope y’all like the story, but, more than that, I hope you have fun jumping all through this place. You won’t understand the circuitry—it’s Creator tech, nobody gets it—but that doesn’t mean you can’t ride it to the end of known space, and then go back, ride it out a different direction as well.

Stephen Graham Jones

This is Reyu

Check out our Reyu work-in-progress on OpenSea

Reyu is many things:

• Bad-ass warrior in the story of Unioverse
• Gorgeous 3D NFT that you can own
• AAA-quality game-ready asset you can play in any Unioverse videogame

If you are a part of the Unioverse Community, owning a Reyu Hero NFT is something you’ll definitely want, and if you’re interested in playing Unioverse games, owning a Unioverse Hero NFT like Reyu is something you need.

We will be releasing 20,000 unique Reyu Genesis Hero NFTs on January 8, 2023. There will only ever be 20,000 Reyu Genesis NFTs, and you can get yours for free! All you have to do is earn Unioverse Protens.

In the lore of the Unioverse, Protens are the energy source that powers all of the alien technology. Here in the real world, Protens are what you earn by collecting our free Unioverse Collectible NFTs. The more Unioverse Collectibles you hold, and the longer you hold them, the more Protens you can earn. If you have enough Protens, you can buy your own Reyu (while supply lasts). Check out our Reyu NFT works in progress over on OpenSea.

There will be additional Unioverse Hero mints throughout 2023, here’s what you need to know:

Unioverse Heroes

• Minted on Ethereum
• Dozens of visual parameters with millions of combinations
• Each NFT is visually unique
• These are next-generation, game-ready heroes
• You need a Unioverse Hero to access Unioverse games
• You will be able to access every Unioverse game with your NFT Hero

Unioverse Collectible NFTS

Unioverse Collectible NFTs are how you earn Protens. These are free NFTs and there has already been a number of Unioverse Collectible drops thus far, with more to come.

Unioverse Collectibles drops are limited by time and not supply. When a drop occurs, there is a window of time, typically between 1 – 4 hours in which you can claim that NFT. Once that time window closes, that NFT will never be minted again.

Claiming Unioverse Collectible NFTs is free — we even pay the gas fee.

The best way to learn about future Unioverse Collectible drops is to join our Discord and follow us on Twitter. If you participate enough in the Unioverse Community, you can earn Legend status in Discord. Unioverse Legends get up to 24 hours’ notice before Collectible drops.

Again, the more Unioverse Collectibles you claim and the longer you hold them the more Protens you earn!

Protens Power the Unioverse

Every day you earn Protens for every Unioverse Collectible you hold in your wallet. You don’t have to take any actions. Just by holding your collectibles you are already earning Protens.

In addition to earning Protens, you can combine certain Collectibles to get higher tier Unioverse NFTs. Higher tier Collectible NFTs earn even more Protens per day.

Additional Heroes

The Unioverse is an expansive story that will be filled with awesome heroes, many of which will become Hero NFTs and playable characters in Unioverse games.

You can continue to collect Unioverse Collectibles and earn Protens to mint not only different heroes and different hero styles, but also vehicles, weapons and more.

Protens can also be redeemed to acquire Unioverse comic books, art, novels and more as the Unioverse continues to expand.

FAQ

Q: What are Unioverse Collectibles?

Q: What can I do with Unioverse Collectibles?

Q: What’s a Proten?

Q: How many Protens does a Collectible earn?

Q: What can I get with Protens?

Q: How many Protens do I earn?

Q: What are Unioverse Hero Character NFTS?

Q: What’s a Reyu?

Q: Cool! How do I get a Reyu?

Q: How many Protens will Reyu cost?

Q: Can I buy Proten Packs?

Q: Wait, so Reyu is free?

Q: Can I buy more than one Reyu?

Q: Which rarity Reyu will I receive?

Q: Will I need Ethereum?

Q: Why is the Reyu Genesis collection only 20,000?

Q: Will there be other Hero Character NFTS?

Q: How do I combine Unioverse Collectibles?

Q: How do I get started collecting Unioverse Collectibles?

Q: Whitelist?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these videos showing off some early Unioverse character development tests must be worth, well, let’s not put a number on it and just say a lot. 

Up until now you’ve seen killer Unioverse concept art, gotten glimpses at some of our characters like Reyu, and claimed thousands of our gorgeous NFTs Collectibles. But one thing you haven’t seen is the Unioverse in action.  

Now would be a good a time as any to remind you that while the Unioverse takes advantage of NFT technology – we are not just a pfp. The Unioverse is a game-first, community-owned franchise. Your unique Unioverse character NFT is not only how you will look when you play Unioverse games, it also gives you access to every Unioverse game. 

These are AAA-quality characters we are building. They are fully-rendered, properly rigged, brilliantly lit, shaded and textured character models – and they are all game ready. 

Not only does this mean anyone who holds one of our hero NFTs holds a gorgeous 3D character, it also means that any game developer looking to lower costs (we offer them up, royalty-free!) and decrease time to market can easily plug any Unioverse character into just about any type of game with confidence. 

But we also want to be transparent with the Unioverse Community, to show that we are hard at work building something that is truly groundbreaking and amazing. We are a community-owned franchise, which means anyone will be able to download these character models to make their own animations, or art or comic or whatever.

So today we are launching the Unioverse Developer Log video series. In this ongonig series, we’ll give you a sneak-peek every step of the way as we bring these characters to life.

Some things to remember: 

• This footage is all very early. Character models and movements are still being developed, and the environments are all boxes and grids – so don’t freak out.
• These videos are in a series going from oldest to most recent. So you’ll see a progression (and things will only get more awesome going forward). 
• These videos don’t necessarily represent what any final gameplay will be. I mean, it could, but again, this is more of a proving ground and an early stage in the development process. 

Enjoy this footage, and be on the lookout for more Developer Logs coming out soon!

NOTE: Your browser must accept our cookies in order to view the videos. You can also view them directly on the Unioverse YouTube Channel.

Co-Authored by Christian Williams and Ryan David Williams of Ashbury. 

The ultimate goal of the Unioverse is to create a revolutionary new model for how franchises like Star Wars or Marvel should exist. A model that rewards participation above consumption. Where creative people around the world are empowered and encouraged to not just play our games – but to build our world. 

To do this, we’re making the Unioverse a community-owned franchise, and we’ve been working with renowned Web3 law firm Ashbury to create a new intellectual property framework to power that vision. Something like this has never been done at this scale, because it’s hard. But we’ve been working hard(er) to figure it out.

As we create and expand the Unioverse, we’ll create and release characters, artwork, locations and other digital assets that you can use to tell your own stories, create your own comic books and print your own T-shirts (and even keep all the money you make doing so!). The Unioverse is yours to build (and profit from!). 

But every well-ordered universe needs (a small number of) rules to ensure fairness and respect for all its citizens. The rules of the Unioverse are embodied in what we call the Unioverse Community Creations License. Our friends at Ashbury tried to use everyday English, but sometimes they couldn’t avoid some legal jargon. Thankfully they helped us build the fancy legalese-to-english translator below.

At the end of the day, here’s what we want you to know: We want you to both play and build in the Unioverse. We even want you to make money doing so! Yes, there are a few caveats, but these rules will actually make the Unioverse stronger and your participation in it more enjoyable. 

You can read the full terms of service here and visit the Unioverse Assets page to start downloading some of our artwork. Have questions? Hop over to our Discord to chat with our mods and other fans about how you’ll help build the Unioverse. 

UNIOVERSE ™ Community Creations License

By using Unioverse Community Assets (defined below), you agree to this license:

1. Unioverse Community Assets. From time to time, we may make available artwork, building blocks, infrastructure, environments, characters, code, or other types of digital content (collectively, “Unioverse Community Assets” or “UCA”) that is available for anyone in the world to use, as long as they follow the rules in this license. Please note that we are not obligated to make UCA available by any specific deadline or with any specific regularity.

TRANSLATION: We are creating Unioverse Community Assets for our community to use as long as you follow these rules. Also, we will determine what assets are released and when. These assets will be posted on the UCA webpage. 

2. Eligibility. To be eligible to use this license, you must be either (a) an individual of at least 18 years of age, or (b) an entity that (together with its affiliates, subsidiaries, parents and related companies) has (i) no more than 50 employees, and (ii) no more than $5 million in annual revenue. If you do not meet this criteria, but still want to use UCA, please contact us at questions@random.games.

Translation: UCA is for everyday gamers – not big companies. And let’s be real, if you’re a large organization, you can afford your own content. So please don’t hijack ours. On the flip side, if you truly want to collab with us on the Unioverse, feel free to reach out. 

3. Ownership. We own all rights, title, and interest in and to all UCA, including all copyrights, trademarks, and any other intellectual property rights. However, we give you permission to use UCA according to this license.

TRANSLATION: We still own the Unioverse Community Assets, but we’re giving you permission to use them. 

4. License. We grant to you a non-exclusive, revocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, distribute, display, perform, modify, and create derivative works of UCA, for any purpose, whether commercial or personal, except for the restrictions in Section 6. For example, you can use UCA to create podcasts, films, plays, books, comics, clothing, merchandise, home goods, stickers, art, photography, and other works not prohibited by Section 6. We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you in this license. 

TRANSLATION: You can use the Unioverse Community Assets to make tons of stuff: Podcasts, movies, plays, comics, clothing… you get the point. And you can sell whatever you make. But…spoiler alert…there are exactly five things you can’t do. Keep reading. 

5. Unioverse Community Creations. Anything you create under this license is known as “Unioverse Community Creations” or “UCC.” You agree to the following terms for all UCC created by you:
   1. You own the rights in all original work that you create using UCA.
   2. You grant a license to anyone, including Random Games, to use characters, events, locations, names, ideas, or any other concepts (“Unioverse Concepts”) from UCC created by you, even if these Unioverse Concepts are not derived from UCA, for the purpose of contributing to the Unioverse. On behalf of yourself and your heirs, successors and assigns, you agree not to bring any claim against anyone in connection with their use of Unioverse Concepts created by you. On behalf of yourself and your heirs, successors and assigns, you waive all of your rights, including all moral rights and intellectual property rights, to restrict, whether through legal, technological, or any other means, anyone’s use of Unioverse Concepts created by you. 

TRANSLATION: You own your original work, but you must share concepts from your work with the Unioverse Community. You can’t sue or take other legal action against anyone for using your concepts, ideas, and characters. TRANSLATION OF THE TRANSLATION: Chill. Be cool. Share your stuff. Just like we shared with you.

6. Restrictions. This license has restrictions. If you violate the restrictions or any other term of this license, we have the right to revoke your license. If we revoke your license, you must immediately stop your use of all UCA and UCC. You cannot use this license to: (1) create or contribute to any type of software, video game, video game experience or non-fungible token; (2) violate the intellectual property rights of any third party or combine UCA with any intellectual property that you do not own or have a valid license to use; (3) disparage or damage Random Games or the Unioverse; (4) break the law or promote illegal activities; or (5) engage in behavior that constitutes hate speech, harassment, abuse, fraud, defamation, discrimination, or obscenity. We have the authority to determine, in our sole discretion, whether you have violated this license. We also have the authority to designate another entity, such as a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”), to make that determination for us.

TRANSLATION: OK, so here are the five things you CAN’T do with Unioverse assets. Let’s call them Unio-no-nos: 

• Don’t create products that fans will expect to come from us, meaning…
  • No software (for example, no making a Unioverse social network or metaverse)
  • No videogames (you actually can make games, you just need to work with us to do so. Find out more on our Developers page)
  • No Unioverse NFTs
• No using someone else’s intellectual property (so Luke Skywalker can’t star in your story. In fact, Disney might sue us just for mentioning his name.)
• No hating on Random Games or the Unioverse (before you get all worked up – every company has this clause)
• No breaking the law
• No hate speech, harassment, abuse, fraud, defamation, discrimination, or obscenity. (Don’t be toxic, don’t be a jerk) 

7. Attribution. Unioverse Community Creations are about building up the Unioverse community. When you use UCA, you must clearly indicate that your work is UCC by:
   1. Clearly displaying the UCC Logo on all UCC that you create. The logo is available here and must be displayed such that it is reasonably perceivable by the average person. We are granting you a license to use the UCC logo for this singular purpose. You cannot use the UCC logo for any other purpose;

TRANSLATION: If you create something for the Unioverse, you have to include the Unioverse Community Creations logo so fans know this work was created by the community. 

2. Indicating on any website where the UCC is displayed or made available that your work was created under this license by either (1) including the full text of this license, or (2) including a link to this license; and

TRANSLATION: If you post your work somewhere online, include this license or link back to it. 

3. Not using the official UNIOVERSE™ logo, or any other Random Games trademarks without express written permission from us.

TRANSLATION: Don’t use the official UNIOVERSE logo for anything. Ever. 

8. No Promises. We are making UCA available to anyone in the world for free. All UCA are provided “as is.” We make no explicit or implied promises, guarantees, or assurances about the quality, safety, accuracy, or legal status of any UCA, and we have no liability for any claim related to UCA, UCC or your use of either. You are solely responsible for your use of UCA and UCC and your creation of UCC, and you assume any and all associated risks.

TRANSLATION: We think these Assets are pretty dope, but we can’t guarantee that they’re perfect. Use at your own risk.

9. Terms of Service. Except as stated above, the Random Games Terms of Service applies to your use of this website, UCA, and UCC. 

TRANSLATION: But wait, there’s more. This isn’t the only fine print that applies to your interactions with the Unioverse; our standard website terms of service also apply. 

10. Updates. We may update this license from time to time, and new updates will be posted on this webpage. Updated versions of this license are binding on you with respect to your creation of UCC on or after the date indicated in the updated license.

TRANSLATION: We’re completely reimaging franchise ownership, so don’t hate on us if we don’t get it right the first time. But don’t worry…any changes to this license will not affect work you created before the change. 

That wasn’t so bad, was it?

Pardon us as we pop a bottle of bubbly over here at Unioverse HQ, but we are thrilled to announce the successful completion of our first, free Unioverse Collectible NFT claim!

More than 4,000 Unioverse Collectibles were claimed in roughly an hour yesterday. In total, more than 5,000 of our Collectible NFTs have been claimed since they were first offered to those with Legend status starting last week.

Did you get yours? 

If you followed us on Twitter or joined our Discord, you got the heads up when the Collectible dropped (so, you know, go do those things).  But fear not! This was just the first, there are many more to come. 

The Unioverse Collectibles are a series of NFTs that feature jaw-dropping art and a little bit of info about the story world we are building. These are high-end NFTs with 3D art and animation, and in the description field, you’ll notice a little blurb giving you a gateway into the Unioverse. 

Here’s an example:

Description: 

Once the smaller alien craft has power, the interior responds to the presence of humans, lighting up a path to a central chamber.

Ooooh. Mysterious!

Unioverse Collectibles aren’t just pretty to look at – they also have utility. These collectibles are numbered, and when you complete a set (e.g. #1 – 4) you can forge them to unlock a different collectible with higher rarity. Also, the more you hold the higher your status on our Discord which unlocks other fun stuff like exclusive Q&As, exclusive content, early alpha and whitelists. 

This is just our first step into the NFT space. In the coming weeks and months we’ll have more to share about our NFT hero characters that you’ll use to play Unioverse games. But until then, keep collecting these freebies!

And for real, follow us on Twitter and join our Discord.

Web3 and the entire NFT sector are at a crossroads. Many marketplaces are choosing to break the foundational contract with creators and make royalty payments optional. As we’ve said before, this is a bad idea.

Today I’d like to outline our take on the situation and lay out what our current plans are. Obviously, this is a rapidly changing ecosystem, and plans must adapt along with (or in spite of) market conditions.

Creator Royalties are Good

First, here is what we at the Unioverse believe:

• Creators should receive royalties. This fundamental mechanism of NFTs is part of what makes them revolutionary.
• We are creators and will fight for other creators. A rising tide should lift all boats. 
• There is still a chance to reverse the current trend of optional royalties and pressure current marketplaces to respect creator royalties or lose their market share. The window to accomplish this, however, is rapidly closing.
• If royalties disappear, current creators will suffer, fewer new creators will launch, and the adoption of NFTs will be set back by many, many years.

How the Unioverse Will Enforce Royalties

This is our plan for our upcoming mint of Unioverse Collectibles. 

• These are FREE NFTs (we are paying gas too!) with a 10% creator royalty. 
• These NFTs have utility, and we believe delivering on that utility creates an ecosystem where everyone’s incentives are aligned. 
• We have created a smart contract for the collection, and a second contract that records which marketplaces are Allowed/Denied by Marketplace smart contract addresses. This second contract can have markets added or removed by us, at any time. 
• All our future NFTs will refer to this same secondary contract list. 

Our challenge to all marketplaces is simple: if you respect our royalties we will eagerly participate on your marketplace. If you don’t, we will block it. Marketplaces can message our Twitter @theunioverse if you want a whitelist.

Our guidance to our collectors is this: Only use marketplaces that respect creator royalties. If you end-run royalties, we reserve the right to detect that and disable an NFT’s ongoing utility. A reminder that the Unioverse is a game-first franchise, so disabling an NFT could impact not just appearance, but future gameplay as well. Protecting creator royalties ultimately protects collectors as well, because it preserves the alignment of incentives between us all. 

We do not like going against the spirit of marketplace decentralization, and fully expect future technologies to better resolve this issue. At this juncture, however, we believe it’s in everyone’s best interest (including the marketplaces!) to fight on behalf of creators. 

We encourage current collections to consider re-minting (airdropping) with new smart contracts, and hope communities support and adopt the newly minted versions. Independent creators interested in learning more about our Terms of Service and smart contract approach can reach out to us on Twitter or join our Discord. You can also view our smart contract and allowlist code online.

If creators can work together as a community and reward marketplaces that respect creator rights, then we can strengthen the health and longevity of the NFT industry for everyone involved.

Perhaps the best way to kick off this blog post is to hand it over to Mr. Stephen King himself:

Why am I referring to a nearly-year-old tweet from the master of horror? Well, because the guy who wrote that “Thrilling, literate, scary, immersive” novel, Stephen Graham Jones, is putting his talent to work for the Unioverse. 

Jones, along with 27 other writers such as Linda D. Addison  (Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda) and Kevin J. Anderson (Dune: The Butlerian Jihad) are contributing to Stories of the Reconvergence, a forthcoming anthology of short stories and poetry set in the Unioverse. Each story will also feature original art by Stuart Jennett (Star Citizen) with cover art by Aaron Lovett (Monster Train). Stories of the Reconvergence will be edited by Colorado Book Award winner Joshua Viola and Angie Hodapp, Director of Literary Development at Nelson Literary Agency and published in the Summer of 2023, and you can check out the full list of authors below. 

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, we’re also launching a comic book series. The six-issue story arc will introduce the initial five Unioverse heroes that people will be able to play in Unioverse games. The series is written by Viola and Hodapp, with interior art by Ben Matsuya (Cryowulf), cover art by AJ Nazzaro (Overwatch) and a variant cover by Tyler Kirkham (DC, Marvel). The first comic, titled Unioverse: Reyu, will be available digitally in Spring of 2023. 

Both Stories of the Reconvergence and Unioverse: Reyu are being done in partnership with Hex Publishers, an independent publishing house owned and operated by Viola that specializes in genre fiction: horror, science fiction, crime, dark fantasy and more. 

We are thrilled to have all of these talented people on-board to help expand the Unioverse into the entertaining and enthralling franchise that you (and Stephen King) are going to love. 

You can read the full press announcement here.

Complete list of Stories of the Reconvergence writers: 

• Mario Acevedo • National bestseller, Colorado Book Award winner
  Killing the Cobra, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, X-Rated Blood Suckers, University of Doom
• Linda D. Addison • Bram Stoker Award winner, Horror Writers Association (HWA) Lifetime Achievement Award winner
  Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda, Classic Monsters Unleashed, Predator: Eyes of the Demon, The Place of Broken Things
• Kevin J. Anderson • National and international bestseller
  Dune, Spine of the Dragon, Star Wars, X-Files, Zombie P.I.
• Andy Baker  
  The 7^th Portal, The Accuser, The Backstreet Project, House of the Dead
• Carina Bissett • Colorado Book Award winner
  HWA Poetry Showcase, Shadow Atlas, Upon a Twice Time
• Kenneth W. Cain • Splatterpunk Award finalist
  Darker Days, Embers, A Season in Hell, Tales from the Lake
• Kevin Dilmore • Amazing Stories, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Rainbow Bright, Star Trek, The Village Voice 
• Sean Eads • Colorado Book Award finalist, Lambda Literary Award finalist, Shirley Jackson Award finalist
  Classic Monsters Unleashed, It Came from the Multiplex, Lord Byron’s Prophecy, Nightmares Unhinged, Shadow Atlas
• Brent Friedman • Call of Duty, Halo 4, League of Legends, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Walking Dead
• Maxwell I. Gold • Rhysling Award nominee
  Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums, Oblivion in Flux, Shadow Atlas 
• Warren Hammond • Colorado Book Award winner
  Denver Moon, It Came from the Multiplex, KOP, Nightmares Unhinged, Shadow Atlas, Tides of Maritinia
• Angie Hodapp • Colorado Book Award finalist
  Cyber World, False Faces, It Came from the Multiplex, Shadow Atlas, Tooth & Claw
• Jamal Hodge • Vanguard Award winner
  Chiral Mad 5, Penumbric Magazine, Space and Time Magazine 
• Akua Lezli Hope • Elgin Award winner, Writer’s Digest Award winner
  NOMBONO, Otherwheres, Them Gone
• Gabino Iglesias • Bram Stoker Award nominee, Locus Award nominee, Wonderland Book Award winner
  Zero Saints, Coyote Songs
• Stephen Graham Jones • New York Times bestseller, Bram Stoker Award winner, Ray Bradbury Prize
  Earthdivers, My Heart is a Chainsaw, The Only Good Indians
• Matthew Kressel • Nebula Award finalist, World Fantasy Award finalist
  King of Shards, Queen of Static
• Lee Murray • Bram Stoker Award winner
  Grotesque: Monster Stories, The Path of Ra, The Taine McKenna Adventures
• Wyeth Ridgway • Game Developer
  Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, South Park, Terminator
• Jeanne C. Stein • bestselling author of the Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles
• Joshua Viola • Denver Post bestseller, Colorado Book Award winner, Splatterpunk Award nominee
  The Bane of Yoto, Blackstar, Classic Monsters Unleashed, Cyber World, Denver Moon, It Came from the Multiplex, Nightmares Unhinged, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shadow Atlas, Target: Terror
• Tim Waggoner • Bram Stoker Award winner, Shirley Jackson Award finalist
  Alien, Halloween Kills, Resident Evil, Supernatural
• Dayton Ward • New York Times bestseller
  24, Mars Attacks, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek 
• Carter Wilson • USA Today bestseller, Colorado Book Award winner
  The Comfort of Black, The Dead Girl in 2A, The Dead Husband, Mister Tender’s Girl
• Jezzy Wolfe
  Insidious Assassins, Monstrum Poetica, Shallow Waters, Zippered Flesh
• Jane Yolen • Nebula Award winner, World Fantasy Award winner
  The Devil’s Arithmetic, Lost Girls, Owl Moon, Sister Emily’s Lightship 
• Alvaro Zinos-Amaro • Hugo Award finalist, Locus Award finalist
  Equimedian, Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, When the Blue Shift Comes

One of the reasons artists and other creative folks are so excited about NFTs is royalties. Back in the day, an artist only made money one time from their creation. They would sell a painting for $100 (good!), but then sit and watch as that buyer turned around and sold that same painting for $10,000 (not so good). The artist got zero dollars and zero cents from that secondary sale. 

Getting a cut of those secondary sales was a big reason then, that artists were attracted to NFTs. The smart contract in the NFT would automatically give the artist a cut of any future sales of their work. Win/win! Collectors still get the lion’s share of the money from secondary sales, and artists get recurring revenue, allowing them to make more art. 

But here’s a fun fact: Turns out those automatic royalty payments in smart contracts aren’t so automatic. CoinDesk explained the situation pretty well a couple months back, writing: 

…Royalty payments are only enforceable on a marketplace level, and not on-chain. An NFT buyer, for example, could send ether (ETH) to a designated wallet after making an off-chain agreement to buy their NFT, and the seller could send them that NFT with no marketplace as a middleman for the transaction, paying no royalty fees in the process.

Sellers on marketplaces such as OpenSea can program a designated fee into each sale, in most cases between 5%-10% of an item’s purchase price, but if a marketplace wanted to waive the fee altogether, there’s nothing stopping them from doing so.

NFT marketplaces like x2y2, Yawww and Sudoswap have decided to make royalty payments optional on their NFT transactions. Sure, in the short-term that means buyers pay less for their NFTs, but that also means the original NFT artists and creators could wind up getting [does math things, carries the one] zero dollars in recurring revenue. 

(We should note that while these marketplaces are making NFT royalties optional, these same marketplaces are still keeping their transaction fee percentages firmly in place.) 

Like a virus, you’re starting to see this zero royalty notion spread to other established marketplaces and even other NFT projects. Recently the Solana NFT project DeGods announced it was getting rid of its royalties as part of an “experiment.”

The leader of the DeGods project, who goes by the handle “Frank” posted to Twitter: 

Honestly, I actually hope that our move to 0% accelerates real solutions that create enforceable royalties.

Whether or not Frank is actually altruistic or more mercenary remains to be seen. DeGods already made $6 million in secondary sales of its y00ts NFTs, and Dust Labs, the startup associated with DeGods raised $7 million in venture funding last month. So Frank and Co. are doing just fine.   

But what about the newer and smaller NFT projects? If market forces push them to abandon royalties, will they even get off the ground? Or worse, will it spur more rug pulls? 

The longer-term consequences of all this have yet to reveal themselves and raise a lot of questions: 

• Will burning tens of thousands of creators counting on royalties threaten the future of NFTs?
• Will creators need to charge more for initial mints, shutting people out?
• Do creators get in an arms race with marketplaces, each writing code to continuously circumvent each other?
• Will consumers now expect to pay zero royalties all the time? 
• Will fewer NFT projects and games launch because there is no longer a secondary revenue stream?

All these moves to get rid of royalties feels very web 2. It’s like something Amazon would do – use its size to undercut competition, squash innovation and grab marketshare. It also seems to fly in the face of what web3 is supposed to be about – community and empowerment. Like, web3 is great during the good times, but do its fundamental beliefs get immediately abandoned to protect losses during a downturn?

Obviously, we have a horse in this particular race and would love to see a robust and revenue-generating secondary market. NFT sales is how we generate revenue to fund our Game Developer Fund and pay small, independent developers to make games. We are confident that ultimately technology will create enforceable smart contract revenue to creators, but if in the meantime the Web3 community burns all the creators that took an early bet on NFTs for their music and art, how long will it take to regain their trust? Can we? 

Part of being a web3 company is open dialogue, something we hope this post spurs. We’d love to hear from the members of our community. What do you think about not paying royalties on NFTs? Head over to our Discord and share your opinion!

We felt that this issue was also too big to contain in just one blog post, so we brought in Benny from NFT aggregator Hyperspace for a lively discussion on our Jump Pod Unioverse podcast.

The Unioverse wants you! Yes, you! 

I’m happy to announce that we have officially kicked off the Unioverse Creator Program. 

What is the Unioverse Creator Program? I’m glad you asked. 

A core pillar of the Unioverse is that it’s a community-owned franchise. While we are creating the story of the Unioverse and building out an initial series of games – we are just as interested in seeing what you create. That’s why all the AAA-quality artwork, character models, music – everything that we make – will be made available to our community, royalty-free. 

What you create with those assets is entirely up to you! Make your own comic books, short animations, lunchboxes – I’m not kidding, whatever you want to make. 

The Unioverse Creator Program

We’re heads down right now creating those assets as well as the expansive lore of the Unioverse and plotting the first series of games. But you shouldn’t have to wait for us to start making your own Unioverse stuff. That’s why we’ve launched the Unioverse Creator Program.  

The Creator Program is a way for you to show off your talents right now. Head over to our Discord server where we will hold regular contests, discussions with our creative team, and provide links to download Unioverse assets. 

Our first contest launches today! We want you to design a Unioverse T-shirt

Whatever style you like, just make it awesome. Go over to our Discord server and join the Creators Area for all the details, artwork, and submission guidelines. All entries are due by Midnight US Pacific Time, Oct 25, 2022. The winner gets a free Unioverse T-Shirt (they designed), lots of Creator Points (see below) as well as other giveaways we are planning. Additionally, because we are a community-owned franchise, the winner (or any contestant) can even sell their shirt design online AND keep all of the money. 

Create. Level Up. Repeat.

Creating isn’t just a way to win great prizes either! Just by entering these Creator Program contests and participating on our Discord, you can earn Creator Points and level up your Creator status. Do a lot of stuff (like T-Shirt contests!) and level up faster to unlock perks such as:

• Whitelist spots on future NFT drops
• Exclusive chats with the Unioverse team (pitch us a game!)
• Direct connections with other Creators
• and more!

I sound like a broken record, but really, head over to the Creator Area on our Discord for more details. 

We know you’re going to love the Unioverse and we are going to love seeing what you make.

Nope. The Unioverse is not a Metaverse. End of blog post.

Well. That was quick. Who said writing is hard?

All kidding aside, the answer to that question, like so many aspects of the Unioverse, is both straightforward and more nuanced.

The Unioverse is not a Metaverse, but someone could build a very Metaverse-y experience on top of the Unioverse.

Allow me to explain.

Heroes, not Twins

The biggest difference between the Unioverse and a Metaverse is you.

Metaverses are about you. Whether you enjoy them as a digital twin of yourself with the same approximate hairstyle, face and body, or a more fantastical avatar with wings or horns or whatever that more fully represents you, the point remains the same. YOU are the person walking around and talking, emoting, dancing, whatever-ing with others in a virtual world.

But in the Unioverse, you play as one of our heroes. Among the many things the Unioverse is, at its heart is a gripping, expansive sci-fi story filled with a galaxy-spanning cast of characters. Just as you hop over turtles as Mario or blast the Covenant as Master Chief – in the Unioverse, you play as one of the heroes we create.

But any Unioverse hero you play will be uniquely yours. Because these hero characters are NFTs, and through our rarity model, no one else in the Unioverse will look exactly like you. Each hero character will have different traits (color, lighting, etc.) and some level of rarity (common, rare, legendary, etc.).

These heroes aren’t just about looks, though. Unioverse hero characters are your ticket to every Unioverse game that gets made.

One Unioverse, Infinite Games

When you think of a Metaverse today, you might think of Second Life, PlayStation HOME or games like Roblox and Fortnite.

Your mileage may vary with these different experiences, but consider this:

• Current Metaverses are massive, single spaces, controlled by corporate interests that do not interact with one another.

The Unioverse, on the other hand, is a distributed, community-owned franchise. That means there is no singular Unioverse experience. There will be hundreds of different games set in the Unioverse and they will all be different from one another. Any developer is free to create whatever kind of game they want: battle royale shooters like Fortnite, League of Legends-style MOBA games, or even racing games a la Mario Kart.

We don’t dictate what games get made, but you’ll be able to interact and play any of them, thanks to your hero character NFT. Developers are free to make whatever game they want, but it must work with our Unioverse heroes.

So instead of a massive, one-size-fits-all Metaverse, you’ll have hundreds and eventually thousands of different meta-experiences.

Which leads us to the nuanced part of this blog post.

Unio-Meta-Verse

Because we don’t tell developers what they can build in the Unioverse, an enterprising studio might create its own, traditional metaverse-like experience in the Unioverse.

For instance, a developer could create their own massively multiplayer RPG complete with quests across Unioverse planets. On a much smaller scale, someone could create their own version of a Mos Eisley-style cantina in the Unioverse where hero characters hang out. And, since anyone will be able to download the music we provide and remix it, Unioverse DJs (never say never!) could perform concerts.

The point is, that we are not building the Unioverse to be a monolithic, meta-experience. We are building it to knock down barriers and unleash creativity around the world and potentially be a place where a thousand metaverses bloom.

And that is the end of this blog post.

We launched the Unioverse last week and the feedback has been phenomenal. Because the Unioverse is an entirely new concept in franchise entertainment, we’ve also been getting a ton of questions on our Discord (which you should join!) and on Twitter.

So we thought it would be a good idea to collect some of these frequently asked questions (<- see what we did there?) and provide some answers!

Who is behind the Unioverse?

The Unioverse is the first franchise from Random Games, a venture-backed games studio Co-Founded by Tony Harman (GTA, Donkey Kong Country, Crackdown) and Wyeth Ridgway (South Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, MLB). We’re going to re-invent franchise entertainment through a combination of insanely great storytelling, innovative blockchain technology and a more open intellectual property system. Our first franchise will be the Unioverse.

What is the Unioverse?

The Unioverse is many things:

• It is an epic sci-fi story being created by a world-class team of artists, writers and developers who have expanded the narrative worlds of Star Wars, Marvel, The Walking Dead and more.
• It’s a series of videogames being developed by gaming industry vets who have worked on enormous titles like Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown, League of Legends and Star Citizen.
• It’s a reinvention of the way videogames get made. As we like to say, it’s like Roblox, but for AAA game developers.

But most importantly, the Unioverse is a “community-owned” franchise. That means all the AAA-quality art, character models, music and more that we create are made available to other game developers and our community royalty-free. Anyone can download our assets to make their own creations (comics, board games, T-shirts, etc.). Even better, those creations can be sold and we won’t take a dime.

Royalty-free? What’s the catch?

No catch! After working in the games industry for decades we recognize:

1. The whole games industry is broken. Developers lose too much money paying out royalties to app stores and spending money on user acquisition. By handing over these assets, developers can get straight to creating games and not worry about gaming their players with loot boxes.
2. Users create mind-blowing content when given the chance. Let’s see what happens when we equip our community to take off with their imagination, rather than limiting them with takedown notices.

How does Random Games Make Money?

We generate revenue by selling NFT hero characters. All revenue generated goes directly back into the franchise through expanded story, more assets and a Game Developer fund that will pay developers to make more games.

I think NFTs suck!

That’s not really a question, but we get it. The gaming community thus far has been burned by predatory NFT projects posing as games and giant corporations tacking on NFTs to existing franchises as a blatant cash grab. Random Games is using NFTs in the Unioverse in a thoughtful, limited way, and incorporating them from the ground up.

How will Random Games use NFTs?

Our NFT pitch is simple: In order to play a Unioverse game, you need to own a Unioverse character avatar NFT. That’s it. Owning a Unioverse NFT will give you access to all Unioverse games. Now, other developers making Unioverse games may add other crypto elements to their games — but that’s up to them.

What blockchain are you using?

We will start out using Ethereum and Polygon, however we are blockchain agnostic. You will see us embrace Solana, Avalanche or any other prominent technologies that emerge.

I’m a developer, how do I make a Unioverse game? What assets do I get?

Awesome! We’d love to hear from you. Check out the developers channel on our Discord, or head over to the Developers tab on this website and sign up for developer information. We’ll keep you updated as we have more news and announcements.

Developers working on Unioverse games will get access to our Unreal and Unity SDKs as well as our full library of assets (character models, environments, etc.). Plus you’ll get direct access to our talented team to get tips and tricks on game design and implementation.

If your game is great, we will pay you to make it.

Are you only going to work with big, established game devs?

Nope. No matter who you are, where you are, or how big your team, everyone will have access to our assets and SDK. And if you’re game is good, we’ll help fund it!

I’m not a developer, will I still be able to access and use Unioverse assets?

Heck yeah! You’ll be able to download our art and use our story however you want! Download the official image of one of our characters and print a T-shirt. Write your own short story. Animate a short film. Just make something and share it with the world!

Do developers have to make certain types of games?

Nope. Make whatever game you want (FPS, strategy, MOBA, etc.) and use whatever business model you want (freemium, premium, free-to-play, play-to-earn, subscription). It doesn’t matter to us.

What royalties will Random Game charge?

Again. All these assets are royalty-free and if you sell your game, you keep all the money. The only requirement is that your game uses our Unioverse character avatars.

When will assets be available?

We will have more news on that in the future. The best way to learn all about the Unioverse is to be active on our Discord, follow us on Twitter and go sign up for our newsletter using the form below.

When will your NFTs go on sale? How much will they cost?

Our first series of NFTs will actually be Unioverse collectibles and we’ll have more to say about them in the coming weeks. Not only will these look amazing, they will also help you unlock higher status and various rewards in our community. NFT collectibles will launch soon, so be sure to stay active on our Discord.

We will have more information about the availability of our hero characters in the coming months. Not to sound like a broken record, but the best way to learn about those is to be active on our Discord, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter using the form below.

Is there a roadmap or a whitepaper I can check out?

We will be publishing both of those things soon. Stay tuned.

Anything else I should know?

I think that’s it. We’re excited to build the Unioverse franchise with our community. Be active on our Discord, connect with other folks from around the world and be ready for a revolution in entertainment.

When I was 23 years old, I literally walked through the doors of the Nintendo of America in Redmond, Washington and said I would do anything in the building to get into the videogames business. I had no experience other than playing videogames for 15 years and a business degree.

Fortunately, someone in that lobby heard me and gave me a chance. I made the most of that opportunity and eventually ran development and acquisition for Nintendo for nine years, where I learned directly from legends like Shigeru Miyamoto. From there I was able to head up other independent studios to launch hit franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown.

But almost no one today can start like I did by just walking into a company building and asking for a job. Most people don’t live near a videogame studio, and even if they did, security wouldn’t even let them in the door.

This is actually a pretty apt metaphor for the entertainment business at large. Big media companies have all the resources to make a game, or comic or movie — but they wall themselves off from the vast, eager talent pool that’s hungry for its shot. No matter how creative you are, or how amazingly talented your work, if you aren’t in the right place at the right time or don’t know the right people, those doors are shut.

Or at least they were.

Today, I’m thrilled to announce that we are busting those doors wide open for everyone with the official launch of the Unioverse.

Welcome to the Unioverse

The Unioverse is a massive, sci-fi game-first franchise. The story is being developed by a team of world-class writers and artists who have written for and expanded the narrative worlds of huge entertainment properties of Star Wars, Marvel, Call of Duty, The Walking Dead and more.

Unlike those titles, however, the Unioverse is what we are calling a “community-owned” franchise. This means that you, whoever you are, wherever you are, will have access to the same art, models, music and more that we use, to create whatever you want.

The Unioverse and You

There are so many talented people in the world and I am continually blown away by the user-generated content I see in games. Modded characters, map levels, fan art – there is amazing stuff being created every day. The Unioverse will be a place that not only encourages its community to create, but also provides the tools to do so!

The same art, character models, music and more that we use to make Unioverse games will be made available – royalty-free! – to you (and anyone who wants to use them). These are AAA-quality assets made by some of the best writers, artists and developers in the industry, and you’ll be able to download them (again, for free!) and use them to make whatever you want.

• Want to make a comic but can’t draw? Use our art.
• Want to build a game, but have no budget? Use our character models and dive straight into development.
• Want something sci-fi and cool to pack your lunch in? Print a Unioverse lunchbox.

I think of it this way. I could sit and come up with an idea for a T-shirt, and it would turn out pretty cool. But if I turned to the Unioverse community and said “design a cool T-shirt,” they would come up with loads of amazing ideas way more awesome than mine.

Even better? Those creators can then sell those Unioverse shirts (or comics or games) and keep all the money! Let’s see you try and do that in the Marvel universe.

Unioverse U

As I said before, I got lucky at the start of my career and have been fortunate to work with some of the best minds in videogames. And now I want to return the favor and share what I’ve learned with the next generation of aspiring creatives.

Along with empowering the Unioverse community with industry-leading tools and assets, I want to teach you how to best use them. Collectively our team has decades of experience producing, writing and developing hit games, TV shows, books and more. The Unioverse community will have opportunities to talk with our team to learn the best tips, tricks and strategies for not just producing stellar content, but taking it to the next professional level.

As a part of the Unioverse community, you’ll also be connected with other creators just like yourself from around the world that you can learn from and collaborate with on projects.

I believe the Unioverse and its community-driven approach is the future of franchise entertainment. There are just too many talented people waiting to show the world what they can do, and they deserve a chance. I can’t wait to see what people create in our world when they come through our doors.

Join our Unioverse Discord channel to get first looks at the games as they progress, exclusive access to our team, and support from a community of like-minded creators.

It’s easy to get romantic about making a videogame from scratch… until that first blank screen stares back at you. That’s when you begin to realize all the things you have to create. and revise. and create again. and throw out.

And that’s before you even get to building the actual game.

Don’t get me wrong, I have some fond memories of the arduous process of creating games like Lemmings, GTA and Crackdown. But what if there was a way to get a running start and skip over that initial blank screen? To dive right into game development? What if there was a better way to make games that benefitted players too?

That’s the idea behind the Unioverse, an entirely new concept in videogame development and participation. Sure, the Unioverse will be a series of world-class videogames, comic books, novels and more. But the real power lies in the Unioverse as a community-owned franchise and its innovative use of blockchain.

The Unioverse community will have access to the same AAA-quality assets used in Unioverse games. Art, character models, music, etc., can be downloaded by anyone, royalty-free. Armed with Unioverse assets, the community is free to make their own comics, games and more and even sell those creations (also royalty-free!).

That’s an exciting new way to think about who gets to make games, whose stories are told and who truly benefits. And that is why I invested in the Unioverse and why you will love it.

Get Into the Game

For game developers, time is money. Well, money is money too, and developers can save a ton of both by using the royalty-free Unioverse assets. These tools are being made by a team of industry veterans who have helped make blockbuster videogame franchises like Crackdown and All Points Bulletin. So they know what they’re doing and know what developers need to succeed.

Using these building blocks, game developers of any size can dive into building a fantastic game. Smaller or even single-person shops won’t have to settle for sub-par art or spend loads of money on outside contractors. On the other end, bigger development studios will have a low-cost path to experiment and create a variety of games.

Even better, developers can make whatever kind of Unioverse game they want: FPS, strategy, deck-building – it’s up to them. And if developers choose to sell their Unioverse games – they keep all the money.

When more developers can get into the games business and focus on building rather than budgets – everyone wins because there is more diversity and better games.

But this isn’t just about developers.

More Utility for You

You wouldn’t buy a set of golf clubs that you could only use on one course and never sell when you upgraded, would you? Of course not! And soon, digital goods in games will be much the same, offering actual ownership, thanks to blockchain. 

Blockchain and NFTs are polarizing topics, to say the least, in videogames. But strip away the baggage of those terms, and you realize that digital ownership is fundamentally a solid proposition,  and will eventually benefit both gamers and developers. 

People used to spend sixty dollars on one game every few months. But today, players can spend thousands of dollars on a game when you include content like DLC, skins, sprays, emotes and other add-ons. That’s real money, and all of it vanishes when someone stops playing the game, or the developer decides to shut that game down.

When digital goods are player owned, however, they can live outside the game if they are on the blockchain. This means owners are free to do with them as they wish. Keep, collect or sell their digital gaming assets; that’s entirely up to the owner. And if they do want to sell, there are plenty of marketplaces that make it easy.

Additionally, unlike current in-game goods, blockchain assets can be engineered to move between games. Your Unioverse NFTs, for example, will work across different Unioverse games. That type of freedom has never been available in videogames before.

And that, perhaps, is the most exciting part of the Unioverse – it’s never been done before! Who knows where developers and the community will take it. Instead of a blank screen, we’re all looking at a pretty brilliant future for games.

You can be a part of the Unioverse from the very beginning! Head over to our Discord channel to get early access to Unioverse news and direct connections with the team behind it.

“When I grow up, I want to design loot boxes!” said no kid – ever. We got into the videogames business because we wanted to make great games, but over the years, actually making games has taken a backseat to gaming the audience. 

The entire games industry is broken and in dire need of a new approach. Thankfully, we believe we’ve created a better way in our new games franchise, the Unioverse. 

Twenty Cents on the Dollar

First, let’s look at what brought us to our current broken system. Over the past decade, game development has been crushed under the weight of three macro-trends: 

1. Freemium Games: We created a generation of gamers that now expect games to be free. The inability to charge for a game means revenues must be generated by interrupting gameplay with ads, micro-transactions and loot boxes.
2. User Acquisition: As the games audience grew and development tools got more accessible and cheaper, more games flooded the market. This is great, creatively speaking, but to get your game noticed in a sea of competitors, the user acquisition market was invented, sucking 14.5 Billion dollars out of development and into marketing in 2021 alone.
3. Mobile App Stores: With the rise of smartphones came the rise of mobile gaming, which IDC estimates will gobble up 60 percent of spending for the entire gaming market in 2022. This shift also made Apple and Google de facto gatekeepers, giving them unprecedented control over the market and the ability to charge exorbitant fees just for being on their platform.

A developer needs to consider all these factors and bake them into their game before development even begins. That’s all time spent figuring out monetization loops instead of refining gameplay. 

And all that is only if a developer creates a game based on original IP. If you want to make a game with an existing popular property, there is often a minimum paid guarantee costing hundreds of thousands of dollars (not to mention a cut of revenues going forward). 

But, suppose you get through all that, and you make a game and it’s great – congratulations! Now you most likely have to make your game free (see above), pay to acquire users (see above again) and then pay platforms like Apple and Google to host your game (see above one last time).  

Under this current model, we estimate that for every $1 a gamer spends, less than $0.20 gets to the game developer. Let that sink in for a moment. Game development is riskier than ever, developers make less per game, and even great games fail because they don’t figure out how to “trick” people into spending money. 

The good news is – it doesn’t have to be like this, and our new gaming franchise the Unioverse is a vision for revolutionizing the industry.

Development Made Easy

Think of the Unioverse like a “Roblox for Game Developers,” where we provide the content, audience, and a way to monetize; you provide the amazing games. The Unioverse empowers game developers in a number of significant ways, including: 

• Free Assets: Developers will have access to Unioverse in-game assets like environments, high-end artwork, character models, vehicles, music and more –  as well as SDKs for Unity and Unreal. All of this will be royalty-free and at no cost to the developer! This means developers don’t have to spend time and money creating building block assets and can go straight into game design. 
• More Flexibility Developers can make whatever game they want: shooter, platformer, strategy – as long as it works with Unioverse characters, it doesn’t matter to us!
• More Money: Developers can sell their games for whatever they want – and they keep 100 percent of the money. We won’t take a dime. Premium, freemium, give it away – that’s up to the developer. 
• Bigger Audience: Unioverse will already have a large, baked-in community ready to play games. So there’s no need to spend money on user acquisition because your user base has already been acquired! 
• Getting Paid: Our Game Developers Fund will actively pay third-party game developers to make more Unioverse games!

Our goal for the Unioverse is that at least 90 cents of every dollar a gamer spends goes back to growing the franchise or to the game developer building games – not to user acquisition companies or platforms like Apple and Google.

Blockchain Fuels a Path Forward

The only way crypto games will win over the mainstream gamer audience is by providing an overwhelming value proposition. Despite the current public perception, NFTs are a great mechanism to make videogames better for everyone involved. 

Sure, the use of NFTs and blockchain in games has been marred by too much hype and too many scams. Those setbacks, however, will ultimately prove useful because they will help gamers recognize when there is a legitimate use case that actually benefits them. 

NFTs underpin the Unioverse, our forthcoming gaming franchise currently under development by the creators of Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown, All Points Bulletin and more. Our pitch is simple: To play our games you need a Unioverse character avatar. That’s it. 

Game developers who want to partner with us can use our Unity and Unreal SDKs, and just need to ensure that our Unioverse avatars work in their games. They don’t have to introduce or build out any other blockchain functionality (but are free to do so, if they like).

We will take revenues from NFT avatar sales and put them back into the Unioverse ecosystem through further development of Unioverse assets that developers can use royalty-free, and by directly paying developers to make games through our Game Developer Fund.  

By opening up the Unioverse as a platform for developers, using blockchain in a straightforward manner, and allowing developers to keep the revenues they earn, we will revolutionize the games industry and hopefully fix the way future franchises are created.

If you’d like to develop a Unioverse game, visit our Developers page and join our Developers Channel on the Unioverse Discord server.

Resolute Ventures and Asymmetric co-led the round for the new startup game studio founded by industry veterans Tony Harman (Grand Theft Auto, Donkey Kong Country, Crackdown), Wyeth Ridgway (Pirates of the Caribbean, MLB and WWE2K)

Highlights:

• Random Games raised a $7.6 million seed round co-led by Resolute Ventures and Asymmetric, with participation from IGNIA, 2 Punks Capital, ID345, Polygon and renowned game-developer David Jones.
• The company plans to upend the traditional videogame business model with the Unioverse, a massive “community-owned” game franchise that empowers players with blockchain and free distribution of high-end assets.
• Random Games was co-founded by gaming industry legend Tony Harman (Grand Theft Auto, Donkey Kong Country, Crackdown) and is being created by an all-star team that has worked on hit franchises such as Star Wars, Call of Duty and Star Citizen.

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Random Games, a new studio reinventing the videogame business through a combination of community empowerment and blockchain, raised a $7.6 million seed round of funding. This multi-million-dollar round was co-led by Resolute Ventures and Asymmetric, with participation from IGNIA, 2 Punks Capital, ID345, Polygon and notable game-developer David Jones.

Random Games is creating the Unioverse, a massive “community-owned franchise” that flips the script on the relationship between developer, gamer and fan. The Unioverse will kick off with a series of videogames, but unlike any other franchises, the assets used to make those games will be made available to other developers and the community, royalty-free. The Unioverse AAA-quality characters, artwork, models, music and more can be downloaded and used by anyone to make their own games, comic books, movies, lunchboxes, T-shirts – whatever they can imagine. Plus, creators can sell whatever they make and keep the money.

“Imagine if Marvel released character art and 3D models and told fans to go make – and profit from – their fan films and comics,” said Tony Harman, Co-Founder of Random Games. “That’s how big this idea is. We have a team of world-class writers, artists and developers building the Unioverse and we are basically giving it away!”

Random Games is co-founded by a pair of gaming industry veterans that bring a wealth of creativity and experience with global entertainment franchises. Harman previously ran development and acquisition for Nintendo of America, launching iconic hits such as Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct; and has run multiple independent game studios responsible for developing such genre-defining franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown. Random Games Co-Founder, Wyeth Ridgway, was Founder and CEO of Leviathan Games, which over the past two decades has worked with dozens of beloved franchises including Terminator, Star Trek, South Park, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Unioverse will use NFTs as part of its path to reinventing the games business. Players will purchase an NFT character avatar, which is used to access and play Unioverse games. Because these avatars are NFTs, players can keep or sell them as they wish, and avatars will be interoperable across games in the Unioverse.

“We’re very excited to back such a strong team and are looking forward to watching them build a franchise that is literally changing the economics of gaming,” said investor Joe McCann, Founder and CEO of Asymmetric. “In the Unioverse, blockchain technology is organically and thoughtfully incorporated and will change the name of the game in the entertainment economy.”

In addition to fostering creativity in its community, Random Games is actively seeking independent studios of all sizes to develop games set in the Unioverse. Third-party developers can use the AAA-quality assets developed for the Unioverse royalty-free to make whatever type of game they want – and can sell those games without paying any royalties. Random Games will also expand the Unioverse by taking revenues from character avatar sales to both establish a Game Developer Fund to finance third-party titles, and also fuel the creation of more assets and deeper lore for the Unioverse.

“Rarely do you see a truly disruptive concept, cutting-edge technology and a stellar founding team converge in a single startup like this,” said investor Raanan Bar-Cohen, Co-Founder of Resolute Ventures. “The Unioverse is poised to change the relationship between game developers and players in a way that benefits everyone involved.”

The Unioverse team is rounded out by a number of high-profile executive and creative talents from across the tech, entertainment and gaming worlds. Paul Walborsky, who was previously Co-Founder of AI.Reverie, SVP at The New York Times and CEO at GigaOM, joined as Random Games’ President. The Unioverse narrative is being led by Brent Friedman who has written for such household names such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and Call of Duty. Visionary game designer David Jones has once again re-teamed with Harman as an investor in and advisor to the Unioverse. Harman and Jones previously founded hit-making independent game studios DMA Designs (Grand Theft Auto) and RealTime Worlds (Crackdown, All Points Bulletin) and nWay (acquired by Animoca Brands).

Random Games will use the new funding to expand its team, begin work on its first Unioverse games and develop AAA-quality game assets freely available to the community. Those interested in being among the first to learn about Unioverse news and community activities can visit UNIOVERSE.com, follow @TheUnioverse on Twitter and join the Unioverse Discord channel.

About Random Games

Random Games (https://random.games/) is a development studio spearheading an entirely new concept in videogames and franchise entertainment through a combination of community empowerment and blockchain technology. The company’s first franchise, The Unioverse, is a sci-fi epic that will span across videogames, comic books, novels and more. At the same time, the Unioverse community will be encouraged and equipped to create their own stories, games and more with official high-quality artwork and other assets available as royalty-free downloads. To join the robust Unioverse community, visit the Unioverse Discord server.

About Resolute Ventures

Resolute Ventures (https://resolute.vc/) is a lead seed and pre-seed investor dedicated to forging connections with its community of founders who bond over shared tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit. As a community, Resolute is driven by the desire to work on impactful projects, advising startups from the very beginning and providing support every step of the way. Its founders and partners have worked on a broad spectrum of companies, including AI Reverie, Automattic, Bark, Bitium, Opendoor (OPEN), and more.

About Asymmetric

Asymmetric (https://asymmetric.financial/) is a multi-strategy investment fund focused on early-stage venture and liquid investments in cryptocurrency and Web3.