State of the Game
Back when we started the journey of making The 7th Seal, we were excited about the prospect of bringing a fun, accessible game to the WAX blockchain. Most games that have integrated with the blockchain were (and still are) simple clickers that really aren’t fun to play in our opinion.
We also fed on the enthusiasm of the community that we started to build around the game and those of you who bought into our plans in our initial Land Sale.
A couple of weeks ago, on June 30th, we pitched the game to a group of investors via GDBAY. We are excited to say that a few have reached out and we have a couple of upcoming scheduled meetings with them to discuss the game and how we might partner together.
Also, The 7th Seal won two awards from that pitch session!
Oasys (GDBay Platinum Sponsor) awarded us Best Game Design
We also won the Mentor's Vote for Best Project
So we will see if anything comes of that exciting news! Feel free to watch the pitch here.
Finances…
The initial Land Sale raised $285k, a handsome sum. And we were (and are) greatly appreciative of that initial investment at a point where we did not yet have a playable game available.
Going full time on this project meant that we had to replace our incomes. We both have families to support and bills to pay. We also had to keep the project’s bills paid including, but not limited to, hosting fees, taxes, marketing (about $10k spent on ads/influencers to date), software licenses, etc. We had a typical burn rate of ~$5k per week.
We were hopeful that we could get the game to a highly marketable state months ago whilst we still had enough to make the larger marketing push we had hoped for. Yet, we are not there. At the time of writing, we have ~$6k remaining of that initial investment.
Before increasing our marketing spend, our goal was to get the game to a point where ESSENCE had a recurring sink (the magic system) that would keep players coming back. We need to get to the point where players can earn, spend and repeat. Getting to that point, though, is taking longer than we anticipated.
What’s next…
With the finances in their current state, we’ve had to make some changes. We are taking jobs to replace the income that the project can no longer sustain. Development on The 7th Seal will continue but at a slower pace as we now have to spend time working other jobs.
Hopefully, this will only be temporary as we are hopeful that a partnership will form with one of the investors we’re beginning to talk to. A partnership with one of them could propel the game and token to new heights with an influx of marketing and financial support!
In the meantime, keep playing, earning, and reporting bugs, victories and oddities!
Until next time,
~gg