Mythical has revealed the gameplay for its Blankos Block Party free-to-play online game coming for the PC later this year.
Developed in partnership with United Kingdom studio Third Kind Games, Blankos Block Party is a massively multiplayer online world for platforming fans, with a dose of do-it-yourself modding thrown into it. The company showed the press a demo of the game, where we watched a developer play in the DIY world.
With Mythical’s proprietary blockchain-based game engine, players can make purchases in Blankos and actually own the things they buy. Blockchain is the secure and transparent decentralized ledger that can be used to verify the veracity of a digital object and who owns it. Mythical doesn’t call attention to this technology, but it does explain the benefits of it, which includes enabling players to buy and sell their property inside the game so they can make money from it.
“What we love about blockchain tech is it’s a user digital capability, not just the fact that it makes it a lot easier for us to generate secondary markets or allow players to do what they want to do really easily,” said chief creative officer Jamie Jackson in a press briefing. “So everyone can partake in it, rather than [only] those who are savvy enough or brave enough.”
Players can register their accounts now for the chance to be part of the beta, coming later this year.
The game’s basics
Above: Flying with a jet pack in Blankos Block Party.
Blankos Block Party is about mischievous vinyl toys and what happens when people leave them alone in a room. Kind of like in Toy Story, the toys come to life. And players themselves can create and design an infinite number of party games using Mythical’s builder tools. They can create platform games or racing minigames or even shooters — all within the same game world. It’s a bit like Roblox in that way, though the characters aren’t as blocky as they are in Roblox.
Every Blanko, or toy character, collected along the way can be leveled up to gain skills and unlock customization options, allowing players to further personalize their experience.
Mythical is also partnering with artists, designers, and creators to create exclusive and collectible Blankos players can show off or even sell. In this player-owned economy, Mythical is legitimizing the type of “gray markets” that form around game communities. As mentioned, the blockchain technology lets players participate in verifiable, trusted player-to-player marketplaces where consumers dictate value and scarcity.
Blankos Block Party is planned for launch on PC later in 2020. The Mythical platform could also be used as the foundation for other games. Mythical founder and CEO John Linden is a former Activision executive, and the team has worked on other games, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Marvel Strike Force, Skylanders, and The Walking Dead.
Third Kind Games is an independent U.K. game studio based in Leamington Spa.
Gameplay
Above: Running a race in Blankos Block Party.
Mythical describes the multiplayer world as a giant block party where friends can meet, go on dares with their squad, take on daily challenges, and more.
Blankos competes with other user-generated worlds, such as Minecraft and Roblox, but adds its own twists. One of those is that you can modify your characters to have their own unique looks and identities.
The game is launching with a variety of modes — including Racing, Tag, Collection, and Shooting — on both Mythical-created maps and player-created levels.
The Junction is a social hangout space, a single-player hub, and the place where you can get gigs. You can complete missions and get rewards, such as XP points. The Junction is where Blankos have been hanging out for years, per the lore, but nobody really knows why. You can go to any location, like the tops of big structures, as long as you can figure out a way to get there. You can walk around or teleport to different locations.
The bazaar is a shop where you can buy things from Mythical. During a given season, you can access unique items created by the developers. Once the season is over, you can’t get those items or quests anymore. In each season, there will be daily, weekly, and monthly challenges. You need to get powerups to give you special abilities, like bashing in combat. You can get attachments that help you fly, as long as you have powerups. You can hang out with friends or engage in minigames. The depot is a place where you get user-generated content, as created by other players. You can set up filters for the things you like.
You can play a shooting game with toy guns that fire balls in rapid succession, taking out other players and respawning quickly. There are speed runs where you have to get through a platform obstacle course quickly. The place will be moderated for bad behavior. For those who want to be creative, the game has a build mode.
Player economy
Above: Blankos Block Party has a depot where players can share their own creations with others.
Players can build what they want to play and share with friends as they collect and customize the digital vinyl Blankos. Players will fully own the Blankos they buy with no need for gray markets or lootboxes; the community dictates the value of what they buy and sell.
Blankos Block Party offers a fully player-owned economy, transforming the relationship between game economies and players, brands, content creators, and game developers, the company said. Mythical’s blockchain technology provides proof of ownership and transaction history for all purchased and earned assets.
“Imagine being able to be able to sell all the things you spent money on in a game that you don’t play anymore and then you can reuse that money,” Jackson said. “I’m in. Sign me up.”
He added, “We think digital ownership is the future. There are so many gray markets that exist around other games. There are a ton of transactions that happen outside of that. It’s kind of difficult to do. You have to be savvy and brave enough to transact outside the game.”
You can play with a variety of Blanko characters that can be customized with personalized designs, rare attributes, and styles that spin off into unique combinations. You can design and share your own custom worlds using a large catalog of in-game assets that make it easy and intuitive to build.
The company is working with some prominent artists on game content, including James Groman, Tara McPherson, Pete Fowler, Jon-Paul Kaiser, and Junko Mizuno.
