Tatsumeeko, an “MMORPG-lite” game on Ethereum and Solana, developed by the team behind the cross-gaming platform Tatsu.GG, today announced that it has raised $7.5 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by DeFiance Capital, Delphi Ventures and BITKRAFT Ventures, with the participation of investors including Binance Labs, Animoca Brands, Dialectic and GuilldFi. The funding will be used to continue the development of Tatsumeeko.
This brings the company’s total amount raised in two rounds to $8.1 million.
Created for gamification and Discord community engagement, Tatsu.GG currently claims 60 million users and 1.4 million Discord communities. It was launched in 2016 when the founding team saw an opportunity to create a Web3 gaming community on Discord, increasing user retention, acquisition and interaction.
Tatsumeeko will be a role-playing game available through Discord, plus iOS, Android, and the web. It revolves around a world called Ielia, where players can fight against monsters, build communities and meet other gamers. In the process, they are also introduced to crypto and NFTs in what the team calls a “seamless” manner.
With an introductory version of the game reaching 60,000 monthly active users and 4.5 million items traded, Tatsumeeko will now launch a wider version featuring main and side story missions, co-op raids, dimensional invasions, and in-game combat between players and environments. token rewards.
NFT projects can be integrated directly into Tatsumeeko through their Discord. In early July, the first sale of Aethereal plots, or plots of land that provide useful and special attributes to collectors and the players who interact with them, will start. Last November, the game launched Meekolony Pass, a series of 10,000 genesis NFTs on Solana that give holders benefits, rewards, and airdrops for items in Tatsumeeko.
Tatsumeeko’s goal is to expand into other social platforms like QQ, WeChat, and Telegram, as well as Ethereum and Solana communities.
Co-founder David Lim said he wanted to make an MMORPG lite because he grew up playing traditional MMORPGs, such as Everquest, Guild Wards, Maplestory and, most recently, FINal Fantasy XIV.
But MMORPGs take a lot of time and effort for players to fully enjoy the entire experience, he added. On the other hand, Tatsumeeko aims to combine the best parts of an MMORPG such as strong storyline, social features, exploration, character progression, quests and combat, without time consuming tasks like level search. Instead, those are automated for players.
“MMORPGs have always been really good at one thing: helping to shape organic communities,” Lim told Vidak For Congress. “What we’re doing with Tatsumeeko is we’re applying this concept to Discord, where many communities already exist, and helping those communities drive their growth in community engagement, retention, and user acquisition.”
Tatsumeeko is intended to be used not only by players, but also by companies, games, and NFT projects as infrastructure to integrate their own projects into the Discord ecosystem and build a community, empower their NFTs, and increase brand awareness through the communities that the game is available. On.
“Maybe you could think of it as instead of building a metaverse and trying to bring entire communities from Discord to the metaverse, we’re bringing the metaverse to Discord itself with Tatsumeeko,” Lim said.
For those unfamiliar with crypto and NFTs, Tatsumeeko will serve as an introduction by targeting both Web2 and Web3 players. Lim said people can play the game without having to create a wallet, buy NFTs or crypto. “You can think of us as using crypto and NFT technology behind the scenes to make sure our players have more control over their in-game assets if they want to,” he said.
“Games have long been very good at teaching players completely new concepts,” Lim added. “That also includes trading and buying in-game assets and currencies within Tatsumeeko’s proprietary marketplace.”