Is MetaFab MetaFabulous?

Get Lost

Are you building a blockchain-based video game?

No?

Then get out of here, these words aren't for you.

But if you're a developer, investor, advisor, or consultant, this might be applicable to your web3 duties.

How do you handle marketplace API in your game? Do users need a digital wallet to play your game? Do you make a wallet for them? Are your items NFTs? How do you manage them? How do you handle tournaments?

If you're an experienced dev, maybe you built all that stuff proprietary for your project. And if you did, kudos, you coding savant.

But it's highly likely your game will partner with a company that handles the blockchain side of things--scalable infrastructure, wallet security, gas-less transactions--so you can focus on creating the actual game. They manage the technical web3 stuff, you create the gameplay loops, lore, and combat mechanics.

Companies like Stardust and Fractal come to mind in these scenarios. Both are stellar companies with dense developer SDKs and impressive APIs for web3 games. They offer products web3 games are sorely in need of, like NFT launchpads, marketplace management, multi-chain deployment, and custodial wallet creation. And they both partner with some of the largest studios and games in the industry. Fractal is partnered with Shatterpoint, Eternal Dragons, Ev.Io, Alpha League Racing, and Mojo Melee. While Stardust has Midnight Society, Pixels, and SkateX as official partners.

How Does MetaFab Fit In?

I can hear you, anon. You're saying, "Alright, Dude, so far this is pretty standard stuff. Where does MetaFab come in?"

What if I told you MetaFab offers more products and services than Stardust and Fractal? What if I told you MetaFab was entirely free and ready to use at this moment?

Stardust and Fractal are heavy hitters in web3 gaming, but MetaFab is poised to take a piece of their pie if they aren't careful. It offers more SDKs, a library of API references, and gives access to all of it right now. For free. You don't have to book a demo. You don't even need to make an account!

It would help actually if you made an account... but it's totally unnecessary!

Now, I'm not going to pretend like I understand even half of the coding jargon I'm looking at when I peruse their library of information. I only dabbled in coding when I was younger, I certainly can't read it. But if I could, MetaFab offers free code for 19 different languages.

Where The Hell Did MetaFab Come From?

MetaFab was birthed from the frustrations and complications encountered while Eric Rodriguez and friends tried to build NFT Worlds.

What is NFT Worlds, you ask?

Stupid. It's stupid.

Alright, let me take a step back here. NFT Worlds is not stupid.

You see, I hate Minecraft. Always have, always will. When I was in college, I got a job one summer teaching middle schoolers how to get gud at Minecraft. Tl;dr, I really needed money and that summer really sucked.

So a game that brands itself as the Minecraft of web3 with NFT plots of land to build stuff on ain't really up my alley. No offense to the smart, kind, connected, hard-working badasses that put it together. Just not my cup of tea.

Also, NFT Worlds? Really? What happens when we stop calling them NFTs? The only name worse than NFT Worlds is Digital Collectible Worlds. No wait, that's not a bad name actually. Sounds like a used video game store.

I digress.

(Found out in the course of writing this, NFT Worlds is holding a rebranding contest. Good on them for fixing the problem.)

Eric Rodriguez, one of the aforementioned smart, kind, connected, hard-working basses, ran into more than a few problems while trying to build NFT Worlds. He and his team got collectively shunned by Microsoft and Minecraft, they ran face-first into the bear market of 2022, and their name is NFT Worlds. Come on, that's a rough hurdle to overcome in most circles.

But they say gold is refined in the fire, and I don't know about you, but I learn more from my mistakes than my successes any day. I can clearly look at what failed and think, "Okay, don't do that shit, Dude. As long as you don't do that shit, you won't fuck up."

My brain cusses a lot.

Anyway, it seems MetaFab was forged in the fires of Mt. Doom--I mean NFT Worlds. They ran into a lot of speedbumps at NFT Worlds, and Eric Rodriguez was observant and intelligent enough to keep track of them, ideate solutions for them, then build those solutions. Give the man a round of applause, that's pretty damn impressive.

Here's The Catch...

Visit Stardust's or Fractal's website and you will see, front and center, a list of their partners. Even their low-level partners are showcased on the front page of the website. Now's the time to be proud of the partnerships you've made in web3 gaming.

Except MetaFab doesn't have any. None.

Now, that's not to say MetaFab isn't working with any web3 studios or games. They tweeted not so long ago that they're working with over 500 web3 games to build out their projects. And that's potentially true if you count every account created on their site. But none of the collaborations are promoted. Which means MetaFab is still nascent. Untested. They have a great library and impressive minds behind them, but they haven't been put through the wringer of hosting an insanely popular competitive web3 game like Deadrop or Shatterpoint.

In Case You Weren't Listening

While MetaFab certainly looks impressive and is hopefully partnering with the next big game right now—building out collections of NFTs and creating frameworks for player creation—they are still quite young.

I mean, I guess everything is fairly young in web3 gaming, but you get my drift. Even young companies like Fractal and Stardust have impressive records. Only time will tell if MetaFab joins their illustrious ranks.

Just So you Know

This piece was written as an entry in the Real Third Web Content Creator Challenge running from 4/17-4/22. It’s opinions are my own and do not reflect those of any group or company I affiliate with.

Questions? Comments? Critiques? Concerns?