Metaguild Spotlight: The Bornless

The battle royale sector is simple yet peculiar. The Bornless intends to fundamentally change the gaming industry by leveraging blockchain technology and the FPS esports scene.

The phrase “battle royale’’ first appeared in 1999, when Japanese author Koushun Takami published his novel “Battle Royale.” This term was later integrated into manga series and several books. Fourteen years later, the first glimpses of battle royale incorporated in games began in 2013 when Brendan Greene created a game called “PlayerUnknown” out of Arma2 DayZ mode, paving the way for the massive games we have today. Thus, arriving from the bowels of hell, the question arises: Can The Bornless become the next industry behemoth?

Created by two brothers, Toby and Robert Saunders. The Bornless is a free-to-play tactical horror FPS game set in a shadowy town built in Unreal Engine 4. Battle royale is their primary game mode, where eight players will be placed on the map to encounter the daunting demon Orobas. The inspiration to develop The Bornless comes from the book The Lesser Key of Solomon.

The Bornless team plans to launch the game on two notable distribution platforms: Elixir launcher and, potentially, Epic games store.

Gameplay

You start in an impoverished village surrounded by shuttered buildings and churches. When matches begin, you have a knife and a handgun as your primary weapons. Eight players are divided into 4 teams of 2. They spawn at a random landmark on the map.

Additionally, players have some Incense tokens to move around and employ throughout the game. It is distributed along the map to collect and extensively contested. The team that utilizes its Incense tokens carefully may have the upper hand. On the map, every landmark has an objective, a red beacon. Inside the beacon, there is a Cauldon where the players can choose to burn their Incense tokens and gain “favour” to prevent the demon from chasing them down. The monster will chase the team with the least “favour.”

Furthermore, an Incense token is needed to buy in-game items and weapons. A player can summon the demon to chase the other teams by burning Incense. The demon can’t be killed in any way but delayed. If there is only one remaining team, the game is over. The team that employs a cogent strategy and effectively uses its resources wins. The Bornless has three elements to retain players: Cooperative PvP gameplay, esports direction with prize pools, and seasonal content. Moreover, the gameplay contains several fantastic elements, like a skill system, an invocation (level reset), and battle looting.

The game, as seen in the trailer, is very team-oriented and strategic. It combines the ambiance of a vampire film with elements of horror. But there are a few gameplay issues, including footsteps, audio, and dsync, to name a few. On the other hand, the UI is extremely well displayed, with no unnecessary bars on the screen. To keep you informed, the game is currently in Early Access, which denotes that it is still in a very early stage and that the development team is actively working on it.

There are also Factions in the game. Factions could be interpreted as private servers led by leaders or a regular clan. Inside the faction is a Safehouse (land) where players can gather, keep their important purchases safe, and build their safehouse with custom base-building tools. Faction leaders can also put a small tax on incense tokens on the winning matches. Moreover, they have a customized management screen.

Being in a faction gives you access to competitive tournaments. As well as participating in faction raids with your teammates.

Token Economy

Incense is the utility ERC-20 token in The Bornless. The current economy is off-chain and is being tested daily. The team is also conducting in-depth economic tests on Machinations.

The hunters will be able to earn Incense tokens in many ways. These methods include winning matches, tournaments, raids, selling your NFT assets, and UGC. You can only earn by either holding a Season Pass or Genesis NFT.

Incense token utility: Lootboxes, Perk Stations, Combat buys, Demonic summoning, Weapon skins, Vanity items.

Incense token earning mechanics: Winning matches, tournaments, raids, selling web3 assets, and UGC.

NFTs

The NFT grants hunters ownership of the assets to showcase in the game. This is where blockchain gaming prevails, allowing players to own their purchased assets. The Bornless sets itself apart from other projects by releasing its collections in seasons.

In addition, several different NFTs are available to The Bornless players throughout the game. Genesis NFT is the primary one, and it comes with the following perks: Mintable free faction safehouse, access to the tournaments, lifetime Season Pass, and five traits: Morse code, music, photograph, sigil, and weapon. Sigil rarity is the most important trait as it provides you with minting a safehouse based on your rarity.

The Genesis NFT has a plethora of utilities and incentivizes players to hold the asset. A new NFT collection will appear every season as soon as the previous season ends. Subsequently, it is a cool model to raise extra funds and add new content.

Esports

The competitive setting is where the game’s heart is. Plenty of Valorant experts have tested and advised the project in some way. The team has teamed with local gaming organizations and will hold its first competitions. As we’ve seen in other games, contests are essential for motivating players to compete. The Bornless team is doing a fantastic job with this method.

Roadmap

The game has been developing for over a year, and the team has completed many milestones in the first three quarters. The 4th quarter and the 2023 year have the majority of the action. November is vital for the team as they plan to raise funds again. We believe the game has already reached incredible milestones, and the development crew never stops delivering.

Team

Toby Saunders - (Founder and Developer) is a dedicated developer with extensive experience operating cameras for renowned businesses, including The Telegraph. He has spent the last 1.5 years developing The Bornless.

Robert Saunders - (Chief of Operations), a lifelong gamer who interrupted his university studies to pursue a gaming sector profession, began working on The Bornless with his brother in 2021.

Branton Lansdale - (Lead Game Designer) has studied Level Design, Sound Design, Music Production, 3D modeling, and Game Design for over six years. While others were in school, Branton was already learning how to create games when he started his job as a game designer.

Cathedral Studios has a team of 20 full-time developers. They are fully staffed in all crucial positions. Developers are extremely transparent and take an excellent approach to community management. We firmly believe that a team this transparent can create a wonderful game.

Community

Despite numerous partnerships with guilds and organizations, The Bornless has a small and loyal fanbase, largely because the genre needs to be better-liked, even in traditional gaming. Furthermore, the team freely collaborates with many guilds. This marketing tactic, which is essential in this industry, has been used by many gaming companies. It aids in user acquisition and brand recognition without spending many resources.

Conclusion

The transparency and openness set Cathedral Studios’ team’s initiative apart from others. They are doing something groundbreaking. Leveraging tactical horror FPS and cooperative battle royale gameplay, to put simply, the game itself is imposing and one of a kind. Building a game in this small niche is exceedingly risky and worrisome, but the developers are prepared for what’s to come.

The community is the backbone of every gaming project, and the team brought many shooter professionals in at an early stage, increasing the project’s exposure. Subsequently, esports direction will bring most players to this game. We must admit that this view and ideas align with Metaguild values, and we are eager to see how the game will progress in the upcoming years!

About The Bornless

The Bornless is a challenging FPS game similar to a Battle Royale, but with a twist — you will be tasked to compete with rival players, ward off demons and collect precious Incense tokens.

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About Metaguild

Metaguild is the first and largest self-funded hardcore gaming guild. We invest in games to secure guild positions and facilitate our players’ success. At Metaguild, we take the best from traditional gaming and speedrunning to the next level: games with open economies backed by blockchain.

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