Solana Gaming Franchise Aurory Expands to Ethereum Layer-2 Arbitrum
The team behind the NFT-powered gaming franchise Aurory announced today that it is moving beyond the Solana blockchain, adding cross-chain support for Aurory NFTs and his AURY token with the Ethereum scalable network, arbitration.
Although Aurory isn’t the first Solana native NFT or game project embrace other chainsthis particular move is branded as an extension instead of a migration.
“We’re not necessarily leaving Solana,” executive producer Aurory Jonathan Campbell told Decrypt prior to the official announcement of the Arbitrum. “For us, we really need to branch out a little bit from a purely business standpoint.”
from Aury SyncSpace tech allows users to move their assets between Solana and Arbitrum and in the games.
Because Solana has no Ethereum virtual machine-native or Ethereum-compatible chain, this usually means users have to create a new one wallet through options such as Phantom or Solflare, which can add friction to the user experience for those who are only familiar with the Ethereum ecosystem and wallets such as Metamask. Aurory also allows users to log into their game accounts with just an email address and connect a crypto wallet at a later date.
“We just want to open more doors for players because we understand that Solana has a specific audience,” said Campeau. “Arbitrum developed its own culture, including its own audience.”
While SyncSpace effectively works as a bridge between blockchains and in the company’s games, Aurory Head of Marketing and Business Development Michael Natoli told Decrypt that the goal is not primarily to allow NFT and token holders to move from one chain to another – it is to create new types of ramps in the game, to tap into other crypto communities and their own liquidity.
Natoli added that if a Solana NFT is moved to Arbitrum, the original NFT will be kept within SyncSpace and can eventually be moved back from Arbitrum to Solana at some point. The ramps allow players to bring Aurory NFTs and USDC stablecoins into play through both chains, after which USDC can be exchanged for the game’s AURY token for use in Aurory.
Eventually, Aurory NFT items on Solana or Arbitrum will work the same in the games.
“There is no ‘advantage’ to moving them from one chain to another, other than the fact that people now have the option to move their Aurory assets to the chain they prefer between the two,” Natoli said. “We ultimately want to expand our community and bring the Aurory experience to another growing and dedicated Web3 ecosystem in Arbitrum.”
However, exploring the chains can have functional in-game benefits. Adding support for more blockchains could open avenues for new experiences with non-playable characters (NPCs), Campeau suggested, which could be linked to specific chains to encourage cross-chain exploration.
“You could definitely see an NPC, especially in the game, very much in crypto or very much in Solana, and trade with them or do quest items,” Campeau told me. “For example, he will only ask for items that are on the Solana blockchain so that you can proceed.”
Aurorary currently has two games in development. One is Aurorary Adventures, the player-versus-environment (PvE) role-playing game (RPG). The other is Aurory Tactics, a player-versus-player (PvP) battle arena game.
Aurory offers playable character NFTs called Aurorians, as well as Pokemon-like animal NFTs called Nefties. The game also has character skins and Neftie eggs on the chain as NFTs, and has one on-chain token, AURY. In 2021, Aury partnered with esports organization TSM and the now-closed crypto exchange FTX on limited edition NFTs.
Arbitrum marks the first step out of the Solana ecosystem for Aurory, but it may not be the last.
“It is not unrealistic for us to look into the future Polygonto look at Avalanche,” Campeau said. “BNB is another one we explored.”