The past two years have seen an unprecedented rise in interest for play-and-earn games using non-fungible tokens (NFT). The Philippines has been at the forefront of this phenomenon with the highest concentration of players in this space globally. As such, there has been a keen focus on developing games in this space by local talent.

Enter “Anito Legends,” the first roguelike auto battler being developed by talent from the Philippines. The game draws inspiration from Philippine folklore as players take control of a team of “Anitos” to conquer towers and earn rewards. The first four Anito classes that are available for launch include the unpredictable Kiwig, the strong Sarangay, the swift Tikbalang, and the elusive Siyokoy. The game will essentially have two modes: an adventure mode where players can earn rewards to level up and strengthen their Anitos, and a more competitive PVP mode where players can compete to earn more valuable rewards.

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“Anito Legends” makes use of a dual token system with $LARO as the governance token and $GINTO for the utility token. The game is set to IGO within the second quarter of 2022 with the pre-sale of the initial genesis NFT’s. Following that, the play-to-earn mechanics will be implemented within those six months, before the year ends.

Local talent

“As game developers with more than a decade’s experience in the casual gaming space, we want to explore this new platform using the blockchain so that players have the ability to earn a little bit of currency or at least recuperate the cost of the game.” This is according to James Chua, CEO of Masayato PTE LTD, the developer behind “Anito Legends.” “We want to further the space by creating a game that is truly fun to play by releasing regular updates for years to come.”

“Anito Legends” celebrates the accomplishments of local talent. To breathe life into the lore of the game, the team has partnered with Palanca award-winning author and horror writer Yvette Tan, who has been a pillar and resource for local folklore. The in-game soundtrack is being developed by Myth_OS, composed of the duo Malek Lopez of “BuyBust” (2018), “Never Tear Us Apart” (2018), “Mighty Robo V” (2021), and Juan Miguel Sobrepena of “Never Tear Us Apart” (2018), Midnight in a Perfect World (2020).

The team has recently opened the closed beta testing sign-up form to the public.

To begin, players will need a Metamask wallet address, which is typical of all play-to-earn games. The team is also running a free NFT giveaway for early sign-ups. The game is currently playable on desktop browsers on PC and Mac. Versions for mobile browsers, Android, and iOS are currently being developed as well.

Hyper-casual space

Masayato PTE LTD is the developer behind Anito Legends. The team has had a combined experience of more than 20 years in game development in the hyper-casual space for mobile. The team is no stranger to the gaming industry as they have had success in previous projects with a number of their games on Android and iOS garnering over 50 million downloads with a current DAU of 20,000 players.

Based mostly in the Philippines, the team has had media attention in the past with a number of social experiments, namely Vote Clicker, an app that gamified the country’s 2016 elections and received significant mainstream media attention, as well as Streetfood Tycoon, that was featured in the country’s largest TV network as well as other media outlets.

The team is led by CEO James Chua. He has had over 10 years of experience as a mobile game developer having founded Pixelkit Inc and Popsicle Games with co-founder Jed Cruz. Jed is also a faculty member for Multimedia Arts in one of Manila’s top colleges for the past 5 years and serves as the team’s Chief Creative Officer. Erick Garayblas is the COO in charge of overall game design. He is the Game Design Winner in Storm of the World, outshining 250 other participants from other countries. He is also a startup mentor for Ideaspace and Startup Weekend. He has been featured as one of the ‘Mad Men of Mobile’ in a book of the same title. Lastly, Jayvee Fernandez serves as CMO bringing to the table over 15 years of experience in traditional and digital media.

Since last year, the team has inked more than a dozen deals with venture capitals in the crypto space. It is being incubated under the guidance of ExNetwork Capital with other VC firms including AlphaCoin Fund, Automatic Venture Group, Spherium Finance, AV Star Capital, Nine Financial Venture, Area 13, CSP DAO, Dreamboat Capital, Moneybees, Sparkpoint Technologies and Kingpad Launchpad.