Farworld Laboratories It raised $1.75 million to roll out Farcade, a decentralized platform for developers to build Web3 games.
These funds will help the company with its upcoming third-quarter releases, including the launch of the Farcade platform in collaboration with top-tier studios and developers.
Built on decentralized social media protocols, Farcade is a platform and set of tools for developers to build original crypto games that integrate with the social media onchain.
Limniscap Variant co-led the round with participation from Base Ecosystem Fund and Coinbase Ventures.
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Farworld said the decision by Meta and other legacy Web2 social media platforms years ago to prevent third-party developers from creating games and apps within their apps has stifled game development and hindered their integration with social media. However, when these social networks were available, they allowed gaming giants like Zynga to emerge.
Farcade reintroduces these concepts onto the series – think Steam meets Zynga. Farworld Labs is reimagining the games on the series. Farcade is built on Farcaster, a platform and set of tools for developers to build original crypto games that integrate with onchain social networks.
Recognizing this “innovation gap”, Farworld Labs said it enables players to play games directly wherever they actually are, and enjoy a built-in gaming experience, allowing them to play Farcade games in the Farcade app or within their social feeds on Farcaster.
The team started work in March and includes three employees.
“We have a huge belief in decentralized social media. We are lifelong gamers and saw a truly unique opportunity in the sector that Farcaster Frames enables – similar to the early days of Zynga when FarmVille launched on Facebook,” the founders, Charlie Blackstock and Bobby Blackstock, said in a statement.
Farcade uses Farcaster accounts and smart wallets, making it easy to play and create games on-chain. Farcade will be optimized for mobile and can be played on any device with limited hardware, and you won’t need to download it from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Farworld Labs is also gearing up to launch the first season of Farworld – a brutal, serialized training game. Interested parties can participate by signing up for the waitlist on Farcade.xyz.
Within the first three months after revealing Farworld’s proof of concept, Farworld Labs launched an MVP for the game, sold eight consecutive copies, generated over $500,000 in revenue, and expanded the community to tens of thousands of players.
The game can be played entirely on Warpcast, a key app in the Farcaster ecosystem, which mirrors the user interface of traditional social networking sites like Twitter. Farworld’s game mechanics leverage Farcaster’s social graphs for local marketing and social play.
Farcaster empowers users to control their data and own their social connections, creating a significant upgrade over traditional social media platforms. Farcaster’s design allows different social media applications to work together seamlessly, much like how email systems interact over the Internet. Warpcast – the first app built on Farcaster – is a relatively small platform compared to traditional social media companies, but has seen rapid and accelerating growth, surpassing Web2 platforms by an order of magnitude.
“The current Web3 gaming landscape is tainted by walled gardens, requiring users to link their wallets, pay gas fees, and link their social media accounts before they have a chance to participate,” Charlie Blackstock, CTO at Farworld Labs, said in a statement. Labs, we are driven to make games instantly playable within social media feeds with just one click, enabling seamless social interactions and streamlined on-chain experiences. Sincere thanks to our investors for helping us turn this vision into reality.
“At Lemniscap, we take great pride in identifying emerging sectors before they gain mainstream momentum,” Roderick van der Graaf, managing partner at Lemniscap, said in a statement. “Farworld Labs is at the forefront of innovation at the intersection of decentralized social media and Web3 gaming – sectors in which Lemiscap has a history.” “We are thrilled to co-lead this seed round and support Farworld Labs’ mission to empower players and developers to build on the series.”