Mortegard is a play-to-earn kingdom builder and resource manager with a fast growing community. I took the time over the past few weeks to dive in and see what it's all about. My first impression is that this is a passionate team with a dedicated core player base, that's growing daily. Unfortunately, the Dappradar ranking seems to be pointing to the wrong address and doesn't reflect the huge growth seen on their Discord server and Opensea. On Opensea over 15 ETH has been traded in the last 60 days and the number of owners has grown from just a couple dozen to over 450. This is a project with wind in its sails and I hope to see Dappradar reflect that soon.
The Game
Today Mortegard is a simple kingdom builder. Starting off with a castle gives you control over 18 tiles of land (or three with a cabin - more on that later) which allows you to begin gathering MORTgoods (wood, iron, mana, food and gold). Each is a separate token on the Polygon blockchain and as such, fluctuate independently in price, making resource production an interesting game in and of itself. Tokenized resources can be swapped in Uniswap while development cards can be traded on Opensea.
Outside of the dapp is where a lot of the fun happens. A number of role playing events are regularly playing out on Discord. Some have direct impacts on the events occurring in-game and others are fantastic ways to get to know the community like the treasure hunts, which have pretty significant rewards. Type !note in Discord to get started.
The look and feel of the game is great, a flurry of usability improvements were launched in the first few days that made building, staking and developing tiles much easier. Recently avatars were also introduced which gives a bit more personalization to your screen. Overall it has a dark and wistful look to it, and is a good stylistic match with the lore of Mortegard.
Future Developments
According to Discord and the cleverly named Wightpaper (whitepaper), additional ways to play will be coming shortly including various non-castle components. While usually I am skeptical of unspecified timelines, the speed which Mortegard has grown and improved in two short months gives me an optimistic outlook. Players can expect an updated whitepaper and project timeline soon according to the Dev-ine Council (development team) on Discord. I reached out to ask if they had any thoughts about the future of Mortegard and they kindly responded:
The fate of Mortegard is by and large determined by how players interact with the characters and the world and thus shape the story. I really don't think this has been attempted before. A hybrid RP, Crypto, Grand Strategy and Fantasy world sim. - CryptoB Dev-ine Council Member
For news direct from the source you can also follow them here on Publish0x.
How To Get Started
Check out the Starting Guide to get oriented, and choose how you want to get building your kingdom. For those interested in starting out thrifty, head over to Discord and type !cabin in the chat to take part in their cabin give away. It is the lowliest of castles, allowing you to control only three tiles but it will get you started on your resource collecting, kingdom building, metaverse-ruling journey. For big spenders, splurging on castles, courtiers and resource cards on Opensea will get you building huge kingdoms in a hurry. For the cost-conscious, simply snag a castle or cabin and swap for the starter goods you need on Uniswap. You will get you plenty of resources for a fraction of a Matic with which you can begin building yourself.
Final Thoughts
Freshness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fresh. This project feels like it's doing something fun and isn't a cheap reskin of something already out there.
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not over-promised and improving. It's early so I judge lightly and Mortegard's come a log way in 60 days. I see no sign of that slowing down.
Community: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Stellar. The dev team is great and there is a core group of dedicated and helpful players.
Tokenomics: 🪙❔Too early to judge. The Opensea marketplace is healthy but only time will tell how whale movements and introducing new players impacts the meta-economy.
Disclaimer: No compensation has been paid by Mortegard for this review.
