Sushant Chandrasekar, a renowned gaming developer at Second Life, and Gaurav Gupta, a former high-profile consultant at Bain & Company, have completed a seed funding round of $1.5 million with InfoEdge Ventures to develop AvatarLife grid with skill-based play-to-earn games, community content building, marketplace, freebies, and in-world currency. That brings the total valuation of the grid to $7.5 million.
AvatarLife will be expanding the types of games offered on the grid, but games of pure chance are prohibited, said Sushant Chandrasekar, one of the co-founders and a former developer at Second Life who has 15 years of experience in virtual worlds.
“We are a grid for skill-based games,” Chandrasekar told Hypergrid Business. “Roulette and casino machines are prohibited on AvatarLife.”
The hypergrid address is grid.avatarlife.com:8002. The grid can be accessed through its own Windows, Linux, and Apple viewer or other general OpenSim viewers.
AvatarLife will also have role-playing, campaigns, action, and strategy games, said Chandrasekar.
Chandrasekar is involved primarily in building OpenSim virtual worlds for AvatarLife while the other co-founder Gaurav Gupta will be involved in building AvatarLife’s Web 3.0, blockchain, and crypto partnerships.
AvatarLife also owns parcels of virtual land as a creator in Decentraland and Roblox.
“We own eight parcels of land in Decentraland and have created some skill-based games there,” said Chandrasekar. “We hope to get these games on other lands on Decentraland through partnerships with land owners in Decentraland.”
AvatarLife is currently offering a host of features in addition to play-to-earn games, including building free islands for its resident creators, who can then earn by selling accessories and games. It is also offering accessories freebies and will be providing more games through celebrity creator involvement and partnerships.
AvatarLife also has an in-world currency called AV$ that can be bought through PayPal and will be including automated cryptocurrency and in-world currency payments.
Skill-based games and virtual land
Currently, residents can sign up at the grid and play a host of available skill-based games including Whacky Taxi, Paracheesi, Gold Roller, and Flash, among others. There are multiple other games provided for residents through partnerships with celebrity creators who include the following:
Aargle Zymurgy: He has recreated Zyngo, a premier game in Second Life which in turn made many other Lindennaires. Zyngo is now live and ready to play in AvatarLife.
Shane Nielson: The creator of Dawgs, one of the most played games in the past. The grid-wide jackpot on Dawgs is massive and can go up to 10,000 times the buy-in of players.
Sorina Garrigus: An active owner of the Celestial Game Tower, which is now active in AvatarLife. She is a uniting force for the gaming community in AvatarLife.
Many more games will be available through such partnerships with celebrities and companies, said Chandrasekar.
AvatarLife is also partnering with celebrity creators of virtual worlds who include the following:
Serenah Rainier: She developed massive builds in AvatarLife. Ancient Rome has come to life in AvatarLife through the work of Serenah.
Saad Zarf: Zarf has built the AvatarLife beach sim for residents to hang out and relax.
Uno Blokke: A developer who customized and developed Western Town island for a beautiful western-themed island on AvatarLife.
Sweet Sugar: Avatar creator on Second Life who is now on AvatarLife to provide male and female avatars.
Free Islands for creators
At the moment, creators can claim free islands built for them by the company. It does not charge any money to set up a region, and there are no monthly tiers. The company will, instead, take 10 percent of the money earned by the creators through gaming and other creations on these islands.
“If a creator does not earn anything, then we don’t mind not being paid for the island,” said Chandrasekar. “Also if a creator is earning lots and feels that they are losing out on a lot of money by paying us 10 percent of their final cash out, they can choose to pay a standard $99 a month tier towards their land.”
Users can get the free islands by signing up for an account on the AvatarLife website and sending a message in-world to the avatar Sushant AvatarLife. Creators can then create games or other things from scratch for sale or other income-generating opportunities on these islands, he said.
“The LSL OpenSim scripting is fairly simple, and any resident with a fair amount of coding or building experience in Second Life or any other virtual world can easily build anything they want,” he said.
Players can earn income from play-to-earn games on these islands or anywhere on AvatarLife. They or other visitors can also purchase these games and operate them on their islands.
“Skilled players have a clear edge over unskilled players,” he said. “Apart from playing on the games, we also give rewards on our game places just for playing on our games. Also, a lot of free-play games are available to play at AvatarLife in-house grid.”
Fun, historical, and gaming destinations
AvatarLife comprises many gaming destinations, including Ancient Rome, Kart Racing where players can race against their friends, and a romantic hangout forest destination known as Forest of Dreams.
Bonuses on in-world currency AV$
AvatarLife uses an in-world currency AV$ which can be bought using real-world money through PayPal and with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It costs $1 for 250 AV$.
Currently, people buying the in-world currency can get replay bonuses on the gaming system. Buying 10,000 AV$ will win you a 1,000 AV$ worth of reply bonus, while buying 100,000 AV$ can win you a 25,000 AV$ bonus at the gaming system.
“As and when we develop more partnerships with cryptocurrency coins, we will keep adding them to our website as an option for residents to buy AV$,” said Chandrasekar. “At this point, we still accept cryptocurrency manually and offer AV$ purchases. This will be automated in the near future.”
AvatarLife is partnering with a cryptocurrency called JejuDoge coin. The JejuDoge community is paying for and developing two islands that are themed based on the real South Korean Jeju Island and its volcano.
“We will be having many more such partnerships with cryptocurrencies and developing regions for them,” said Chandrasekar.
The hypergrid addresses to the Jeju Islands are grid.avatarlife.com:8002:Jejudoge Island One and grid.avatarlife.com:8002:Jejudoge Island Two.
Freebies stores and multiple shopping places
Some grid residents have set up stores that sell accessories like clothing, skins, hair, and wearables. However, there are freebies islands at AvatarLife grid where residents can get free clothes, skins, hair, and wearables. One of those freebies is the Shopping Center. The hypergrid address is grid.avatarlife.com:8002:Shopping Center.
Residents can earn free AV$ by making use of the camping sites on JejuDoge Island, and there are free JejuDog coin t-shirts for anyone who visits the island.
The AvatarLife Games Freeplay Island is a place where players can come and test all games offered on the platform for free and learn how to play them. Players can also earn free payouts when they beat a certain score in some games.
The hypergrid address is grid.avatarlife.com:8002:AvatarLife Games Freeplay Island.
NFTs are a possible upcoming feature
The company is also trialing NFTs — or non-fungible tokens — and NFT gaming which may then be deployed on the grid and other places like Decentraland and Roblox where they also have virtual land. NFT holders will access benefits across all platforms where AvatarLife has virtual land.
NFT holders on AvatarLife will earn benefits like 10 percent extra rewards on winnings, ten percent cashback on loss, and access to high roller games, among other benefits, said AvatarLife co-founder Gaurav Gupta.
“We are deliberating the idea of adding a play-to-earn layer on top of this and are already trying this out in Decentraland,” he told Hypergrid Business. “If we see positive momentum there, we can always expand it to all platforms, but for now, we are testing a few ideas with nothing concrete, although we do plan to have separate NFTs to offer royalties to our holders for passive income.”
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