Introduction
Blockchain-based games have recently received great attention from the digital gaming industry and game lovers. Especially since 2019 and during the Covid-19 pandemic, this industry has become more popular as it provides a new platform both for entertaining the players and also earning money by playing the game.
Of the most significant points of integrating blockchain technology and regular video games, crypto-based payment and ownership of the gaming assets by players in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) can be mentioned.
In such video games, players can buy gaming NFTs through two methods. In the first method they can buy NFTs directly from gaming ecosystem. In second method, as NFTs are permanent assets and players can put already owned NFTs in marketplace for sale, freely, thus there is possibility of trading NFTs with other players in a peer-topeer manner. Therefore, players can also find an intended second hand NFT in marketplace and buy it from other people.
Due to abundant attraction of the blockchain-based games, Laqira Protocol team has entered to the field of blockchain-based game industry and announced its first play-toearn game, namely Laqirace, built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Laqirace is the first Drive2Earn game on Binance smart chain platform including a variety of categories and sections such as fast race, ranked race, battle race, tournament, offline race, etc.
Laqirace is a hyper-compact game compared to its content according to which, it shows off among other similar games in the crypto market. It is a 3D game which can be classified in Metaverse category according to its different aspects such as cars and characters in the form of NFTs, in-game advertising billboards, possibility of owning tracks to hold domestic and international games carting games, etc. All of the activities of the game are governed in Laqira Protocol marketplace . Also, the gamers can play the game itself to earn income.
Laqirace Overview
1. Story
The character of Laqira was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto, aiming to establish a friendly and genial relationship with people and make the world a better place through it. Then he disappeared and it is narrated that he is helping Laqira behind the scenes to achieve his goal.
In this way Laqira established Laqirace as his first curiosity, and invited creatures from all over the world who need to change and progress in their lives. Laqira’s objective is to improve the living standards of humans and creatures that are not satisfied with their current condition.
A short period after Laqira’s public invitation, many characters from all over the world sent him participation requests. Since then, Laqira has kicked off the game and played with them so that they are all spending joyous moments together besides earning money by playing. Laqira has already found many friends and he has cooperated with them to satisfy his grandpa, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The interesting point is that the invitation is public and anyone can join Laqira and cooperate in extending this family. So, you join fast, too and don’t miss even a minute!
2. Biography of The Characters
● a) Laqira
Laqira was made up by Satoshi Nakamoto. One day, Satoshi, in his loneliness and isolation, decided to have an adopted child who can transform the world into a more pleasant and intimate place with his presence. So, he created the clever Laqira and set a goal for him to make the world somewhere fun for people of all races and genders to live.
Laqira loves to make his way and help others. He loves to change the lives of all creatures on Earth by creating attractive challenges. That’s why Laqira designed Laqirace games and asked volunteers around the world to join him in this fascinating adventure.
● b) Violet
Violet was the most stylish and special rabbit in the world. He used to live in Tokyo as a fashion model and he had his own costume designer and photographer. But this luxury and calm lifestyle was not compatible with his energetic character.
Being a fast and strong rabbit but only putting on different clothes and sitting in front of a camera was a boring paradox in his life! Wasn’t it? Laqira had seen Violet in various fashion magazines and he could clearly feel Violet’s discontent from his life style in his numerous interviews. So, he decided to send him a dedicated invitation.
Participation of Violet as a charming character can double the enchantment of Laqirace. Because this time Violet can try on racing clothes, compete, win, and enjoy all the excitement that comes along. What could be better than this?
● c) Champ
In the sky, there are odd powers that each of them reigns alone. In the part of the sky where Champ’s realm was, he brought forth comfort and tranquillity for other birds. Every once in a while, he used to hold a speed race to bring joy and enthusiasm to different birds. Despite his extraordinary flying speed, he never tried to show his strength in front of weaker birds and did not participate in the races himself. Champ’s popularity grew day by day, and this fame and popularity caused Nebula to get acquainted with Champ and send him an offer to participate in Laqirace, and encouraged him to show his speed and strength along with the rest of his friends!
Champ can be an adorable king for the birds of his realm and compete with powerful creatures on the ground and win prizes as well! why not? Absolutely the presence of Champ creates a more competitive and cooperative atmosphere in Laqirace.
● d) Rudolph
Rudolph was born in a large family after eight other deers. Every year, on New Year’s Eve, with the rest of his family, he used to drag Santa Claus’ chariot from one house to another. Rudolph was satisfied with making the childrenhappy. Since he was a fast runner, after a while Papa Noel chose him as the deers’ forerunner. But this could not be the end of the story and the ultimate goal for the fleet-footed Rudolph.
One day, when Papa Noel was checking zip codes on internet to wrap up children’s parcels to deliver with Rudolph and other deers, he accidentallysaw Laqira’s invitation on internet and he discussed the matter with Rudolph and Rudolph decided to participate in Laqirace as representative of children’s phantasy world. What could be better for fleet-footed Rudolph than a unique excitement?! Now Rudolph is one of the most popular characters in Laqirace!
● e) Hope
Hope was living with his mother Lily in a large zoo and was known by everyone there. Hope was frisky and intelligent as a child and he could run much faster than the rest of his kind. His mother, Lily knew better than anyone that Hope was no ordinary bear. He loved speed and used to come in first in all the speed competitions among his friends. These different features of Hope, attracted everyone’s attention, especially the great documentarians.
One day that Laqira invitation news was spread at the zoo among animals, they decided to convince Hope to participate in the event as their representative. So, Hope sent his request to participate in Laqirace. Laqira, who had seen the documentary on Hope’s life, accepted his request immediately and warmly welcomed his presence. Definitely Laqirace is more exciting with Hope’s presence and his frisky character surely doubles Laqirace’s glamor!
● f) Freya
Freya was sick from birth and had become a domestic animal. She was discovered by a Polish photographer. She used to pose uniquely in front of the camera, but she was far from her true character. Competitions and challenges were exactly what could make her a happy and lively fox again. Freya’s friend, Zodiac, who had appreciated Freya’s photos over and over and was completely aware of Freya’s abilities, offered her to participate in Laqirace competitions!
Now, Freya is extremely happy about this offer and has accepted to be one of the attractive characters of Laqirace.
She has been working on her speed to improve it for a while and now she is one of the most prepared and motivated players in Laqirace competitions. This time, Freya with the help of Zodiac has come to hold the racing cup with her new friends. This moment can be the most beautiful Freya’s photograph!
● g) Ella
Ella had lost her parents when she was a child and lived alone. This loneliness made a strong girl out of Ella. Ella had big dreams and one of them was to have a big and loving family in which she could feel safe and secure.
Laqira had met Ella when he travelled to India and he knew his loneliness and dream. Therefore, he decided to invite her to the large Laqirace family. This way Ella could experience happy and exciting days with the rest of participants!
Ella is happy these days and day by day she finds more friends. Hopefully, she has got the chance to play with them and enjoy life more than before! Now Ella has a big family.
3. Gameplay
Generally, Laqirace has two different types of gameplays including:
● Racing:
Matches in tracks in the form of car race between several competitors with artificial intelligence or online users. During the game, in addition to controlling the car route, users can use various power-ups that can be used in a timely and appropriate manner to overtake rivals.
● Battle:
Players gather in a surrounded field and try to attack other users and stay safe from their attacks using power-ups.
Therefore, In Laqirace, players can decide to play aforementioned gameplays in various forms including solo game with artificial intelligence, online single-match with other players, and also online tournaments.
Although the online and offline races in Laqirace are run with the same gameplay but the players, the control mechanics of the characters and their interaction with the core of the game and also the game rules are different. In offline games, artificial intelligence has the responsibility of controlling the rivals at different levels of difficulty and sets the difficulty level according to the conditions and degree of difficulty of the game and the stage in which the user is present.
In online games all players are real users and mechanics of the characters and how to control them have been designed in a way that it has the best compatibility in different mobile platforms and PCs and it can be easily used by various players.
4. Game Modes
Laqirace game currently contains five different play modes containing STORY MODE, NORMAL RACE, RANKED RACE, TOURNAMENT, and BATTLE and the players can participate as a guest or connect their wallets to the game as their IDs to play with other online players or artificial intelligence.
● a) Ranked Race
In RANKED RACE mode, players can play only a certain number of games called “ring”, per day based on the quality of their character and increase their ranking points based on their race results. In this section, players can complete their daily and weekly quests to upgrade their EXP in addition to receiving prize. Note that, this section has been designed for PVP (Player versus Player) mode and the players cannot participate in it using the default character and car and they must buy at least one NFT for participation. By winning RANKED RACE games, players improve their ranking points called Trophy (also known as MMR in other games) and receive a ranking medal which categorizes players in a special skill level. By winning ranked races, players also receive a certain number of extra rings (games) as rewards to be able to play more ranked race matches in the same day.
Note that each ranked level has 60 points overlap with its next one. For example, Tamer level will start from 660 to 2159 and as soon as reaching to 2160 trophies, the player will acquire Challenger medal but Challenger players will not suddenly drop back to Tamer if they regress to 2159 trophies. In fact, each player has 60 points advantage to increase their trophies in order to protect their latest medal. However, in this case if a Challenger player loses points to 2100, it will be dropped back to previous medal which is Tamer here. Ranked medals and levels are presented in the following table:
As said before, except for Drive2Earn prize which is related to the ranked races and will be described in the following sections, there are several daily side-prizes for each ranked race as follows:
● b) Normal Race
In this mode, the players have no limit on the number of games they can play with their characters. So, by participating in such games, the players can become more familiar with the game and they can also complete their daily and weekly quests. In this mode, when a player push start button to find a race, match making system waits for online players in order to include them into the race; however, after a certain period of time, if there are not enough online players available for a six-man race, artificial intelligent rivals will be added to the race by match making algorithm. Players can use both default or paid characters and cars to play the such races. Participating in Normal Race has no effect on the ranking trophies and also does not include rewards.
● c) Story Mode
In this mode, 20 stages have been prepared, all of which are in competition with bots and are performed in the form of PVE (Player versus Environment). During the match, the difficulty level changes based on the player’s rank. The players can play with the default character and car or the one they purchase. In order to complete the steps in story mode, players need to fight with bear Hope, deer Rudolph, eagle Champ, rabbit Violet, and fox Freya, respectively. There are 4 stages assigned to each character, three of which are in the form of 6-playersrace (5 bot vs player) and the last one is a SOLO fight with the character.
When players pass all of the stages, they will receive a total of $5 reward, to withdraw which, they need to be owner of an NFT with at least $30 value. Of course, players can also use the reward to buy some in-game items any time they need. Players can earn some EXP by passing story mode stages. To complete the 12th stage and compete with Champ, the player must have reached level 10 of experience, already. To complete the 16th stage and compete with Violet, the player must have reached level 15 of experience, already. To complete the 20th stage and compete with the Freya, the player must have reached level 20 experience, already.
Notice: Experience will be explained in coming sections.
● d) Battle
In Battle matches, six players enter the game after paying an entrance fee. As said before they should try to attack other players while staying safe from their attacks by using provided power-ups, and eventually after the match, winners’ prizes will be divided between first to the third-placed players. The players gain EXP by participating in battle races.
The entrance fee for battle races is $5 per player. In a battle the first player who manages to inflict 20 damage to the other players will be the winner of the round and the game is over. Other winners will be determined based on the points that they have acquired in the round. If two players get the same point during a match, the winner is the one who has inflicted the most damage to the other player in comparison with together. If damages are equal, the one who has inflicted the last damage to the other is the winner. If they have not inflicted damage on together, the winner is the one who has inflicted the last damage to other players in comparison to the other player.
● e) Customized Battle
In customized battle races a player can invite friends or other players to the battle, and the entrance fee amount can be set by the party owner from $5 to $1000.
In this mode, another skill level rating system and a new bunch of medals are also needed in order that one player plays with other players of the same skill after a sifting period since game inception. Therefore, considering that in battle races 3 players are the winners and 3 players are the losers, scores will be affected as following tables.
Note that like Ranked race medals, here also each ranking medal has 60 points overlap with its next one. For example, the Muspel level will start from 660 to 2159 and as soon as reaching to 2160 trophies, the player will acquire Nida medal but Nida players will not suddenly drop back to Muspel if they regress to 2159. In fact, each player has 60 points advantage to increase their trophies in order to protect their latest medal. However, in this example if Nida players loses points to under 2100, they will be dropped back to previous medal which is Muspel.
According to the above tables, it should be noted that players can only participate in Battle races with specific range of entrance fee amount based on their Battle ran medal. Aforementioned ranges for each medal are as follows:
Notice: Winners’ prizes are divided between first to third-placed players of the Battle round according to percentages of Table 5. For example, if a Nida player participates in a $150 Battle match and stands in the first place of the round, he/she will earn $300. Thus, the interest rate will be 100%.
Notice: Each medal can also create lobby using entrance fee of its previous ones.
● f) Tournament
Tournament events are held seasonally on a specific race track. The number of people participating in this section is unlimited, and finally, according to the results that participants acquire, those with the best records will be determined and awarded. Only players who have already purchased at least one Laqirace NFT including characters or cars. are allowed to participate in tournament events.
5. Experience
Players gain Experience in races and unlike medals and trophy, Experience is not lost after losing a race. Players can gain more experience by acquiring better ranking in a race round.
The most experience amount that a user can gain in a race is 200. Also, the amount of experience which can be increased for a player is limited to 200 units per day and after gaining 200 experiences, no more amount will be applied to the user’s profile in subsequent games in the same day.
6. Technology
In spite of high -quality content, the size of the game is very low, which is one of the special advantages of Laqirace. Also, the performance of the game is optimal during the execution and the game can be played with acceptable quality on all mobile platforms and PCs.
The Laqirace has been built upon Unity gaming engine. Controlling mechanics have been developed completely dedicated to this game, which helps to improve controlling the characters that results into players’ better experience from the game. Also, the game has been designed in a way that developing by-products for the game is easily possible which is in future plans of Laqirace development team.
It is worth mentioning that PC, IOS and Android versions of the game have been developed to cover all players on various devices and platforms.
Game Economy
1. Economic Cycle
The Laqirace project has been developed based on a dynamic economic cycle for players’ monetization and maintaining the economic balance of the system. In this cycle, players participate in races using their properties, receive prizes and raise their skill level and medals. During the game, players earn some special chests which are useful for improving their gameplay. Eventually, players can earn money beside entertainment by playing and participating in this cycle and interacting with other players.
2. Game Reward Distribution System
In Laqirace, players can earn money through buying NFTs and participating in ranked races. A $10.2 NFT has been provided for players for testing purposes. They can be used to test the game and players can learn how to make money from it and then if they enjoyed the game, they can buy more expensive characters and cars which costs $30, $60, and $120. Also, Laqira character and a car with Laqira theme will also go on sale in the market for $963.
Notice: Except for $10.2 car and character owners, players owning the rest of NFTs, in case of loss, will receive an In-game amount of LQR tokens, which can only be used to purchase some special treasures in order to improve their scores in next games.
3. Technical Factors of The Game
In Laqirace, 4 various factors of speed, acceleration, handling and recovery time have been considered as effective factors of the race. Various characters and cars have different impacts on these factors.
Base speed, acceleration and handling of a character or car have been chosen to be 50 units and base recovery time is 1.5 second so effect of characters and cars NFTs will be applied to the number 50 to obtain total amount of aforementioned factors. It is worth mentioning that Ella (the elephant) has all base stats.
Notice: In early versions of the game, players can compete by equipping only one NFT in Ranked Races and equipping both items, simultaneously (character and car) is not possible.
4. Gamer Properties and NFTs
In Laqirace, all in-game cars and characters are in the form of NON-FUNGIBLE TOKEN (NFT). Also, chests, wearables and accessories of Offer section, are divided into two tradable and non-tradable groups.
Designed NFTs are different in terms of appearance and impact on acceleration, speed, handling and recovery time factors. Players are owner of their assets and are able to sell them freely not only on Laqira Protocol marketplace but also on the other NFT marketplaces on Binance Smart Chain that supports trading of Laqirace NFTs. Laqirace NFTs are categorized into two main groups as follows:
● Characters
Currently 7 characters have been designed for this game and the elephant character is provided to the players for free. The other 6 characters are sold and traded on Laqira Protocol NFT Marketplace with BUSD. The characters contain Ella (Elephant), Hope (Bear), Violet (Rabbit), Champ (Eagle), Freya (Fox), and finally Laqira. As mentioned above, each of them is different in terms of speed, acceleration, handling and recovery time in comparison to others.
● Cars
Also 9 cars in 12 different colours have been designed which are traded on Laqira Protocol NFT Marketplace. A white car named Freeze is provided to the players, freely. The colour of the cars has been pre-designed as follows, but they can be optionally changed at the store section which will be introduced in further versions of the game.
Conclusion
Blockchain-based industry has attracted much attention and blockchain-based games are also not an exception. They have become popular these days, especially since pandemic inception in 2019 because as it provides an environment both for entertaining and also earning money for the players.
Due to massive attraction to such products, Laqira Protocol team decided to enter the field and develop a high-quality product and the result was Laqirace, first ever Drive2Earn game built on Binance smart chain. Laqirace is a hyper-compact game compared to its content according to which, it shows off among other blockchain based gaming project. It can also be classified in Metaverse category which is a hot subject these days.
Financial operations of the game are governed by an economic cycle based on which there are various kind of earning opportunities for ecosystem participants including buying and selling NFTs, playing Ranked races, playing Battle races, participating in tournaments, renting advertising billboards of the racing tracks, etc.
Appendix
● Social Medias
• Website: https://Laqira.io/
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LaqiraProtocol
• Telegram Channel: https://t.me/Laqira_Official
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaqiraProtocol
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Laqira
• Discord: https://discord.gg/ZGW3Ga7AKh
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/LaqiraProtocol/
• GitHub: https://github.com/LaqiraProtocol
• Medium: https://medium.com/@LaqiraProtocol
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Laqira-Protocol-295a6b222/
