Gree Group has finally released "Crypto Catch! Fishing Star" - We spoke to Takuyoshi Murata and Takayuki Homma about the development process and future prospects

GREE Group has released a blockchain game. Mr. Murata, the company's business development manager in the Web 3.0 area, and Mr. Honma, producer of "Crypto Catch! Fishing Star," talk about the development process, its significance, and the future.

As a beginning, please tell us about the features of "Crypto Catch! Fishing Star" and the points you focused on.

Honma Takayuki (hereinafter, Honma): When the "Crypto Catch! Fishing Star" project began, we decided not to sell in-game items, and instead targeted people who were new to blockchain games. The game content was designed to be simple so that even beginners to blockchain games could easily play.

However, even if it could be played like a conventional social game, users would not be able to experience the unique experience of blockchain games. That's why we incorporated the characteristics of blockchain games. The two points we focused on were simplicity that even beginners could play, and the inclusion of elements that allow users to experience blockchain games.

Existing blockchain games require you to first buy an NFT, which can be said to be a barrier to entry. That's why we decided to support gas fees required for gameplay so that you can start for free at first.

Takuyoshi Murata (hereinafter, Murata): First of all, this game is very simple and, in a word, it's a fishing game. Every time you catch a fish, your fishing rod grows, and once you collect five fishing rods you can turn them into an NFT.

One thing that we were particularly concerned about was the current situation where only a small number of cryptocurrency investors and people in the gaming industry are expecting blockchain games to be the next big thing.

As a result, we felt that there are currently few users and that the situation is not leading to business, so we focused on "increasing blockchain transactions."

This game uses the Sui blockchain, but is the fact that it was originally a validator related to this?

Murata: Yes. The reason I originally participated as a validator for various blockchains, including Sui, was to understand blockchain. Even if you decide to start a blockchain game, it's quite difficult if you don't have the knowledge.

I decided to validate Sui because I read many articles at the time about how excellent the technology was. After that, I asked many times if I could participate as a validator, and it happened.

The engineers who actually developed Sui all said, "There are few blockchains that are built with such an efficient consensus algorithm."

Honma: We also received strong support from Mysten Labs, the developer of Sui, which was very helpful. I had the impression that it would be difficult to communicate with overseas projects, but that wasn't the case with Mysten Labs.