‘Tis the season to be jolly🎄and what’s happier than the BlockchainGamer.biz rundown of the top 31 people in the blockchain gaming sector 2024, as revealed in the form of a 31-day advent calendar? 🎅
Earlier in the year, we let you have your say by nominating the most impactful people in the industry, and now we have compiled a list, trimming it down to 31 finalists. So, every day in December, we’re going to be revealing the people we think have defined the sector over the past 12 months.
Of course, it’s just a bit of fun. Also deadly serious.
Day 13: Giulio Xiloyannis, CEO, Mon
Having bought out infamous NFT gaming project Pixelmon in 2023, Giulio Xiloyannis made the transformation complete this year, remaining the company previously known as LiquidX into Mon. For not only is it working on various Pixelmon-themed games, but the launch of the MON Protocol and MON token in Q2 2024 were key elements for Xiloyannis’ overall vision.
Other additions during the year included MON Ventures and the Eternal League IP franchise.
Day 12: Leah Callon-Butler, director, Emfarsis
As well as being the director of blockchain strategic investment and communication advisory outfit Emfarsis – including clients such as YGG, Confiction Labs, Sovrun and My Pet Hooligan – Callon-Butler is also a board member of the Blockchain Game Alliance.
And her most recent project is Metaverse Filipino Worker, a five-part series “exploring how Filipinos are embracing web3 as a new frontier for work”.
Day 11: David Johansson, CEO, MetaKing Studios
While its main PC strategy game has been available in beta via Epic Games Store since October 2023, the big news in the Blocklords’ ecosystem this year was the launch and success of browser companion game Blocklords Dynasty, which peaked at 180,000 DAUWs during its first token airdrop event.
Combined with the launch of the LRDS token, which is now live on Ethereum and Base, and the recent launch of the master validator node for the Base-based Lordchain L3, Johansson has steered the project through some significant milestones. 2025 will see the focus switching back to the main PC game as new modes go live and the community is activated to get more involved in development decisions.
Day 10: Karel Vuong, CEO, Treasure
2024 has been an interesting year for Treasure and its CEO Karel Vuong. One of the year’s biggest stories saw the then-Arbitrum-based gaming ecosystem successfully proposing and then lobbying for a Gaming Catalyst Program on the L2 blockchain, which eventually passed, setting up a fund worth around $220 million (at that time).
Hence, Treasure’s subsequent move from Arbitrum to launch its own Treasurechain on the rival ZKsync’s infrastructure was a big surprise, and one that put the spotlight on Vuong and Treasure as it enters 2025.
Day 9: Marco Van Den Heuvel, CEO, Merit Circle
Starting out as an investment-focused gaming DAO with its MC token four years ago, Merit Circle has radically changed its business model since, making games itself and now operating its own Beam infrastructure. Its timing was great too, with the migration of the MC token to BEAM at the end of 2023 enabling Merit Circle to ride one of 2024’s key trends, and propelling BEAM into the top 100 crypto rankings.
Day 8: Saro McKenna, CEO, Dacoco
Launched in 2021, Dacoco’s Alien Worlds is one of the longest running-blockchain games and also one of the most misunderstood. Running on the WAX blockchain, with modes also on BNB, at first impressions it seems like a simple NFT-based resource clicker.
However, getting deeper into the experience, it becomes clear that this is just the trojan horse on which the community is building a set of fully decentralized autonomous organizations, with their own set of leaders – voted for by each DAO – treasuries and objectives.
2024 has seen it push into creating share lore for the game, which despite its age still has a daily active user base of around 100,000 wallets.
Day 7: Manish Agarwal, KGeN
Well-known as an entrepreneur in the Indian mobile gaming market over the past decades following his CEO roles in companies such as Reliance Games and Nazara, Manish Agarwal got the blockchain bug in 2021, realising how decentralized technologies would enable the creation of new gaming communities.
This resulted in the formation of the Kratos Gamer Network (KGeN), which as well as building on its strong roots in the Indian esports scene, has also seen strong global expansion in 2024 with particular focus on LATAM and Nigeria.
Day 6: Yellow Panther
2024 has been a year in which many online influencers have stamped their reputation on the blockchain gaming space. And as well as those KOLs shilling coins – often their own bags – there have also been a collection of enthusiasts who have attempted to grow the market and educate their followers about what blockchain gaming is all about.
One of the most active and enthusiastic has been Yellow Panther, who’s particularly focused on the dynamic southeast Asia market.
Day 5: Luca Netz, CEO, Igloo Inc.
Luca Netz made his name in the crypto space with the acquisition of the Pudgy Penguins’ NFT collection for $2.5 million in 2022. What a deal! The subsequent narrative such as selling plushies into Wal-mart has turned Pudgies into a blue-chip NFT collection; one which continues to reach all-time-highs.
However, his inclusion on our list is all about how Petz has built out the IP, especially when it comes to gaming, with an ecosystem including its Pudgy TCG Vibes, Pudgy World social platform, and mobile game Pudgy Party, which is in development with Mythical Games, not forgetting its Abstract consumer-facing blockchain.
Day 4: Simon Davis, CEO, Mighty Bear Games
From the outside looking in, it’s easy to position the pivot of a company’s business model as a failure of its existing operations. And while that may be the situation in some cases, in others the pivot is instead predicated on the stark realization that a company’s expertise can be much better rewarded by a new arising opportunity.
To some extent, of course, the outcome of Mighty Bear Games‘ pivot from building a gaming ecosystem around its Mighty Action Heroes brand into building Goat Gaming, an Telegram-first platform of action games with high stake rewards remains unclear.
However, as the first established web3 game dev to understand and act on the opportunity, CEO Simon Davis deserves our recognition.
Day 3: Michael O’Connor, CEO, Today
These days everything is a hostage to fortune, advent calendar write-ups as much as AI agent-led memecoin launches! The latter is certainly the current state-of-play for Michael O’Connor following the launch of AI agent Limbo and its associated LIMBO token.
Things really did not go according to plan but blockchain is nothing if not generous when it comes to providing opportunity for second and third acts. Equally, it shouldn’t be forgotten that as a very high concept AI-led social game announced in 2022, Today is way ahead of the curve when it comes to web3 agent interactions.
In that sense, very few other projects have its heritage or have built a reputation for overcoming obstacles and building towards an exciting goal, especially during the long bear years.
Hence, it’s to be hoped that Limbo’s launch will quickly be forgotten – a bump in the road – as Today moves closer to playability and (eventual) launch. After all, the higher the ambition, the harder the path.
Day 2: Rebecca Liao, CEO, Saga Labs
In a year in which companies announcing their new gaming L2 and L3 blockchains was en vogue, it took ambition to launch a new L1. Indeed, Saga was keen to highlight that it wasn’t really just an L1; instead “the L1 to launch L1s”.
Riding the year’s early wave of play-to-airdrop events, Saga’s own mainnet went live in April, with its SAGA token well-distributed through numerous partnerships with games and other blockchains.
Since then, it’s revealed its Saga Origins game publishing division, as well as highlighting key titles including K4Rally, Cluaido and Angelic: The Chaos Theatre.
And that activity has been headed by Saga’s CEO Rebecca Liao; someone always enthusiastic to make the case for why blockchain can disrupt the game sector.
Day 1: Anthony Palma, Gaming Partnerships & Investments, Mysten Labs
One of the surprises of 2024, and something that’s still running somewhat under-the-radar, is the rise of Mysten Labs’ Sui blockchain. Most recently, improving sentiment around the L1 blockchain has been demonstrated in the performance of the SUI token, which recently surged to an all-time-high of $3.92.
More specifically, the chain has landed some key partnerships when it comes to gaming, notably signing NDUS’ pop shooter Xociety from Polygon, Animoca’s Darktimes, Gumi’s Brave Frontier Versus, SNK’s Shodown Samurai R and the relaunch of esports outfit Team Liquid’s loyalty program MyBlue. But the most surprising announcement has been its dedicated $600 PC-based gaming portable SuiPlay0X1, which is due for release sometime in 2025.
All-in-all then, an impressive show-of-force from Mysten Labs’ business development team, reflected in the inclusion of gaming partnerships & investment exec Anthony Palma as the first impactful blockchain gaming person for our 2024 advent calendar.
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