TurboCharged Demonstrates Crypto Currency In Gaming

GameCredits is a platform designed to provide a simple and familiar cryptographic payments gateway for Gamers and Game Developers alike. The platform will function as an online payment gateway and wallet, allowing users to manage their balances and instantly buy in-game content, whilst allowing Game Developers to integrate and receive payments from, or issue payments to, their users.

“GameCredits is the first free open source gaming currency made by gamers for gamers and game developers.”
— – GameCredits

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global entertainment and media outlook 2015-2019, global video game revenue will grow healthily through to 2019. After recovering from slower growth driven by the end of the previous games console cycle, “total global video games revenue will rise at a CAGR of 5.7% over the forecast period to reach US$93.18bn by 2019.”

“By 2019, global digital distribution of traditional games will generate revenue of US$12.89bn, or 19.6% of traditional gaming revenue.”
— – PricewaterhouseCoopers

While markets with long-established traditional console and PC game offerings continue to be dominated by traditional gaming revenue, the global growth of social and casual gaming revenue is predicted to create a US$22.52bn market by 2019.

Silvio Guček is a professional game designer, Game Development Project Manager and Monetization Expert for GameCredits. He believes that digital currencies have enormous potential within the growing gaming industry, “however no one seems to be tapping into it.”

“We at GameCredits are breaching this chasm and are baldly exploring those uncharted waters – all in the name of providing crypto currencies the mainstream adoption they deserve.”
— – Silvio Guček

The GameCredits Payment Platform is being developed in collaboration with like minded Crypto Projects, being built from the ground up to support multiple currencies, and to serve multiple purposes.

To demonstrate the platform, and drive wider adoption of cryptocurrencies in the gaming industry, the GameCredits Foundation has three games in development. The first of which will be TurboCharged, slated for release on September 2nd.

“We are aware that this is an endeavor that requires a tremendous amount of dedication – and we’re here to deliver!"
— – Guček

TurboCharged is an action packed, competitive racing experience that will eventually be available on all platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, as well as mobile phones with iOS and Android.

Initially set to be released as a time-shifted multiplayer game, a real-time multiplayer version will be available in the near future.

Within the game there are two types of currencies that can be used. GameCredits own crypto currency, GMC, and Cash. Both can be used to select a new car, while upgrades are only available via Cash. When starting the game for the first time everyone gets 5000 Cash credited, while GMC will need to be purchased, to play the game with the default car no GMC are required.

GMC is a mineable coin which uses the Scrypt algorithm, with a block time of 90 seconds retargeted at every block. The difficulty algorithm is based on Earthcoin and the block reward is 25 coins. There is a max number of GMC that will ever exist, 84,000,000.

There are at least 10 mining pools available for GMC, which is also tradable on Poloniex, Cryptsy Bittrex and Cryptopia. The currency had a market cap of 1,574,294 USD at the time of writing.

GameCredits Project Manager, Victor Alejandro, explained that TurboCharged will facilitate in-game crypto currency transactions, while promoting GMC’s function as a currency, “not only within our games, but as a fully integratable currency in any game.”

“As we launch our initial venture, I expect Turbocharged to act as a catalyst for innovation in this field. TurboCharged permits us to properly vet our betting system and in-game transaction platform, which shall be implemented at a much larger scale in our upcoming game ‘EON,’ currently in development.”
— – Victor Alejandro, Project Manager | PR Coordinator, GameCredits

The first step before launching the game is to create a GMC Web Wallet account, the same credentials are used to login to TurboChargerd. Creating an account is straightforward, just select a username and password and you are in.

Once logged into the GMC Web Wallet users are able to create a new GMC address, where they can send GMC to be used within the game, and see a current balance. The team has plans to develop a GMC launcher, an API, and a Multi-User Wallet Authentication System.

GMC can also be used to bet on the race outcome when selecting a track, there are different difficulties and stakes varying from easy to insane, with bets ranging from 10 to 200 GMC. The winner receives prizes in GMC at the end of the race.

In the game there were three tracks available, in the build we tested, but the number should grow to nine soon after launch. When a race starts a player is greeted with all the info required to play the game like speed, rpm, position, lap time and track overview as well as the Cash earned for playing the game. The more a user plays the more Cash is earned, allowing for upgrades and better cars by simply playing a few races.

There are ten cars to choose from, as we would expect from a racing arcade. By upgrading the engine and the handling cars are easier to drive and go faster, depending on your racing skills.

There are various sponsored banners along the tracks, providing a revenue stream for the developers. Passing the finish line brings up the end race summary which presents players with the arrival position, duration time, Cash and GMC earned.

TurboCharged offers a good balance between an arcade and a simulation game to provide an enjoyable and challenging experience. The colorful and appealing graphics together with an action camera that puts the player at the center of the action make the gameplay smooth and enjoyable. We tested the game with an AMD Radeon R9 280X and even with the graphics settings on “ultra” our experience was fluid.

While the game is not comparable to Need for Speed nor Gran Turismo, the team is hard at work to improve it further over time by adding real-time multiplayer and additional car upgrades. Improvements in graphics and multi-platform support are also to be expected.

Since the first build we received a week ago we have seen four new releases, each one with improved graphics and added functionality. The GMC Foundation main focus for this release is to test their cryptocurrency and web wallet integration within the game and the opportunities that this can bring. They are already developing the next planned title"EON: The Omega Event."