Local blockchain-based AR game nears funding goal

A new Blockchain-based augmented reality (AR) mobile game, made in South Africa, looks well on its way to meeting its crowdfunding target.

Michael Deon and Kyle Haffenden pitched their Augmentors game on the Shark Tank TV show last year, with venture capitalist Vinny Lingham getting on board.

Deon and Haffenden created a 30-day crowdfunding round for the Android and iOS game, in the form of an initial coin offering (ICO), hitting half of its US$1-million target in 24 hours. The campaign saw its biggest backers coming from the USA, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Norway, Romania, Netherlands, Canada, and China.

The crowdfunding campaign sees 70 million in-game “Databits” being put up for sale. Interestingly enough, 15 000 Databits is the equivalent of one Bitcoin, the developers claim.

“The exchange for 1 Bitcoin (BTC) will be 15 000 DataBits. People, who have bought DataBits during the Token Sales or from another player after the end of the Token Sales, will be able to trade their DTB on the blockchain and exchange them for other cryptocurrencies,” the game’s website reads.

Augmentors is the answer to what happens if you combine two trendy tech phenomena

Augementors has been described as a “3D-modelled cross-platform mobile AR fantasy game” supported by “crypto tokens that run on blockchain”.

In other words, it’s Pokemon Go with cryptocurrency underpinnings, with 50 creatures featured in the title (with their own spells, attacks and movements). The developers will also allow creatures to be traded and trained with other players, as well as winner-takes-all battles that see the Databits up for grabs.

“Seed funding for the development of the game came from Lingham’s startup angel investment firm Newtown Partners, which he co-founded with Cape Town-based venture capitalist Llew Claasen, who is also the executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation,” read an excerpt of the press release sent to Ventureburn. “Fellow Shark Tank South Africa investor Gil Oved, group co-CEO and co-founder of The Creative Counsel, Africa’s largest advertising agency, is also an angel investor in Augmentors.”

The crowdfunding ICO drive ends on 28 February, with an alpha version of the game expected to launch in May 2017 and a beta launching “shortly thereafter”.