Horizon Blockchain Games Raises $5M For Trading Card Game

Game development company Horizon Blockchain Games has gathered $5 million in new funding round as it proceeds with working on its “SkyWeaver” digital trading card game.

An official blog post states that the funding was led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Initialized Capital. The funds also came from Polychain Capital, ConsenSys, Golden Ventures, Digital Currency Group, CMT Digital, and Regah Ventures. As TechCrunch notes, the $5 million is an extension of a $3.75 million seed round raised by Horizon Blockchain Games last year.

While raising funds, Horizon Blockchain Games has been working on the closed beta test of SkyWeaver, a trading card game similar to Magic the Gathering Arena and Hearthstone but developed on top of the Ethereum blockchain network.

Ethereum transactions assist in monitoring card ownership and gameplay, though in the closed beta, the game leverages the Rinkeby test network. Players can get cards through gameplay or trading, and they are represented on the network by tokens which use the ERC-1155 standard. This approach is based on the concept which allows players to keep full control of their cards via their wallets, opening the door to their use in other game formats.

The company stated in its blog post:

“With 12,000 playtesters, and 90,000+ more players awaiting access, we already have a wonderful community that we’re extremely grateful for. We’ve been balancing the game, making tons of UI and UX improvements based on user feedback, and have been testing our Marketplace.”

Horizon Blockchain Games is going to launch an open beta for SkyWeaver later this year.