Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs releases spin-off game

Yuga Labs has released its latest game, the HV-MTL Forge, which is an expansion to the Bored Ape Yacht Club universe.

HV-MTL — read “heavy metal” — Forge is a competitive crafting game exclusive for HV-MTL NFT holders. The game centers around 30,000 sentient mech NFTs.

The Forge’s design differs from Yuga Labs’ previous game, Dookey Dash. This game allows players to create and maintain a forge and care for their HV mech’s health, while Dookey Dash’s primary focus is to keep up with the ticking clock and earn points.

Additionally, players can vote on which forges deserve rewards known as “amps.”

The game also mixes elements of a pet game and a casual world builder. According to Yuga Labs’ HV-MTL game guide, the Forge will last for six seasons and let players engage in activities like “build, flex, fight, and evolve.”

“Your HV is relying on you to evolve into an Evo2 and earn up to six powerful upgrades for its Evo2 form. You’ll do this by building a workshop — your Forge, which will generate the energy needed to explore The Rift — and keeping your HV happy,” the HV-MTL site explained.

Yuga Labs introduced the HV-MTL NFT collection back in March. Over the past 24 hours, the trading sales volume of the NFT collection has surged by 20 percent, reaching 833 ETH. The HV-MTL collection currently holds a market capitalization of $43 million. The collection has a starting price of $1,543.

Holders of Yuga Labs’ Sewer Pass NFTs can opt to “burn” or remove their NFTs permanently from the Ethereum blockchain in exchange for an Evo 1 Mech, also known as HV-MTL.

The collection consists of 30,000 unique mech NFTs, each with wings, wheels, weapons, and more attributes. These NFTs serve as keys for players to access and play the new Forge game.

The Rift, a rogue-like dungeon crawler experience, will be introduced in the game’s third season. In the Rift, players can visit a microtransactions shop to buy items or premium tiles.

Furthermore, players can receive multiple HVs and invite them to hover around their forge for customization and companionship.

In the game’s final stage, players will also have to fight in battles against formidable creatures called “epic beasts” within the game to gain secret “treasures” while racing against the game’s timer.

Development of Forge

Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, Yuga Labs’ co-founders, conceived the idea of developing a game akin to classic and challenging arcade games of the past. Their vision for the game was to create an experience that is both “trippy and excessively dark,” as Solano explained in a lengthy tweet.

The basic concept is creating an unbeatable game with limited playthroughs. After defeating the game, each player will receive their own NFT character associated with their rank on the final leaderboard.

“The idea stuck with us because it embodied in a very simple way what we found most interesting about the potential of gaming NFTs,” Solano said.

The game will also incorporate Bored Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) holders into the game mechanics in the future.

However, the developers won’t reveal the details of these mechanics until season two of the Forge. Holders of other Yuga NFTs will then have access to claim exclusive items that are expected to have ongoing value in the upcoming Rift.