In 2021, Long Do ventured into the world of cryptocurrencies, embracing NFTs by creating his own NFT game, pushing the boundaries of what was possible with NFTs.
He quickly introduced innovations like smart contract wallets and on-chain point systems, which were then used to build games like Virtually Human Studio's ZED RUN during the bull market of 2022.
More recently, Long, who is based in Canada, launched Anomaly Games Inc., an AI-powered game engine and an SDK that allows lightning-fast creation and deployment of mini-games, all on social media platforms like Telegram and Discord.
According to the company, they have two flagship games launching on Telegram; Dicestone—a simple competitive dice game and Wildstone; a Marvel Snap inspired card game.
Telegram has been working on a platform where third-party developers, from games to restaurants, can build mini-apps to interact with users. In Telegram's own words: "Developers can use JavaScript to create infinitely flexible interfaces that can be launched right inside Telegram."
Building up on that technology, Anomaly aims to deploy Dicestone and Wildstone leveraging generative AI technology and create an ecosystem that will allow players to level-up, earn in-game currency, and add layered dynamics, all on Telegram.
Long strongly believes that Web3 games are best deployed where Web3 audiences hang out the most.
Early Years in Crypto
Long has been an obsessive competitive gamer since he was a child. On a daily basis, he would race home and play his favourite game at the time. He earned an income through tournaments and as a Twitch Partner from titles like StarCraft, HearthStone, Yu-Gi-Oh!. Today, his obsession has evolved to include building video games as well.
For over 10 years, he's been in tech as an engineer / product manager and has worked for many Fintech Saas and even healthcare related companies.
In 2023, Long developed Riftly—a questing tool which was acquired by Moku, on the Ronin chain, enabling him to actively contribute to exciting questing campaigns for companies like Sky Mavis (the developers of Axie Infinity), and campaigns for projects such as Pixels and CyberKongz.
With years of experience simplifying games and building quests, Anomaly now aims to do the same for Telegram's 900 million monthly active users. "Distribution is a significant hurdle for Web3. By integrating our games through social platforms such as Telegram and Discord, we are making it easier and addressing this challenge. Platforms like the Play Store and iOS Store are becoming increasingly prohibitive for both developers and users," says Long.
Distributing Web3 Games Where Web3 Audiences Are
Anomaly Games is a layer 3 AI gaming app chain powered by Arbitrum Orbit and built on Gelato Saas. The company streamlines blockchain gaming UX with account abstraction, enabling easy user onboarding through social platforms.
Underneath it sits an SDK that enables enhanced functions like AI driven match-making, decision making, player model training and automated quest creation—all which aim to reduce developer time, address cost challenges of AI integration, and significantly improve user engagement/experience within its ecosystem.
The platform also allows developers to create their own mini-games and rapidly deploy them on social media platforms such as Telegram and Discord, which Long says is a "new benchmark in interactive gaming."
For example, gamers eliminate the need to go through cumbersome app downloads and registration processes, and can play Dicestone instantly on Telegram or Discord's community server, without ever having to leave the app.
Users can also invite their peers to join the games with their existing networks.
Anomaly also aims to enhance gaming privacy with a DePin infrastructure, utilising Gelato's latest Node-Sale-as-a-Service solution to enhance security by selling verifier node licences and enabling community participation in Anomaly's infrastructure.
Long stated that Anomaly has already found success in its early stage fundraising efforts referencing their recent oversubscribed pre-seed round with prominent investors such as Decasonic, VHS, Round13 Capital and more.
Immersive Social-Gaming
Anomaly sees the Web3 gaming landscape evolving beyond its current speculative phase into more practical utility.
The success of AAA games in Web3 may be scarce, but Long believes that Anomaly is leveraging social-media to go-to-market faster and reach a wider audience. He affirms that games are an excellent medium to build strong communities within existing social networks.
