Building up towards a launch later in 2024, Autoverse Studios recently announced it had received $8 million in funding for its web3 drag racer Auto Legends.

A game designed for car enthusiasts, Auto Legends is taking on a new shape with blockchain-based features such as car ownership and player-to-player trading and transfer of assets. Going from high-stakes competitive drag racing, the developer now looks to redefine the genre with enhanced social play including esports. With features like tournaments, team competition, car customization and tuning, Auto Legends aims to bring something new to the web3 scene. Being cross-platform, the game is currently available in early access via Epic Games Store, with a forthcoming release for mobile.

We thought it a good time to find out more from Autoverse Studios’ head of product and tech Dinko Tontchev. With over 10 years in game development, Dinko has been working on Car Town and Racing Rivals, in addition to being the lead platform engineer at Glu Mobile/EA. 

BlockchainGamer: Unlike many blockchain games, you’ve kept very quiet about your activity to-date. Why did you take this approach?

Dinko Tontchev: We wanted to focus entirely on building a great game and re-engaging our fan base. We are also bringing new innovations to this genre, a genre we invented, so we wanted to keep those under wraps until we were further along.

Why do you think blockchain is a good fit for racing games?

For car enthusiasts, cars are treated like assets. Special cars appreciate in value, and every car is unique, with mileage, color, and even ownership history factoring into the market price. In our prior racing games, this drove a lot of player-to-player trading and even allowed players to make money – blockchain is not just a great fit for us; it’s a solution for existing player behavior.

How do you plan to police features such as pink slip races, which could potentially involve the transfer of very high value assets?

Our in-game assets were already highly valued in the past, so we had to be diligent about security, monitoring, and enforcement. Our past experience in this area will be critical to our success.

Why have you included spectator wagering as a feature in the game?

There is wagering, but to be clear, for spectators, it’s experience points rather than currency. The wagering in our game is on skill-based play. 

A key pillar of our game is making the experience social, so having people spectate your race and see who they think will win is a big part of making it as much about pride and embarrassment as it is about winning and losing. Spectating is just as fun as racing in our game. Spectators signalling who they think will win heightens the social connection between them and the racers.

As a cross-platform game, how will you manage to ensure feature compatibility across PC versions and versions released through platforms that have specific restrictions around monetization etc?

Straight line racing is particularly well-suited for this exact purpose, due to the limited controls required. The shorter races are just as competitive as turn-by-turn races but more exciting for spectators due to their shorter format. Think of a drag race as a short and addictive TikTok reel compared to a circuit race that is more like watching a longer movie.

What’s your roadmap in terms of the games and other items such as NFTs etc?

There’s a lot more to come around player ownership, branded parts, player-hosted tournaments, teams, different types of races, and more – a lot more. 

Auto Legends is currently in closed alpha. You can sign up for early beta access via the game website. Stay up-to-date on the game via its X account and Discord channel.