Yuga Labs, the company behind the popular NFT collections Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Kennel Club, and Otherside metaverse, has entered the Web3 gaming space with the release of its first game, Dookey Dash. Players who already owned Bored Apes and Mutant Apes could earn free "sewer passes," which were non-game items needed to play the game. The game was available for a limited time of three weeks and had a similar gameplay to popular mobile game Temple Run. The goal of the game was to avoid obstacles and collect unique items, with the highest-scoring players receiving prizes yet to be announced.
The company has a loyal community of collectors and has been rewarded with more drops, live events, and brand collaborations. The Bored Apes collection alone is valued at $1.1 billion.
In March 2022, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led a $450 million investment round in Yuga Labs at a $4 billion valuation to pay for the development of the Bored Ape ecosystem. The company is also working on building its metaverse world, called the Otherside, which is currently mostly a mystery.
Yuga Labs has recently appointed Spencer Tucker as its first Chief Gaming Officer, demonstrating the company's commitment to creating Web3 games that put the customer first. Tucker is a former top manager at mobile gaming companies Scopely and GREE.
While Dookey Dash is a value-added game that rewards existing Bored Ape community members, it is different from other popular Web3 games like Axie Infinity, which has a mass-market appeal and draws players from developing countries. Also, unlike Axie Infinity, Dookey Dash has a limited time to play and does not give users any native game tokens as a reward.
