‘Wolf Game’ Halted After Solana Relaunch Prompts Backlash

Wolf Game first launched in 2021, garnering a die-hard player community over its four-year lifespan across both the Ethereum mainnet and eventually layer-2 network Blast. But players aren’t happy with last week’s 2.0 relaunch on Solana, with some saying the move destroyed everything they’d grinded years for due to new “confusing” mechanics.

In response, Wolf Game 2.0 was halted on Monday, liquidity was removed from its recently launched Solana token, and the CEO behind the game said that he has stepped down.

When playing the original Wolf Game experience, players could either own a sheep or wolf NFT. Those with a sheep could passively farm the WOOL token, while it was the job of the wolves to loot these earnings. Wolf players could even steal other players’ sheep NFTs—with all of this happening on-chain, of course.

This unique mechanic and crypto-native gameplay loop led to it garnering a bustling community, and eventually to game publisher Pixel Vault acquiring the game in August 2023 for an undisclosed sum. A year later, Wolf Game migrated from Ethereum mainnet to layer-2 network Blast, which came amid a major airdrop farming push.

On Wednesday last week, Wolf Game announced that its new token on Solana was live and presented “Wolf Game 2.0,” which claimed to have expanded the token’s utility via new in-game mechanics. However, it wasn’t well received.

Players found the reimagined version of the game “confusing,” with a lack of explanation for its mechanics coming from its developers. One player said that they had “no clue what’s happening,” with pseudonymous Wolf Game CEO GFunk saying that explainers would come later. In the meantime, a community member called FarmerPiddy took the mantle to explain how the new game works.

The new gameplay loop asked players to burn their wolf, sheep, land, and other NFTs they had grinded for in the previous game’s evolution. But in doing this, players weren’t reimbursed with a 1-for-1 version of the burned asset. Rather, gamers would earn new in-game assets like “Shep’s Kiss,” which could be used in mini-games.

“What the hell is Shep’s Kiss? You’re asking us to burn our wolves, sheep, lands, and other assets,” disgruntled community member Digital Optimyst wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Why would you destroy something with a strong, loyal community—something built around Shep’s vision, the original white paper, and the thrill of risk and reward?”

On top of this, the 2.0 relaunch didn’t include the Valley Game 2.0, an upgraded version of a popular mini-game that was hyped by the official X account back in September of last year.

The backlash grew too loud on Monday, leading to the game being halted and GFunk twice claiming to have “stepped down.” GFunk did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

The official X statement said that GFunk was working with the Farmhands Council to figure out the next steps. The Farmhands Council, sometimes shortened to FHC, is a group of players and WOOL holders that were nominated via the WOOL governance system. By joining the Council, individuals have an opportunity to have their say on upcoming changes to the game.

Multiple Farmhand Council members have claimed via Discord that they didn’t see a proposal of the changes. Another member, JohnStargaryen, said that the Council didn’t see the new version of the game until a week before the rollout, with “multiple people” voicing concerns that it shouldn’t launch.

Now, gamers are calling out for a community takeover, or CTO, to revive the game.

“I’ve never seen greater lore for a CTO since Pudgy Penguins,” pseudonymous crypto venture capitalist Beanie said on X. “The best part is that Wolf Game art is CC0. Great opportunity for an aspiring dev to come in and instantly get the support of many people, including me.”

CC0, otherwise known as Creative Commons Zero, means that its artwork is in the public domain, allowing it to be freely used and commercialized—NFT projects like Moonbirds opted for this model in 2022. This means that a Wolf Game reboot could use official artwork without the need of a formal acquisition, while the on-chain game assets are composable and thus could be usable in other apps.

For now, the Wolf Game team maintains that it is listening to its community, will restore burned assets, and is working on the “next steps” for the title.

Edited by Andrew Hayward