Axie Infinity is arguably one of the best games out there and statistically speaking is the best NFT game within the market, proving to be one of the most profitable games. Over recent weeks Axie Infinity has met unprecedented hype, its user activity skyrocketing to have a flow-on effect to its native tokens AXS and Smooth Love Potion (SLP), smashing their previously set ATH (All-Time High). Axie Infinity has grown to a great game but a great lingering question is how did it start? How did Axie Infinity first come about? How did it grow and become more and more popular over time? How did its developers make such great moves leading to this great hype? The answer is a long one, so a series will begin regarding Axie Infinity's history: 'Looking Back At Axie Infinity.' It all starts at the beginning, and this is the focus of this post: the start of Axie Infinity and its primitive development.
Axie Infinity's First Words
With Axie Infinity holding a Medium account recording its significant events for several years, looking at such recorded events is an effective way of looking at the development of Axie Infinity, going back to before its main release.
The first announcement of Axie Infinity dates back over three years and was headlined as follows: 'Axie Infinity is opening presale!' Within such announcement Axie Infinity, the NFT game is briefly described, outlining its purpose and experience. Interestingly, Axie Infinity calls Axies is similar to dogs, cats, fishes, dragons and moving trees, depending on which one they are. The presale is mouth-watering when heard, allowing players to adopt Axies with free Axies promised other friends are invited. However, not many appear to have noticed the announcement with only 111 'claps' given to it, thus indicating that the game was not much recognised with its early development. The link to the Axie adopting site no longer works, bringing up a 404 error when loaded.
Axie Infinity's First Plans
A few days after Axie Infinity's announcement of its presale, Axie Infinity announces a roadmap update, all of which are significant events that many may recognise visible within the current Axie Infinity game. They are as follows:
Mid-Feb 2018: Presale event, where you can adopt “Origin” Axies, was opened.
Mid-March 2018 — MAJOR-1: The initial version, which consists of the breeding feature and the marketplace, will be released. New body parts and classes will be released frequently from this release onward.
Early April 2018 — MINOR-1: The second version, which consists of a raising feature and at least one minigame, will be released.
Mid-April 2018 — MAJOR-2: The combat system will be released. Balancing changes will be released regularly to tweak Axies’ move effects and combat interactions.
MINOR-2: Terrariums will be on sale.
MAJOR-3: Initial mobile versions will be released with some social interactions.
MAJOR-4: Decoration items will be on sale, introducing the Terrarium customization feature.
MAJOR-5: Quests and a new combat mode will be released.
This announcement hardly appears to have received any attention by the community at all, receiving only 7 'claps.'
Moving Towards Release
Over March 2018 Axie Infinity begins to make more releases working towards the game, also releasing leaks towards the game to be established. It includes a snapshot of Axies within a battle, a snapshot very different from the current appearance for Axie battles, shown below. Axie Infinity introduces their team as well, only including 5 team members with a mix of skills.
Mystic body parts for Axies are available for the Axie Infinity presale that ends on the 16th of April 2018, with limited edition appearances that will never be released again. Presale Axies will also have an Origin title that still exists within the Axie Marketplace as a rare title, able to be filtered within the filter box. For this announcement there is much more attention, receiving 871 'claps.' By the end of March, the Axie team manage to release the first major version of Axie Infinity, thus setting the beginning of the great hype to come in future years.
New Features Within Axie Infinity
As Axie Infinity sets its first major game, the Axie team begins to work into new unique features to improve the ecosystem. This includes the first Axie Marketplace, new breeding mechanics, Axie Encyclopedia, gifting, filtering on the marketplace, whitepaper and a mix of body parts as the Axie Infinity team experiment with body parts for Axies.
For April's Fools Day, Axie Infinity made a false release of a new class called 'Dragon,' appearing to have been a great class if real but obviously is not being an April's Fools Day joke. An image of the April Fools joke is shown below.
