‍Moonray, a multiplayer arena battle game, recently launched its public beta with the goal of reshaping industry expectations. It brings a fresh focus to 4-versus-4 arena combat, combined with a rich narrative developed hand-in-hand with a well-known comic book author and illustrator.

The journey began in 2019 when CEO and co-founder Rodrigo Etcheto decided to merge his love for science fiction with gaming. After a prior career running launch marketing for several startups in the dotcom era of the early 2000s and then spending 15 years working in his family's food processing business, Etcheto felt the pull back to working with technology. This led him to explore new game prototypes and, ultimately, paved the way for Moonray's creation. 

Moonray’s unusual origin story

From the outset, the Moonray team is determined to make a game no one’s ever seen before.

"I was getting a little bit bored with all the games out there," Etcheto recently shared in an interview with OpenSea. "There's nothing wrong with them, but all the games are based on either medieval themes, which are kind of dark and depressing, or it's sci-fi. And if it's sci-fi, it's near-future dystopian, essentially a Blade Runner clone. Sci-fi, in particular, can go so much farther than where it’s being pushed."

Yearning for a different kind of narrative setting for his game, Etcheto envisioned a world where advanced technology blurs the line between organic and synthetic, where consciousness itself can be manipulated. He drew inspiration from UFO lore and the most recent run of the Prophet comic book series by writer Brandon Graham and artist Simon Roy (Prophet was originally created by Rob Liefeld in the 1990s). Eventually, Etcheto began to conceptualize a universe where an element with embedded consciousness could be manipulated by society to create beings and technology. With this novel idea formulating fresh in his mind, Etcheto taught himself to use the Unreal Engine and started making prototypes of what would become Moonray in 2019.

"When I started to see what you could do with Unreal Engine, it became really clear that the graphics are really powerful. The ability to create a prototype is really powerful," he said. “I found what I needed to get started.”

As for his muse, the Prophet comic series served as Etcheto’s main inspiration for where to take the game’s narrative and artwork: “I absolutely loved it,” he said. “I hadn’t seen anything like it and I knew I needed someone with crazy ideas, so one day I just reached out to the writer [Brandon Graham] and told him what I was doing, asking him to help me develop my story ideas for this game. And he agreed to join!”

With Graham on board as a creative collaborator, Etcheto leaned into his interests in sci-fi and UFOs and began asking himself what a truly technologically advanced future would look like and what kinds of worlds he could create with that futuristic technology.

“I knew that I had to come up with something that wouldn’t look like technology to us,” said Etcheto. “I arrived at a blending of organic and technological pieces with an embedded consciousness, blurring those lines. And the narrative would involve a society that manipulates this element to create new things and even entirely new beings with it.”

Battling in the Moonray Arena

With a solid concept for the backstory nailed down, Etcheto began building the story of Moonray alongside the gameplay itself. In tandem with Graham, he began developing the narrative’s universe in a four-book comic series that serves as the foundation for the game’s world-building and is available for sale online and in thousands of bookstores across the US.

Unlike most video games, where gameplay dictates the story, Moonray flips the script, and the comic’s narrative drives the action. “This comic series isn't just backstory,” said Etcheto. “It's an integral part of Moonray's development process. We use the comic to inform what we build in the game.”

The first edition of the comic, Mother’s Skin, launched in October 2023, with the second volume Echoes of Ascension dropping in July 2024 alongside the game itself on the Epic Games Store.

Moonray is set tens of thousands of years in the future in a post-humanity world where Etcheto wants to defy conventional sci-fi tropes and continue integrating with the comics. Drawing inspiration from the books, the gameplay focuses on combat, drawing inspiration from major titles like Assassin’s Creed and Devil May Cry, all set in an arena environment modeled after Quake.

“We initially thought of making a shooter game, but there are too many and the genre is far too crowded,” said Etcheto. “Everyone does a shooter in part because it's technically much easier to make than other kinds of games. So our idea of Moonray’s gameplay is based mostly on melee combat with swords, hammers, and spears, with limited use of ranged weapons. We don’t want ranged combat dominating too heavily.”

The game features heroes directly from the comic book series, offering players a deep connection to the narrative. Etcheto believes that what sets Moonray apart is its art direction, led by the team’s creative director Xurxo Penalta, who brings a fresh perspective to game design.

"The best part is he doesn't play games," Etcheto says of Penalta. "We love that because he's not looking at other games. It creates a fresher, more original artwork."

Instead of drawing inspiration from contemporary games, Penalta looks to science fiction art and film from the 1970s and 1980s, which has resulted in a unique visual style that Etcheto expects to set Moonray apart from its competitors.

Moonray’s on-chain economy

In the process of developing the game, Etcheto observed the blending of gaming and NFTs beginning in 2021 and saw an opportunity to leverage blockchain for Moonray’s eventual power players.

"Our idea for the web3 use case in a triple-A multiplayer is that it should be very, very simple," Etcheto said. "It must elevate the gaming experience for those that want it. We won't force it on any players, buying an NFT or connecting a wallet is not needed to play the game."

The core concept is "Fortnite with tradable skins," where in-game items have real-world value through blockchain technology. Working with the Miium Foundation, Moonray is integrating in-game NFTs on the Base blockchain and the $MNRY ERC-20 token on Ethereum and Base. This enables the swapping of in-game cosmetic items and potentially token-based wagering in competitive modes.

“To me though, web3 is just infrastructure,” said Etcheto. “It’s not a feature, but it powers our features. Moonray has to be enjoyable on its own merits and that’s where our focus is.”

Rare items will eventually be unlocked directly in the game or via drops on the marketplace.

“In the end, the goal is for our players to find their way to cool rewards through curiosity and creativity,” said Etcheto.

Moonray’s next steps

The game is currently live on the Epic Games Store, with plans to launch on Steam by mid-2025 and land on consoles by the end of 2025 too.

Etcheto envisions Moonray working and monetizing very similarly to most live service games, selling battle passes, skins, and more. The team is already working on new character classes to introduce later on. While the business model may be familiar, the game’s art and design will continue to set it apart.

“If you’re going to compete as a small studio, you cannot take on the big studios directly, “ said Etcheto. “You have to do something that really stands out on the creative side. Our combat is based on combos, parrying, and blocking, all in a 4v4 arena. You have to build, maintain, and continue to improve an interesting gameplay hook or else they’ll just go play Call of Duty.”

Details about the upcoming mint

Up next, the Moonray team is minting a free profile picture (PFP) collection, targeting the drop for mid-October. See full details on the Moonray premint here. 

Following that, the team has recently announced an Autobattler mobile game due to launch in early 2025.

Note: The mention of the $MNRY token is for informational purposes only nor is it intended as financial or investment advice.