Welcome to our special segment, where we delve into the exciting world of Web3 gaming. Today, we have the distinct pleasure of hosting Steve Haßenpflug, VP of Games at ChromaWay and Executive Board Member for My Neighbor Alice.
Further, he serves on the Executive Committee and Board of OMA3, and is a Working Group Co-Chair at the Metaverse Standards Forum, making him one of the most active voices shaping the future of open metaverse standards.
With a rich background spanning over 15 years in game development, having contributed to titles like Angry Birds and XCOM, Steve is at the forefront of merging traditional gaming with blockchain innovation. We’re here to discuss the highly anticipated launch of My Neighbor Alice‘s Chapter One, the intricacies of its tokenomics, and its groundbreaking partnership with Pudgy Penguins.
Ishan Pandey: Hi Steve, it’s a pleasure to welcome you. You have an impressive track record in traditional game development. How has your extensive experience working on established titles like Angry Birds and XCOM influenced your approach to building a Web3 game like My Neighbor Alice, especially concerning player experience and engagement?
Steve Haßenpflug: Thanks, Ishan, great to be here. Having worked on a plethora of games in vastly different genres taught me that, regardless of the platform or tech, one principle remains timeless: games need to be engaging. At their core, they should offer players compelling reasons to return, explore, and emotionally invest.
Building My Neighbor Alice, I want to bring the same level of polish and playability that seasoned players expect: intuitive controls, fluid feedback loops, and rewarding progression. But what makes this journey different is the added layers of digital ownership, decentralization and community-driven development. Web3 isn’t about reinventing fun; it’s about giving players more meaningful stakes in the world they love. So we’re merging battle-tested design sensibilities with player empowerment.
Ishan Pandey: The launch of Chapter One is a significant milestone for My Neighbor Alice. From a technical perspective, what were the most complex challenges faced during development and deployment on the Chromia blockchain, and how did your team overcome them to ensure a smooth player experience?
Steve Haßenpflug: One of the biggest challenges was making the blockchain part invisible. That might sound strange coming from a Web3 game, but we knew from day one that if we wanted to attract a global audience, onboarding had to be seamless.
So we focused on solving major onboarding frictions: wallet, gas fees, and download barriers. With Chromia’s unique approach to blockchain infrastructure, which combines relational database paradigms with distributed ledger technology, we built a fully on-chain, decentralised game that is also 3D and browser-based. Powered by WebGPU and Unity and a unique twist we call “guest mode access”: meaning no wallet, no crypto knowledge, and no installs required to start playing. Just press play.
What truly made this possible is Chromia’s architecture, which is purpose-built for managing complex, data-intensive dApps, like games. Traditional blockchains weren’t designed to handle the kind of rich, persistent world state and high-volume data operations that My Neighbor Alice requires. But Chromia, with its relational blockchain model, allows us to manage vast player inventories, land states, real-time interactions, and even user-generated content- all directly on-chain.
It’s not just about storing data, it’s about orchestrating game logic, economic systems, and persistent progression across a massive world. Without Chromia’s design, which blends blockchain security with database performance, building something as complex and immersive as My Neighbor Alice simply wouldn’t be viable.
So the real technical win here was combining a frictionless UX with a truly decentralized, on-chain backend, and that’s what we believe sets Chapter 1 apart from anything else currently in the Web3 gaming space.
Ishan Pandey: My Neighbor Alice utilizes the ALICE token. Can you elaborate on the core utility and economic model of the ALICE token within Chapter One? How do you envision it fostering a sustainable in-game economy and incentivizing long-term player participation?
Steve Haßenpflug: Absolutely. The $ALICE token is the lifeblood of our in-game economy. It powers key actions like crafting, trading, and accessing premium quests or events. But beyond utility, what we’re building is a layered incentive system.
We’ve structured the economy around supply-and-demand dynamics, tied to land development, resource scarcity, and seasonal content. Players can earn ALICE by contributing value to the world and selling the items that they’ve created, via global and local marketplaces – a true player-driven economy.
And now with the $ALICE Adventure Airdrop, we’ve introduced a multi-wave campaign that directly rewards active gameplay, not just social clout. Our long-term goal is to create circular value, where players reinvest in their experience ( not just cash out) and feel truly embedded in the world.
In addition to that, we’ve created a unique dual-token game economy. A second token called $BJORN can be extracted and minted slowly from the very lands players own. So as players play and the game matures, naturally more $BJORN is minted. $BJORN is akin to “soft currencies” in other games – it fuels the minute-to-minute interactions in the game and can be exchanged for $ALICE, of course. This way, we allow anyone to play the game without necessarily needing to invest or spend money.
Ishan Pandey: The integration with Pudgy Penguins is an intriguing move, bridging two distinct web3 communities. From a business development standpoint, what were the strategic considerations behind this partnership, and what specific value do you believe it brings to both My Neighbor Alice and the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem?
Steve Haßenpflug: We’re incredibly excited about this one. Pudgy Penguins represents the best of Web3 IP, a brand with strong emotional equity, massive community loyalty, and a growing presence across platforms.
From the start, the partnership was about authentic utility and a deep integration. We didn’t just want to do a co-branded NFT drop or a simple integration as it was already seen in many other projects. We brought the entire 20000+ pudgy penguins collection (Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgies and Pudgy Rods) modeled in full 3D into our world, something never seen or done before. We also built “Pudgy World” – a hub inside Snowflake Island, with exclusive quests and companions which allows holders to use their Penguins as avatars within our game. Pudgy holders can see their own NFTs as 3D companions in game just by connecting their wallets. That’s a unique experience that we are really proud of, and that was seen with huge contentment by the pudgy community.
This is a true interoperability milestone: a way to give NFTs a life inside a rich game world. And from a strategy standpoint, it brings new eyes to Alice, while offering the Pudgy community a new playground that respects their digital identity.
Ishan Pandey: Web3 gaming often faces scrutiny regarding its long-term viability and ability to attract mainstream players. What unique design principles or technical innovations in My Neighbor Alice’s Chapter One are aimed at addressing these concerns and broadening its appeal beyond early Web3 adopters?
Steve Haßenpflug: Great question. First, we’re very intentional about not leading with “blockchain” in our UX, so that players naturally and playfully discover the Web3 layer when they’re ready. Our onboarding, guest mode, partly wallet- and gasless gameplay, and browser play are game-changers in that regard.
From a design point of view, we lean into cozy MMO gameplay, which is a genre with massive mainstream potential. Think Animal Crossing meets Stardew Valley, but with shared land plots and tradable assets.
Lastly, we emphasize reward-based engagement. Our Chapter One rollout is structured like Netflix seasons: each with its own arc, content drops, and player incentives. This episodic cadence helps us balance retention, discovery, and monetization far better than early static Web3 experiments. So, stay tuned, because this is just the beginning!
Ishan Pandey: Looking ahead, beyond the initial launch of Chapter One, how do you plan to iterate on the game’s features and expand its ecosystem? Are there any specific technical or community-driven initiatives you’re particularly excited about for the future of My Neighbor Alice?
Steve Haßenpflug: Community is at the core of everything we do. Chapter One is just the beginning. What excites me most is the move toward player-driven worlds. We’re laying the groundwork for full community governance, where landowners and creators can vote on events, seasonal changes, or even content inclusion.
On the technical side, we’re expanding NFT interoperability with more IP integrations coming and enhancing our creator tools so players can build their own quests, assets, and experiences. Imagine a neighbor designing a fishing tournament or a fashion week and earning from it.
We’re also investing in social mechanics: emotes, co-op farming, in-game chat, and more. Because community isn’t just on Discord — it’s in how you live, trade, and play in the world together.
Ishan Pandey: Finally, considering your dual role at ChromaWay and My Neighbor Alice, what is your perspective on the broader evolution of the Web3 gaming industry over the next 3-5 years, and what role do you see My Neighbor Alice playing in shaping that future?
Steve Haßenpflug: I think we’re at the end of the beginning. The hype cycles are fading and what’s left are the teams who can build.
Over the next 3–5 years, Web3 gaming will mature into a hybrid model: Web2 usability + Web3 ownership. Players won’t need to understand the tech, but they’ll benefit from it through asset portability, open economies, and better alignment with developers.
My Neighbor Alice will play a key role as one of the first truly playable, beautiful, and scalable Web3 MMOs. We’re not just here to prove a point. We’re here to build a world people love living in and eventually, shaping it together.
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