Pudgy Penguins Game ‘Pudgy Party’ Launches on iOS and Android

Ethereum NFT brand Pudgy Penguins and game developer Mythical Games announced the global launch of Pudgy Party, a mobile party game that’s now available on Android and iOS. 

Pudgy Party draws comparisons to popular games like Fall Guys and Stumble Guys—colorful riffs on the battle royale genre in which players race through wild obstacle courses and persist through survival challenges.

And this time around, it has a Web3 twist.

“We took our own interpretation of that genre,” Mythical Games CEO John Linden told Decrypt. “We thought it was the right focus for not only the brand, but the gameplay—something the community can really get behind.” 

In Pudgy Party, users will step into a game filled with Pudgy Penguins characters, which have made an impact across social media and via retail products like plush toys. And players will automatically enroll in Web3 gaming in the process, even if they don’t realize it.

“Every player that comes in, they’re automatically onboarded into a wallet,” Linden said.

“They have a wallet, but most of them won’t even know about it,” he said of the onboarding experience, which is designed to encourage “getting in and playing.” The game integrates blockchain via the Mythos Chain, a network built on the Polkadot blockchain, in the background. 

“The Web3 stuff is kind of just seamlessly behind it,” he added, “You’re suddenly getting assets and you’re leveling them up, and you can change them and you can burn them for other things. All that’s fairly hidden from the user initially.”

Users will be able to collect outfits, emotes, and other in-game assets, as well as costumes that can be minted as NFTs and later traded via the marketplace.

The game will launch with its first seasonal event, “Dopameme Rush,” a brainrot-themed event featuring popular internet memes. Seasons will run monthly and come with free and premium passes, as well as special events and leaderboard competitions. 

After taking a once-declining brand to the shelves of Walmart and Target, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz has set the bar high for the upcoming game launch. 

“It has to have, at a minimum, tens of millions of players and downloads,” he told Decrypt. “My hope is we can actually push and make this a top app on the App Store, period.”

Netz expects that Pudgy Party will make a massive push beyond the crypto bubble, and become the first Pudgy franchise product.

“I think you’re going to see some of the world’s biggest streamers streaming Pudgy Party. I think you’re going to see epic IRL events, huge campaigns, and tournaments and prize pools to bring people in,” he said, adding that thinks it will be the “biggest Web3 game that we’ve ever had.” 

Mythical Games has already built some of Web3’s most prominent games with its FIFA Rivals and NFL Rivals, which have collectively amassed millions of mobile downloads. It hopes to build something similar with the Pudgy Penguins. 

“We’re after building a forever franchise with Luca,” Linden said. “We want to help them take this into the gaming world and have something that can be around and played by literally hundreds of millions of people over a period of time.”