MEGAWEAPON on Abstract: A Conversation with Ceden’s Alex Moody

Set to launch on November 6th, MEGAWEAPON is the first of their games from the CEDEN portfolio being deployed for the Abstract ecosystem.

As stated on their website:

CEDEN is dedicated to delivering a superior next generation game play experience to large numbers of concurrent users, in users, in environments that require low latency, and high bandwidth, point to point and point to multipoint communications, between users, over wide geographies. The intent is to do that using CEDEN’s decentralized node technology and business principles to ‘eliminate the middleman’ to reduce cost and improve performance.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Moody, CEO of Ceden, ahead the MEGAWEAPON release. But first, let's take a quick look at what MEGAWEAPON is all about.

MEGAWEAPON Backstory

MEGAWEAPON began as a multiplayer play-and-collect title built by Pebeau, Ltd.; its native token, $WEAPON, was launched in 2023 and later migrated onto the Avalanche C-Chain as the project moved its token operations to AVAX.

The game was designed as a fast-paced, top-down arena shooter where players design custom characters, collect unique assets for their inventories, climb ranked ladders and track performance metrics.

Operationally, the studio and publisher story has shifted: CEDEN Network now lists Pebeau, Ltd. among its studio holdings and publicly announced taking over the MegaWeapon project.

The project’s tokenomics have emphasized an open,meme-coin style distribution with a publisher-driven buyback model. CEDEN plans to direct a material share of corporate revenue into market buybacks and burns (figures of ~25–30% have been referenced in social posts and publisher materials).

What to Expect with Abstract Launch

Moody shared there are three ways to play, which means three ways to win.

In Free Play, you can dive right into fully unrestricted gameplay and compete on the high score leaderboard without any limitations. It’s all about pure fun and skill—play as much as you like, rack up your scores, and see how you stack up against everyone else.

Tournament Mode kicks things up a notch. It costs 1 AMMO per play (or you can go all-in with an unlimited AMMO monthly subscription). Here, every score counts—your total from all matches during the week-long tournament cycle is added up on the Tournament Leaderboard.

Then there’s DEGEN Mode, the ultimate high-stakes experience. Your total score is multiplied by the AMMO multiplier you use in each match, meaning the potential risk/reward value is massive. DEGEN players compete across all three leaderboards at once, chasing glory wherever they can.

Regardless of mode, everyone shares the same game lobbies, keeping competition fierce and fair. Over time, the goal is to make all three Leaderboards eligible for prizes and XP rewards, with higher stakes unlocking even greater rewards.

Interview with CEO Alex Moody

Tell us about yourself, your background, and the formulation of the CEDEN publishing company.

My name is Alex Moody, and I am the CEO of CEDEN Network, a video game publisher with deep roots in Web3 infrastructure. We started our journey building a DePIN content delivery network for gaming, which is in early alpha currently, and found ourselves in video game publishing because we wanted to have a pipeline of content to prove our network MVP.

One thing led to another and we found ourselves several development studio acquisitions deep in web3 gaming and working on some of the best titles to come out of Web3.

CEDEN is positioning itself at the harrowing intersection of web2 gaming and Web3 integration. How would you describe the studio’s core pillars of create, deliver, play, and what sets your philosophy apart from others?

Create, Deliver, Play speaks to the entire gaming experience. From game developers, to creatives and content creators, gaming has always catered to those who want to Create. Deliver speaks to our original core mission of democratoizing and decentralizing the way games are delivered to the players, and of course, Play, which speaks to us all when we finally pick up a controller and sit down with our favorite title.

At CEDEN, we look at the entire cycle of a game title, from inception to the endgame credits rolling, and consider how we shape this experience to create the most value for everyone involved, especially our holders.

All games face technical hurdles. What have been the biggest challenges in developing the titles across acquired studios?

Cost and time are the hardest to overcome for indie studios in general and especially in web3, as token and NFT holders want fast results to drive token and floor prices, while the realities of business and tech development cycles just don’t work that way.

Why choose Abstract? Did Abstract’s scalability, economics, or developer environment make it the right platform for CEDEN games vs other chains?

We chose Abstract for several reasons, but primarily because we are evaluating the market as we see it in 1, 5, 10 years and we think Abstract has the best opportunity to deliver “consumer crypto” and gaming adoption on-chain in the long term.

We are not super concerned about the state of the chain today, its more a long term bet on the consumer funnel being created by Luca and the team with Pudgy Penguins, as well as the seamless consumer onboarding experience that Portal 2 will give us.

How has your team selected which titles will balance on-chain mechanics with pure, enjoyable gameplay so the average gamer isn’t deterred by the notion of blockchain tied to it?

I think web3 gaming has largely missed the mark due to an over-emphasis on blockchain and tokenization which has created unnecessary friction impeding the core user experience which should be centered on fun.

We believe the future of gaming will include tokenized economies and NFTs but also believe very strongly that these elements must never come at a cost to the user experience.

MEGAWEAPON is a great example of a title that incorporates the best of Web3, without bogging down the experience with an overemphasis on blockchain.

Let’s talk about MEGAWEAPON. What is the central gameplay experience you want players to have, and what makes it distinct from other titles developed?

Fun.

MEGAWEAPON is twelve minutes of fast paced, utter chaos, that makes you laugh at the absurdity while also containing a depth to the weaponry and items, gameplay and strategy.

Abstract does not have anything like it.

A complete multiplayer battle royal, fully browser based, with unrestricted FREE PLAY options and the game has unmatched replayability.

Add in the fact that it is very entertaining to watch for Streamers, and monetization via Leaderboard rewards and referral link revenue sharing, and its a no-brainer for creators to add this title to their rotation!

Who is MEGAWEAPON built for? Are you primarily targeting Web3-native players, or do you see it as a bridge for traditional gamers to enter the Abstract ecosystem?

Web3 users for now, but Abstract will not have the user onboarding friction it currently does once Portal 2 arrives with native credit processing and a fully mobile app, and by then, MEGAWEAPON will be mobile ready and we will aggressively push into web2.

The game is loads of fun, and we see this first launch phase for Abstract as a sort of public commercial beta, right up until they open the floodgates and we will be right there with the Abstract team onboarding the next million users onto the chain through fun experiences like our title.

What has surprised you most about building MEGAWEAPON and steering CEDEN through this phase of evolution?

It is certainly hard to watch the Abstract trenches getting clobbered day in and day out. I am an Abstract power user myself (will hit Platinum this week!) and my bags are down like everyone else's.

It is hard to steer your company into the iceberg of negative sentiment, but we know this is where the future is being built and we are willing to weather the storms now for the opportunities that will come when everything aligns.

Web3 gaming has seen its share of success and failures. What lessons from those early projects have influenced your approach to building CEDEN’s future?

We have been pioneers in this industry since day 1. Another one of our game studios, Raini Studio, published the first web3 game ever to make it onto a mainstream platform when we released The Lords of Light on Epic Games several years ago.

We have learned from our own successes and failures, and I think the biggest lessons have come from the negative impact that token price can have on a game. Constant emissions from Play2Earn destroys more games than it helps in the long run.

It is incredibly difficult to balance the need for capital and crowdfunding indie development with the later negative pressure that early capital will create on your ecosystem.

We believe we have now cracked the code with $BEAVER, a fully distributed meme coin that simply accrues value back to holders via company revenue buy back and burns.

Gamers can pay in currencies they are familiar with, and holders are not getting dumped on by gamers or vice versa.

Alignment of incentives across the ecosystem.

Any other information you’d like readers to know?

Join us on November 6th-9th for the Pre-Launch Tournament where players can win thousands of dollars in tokens, NFTs and AMMO (our in-game credit)

Every single player who shows up and completes even one match WINS!

Conclusion

If you aren't already on Abstract, MEGAWEAPON proves itself as a useful onboarding strategy for those still hesitant about crypto and gaming.

For those already within the Abstract ecosystem, it's almost foolish to ignore this game launch, especially with the active Xeet tournament for MEGAWEAPON. That has massive potential for successful marketing efforts with clear incentives (aka tournament rewards) to those sharing content.