Indie developer makes free-to-play game similar to Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo
In a video posted on YouTube on Jan. 6, an indie game developer named Yipy claimed to have created a working version of Logan Paul’s infamous CryptoZoo NFT game.
Logan Paul’s controversial CryptoZoo project
In the video, Yipy described how Logan Paul’s project could have gone, making notes on game elements and promotion strategies. The game developer claimed to have used a fraction of the resources Paul put into his project but still managed to recreate the YouTuber’s effort, including considerably more intricate art, in just “a few hours.”
Logan Paul had claimed that it took a team of 10 artists about six months to handmake a series of NFT artworks to be used in CryptoZoo. But Yipy says he used the deep learning text-to-image platform, Stable Diffusion, to create similar images for RealZoo.
The game is free to play but does not have the NFT components that supposedly anchor Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo.
RealZoo works just like Logan Paul’s game
Users of RealZoo can sign into the game using their Gmail accounts and receive free tokens to use on eggs that will eventually hatch into a variety of animals. These creatures can then be “burned” to create more tokens or crossed to create hybrid animals.
The game is quite similar to how CryptoZoo was meant to be played. According to promotional material released by Logan Paul’s project, CryptoZoo involves buying a crypto token called ZOO, which is the in-game currency. Players then use ZOO coins to buy NFT eggs, which they can hatch to become animals.
CryptoZoo also allows players to earn passive income from their NFTs. The rarer the NFT, the higher the daily yield of ZOO tokens players make daily. Players can then burn their animal NFTs to release the ZOO they earned back to them, and from there, they can invest it into more egg NFTs or cash out.
The difference between the two games is that Yipy’s game is free, whereas Logan Paul’s requires players to invest real money or cryptocurrencies to access NFT eggs. After creating an account, Yipy gives players enough tokens to receive up to nine eggs without spending a dime, whereas Paul’s game would cost roughly $300 for each egg.
Additionally, RealZoo tokens are not hosted on any blockchain and have no real value that users can exchange for them.
YouTuber accused of running NFT scam
Logan Paul had struggled to deliver his game since 2021, when it was announced. Investors and potential customers have purchased NFTs and ZOO tokens from the project, but the game has yet to be released.
The delays in releasing CryptoZoo led to YouTuber Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen publishing a three-part series claiming that Paul’s blockchain game was a sophisticated scam.
Two weeks after Coffeezilla’s accusation, Paul made a video lashing out at Coffeezilla and accusing him of spreading rumors without doing enough research. The popular YouTuber, famous for celebrity boxing matches, suggested Coffeezilla and his private investigator, Zack Kelling, could face legal consequences for their supposedly unsubstantiated accusations against Paul.
The YouTube influencer’s justification for the delayed release of CryptoZoo was that some of the people he hired to make the game turned out to be crooked. In his video, Paul singled out several “bad actors” who, according to him, may or may not have stolen millions of dollars from investors but were later fired by him.
