What’s better than playing with your friends? Getting rewarded for it, of course!

The community of Pilots competing in arenas throughout the Planetary Cluster is a tight-knit group. In the arena, there’s no mercy for your opponent. When the missiles are disarmed though, Pilots generally watch out for each other, share tips and tricks, and otherwise just have a great time together.

Now, just because the arena is such a friendly place doesn’t mean we don’t have room for some new friends. The more the merrier! The veteran Pilots in the arena have been forged in the crucible of combat, but there always needs to be new challengers eager to take their place as legends of the arena.

The Spider Friends Referral Program

Spider Tanks is great to play with friends, so we thought it was time to put a little bonus in place for players who spread the word and introduce new people to the arena!

With this system, you’ll be able to receive free Tank Parts as you bring more players into the game. We know playing with friends is already a reward all by itself… but what’s not better with a free Tank!?

Each time you refer a friend that racks up 10 wins, you’ll get a little closer to your next free part. We’ll be checking these referrals monthly, so expect to get rewards for any qualifying referrals each month as Tank Parts get shipped out across the solar system!

Program Details

Any player who is new to Gala Games that signs up using your referral link will count towards your Spider Friends progress. You can find this link in the top navigation bar of games.gala.com, under ‘Refer A Friend’.

Once someone signs up using your link though, that won’t be quite enough to qualify for referral credit. This is the arena after all, and there’s something very important that every new player must do before they’re officially a Pilot… Win!

Players you refer to Spider Tanks will only further your progress in Spider Friends once they win 10 matches. After they’ve won 10 matches, they’ll count towards your total referrals and you’ll get closer to that next free tank part. You won’t get any added perks for any wins beyond their 10th… but it’ll sure pay off when you party up with them to grind up some ranks!

As you refer more qualifying players, you’ll climb through the following rewards:

• 1 Friend: Common Captain’s Hat Prop
• 5 Friends: Common Maul Body
• 10 Friends: Common Bouncer Weapon
• 25 Friends: Common Tiger Hero Tank

These rewards may change in the future, but we’ll keep you updated when that does happen. For now, these rewards will be available to all Spider Tanks players as long as they meet the requirements.

Each month we’ll check who meets the criteria for each level of rewards listed above so we can send your shiny new parts over!

Metal on Metal Friendship

We know that the real reward for bringing your friends into a game you enjoy is getting to play alongside those friends… but who doesn’t love some extra goodness?

The arena is a great place to build real and meaningful relationships as you struggle for victory with or against your friends! We know that we’ve definitely made some of our closest friends down the nose cone of a rocket or in the quiet moments before that Reactive Plating BOOM.

Spider Friends is live now, and there’s never been a better time to bring your friends into the arena. Now, go forth! Tell everyone you know. Shout it from the rooftops! We’ll be waiting for you in the arena with all our friends.

Know a super friendly player from around the arena? Call them out in the comments and thank them for helping make our community awesome!

Last Expedition Node Operator’s licenses are available once again in limited supply, along with a new Hunter’s Pack, which will soon unlock early access for anyone.

The hairs on the back of your neck stand at attention as you crouch motionless, watching in frozen terror as the Forest Snapper devours yet another member of your team. Maybe this one will move on and leave me alone, you think. Maybe it will let me reach the core and still escape with my life. But by the time your brain finishes the second thought, another Snapper (the one behind you) has already started biting. Good night!

Just in time for the weekend’s SDCC festivities at our Gala-branded Club Clandestine event, we’re kicking off the next Operator’s Bundle sale!

With 1000 licenses up for grabs this time, early access is closer than you think, and it’s not only OP’s who will have access to the latest new builds…

Introducing the Hunter’s Early Access Pack

This is how anyone with a Gala Games account will unlock the ability to play Last Expedition throughout the Early Access phase of the game’s rollout– No Operator’s license required!

Simply buy a Hunter’s Early Access Pack in the Gala Games store and you’ll get in on the action as soon as the new build is released.*

*Rather than immediately releasing the new build only to OP’s, the team decided to first implement the ability for anyone to gain access via an early access token on GalaChain. This will be completed in the near future.

Hunter’s Pack Rewards

• One Early Access Token, for all the newest builds
• Rare “Ice” skin, exclusive item for Attacker Alice Mackaye
• Access to special dev-led events. Meet the devs and beat ’em at their own game!

Soon, the Early Access token from the Hunter’s Early Access Pack will be the only way for Gala Games players to enjoy consistent early access to the latest game builds.

The 4th Bundle

This is the fourth time Last Expedition Operator’s licenses have been sold. These Bundle sales are always limited in both supply and time.

First, the Ancient Primal Ravager Bundle was released on November 18th, followed by the Ancient Primal Bone Snapper on December 16th, 2022. The 3rd bundle in late March brought us the Primal Porcupine, and now it’s time to reveal the Uncommon Forest Snapper!

The main item in the bundle is the Last Expedition Operator’s License, which allows you to run a Last Expedition Node on GalaChain to power gameplay, run a custom server, and eventually receive rewards in exchange for that computing power.

Each Operator’s license purchased comes with an apex predator NFT that we call an OP Mod, designed to… let’s say spice up your server.

This bundle also comes with 4 Early Access Tokens. These aren’t usable yet, but hold them in your account, because as stated above, we’ll soon have the ability to use these Early Access Tokens on GalaChain to unlock access to the game.

Subscription Club

When you buy an Operator’s license for Last Expedition, you’re basically joining an OP Mod subscription club. Everyone who purchased a license in the first bundle sale, for example, automatically has received the OP Mod that came with each subsequent sale.

Basically, someone who bought the Ancient Primal Ravager bundle in the first sale would also have received the Bone Snapper and the Porcupine, and they’ll also receive the Forest Snapper.

Anyone who buys the Forest Snapper will be in the subscription from here on out. Get the picture?

The Future is Almost Here

If you thought Last Expedition was impressive when you first noticed it, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The team has some incredible new demo footage that they’re ready to air at Saturday afternoon’s Last Expedition Comic-Con panel. That will be an absolute treat for everyone in attendance, and we’ll be sure to share the footage with you as soon as it’s available.

We can hardly wait to open this bad boy up for early access and show everyone just what we’re so excited about when it comes to Last Expedition.

We’ve got private, custom servers operating on a decentralized network of Nodes powered by GalaChain, hosting one of the most riveting and visually stunning games we’ve ever seen.

If you’re out there looking for the future of video games, look no further. We found it.

Last Expedition store

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REP shares its vision for the future of social media, powered by GalaChain

As recently announced in THIS BLOG, REP is coming to GalaChain. It’s already built on a NEAR testnet, and its full features will blow you away once integrated with the max power of Gala Games’ blockchain.

Today, we’re pleased to share REP’s extensive Vision Paper, published as a downloadable PDF through THIS LINK.

We hope this Vision Paper informs our community about the intentions behind REP, as well as the outlined plans for execution of this groundbreaking web3 social network.

The Future of REP on GalaChain

As we build REP on GalaChain and roll it out in the months ahead, our intention is to demonstrate its capabilities by creating Gala Friends, the Gala Games social network you deserve.

We’re incredibly tempted to share all our treasure hunt plans with you in advance, but that would probably spoil the fun, so we’ll try to stay strong… Looking at you, BitBender.

We’ll leave you today with a letter from REP founder Neil Haran, also added as a foreword to the REP Vision Paper. Thanks as always for being part of this community!

Vision Paper Letter

It was back in 2002 when my journey in video game development began. Working with giants like Vivendi, Electronic Arts, and LucasFilm, I contributed to major titles like Simpsons Hit & Run, Hulk, and Scarface. The year 2008 presented an important crossroad in my career — choosing between Blizzard and Zynga. My choice was swayed during an interview with Eric Schiermeyer, now founder and CEO of Gala Games, and I took the Zynga path.

That choice gave me invaluable insight into gamification’s impact, a lesson that would later become instrumental in my blockchain initiatives. But there was a darker side, and by 2010, I had seen enough. With a desire to contribute positively to the gaming world, I launched my own gaming company, focusing on educational games. We brought to life a game called Rawbots which was a game to help kids learn physics, programming and robotics. This venture was intense, thrilling, and exhausting, and eventually, it led me to a new arena — blockchain.

Over the years, my activist side found purpose in the world of blockchain technology. I aimed to create simple, user-friendly interfaces to bring this groundbreaking technology to the masses. The vision? Next-gen social networks. The foundation? Gamification and cooperation.

I’ve always been drawn to the idea of using gamification to inspire positive societal behavior, like the ‘pay it forward’ ethos — an idea that resonated deeply with me. This passion, combined with my commitment to usability, drew me back to collaborating with Eric Schiermeyer. He understood the importance of building interfaces so simple they could be called “stupid simple”, a philosophy we adopted at Zynga.

Alongside these ventures, I’ve been an observer and critic of social media’s monopolistic and exploitative practices. A particular turning point was when Mark Zuckerberg revealed his stark hypocrisy regarding personal data privacy. His cavalier attitude towards our rights motivated me to cut ties with Facebook, a decision I’ve never regretted.

As I see the ongoing war between Twitter and Threads, it is clear to me that the need for a privacy-respecting, censorship-resistant, fully on-chain social network is paramount. A platform where users truly own their data. This belief drives my work with Gala Games.

The gamified social network we’re building will not only connect Gala Games, Gala film & music, and anything NFT related but also provide a seamless experience for users navigating the metaverse. We’re also paving the way for NFT interoperability across games. Imagine being able to find Spider Tanks NFTs not only on Earth, but also in our game Rawbots with its billions of star systems. You could find spider tank weapons on some planets, which could also be integrated as robot parts within Rawbots.

Embarking on this journey with Gala Games is truly exhilarating. We’re dedicated to ensuring that you truly own your digital experience, and we can’t wait to unveil what we’re putting together. Welcome to the future of social media. Welcome to REP.

Neil Haran
Founder and CEO, REP

Vision Paper