NPC Labs Secures $18M to Expand Gaming on Base Network

NPC Labs Secures $18M to Expand Gaming on Base Network

NPC Labs, a developer focused on building a GameFi ecosystem on the Base protocol, has successfully closed an $18 million funding round led by Pantera Capital. This round brings the total raise to $21 million and includes participation from notable investors such as Makers Fund and Hashed, among others.

Key Participants in the Funding Round

• Makers Fund
• Hashed
• Collab+Currency
• Sfermion
• Mirana Ventures
• Bitscale Capital
• Mantle EcoFund

Plans for the Future

NPC Labs plans to use the proceeds to act as a core contributor to B3.fun, an ecosystem aiming to build Web3 games on Base. In an interview with CoinDesk, NPC Labs’ co-founder Daryl Xu explained the company’s mission to scale gaming on Base by building GameFi products that are accessible to non-crypto native users.

Building a User-Friendly GameFi Ecosystem

“Right now, everyone in crypto is building great applications, but they are primarily targeting crypto-native folks. There are a lot of crypto buzzwords like wallets and LPs being used,” Xu said. “For the average person – the ‘Normie’ we hope to onboard as the next million or billion users – they don’t necessarily care about the technical details. They just want a fun and accessible experience.”

Xu mentioned that NPC Labs plans to use the funds to kickstart the ecosystem by creating more ways for non-Web3 users to discover crypto gaming. This includes building out discovery portals such as Basement.fun, which aims to help users easily access and play these games.

Discovering Crypto Games

“[Basement.fun] is meant to be a discovery portal for games. Think of it like Miniclip or Addicting Games, those old HTML5 and Flash game websites,” Xu explained. “That’s what we’re trying to build. The experience will be very simple: you jump on the web app and can immediately start playing without going through a lot of hoops.”

Current Progress and Support

According to a release, B3 is currently in the testnet phase and supports games built on Ethereum, Base, and other EVM chains. NPC Labs’ efforts are aimed at making GameFi more accessible and enjoyable for a broader audience.