Massively-multiplayer online gambling game Chopcoin.io officially launched at the beginning of September.  The German-developed offering sees players control a tiny, fast orb that grows in size as it moves across the screen while swallowing other orbs. 

The game is controlled by the player’s mouse, and each round lasts for ten minutes.  Players must only eat orbs – or other players – smaller than their size.  If a player attempts to eat, or gets eaten by, a larger orb, they lose.  The game’s minimalism is good enough for players to play thousands of rounds, but multifaceted enough to remain arcade-like in style. 

Pac-Man on Steroids

This game is not provably fair, not by a long shot.  In fact, it’s not based on luck whatsoever.  That’s because the players are pitted against each other, and all of them start out the same way: as a small colored orb, moving quickly through a 2D space. 

The six German founders of Chopcoin.io make money by chopping off a small cut of the proceeds, otherwise the round winner takes the pot.  Christian, one of the founders, tells us that Chopcoin stands out from other cryptocurrency gambling sites because “on Chopcoin players have to act for themselves and decide what to do next,” adding that “most other Bitcoin gambling sites depend solely on the luck of the next generated number or card or slot result.” 

The game has seen an interesting rise in popularity since the few days it’s been released, with “70 users signing up and depositing within the first few hours”.  Not a surprising number, given how gambling accounts for almost half of all Bitcoin transactions. 

Complexity

The game is hardly complex at first sight: eat smaller orbs before bigger ones get you.  But this is truly easier said than done.  When players get larger in size, they get ‘heavier’, causing them to be slower and slower, which in turn allows smaller players to easily escape their grasp. 

To counter this, players are able to “split” into smaller orbs, which have double the speed, but risk getting swallowed by larger sized opponents.  This tweak, coupled with the fact that players can shoot portions of their mass off at bombs (which blow up in other players’ faces) causes the game to be much more competitive than simply chasing other orbs. 

Playgrounds

When asked about how much players can bet per round, Christian said that Chopcoin has “four different playgrounds right now.  The Low Roller Playground has a 0.0001 BTC entry, Main Playground: 0.005 BTC, High Roller Playground 0.01 BTC and there is also a free playground where people can study and learn the game without gambling anything”. 

The game has already received positive reception on BitcoinTalk.  Agar.io, the online offering which influenced Chopcoin greatly, rose to the top of iTunes charts within hours of its release, so we would not be shocked if Chopcoin – given that they market their product correctly – could be just as successful with the crypto-gambler crowd.