Steve Haßenpflug, VP of Games at ChromaWay and Executive Board member for My Neighbor Alice, brings 15+ years of experience in game development. He has worked on Angry Birds, Trolls, and XCOM, collaborating with NBC Universal, DreamWorks, Rovio, and 2K, while also helping bootstrap several gaming startups.
You’ve worked on everything from Angry Birds to XCOM Legends. How has that background in mobile F2P development shaped your approach to building in web3?
Coming from free-to-play, you quickly learn that you have to grab players’ attention fast. Otherwise, they’ll drop the game in seconds.
That mindset carried over into My Neighbor Alice. Before our recent release, there were about 60 steps just to get into the game — setting up a wallet, trading account, etc.
We cut that down to one: go to the website and press play.
How do you identify friction points?
It’s a mix of trial and error and user research. We do focus groups with people who already like cozy MMOs and observe how they interact.
It helps us see what’s intuitive and what isn’t.
Who’s your ideal player?
It’s a spectrum. On one end, you have investors with lots of land and assets. On the other, people who are just here to play.
We try to cater to both. It’s complex, but we think the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.
A lot of web3 games start from infrastructure. You’ve taken the opposite route — design first. How does that affect the player experience?
We’ve focused on the experience. In our game, everyone plays in the same world — all one shard. No separate levels or loading screens. User-generated content appears in real time.
We want it to feel smooth and forgiving, more like a traditional MMO.
Chapter One of My Neighbor Alice just launched. How does that feel after years of building?
It’s been a huge challenge. One of the real breakthroughs was real-time translation. You can type in German and someone else sees it in Chinese.
It connects a global audience. And yes, it’s all gasless.
What were the major challenges behind delivering that kind of browser-native, wallet-optional web3 experience?
Rethinking how apps handle gas was a big one. Right now, we cover gas fees to make the experience smoother for the user.
You can jump in, build something —like a racetrack or maze— let other players use it, and even reward them. We recently added gliders and jump pads, so movement is getting more dynamic too.
Would you say progression is skill-based?
Yes, absolutely. We support both casual and hardcore players, like fans of Animal Crossing, and those who’ve logged thousands of hours in MMOs.
Some want economic engagement, others just want to build or explore.
You’ve described the game as a “window into web3.” What does that mean?
It starts out casual, then opens into something deeper. Long term, we want players to create their own marketplaces and build on top of the platform.
But you need a game that’s genuinely fun first. Too many crypto games skipped that step.
What’s your philosophy on onchain vs. offchain assets?
Ownership matters — but it’s meaningless without context. Fully onchain games preserve progress and support community modding in ways centralised games simply can’t.
Even if a studio has good intentions, players in traditional games can still lose everything.
Have you seen community-led modding or governance take shape already?
Yes, it’s happening. Right now, it’s more trust-based, but we want to move to trustless governance. That only works once you’ve built a community that really cares.
Any key metrics you can share?
We’ve seen over 60,000 accounts created since our latest launch. That’s been a huge milestone for us.
The Pudgy Penguins partnership also made headlines. How did that come about?
It took nearly a year. We didn’t want just a surface-level crossover. We brought all Pudgy NFTs — the originals, rods, everything — into the game in 3D.
Players can connect their wallet, bring in their Pudgy, fish special items, craft gear, and even trade those with others. The community decides whether the items are tradable.
Are those items already being traded in-game?
Yes. Trading is a huge part of the game. We have a public marketplace and player-run storefronts. Players price items in either the ALICE token or in-game currency.
You invest time and resources to craft things, which adds real economic weight.
What role does Chromia play in supporting the backend?
Chromia powers everything under the hood — wallet login, bridging, and blockchain interaction. It enables us to do all this in a gasless way.
And when demand scales?
The game runs on one chain for now, but it’s designed to scale across multiple chains. Each region — desert, snow, etc. — can operate like its own app-specific layer 2.
It all still feels unified to the player.
The airdrop campaign is also a key part of this launch. What’s the goal there?
Airdrops help with visibility, but the core game needs to be fun. Otherwise, people just leave.
We want the experience to be so engaging that players stick around regardless of incentives.
How has your F2P experience shaped your thinking around player retention?
Retention used to be about day one to seven. Now it’s about day 30, 90, 180. We have “super neighbors” who’ve stayed with us for a long time. That’s who we build for — they’re the real stewards of the My Neighbor Alice world.
How do your token incentives avoid the pitfalls of extractive web3 economies?
Our incentives are tied to value creation. For example, you can lock tokens into your land to improve it. That encourages long-term thinking and social collaboration, not just cashing out.
How do you feel about your current onboarding experience?
It’s better than before, but not perfect. Guest mode and wallet-free play have helped. But we’re putting a lot of effort into improving that flow.
What’s next after such a major release?
Growing the community, improving onboarding, and making the game more accessible, especially to non-gamers.
We’re also open to more collaborations, so if you’re a project looking to build, get in touch.
You’re also part of OMA3 and the Metaverse Standards Forum. What’s your broader vision for an open metaverse?
It’s about defining open standards for assets, code, and identities. That’s how we achieve true interoperability.
My dream is to permissionlessly bring content from other games into ours. If I spend years building a collection in one game, I want to bring a piece of that into the next. Even if it’s just a cosmetic item — like a cape — it represents me.
For those new to My Neighbor Alice, what’s the easiest way to get started?
Just go to our website and press play. No wallet needed. It runs on most modern browsers and PCs. The community is welcoming — just jump into chat and explore.
What about developers?
We’re working on open-sourcing core parts of the game. We want builders to see how it’s built and start contributing.