Case study · Media and gaming
Pirates
A mobile first play to earn game on Stacks.
- Product
- Pirates
- Service
- Design and development
- Sector
- Gaming and NFT
- Standards
- SIP-009, SIP-010
At a glance
How earning works
Earned when a player's ship voyages, which ties income to an in-game action rather than to holding.
The non-fungible standard on Stacks, covering the pirates a player owns.
The fungible standard, covering $TRS itself.
Designed for the phone from the start, which is where play-to-earn audiences actually are.
The brief
Play to earn usually forgets the play
The category's failure mode is well documented: games where the economics are the entire product, the loop exists only to mint rewards, and player numbers track token price rather than enjoyment. Those collapse in a predictable order.
A game that survives needs the earning attached to something a player would plausibly do anyway — voyaging, looting, owning a crew — rather than a claim button with a theme painted on it.
Attach the reward to the loop, not the other way round.
The build
Two token standards, one economy
The game integrates both Stacks standards because it needs both kinds of asset. SIP-009 is the non-fungible standard, covering the individual pirates a player owns. SIP-010 is the fungible standard, covering the $TRS token voyages pay out in.
Keeping them distinct is what lets the two sides of the economy behave differently: crew members are scarce and individual, rewards are liquid and interchangeable. Collapsing that into one asset type is a common shortcut and it breaks the game's internal logic.
Built mobile-first, and delivered by Wow Labz as design and development.
What it does
Own, voyage, loot
Pirates you own
The crew is held as NFTs under SIP-009, so ownership is real and transferable rather than an account entitlement.
Voyages that earn
Players earn $TRS when their ship voyages, tying reward to the game's core action.
Treasure to loot
Looting with the pirates you own connects what a player holds to what they can do, which is what gives ownership a point.
Stack
What it was built with
Questions
Pirates, answered
What is Pirates?
A mobile-first play to earn game integrated with the SIP-009 and SIP-010 token standards on Stacks. Players earn $TRS tokens when their ship voyages, and loot treasure with the pirates they own.
What are SIP-009 and SIP-010?
The Stacks token standards. SIP-009 is non-fungible, used for the individual pirates a player owns; SIP-010 is fungible, used for the $TRS reward token.
How do players earn?
Through voyages. A ship voyaging pays out $TRS, which ties earning to the game's core action rather than to a separate claim mechanic.
What did Wow Labz build?
Design and development of the game.
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