In an exclusive interview with GMGames.gg, we interviewed Shiv SJ, head of business development for well-established web3 gaming title Earth From Another Sun [EFAS]. Having launched in 2018, Shiv breaks down the ins and outs of EFAS from a philosophical and business perspective, reflecting on how the title stands out from the typical tropes that result in the majority of web3 games lacking longevity and that struggle to be adopted by the gaming community outside of web3.
What is EFAS?
Earth From Another Sun [EFAS] is a Solana-based, open-galaxy looter-shooter that was created by its two co-founders; Freeman Fan and Alexis Tonon in 2018. The team behind EFAS boasts strong experience in the web2 gaming industry, working for highly successive gaming studios such as Riot Games, Tencent, Unity, Gameloft and Weaver just to name a few. From its onset, EFAS stands out in the web3 gaming industry having already onboarded more than 20,000 web2 gamers who have fallen in love with the large-scale mixture of base-building, first person shooting and roguelike elements. EFAS’ gameplay has been compared to the likes of HellDivers 2, Borderlands and Sea of Thieves for its cooperative gameplay, expansive world-building and high-octane battles in its impressive 200 hours worth of run time.
The success of EFAS in Web2 and Web3
One of EFAS’ major accomplishments cementing it within the gaming industry is being featured in Steam Next Fest and being placed in the event’s top 10 games from 900 participants [a week-long event that celebrates indie game developers by showcasing their projects] not once, but twice. The stats show the average game session length for EFAS is 3 hours, with 1-day and 7-day retention rates of 57% and 39% respectively. Shiv attributes EFAS’ success to the project’s ethos of “looking at creating value for our players as much as possible” through building a robust feedback loop, listening to the community and engaging with them daily in addition to establishing partnerships with brands that are exercising delayed gratification favoring long-term growth and community building. Last year alone, EFAS established partnerships with Solana Labs, OKX and Bonk, evidence they’re striving to collaborate with brands focused on mutual gain that can lead to deeper technical integrations.
Navigating the Pitfalls of the Web3 Gaming Industry
Whilst the evolution of the web3 gaming market has shown the short-lived hype of spending enormous portions of a budget on social media marketing or eye-wateringly large prize pools to drive popularity and adoption, EFAS instead aims to provide value by creating an environment where the community’s say actually matters. This comes in the form of the 141 alpha updates [and counting] that launch every 2 to 4 weeks where the EFAS team collects feedback forms from hundreds of core community members to understand how new implementations and bug fixes resonate with the community. Shiv explains “the market is so saturated with people looking to earn money that if you just try to have a play to earn model, it’s going to bring in exploitation and it’s going to bring in people that don’t really believe in the game […] the key way to crack web3 gaming, which I think now in this cycle projects have learnt, is by having people that actually believe in the vision”.
The key as mentioned by Shiv is satisfying the underlying need that gamers play games to immerse themselves in a new universe that can take their minds off of things in the real world. Web3 integration gives the added incentive of monetizing in-game assets and rewards to bring value to users, but “that shouldn’t be the core idea or core thesis. The core thesis still needs to be [creating] very fun and addictive games that are able to get people […] lost in this new universe where they can build their own identity”. The EFAS team views the quality and immersivity of its game to be the real focal point and the web3-based monetization aspect to be a layer to enhance the gaming experience that enables the title to expand beyond the gaming industry.
Why Solana?
From the myriad of blockchains in web3, EFAS chose to build its home base on the Solana blockchain due to its technical capabilities and large user base. “On a technical front, I think the scalability, speed and security that Solana has been able to achieve is massive”, says Shiv, having praised the Solana Foundation for the care and attention it gives to those building on its chain. Supplementing the strength and potential of Solana’s tech stack, Shiv also gives flowers to the chain’s passionate and loyal community that pulled Solana from $8 during the last bear cycle to $293 this year, breaking its previous all time high. “Builders that normally, in most ecosystems, would be wiped out, down and out, and would abandon ship. But they were doubling down on Solana […] they were more bullish than ever because the product was improving”. Shiv furthermore emphasizes that Solana technology arm and community arm are actually one in the same, saying, “I think the technical benefits boost the community and the community in return fuels technological innovation”.
EFAS in 2025 and Final Thoughts
Whilst still in its closed alpha phase, EFAS has already amassed an astonishing 150,000 wishlist adds on Steam as gaming onlookers await its official launch sometime later this year. This number also does not include its cryptotwitter community that have followed EFAS’ journey on X. In addition to the game launch, web3 users can also look forward to EFAS’ Token Generation Event [TGE] occurring this year as well. The team continues this year to work to intertwine new technologies as they onboard new communities and refine the overall experience for everyone that delves into EFAS’ universe known as Kepler-452.
Shiv’s final message about EFAS encapsulates the transition web3 gaming projects have made as the web3 market has evolved from testing the blockchain’s gaming capabilities to competing with the quality of life exemplified by web2 AAA titles, “the main thing I would say is that when you’re looking at a game to play, you need to look at the vision, but also what they’ve built. And we’ve been able to consistently ship a good game that’s enjoyable and loved by our players […] our core team has perfectionists and perfectionism at their core and they want to be able to ship something that is truly loved by tens of thousands of gamers to start with and millions eventually”.