Beanland

Beanland was a planned massively multiplayer "Play & Earn" game developed by Melbourne-based Playside Studios Pty Ltd, announced in 2022 as an extension of their Dumb Ways to Die series into the Web3 gaming space. The game featured player-owned characters and assets represented by NFTs from three collections: BEANS (character avatars), BEANS PETS GEN 1 (companion pets/mounts), and BEANS HOLDERS LOOT (in-game items and equipment). Players would compete in a shared virtual world where their NFT holdings determined their available characters, pets, and starting inventory.

PlaySide developed the code and art for the 2D NFT collections, and developed over 10,000 3D character models for BEANS NFT holders and corresponding pet models. These 3D assets were viewable through a dedicated viewer application, Exoviewer. The planned gameplay centered around three modes: 1. The core experience was to be a RPG hack-and-slash format where players could complete missions and level up their characters. 2. A competitive mode called King of the Pack was a Battle Royale variant where players would try to hold a Crown for the longest duration to win matches. 3. A survival mode named Zombeans was teased in late 2023, featuring 10 increasingly difficult waves of bean zombie enemies that players would need to survive while reaching an extraction zone before time expired.

The game was developed over a period of three years, with public alpha playtests on the Epic Games platform and an open beta teased in late 2024. PlaySide claimed in April 2025 that development was still progressing. However, the game was officially cancelled in August 2025, despite significant development on the overall game. The cancellation left NFT holders with effectively worthless digital assets with the collection value dropping over 99% from its peak.