The gaming industry is undergoing a seismic shift, and few games embody this transformation as profoundly as Avalon, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) built on Base, the layer-2 (L2) blockchain developed by Coinbase.
Backed by $10 million in funding led by Bitkraft Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and Coinbase Ventures, Avalon is blending AI-driven NPCs, blockchain-based digital ownership, and player-generated content into next-generation gaming experiences.
Unlike traditional MMOs, the world of (Avalon) is designed to continually evolve through generative AI, opening up new possibilities through interactive storytelling and keeping players on their toes.
Non-player characters - those stereotypical shopkeepers, quest givers, and guards - don't simply repeat a few lines of dialogue, instead they remember past dialogue, adapt based on the player's choices, and even develop new abilities over time.
Avalon was founded by veteran game developer Sean Pinnock, whose background spans AAA studios, indie game publishing, and VR development.
Avalon is exploring one of the most elusive areas in the gaming world: a fully immersive metaverse where players can own and control their own digital collectibles. As the Web3 gaming landscape matures and gradually moves away from the speculative hype of NFTs, Avalon's focus on practicality and high-quality gaming experiences is expected to stand out in an industry hungry for innovation.
With Avalon’s first NFT offering scheduled for June 2025, we spoke with Pinnock about Avalon’s vision, the role of AI in gaming, and how blockchain-based interoperability could shape the future of the industry.
Note: This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
OpenSea: Let’s start from the beginning. How did your game development journey lead you to Avalon? How did your previous experience at EA Sports or web3 shape your gaming philosophy?
Sean Pinnock: I've been making games since I was about five or six years old. While my friends were outside playing football, I was tinkering with Legos and designing paper and pen games and inviting people to play together. My gaming journey has evolved from making mods for (Warcraft) and (Starcraft) to creating my own (Dota) spin-offs.
During college, I published independent games to pay for tuition. Later, I tried 3A games, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t for me. I preferred the creative freedom that entrepreneurship brought, so I founded a virtual reality (VR) company called Cyber Dream and grew it from my mom’s basement to 35 employees.
We develop technology for NASA, Lockheed Martin, and Universal Studios, but I had always dreamed of a bigger project, something like the Metaverse, and when the world started talking about the Metaverse in 2021, I knew it was time to make Avalon a reality.
OpenSea: The concept of the metaverse has evolved over the years. When did you come up with the idea of creating Avalon?
Sean Pinnock: I’ve been thinking about the metaverse since I was a kid. I imagined a universe where all of our favorite intellectual property and games could coexist. I read Ready Player One and Snow Crash early on, and the concept of a shared digital world fascinated me, but I knew that building such a world would require tremendous ambition and was not something I could achieve early in my career.
In 2017 or 2016, I pitched a metaverse project called “Gather” to Y Combinator, and we made it to the final 200 out of 10,000 applicants, but were ultimately not accepted.
Years later, Kevin Lin, then co-founder of Twitch and guest partner at Y Combinator, contacted me and said, “Sean, you were really ahead of your time.” This recognition helped propel Avalon forward, and he later became one of our first angel investors.
OpenSea: How did your team decide on the name Avalon? What does it represent in the game?
Sean Pinnock: When I conceived the name "Avalon", I wanted it to give people a sense of alternative reality, almost the embodiment of heaven. Not in a literal religious sense, but in reference to a utopian space that people long to reach. Avalon comes from Arthurian legend and is one of the oldest and most enduring fictional worlds in Western literature, so the name is very appropriate.
However, the challenge was making sure it was named. I didn’t realize initially that the oldest massively multiplayer online game still running to date is also called Avalon. It has been running since 1989. Finding its creator was very difficult. After some effort, we finally got the name and officially named our game "Avalon", which was a major milestone for us.
OpenSea: What was the concept of Avalon that made it so important to secure the name?
Sean Pinnock: The concept of Avalon had been in my head for several years, and it went through brainstorming, whiteboard discussions, and ultimately refining how to integrate peer-to-peer mechanisms, and over time everything started to take shape.
A big turning point was hearing a talk by co-founder Jeff Butler, one of the original creators of EverQuest, a hit fantasy game released in 1999. I didn’t know Jeff at the time, but I reached out to him because his vision aligned so well with my vision for Avalon.
OpenSea: Avalon uses AI-driven NPCs, what does this mean for players? How will it change the gaming experience?
Sean Pinnock: When we founded Avalon, we had two core goals: first, to advance the MMO genre, and second, to make it easy for anyone to create their own content. Generative AI was a natural fit because it allows even non-developers to build AAA-quality content without requiring deep programming skills.
We also wanted the world of Avalon to feel alive, and that’s where AI-driven NPCs come into play. Characters in the game aren’t just scripted, they evolve, remember past conversations, react to player decisions, and even develop new skills over time.
We are launching a series of NFTs soon, all of which are AI-powered agents that act as companions in the game. They will grow with you, learn your play style, and level up as you progress in the game. Some NFTs will fight alongside you like teammates, while others can act autonomously and handle tasks on your behalf - and so on.
OpenSea: Many people think that generative AI has only emerged in the past year. When did you first realize that AI would change the landscape at Avalon?
Sean Pinnock: When we founded Avalon in 2021, AI was not a major focus. At the time, our priority was to make it easy for players to create content, but by the end of 2022, with the explosion of ChatGPT, it became clear to us that AI would revolutionize the way people build and interact with games.
From that point on, we began actively incorporating AI into Avalon, but at the time, the technology was still evolving so we had to be selective, and we’ve been carefully selecting the best AI tools for players and creators ever since.
OpenSea: What AI technology do you use and why is it the best choice for Avalon?
Sean Pinnock: We are using a few key technologies, first is Inworld AI, which powers our conversational AI and agent behaviors, it is widely used in traditional games (Web2) but less known in Web3 and is being used by some major AAA studios.
We also use Didimo, an AI-based character creation tool, which is not yet at the level of Midjourney, but it allows players to create highly detailed characters in Avalon.
For us, the priority was to use production-ready AI rather than experimental tools; we needed technology that could be used in games immediately rather than just a concept that might be possible in a few years.
OpenSea: Avalon is built on Base, but you mentioned future plans for cross-chain interoperability. What is the roadmap in this regard?
Sean Pinnock: Our goal is to enable players to transfer their digital items between different games and blockchains. Currently, we are launching within the Base ecosystem, but in the long run, we hope to achieve full interoperability. The biggest challenge is not blockchain integration, but the compatibility of game assets.
So we’re working on solving problems like how to render a 3D sword from a different game in another game with a completely different art style, and we’re working on a system called an “interpreter” that reinterprets metadata from different game worlds, allowing for seamless asset transfer.
OpenSea: Gamers have always been skeptical about blockchain games and NFTs. Has the situation changed now?
Sean Pinnock: This skepticism is understandable. Early Web3 games focused on profitability rather than player value. Players were skeptical about microtransactions and didn’t want to be haggled over. But our goal is not to squeeze money, but to give players true digital sovereignty.
In Avalon, players own their items permanently, they can earn royalties from user-generated content, and they can take their items from one game to another, and I think once players experience these benefits firsthand, their opinions will change, just like when Steam first launched.
OpenSea: Is Steam like a social gaming platform? Has it ever been controversial?
Sean Pinnock: Well, 20 years ago, people rarely used Steam to play games, they just downloaded games from various websites, which made the gaming experience very difficult and it was very immature at the time, and Steam solved these problems. I think Web3 can similarly solve the problems of digital identity and digital sovereignty, just as Steam solves the problems of game launch and access.
OpenSea: That makes total sense, so what can players expect from Avalon in 2024? What’s the roadmap for the near term?
Sean Pinnock: Later this year, we'll be launching an early access version of Avalon, where players can create their own worlds and experiences. Our first survival building world is about to debut, and it will have a giant multi-story building similar to (Sword Art Online), and each floor is roughly the size of (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) - about 36 square kilometers - so it will be a vast and evolving universe. Initially, we will focus on high fantasy settings, and the cyberpunk environment will be launched in 2025.
OpenSea: Sean, this has been a fantastic conversation, thank you for your time, I’m really looking forward to seeing what Avalon does, and I wish you all the best with the NFT launch and this year!
Sean Pinnock: Thanks! It was great talking to you and I hope you have a great time the rest of the day.
OpenSea: You too, take care!
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