A statement of intent
Built
to Stay
Free.
How decentralized infrastructure makes truly independent game development possible — and what it means for you.
The money always
comes with strings.
Most indie devs start with a dream and end up with a compromise.
You pitch to publishers. They give you money, then they want a piece of your IP. They want a sequel before the first game ships. They want monetization systems you never designed for. They want the game done when it fits their release window — not when it's actually ready.
You take VC money. Now you've got a runway. 18 months to ship something before you're back pitching again. You learn to scope down, cut systems, ship what you can instead of what you envisioned.
You try to bootstrap entirely. It works, until life happens. One bad month. One family emergency. Most solo devs are closer to shelving everything than they'll admit.
The structure of game funding is designed — intentionally or not — to erode creative control.
I needed a different model.
Infrastructure
as independence.
Around 2022, a quieter side of the blockchain world started maturing. Not the casino side. The infrastructure side. Networks built to replace centralized cloud storage, centralized CDNs, centralized telecom. Real hardware. Real economic models. Real utility.
These networks — often called DePIN, or Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks — needed operators. People willing to run nodes that contribute real service to the network in exchange for token rewards. The income, once established, is consistent. It required capital to start, technical work to maintain, and patience to grow. But for someone willing to do that work, it creates something rare: reliable, recurring income with no employer and no investor.
I built a node portfolio. Then I built Gimped Hero Games on top of it.
The goal is to cover $750/month in total studio operating costs through node rewards alone. The portfolio is still growing toward that target — but the foundation is in place and the model is proven.
Four networks.
One goal.
World Mobile ↗
Spark AirNodes
Community-powered telecommunications. Real mobile coverage, extended by individuals rather than corporations. When subscribers use the network, usage flows through your node and generates revenue shared directly with you. Rewards come from network usage fees and WMT token inflation.
Currently the highest-earning part of the portfolio — and the most tangible. Real hardware. Real people getting mobile connectivity because of it.
Infinity Rising ↗
File Nodes + Custom Domes
A decentralized gaming platform built on Cardano. File nodes contribute to distributed game delivery infrastructure and earn rewards. But the more significant opportunity is the Custom Dome system.
Domes are persistent, customizable spaces within the Infinity Rising ecosystem. I intend to use them as proving grounds — testing new game concepts, experimental mechanics, and early story experiences at scale with real players. Games that would take years to build as standalone titles can be explored inside a Dome first. It's a way to grow the Gimped Hero Games name, attract players who share the vision, and gather real feedback before committing to a full production cycle.
The platform is still in active growth. The potential — both financial and creative — is significant.
Iagon ↗
Storage Nodes
Decentralized cloud storage on Cardano — competing directly with AWS and Azure, but distributed and community-operated. Node operators contribute storage capacity and earn IAG tokens each epoch.
A long-term position. Grows in value as the network matures.
Cardano Stake Pool
Proof of Stake
A delegated proof-of-stake pool on the Cardano blockchain. Block rewards flow to delegators and operators alike. Cardano is the primary blockchain I've chosen to build on — running a stake pool isn't just income. It's participation in the ecosystem that will host GHG games and player-owned assets.
You bought it.
It's yours.
Think about the thousands of hours you've put into your favorite game. The rare items you discovered. The builds you spent weeks perfecting. The gear that took months to earn.
Now imagine you could sell any of that once you moved on. Not your account — the assets themselves. Peer-to-peer. No marketplace taking a massive cut. No company deciding whether the transaction is allowed.
Counter-Strike already proved the appetite exists. Skins sell for thousands of dollars. But there's a fundamental difference between a CS skin tied to an account that can be banned or deleted at any time, and a player-owned asset that belongs to you outright. One lives on a company's server, subject to their rules, their decisions, their continued existence. The other lives on a blockchain. It cannot be revoked. It cannot be taken back. It does not disappear when a studio shuts a server down.
That's what player-owned assets actually mean. Not speculation. Not a financial product. Just the simple, radical idea that if you spent hundreds of hours earning something in a game — it should be yours.
The GHG Commitment
- → No online service required. You bought the game. It runs. No servers to go dark, no forced updates, no authentication gates.
- → True ownership. Permanent. Player-owned assets cannot be revoked, modified, or taken back. Not by GHG. Not by anyone.
- → No ban hammer. No hostage content. We will never threaten players to extract compliance, and we will never lock your purchases behind seasonal compliance.
- → No data selling. Ever. Your information is not a product we sell. Full stop.
I am not responsible for anyone other than myself — and I am genuinely, completely grateful for every player who chooses to buy any game I make. That relationship deserves to be built on respect, not manipulation.
— Seth Blakely, Founder
No publisher.
No compromises.
Every major design decision in ManaBat exists because no one can pressure me to cut it.
The procedural world that evolves across 1,000 in-game years. The generational NPC system where characters remember what came before them. The decision to rebuild world generation from scratch when the first approach wasn't good enough — which I actually did. The refusal to ship a watered-down combat system when a deeper one is possible.
Publishers want shipping dates. Investors want comparable titles. Neither of them wants a game to ship when it's genuinely ready.
The node portfolio doesn't care whether ManaBat is 30% done or 90% done. It just runs. That stability changes what's possible. I can prototype hard systems first. I can cut what doesn't work. I can take the design seriously without someone else's money on the clock.
The game I'm making is the game I actually want to make.
A proof of concept
for anyone who needs it.
I'm not the first developer to feel trapped by the traditional funding model. I won't be the last.
But I might be one of the first to document publicly, in real time, that there's a different way. That decentralized infrastructure can fund creative work without demanding a piece of it. That you don't have to choose between artistic integrity and keeping the lights on.
If this model works for ManaBat, I want it to work for other indie devs too. I'd rather this become a story about a funding approach that changed what indie development could be — not just a story about one game.
That's what I'm building toward.
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