In Brief:
- Community testing of the Otherside (official site) resource economy is now underway at Yuga Labs, with landowner fees and character perks built into the design.
- Harvesting fees will be set by landowners and paid by players, though caps on those fees and the payment methods have not been spelled out.
- Only a select group of resources will feature in the opening test phase, and Yuga may tweak the system as it reviews the results.
Yuga Labs initiates community testing
A new resource economy for Otherside has entered community testing at Yuga Labs. Harvesting fees payable to landowners sit at the core of the design, alongside character advantages and crafting options spanning 74 onchain resources.
ApeCoin (APE) was named in the studio’s September 9 announcement as the only medium through which value moves inside the economy. How those exchanges will actually operate was left unexplained, and no timeline for community testing accompanied the reveal.
Fee structure for landowners
Anyone gathering resources on land they do not own will owe a fee, and the landowner decides what that fee is. The arrangement hands deed holders control over their plots, but Yuga has not said whether fees are capped or explained how collection works mechanically.
Gameplay benefits are attached to Kodas NFTs, and MegaKodas are positioned to improve the player experience when tributed. What those benefits amount to, and what a tribute requires, has been left vague.
Testing resources and item retention
The first round of community testing will be confined to deeds owned by Yuga and a narrow slice of resources. According to the studio, resources may be reset over the course of this phase, while anything players craft stays in their hands. Testing is meant to draw the line between resource management and finished goods, but no rules for resets or player notifications have been shared.
Preparations and future insights
Internal simulations of the economic systems have already been run at Yuga, and pushing smart contracts live is the next milestone in gauging how the design holds up in practice. Voyagers are due to arrive in Starpods sometime in 2026, though neither a firm community testing date nor eligibility criteria have been announced.
The update sketches out the fundamentals of resources, land ownership, and how characters function, while a number of operational questions are left for later.