Stealth mode: Domenik Maier’s Stray Shot strategy

Stray Shot didn’t come to Philippine Blockchain Week 2025 to pitch a token. It came to let players shoot cartel bosses, loot weapons, and squad up – no crypto knowledge required. And that might be the smartest web3 play of all.

The third-person mobile shooter from iBLOXX Studios made no mention of wallets, NFTs, or token sales. Instead, players picked up their phones, joined a team, and jumped into the action. Only later might they realize the weapons they looted or the characters they controlled were stored on-chain.

While blockchain-based games saw 1.58 billion unique active wallets in the past year – a 169% increase – overall transaction volume dropped by nearly half, according to DappRadar. The message is clear: more players are showing up, but they’re less willing to spend. For iBLOXX CEO Domenik Maier, this is an opportunity, not a crisis.

“You need to build a great game first,” he told The Crypto Radio. “Everything else should come second.”

Why crypto onboarding still turns players away

When crypto gaming first arrived, it was anything but seamless. Before gameplay came tutorials on wallet setup, transaction fees, and token mechanics. Many titles never made it past that initial screen. For Maier, this was an obvious problem.

“If your onboarding starts with ‘set up a wallet,’ you’ll lose 99% of players,” he said.

That friction turned even curious gamers away, especially on mobile platforms where convenience is king. Web3 promised ownership – but it often delivered confusion.

Stray Shot avoids the onboarding trap by building what Maier calls a “Web 2.5” experience. Players can jump straight into the action without creating a wallet, buying tokens, or understanding blockchain at all. Everything needed to interact with crypto happens invisibly in the background.

“You play the game like a normal gamer. Later, if you want to trade or claim assets, you can,” said Maier.

Stray Shot uses an embedded wallet system that quietly connects to external wallets when needed, particularly for compliance with app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store. The goal isn’t to hide the blockchain – it’s to delay its relevance until players actually want to use it.

This approach has drawn some skepticism from decentralization purists – but Maier sees it as a practical step toward broader adoption.

Shooter first, crypto later

Stray Shot keeps the action front and center, with on-chain characters and weapons players don’t need to think about. Photo: Stray Shot

Gameplay in Stray Shot blends popular shooter modes – battle royale, team deathmatch, and extraction-style missions – into a mobile-first experience. There’s even a narrative overlay: players fight across South American terrain against cartel bosses named El Fuego and El Capitán.

"One mode involves rescuing a hostage in the middle of a battle royale. Another has players taking down cartel bosses," he said. “We wanted to build a game that could stand on its own, even without the blockchain,” said Maier.

The comparison points are telling. Maier cited PUBG for its third-person mechanics, Counter-Strike for its reward systems, and Tarkov for its extraction dynamics. In that mix, the blockchain isn’t a feature – it’s just storage.

Built to hide the blockchain

From left, The Crypto Radio's Ian A and Domenik Maier discuss how Stray Shot makes Web3 gaming feel seamless. Photo: THe Crypto Radio

When iBLOXX Studios started building Stray Shot three years ago, few tools existed for what they wanted to do. Wallet UX was clunky, gas fees were unpredictable, and mobile integrations with blockchain were virtually nonexistent.

So they built their own.

“There wasn’t really any good solution for wallets and gas when we started – so we had to build it ourselves,” Maier says.

The resulting tech stack supports seamless transactions, game-state syncing, and regulatory alignment with the major app stores. For a game that tries to hide its blockchain, there’s a lot of blockchain to maintain.

To push Stray Shot into more mainstream awareness, iBLOXX has also partnered with celebrity figures from outside the crypto world. NBA stars Lonzo and LaMelo Ball, along with their father LaVar, will appear as playable characters. Maier sees this not just as a fan moment but as a way to bring in communities that might otherwise overlook crypto entirely.

These celebrity avatars serve more than cosmetic purposes. They function as on-ramps for communities that might never engage with crypto otherwise. The goal isn’t to gamify fame – it’s to normalize crypto without asking players to think about it.

The new rules of the web3 endgame

Stray Shot’s battlegrounds span cartel-controlled terrain, with detailed environments built to support fast-paced mobile missions. Photo: Stray Shot

For years, critics dismissed web3 games as shallow or gimmicky – and in many cases, they weren’t wrong. Token speculation often outweighed actual gameplay. But that’s changing, Maier said.

“People used to say web3 games couldn’t compete with web2. Maybe that was true. But that’s changing now.”

With mobile platforms demanding both polish and accessibility, the new wave of crypto-native games has a clear bar to meet. iBLOXX isn’t trying to lower expectations. If anything, they’re betting the average gamer doesn’t care about web3 at all – until it works for them.

In a space often focused on decentralization, tokenomics, and ecosystems, Stray Shot’s success might lie in what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t pitch itself as a crypto game. It doesn’t push players to connect wallets. It doesn’t ask for gas. It just works – and that might be the most radical choice of all.