Blocklords
6 known investors
BLOCKLORDS, a blockchain medieval strategy game by MetaKing Studios, has evolved into BLOCKLORE, a node-based AI creative canvas.
Also known as BLOCKLORDS · BLOCKLORE · MetaKing Studios · Metaking Studios OU
Investors · 6
Company profile
researched Aug 2026BLOCKLORDS is a player-driven medieval grand strategy game developed by MetaKing Studios, in which player choices and actions shape the game world and narrative. The game supports multiple playstyles — farming, fighting, resource management and ruling — and is built around a player-powered in-game economy, with strategic decisions such as forming alliances, conquering strongholds and competing for territory. Blockchain elements include NFT heroes, a marketplace, and LORDCHAIN, the project's own dappchain, to which token holders were directed via a migration and burn guide. Announced feature work included squad progression tied to hero traits, stronghold battles, a dynasty system for founding family houses, and the Battleborne update introducing large-scale battles with thousands of medieval units.
The property has since been repositioned: the blocklords.com site now presents BLOCKLORE, described as a multimodal AI creation infinite canvas that unifies image, video and audio generation and editing on a single node-based surface. Users upload assets, connect nodes and generate outputs, with intermediate steps preserved on the canvas for adjustment, reuse and export. A unified model layer allows multiple third-party models to be called within one workflow, and generated results become cloud-stored, reusable assets. The product includes a Director Stage, four core node types, forking of workflows, a multi-track video editor with frame-accurate trimming and one-click export, ready-made canvas templates, and a community area where published work links back to the canvas that produced it. BLOCKLORE is operated by Metaking Studios OU.
Founding story
CEO David Johansson, originally from Sweden, studied in the United States and worked in film in Hollywood before moving into games in China around 2013–2014 during the rise of free-to-play. Observing that players invested large amounts of time and money in economies they had no ownership stake in, he encountered Bitcoin and concluded that gaming and crypto would converge. He persuaded his co-founder to explore blockchain; the arrival of CryptoKitties and NFTs provided the technical starting point for Blocklords in 2017.
Business model
The game side operated a player-driven economy with an in-game marketplace, NFTs and a token migrated to LORDCHAIN. The BLOCKLORE canvas uses a credits system with paid memberships that provide more credits, higher concurrency and faster generation.
Membership subscriptions and generation credits on the BLOCKLORE platform; the game side previously used NFT and marketplace-based monetization within a player-powered economy.
Traction
The team reported minting close to one million NFTs across multiple chains during its Seascape Networks period. The BLOCKLORE site features a community gallery of user-generated works and templates.
Latest developments
BLOCKLORDS has been rebranded to BLOCKLORE, a node-based collaborative AI generative canvas. Recent product announcements include the launch of the Seedance 2.5 video model alongside Wan 3.0, Qwen-Image 3.0 Pro, Grok Imagine and OpenAI GPT-5.6 models, a homepage overhaul, limited-time discounts, and guides for the canvas, video editor and visual prompting. The game wiki references a LORDCHAIN migration and burn guide and a Region Wars and Battleborne Season 4 season.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positioned in blockchain/web3 gaming as a strategy MMO aiming at the depth of titles such as Total War and Crusader Kings while adding real-time large-scale battles and web3 ownership incentives; management identified a gap between deep PC strategy franchises and shallower mobile 4X titles. Following the rebrand, the company competes in AI-native creative tooling.
In gaming, an MMO strategy structure allowing players to progress from farmer to warrior, ruler or king, combined with a player-owned economy, NFT heroes and a purpose-built dappchain. In the AI canvas product, differentiation is framed around consolidating prompting, multi-model generation, editing and video post-production on one node-based surface with forkable, reusable workflows.
Technology
The game used onchain assets and NFT heroes and operated LORDCHAIN, a dedicated dappchain intended to handle large user volumes cost-effectively, with the stated goal of making every in-game action a transaction. BLOCKLORE is built as a node-based generative canvas with four core node types, a Director Stage, parent-child node chaining for style consistency, a unified model layer that exposes multiple third-party generative models (including Seedance 2.0 and 2.5, Wan 3.0, Qwen-Image 3.0 Pro, Grok Imagine and OpenAI GPT-5.6 models), cloud asset storage, and a multi-track timeline video editor with trimming, global output parameters and export.
Go-to-market
Community-led distribution through a wiki and community hub, free hero NFTs to ease onboarding, seasonal content such as Region Wars and Battleborne Season 4, and founder-led media appearances and industry commentary. BLOCKLORE runs recurring creator challenges offering cash, credits and visibility, publishes tutorials and product blog posts, and features community work and templates.
Strategy and web3 game players for BLOCKLORDS; digital creators producing images, video and audio for BLOCKLORE.
Geography
CEO David Johansson is based in Sweden; earlier career work on games took place in China. The operating entity is Metaking Studios OU.
History
Co-founder and CEO David Johansson began working on Blocklords in 2017, initially as a fully onchain game where hero creation, battles and crafting were each transactions. A first version launched in 2019, but infrastructure, onboarding and funding difficulties led the team to pause Blocklords in 2020 and build Seascape Networks, a scalable NFT infrastructure effort through which the team received its first funding and minted close to one million NFTs across multiple chains. With the 2021 play-to-earn wave, the team established MetaKing Studios, hired a new team and returned to Blocklords. In 2024 the company was preparing the Battleborne large-scale battle update and operating its own LORDCHAIN dappchain. The property subsequently rebranded from BLOCKLORDS to BLOCKLORE, an AI generative canvas.
Risks & controversies
The CEO has publicly described difficulties in web3 gaming, including skepticism from traditional gaming press and players, doubts within the web3 community, venture investors and key opinion leaders writing off projects quickly after token launches, and exchanges emphasizing vanity metrics. The company itself previously paused development of Blocklords in 2020 because of infrastructure, onboarding and funding constraints, and has since pivoted the brand away from gaming toward AI creative tooling.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsBLOCKLORDS evolved into BLOCKLORE, a node-based collaborative AI generative canvas for images, video and audio, operated by Metaking Studios OU.
Seedance 2.5 launched on BLOCKLORE alongside Wan 3.0, Qwen-Image 3.0 Pro, Grok Imagine and OpenAI GPT 5.6 models, together with a homepage overhaul and limited-time discounts.
Following the 2021 play-to-earn wave, the team set up MetaKing Studios, hired a new team and returned to developing Blocklords.
Development of Blocklords was paused in 2020 due to infrastructure, onboarding and funding challenges, and the team began building Seascape Networks, scalable NFT infrastructure.
The team launched an initial fully onchain version of Blocklords in 2019.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Blocklordsblocklords.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Blocklords do?
- BLOCKLORDS, a blockchain medieval strategy game by MetaKing Studios, has evolved into BLOCKLORE, a node-based AI creative canvas.
- Who are Blocklords's investors?
- Blocklords's investors include 2 Punks Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Ryze Labs, SWGI Ventures (SWISS GEM INVESTMENTS), Woodstock Fund, SevenX Ventures.