Yuga Labs has announced plans to begin community testing of a resource economy for Otherside, introducing harvesting fees for landowners, character benefits and crafting across a system designed to contain 74 onchain resources.
Notably, the statement included the sentence, “This isn’t a normal product launch. It’s the kickoff of one of the most sophisticated game economies ever built on blockchain”.
The company outlined the mechanics in a September 9 announcement, describing ApeCoin, or APE, as the only route for moving value into and out of the economy. The written update did not specify how those exchanges would operate or provide a detailed schedule for testing.
The Otherdeeds land NFTs will play a direct role in resource gathering. Players who harvest on another person’s land will pay a fee set by its owner. This gives deed holders control over the charge applied to harvesting on their property, although Yuga did not publish fee limits or explain how payments would be collected.
Kodas NFTs will provide gameplay advantages, while MegaKodas will offer blessings to players who give tribute. The announcement did not detail the benefits, the tribute required or how either would affect harvesting and crafting.
Community testing will begin on Yuga’s own deeds with an initial selection of resources, rather than the complete resource set. The company said it could reset resources during this phase if necessary, but players would retain items they crafted. Some items will be available only during the testing period.
The distinction means resource holdings and finished items will receive different treatment during testing. Yuga has not set out the precise conditions under which resets would occur or explained how players would be notified.
The company said it had already tested the economic systems through internal simulations. Deploying the smart contracts and opening the system to players would provide the next test of how the mechanics function in practice.
Yuga also said Voyagers would take flight in Starpods during 2026. However, the written announcement did not give an exact community testing start date, registration process or full eligibility requirements.
The announcement establishes the main roles of resources, land ownership, characters and APE, while leaving several operating rules for later clarification. The publicly announced initial community phase will test a limited version of that design, with resource resets possible and crafted items retained as Yuga evaluates the system under live conditions.
Find out more at the Otherside website.