Who doesn’t want to get paid for playing video games? This series follows applications, some of which are borderline games at best, that claim to reward users with cold hard cash (or gift cards). In my pursuit of extra cash to blow on games, or Steam gift cards to add to my collection, I have tried a number of these applications. I hope my experiences can help others steer clear of the more dubious of these applications.
This time I’ll be taking a look at another web-based game, Cryptobrewmaster. This is fairly similar to my previous Mobile Money article, in that this is an idle game on the Hive blockchain. However, instead of the theme being music, this time it’s all about beer! From what I can find, the game seems to have been developed for the Steem blockchain in 2019, then moved over to Hive after it split off in 2020.
The game can be a bit confusing if you don’t scroll down on the initial log-in page, where it explains the basics of how to play. It boils down to doing quests in the Pub to earn components to craft beer. Each quest takes a certain amount of energy, which is the number on the blue background next to the lightning bolt, and may also cost you some Cryptobrewmaster (CBM) coin.
Energy has a capacity of 24 and regenerates at 1 point per hour. Most quests take 10-14 energy, meaning that you can only do a handful per real world day. You can also recover energy by drinking beer.
To create a beer, you need 5 different components: water, fermentables, bittering hops, aroma hops, and yeast. Crafting different styles of beer may use different amounts and variations of these components. Components and beers both come in 5 different qualities: Neutral (gray), Good (green), Outstanding (blue), Excellent (pink), and Masterpiece (orange). Outside of quests, you can also spend CBM coin to rent out a production facility for each specific component.
CBM coin can be earned by selling the beer that you have crafted back to the pub. At the time of this writing, the lowest quality beer sells for 4.65 CBM coin. CBM coin itself is a cryptocurrency on the Hive blockchain. At the time of this writing, 1 CBM coin has an estimated value of $0.00807.
At a rate of making about 4 CBM coin every few days via quests, this is not really a money making proposition. It is free cryptocurrency for a fairly negligible amount of time actually spent in the game. You can also reinvest your CBM coin to get better components, which is kind of the intent of the coin to begin with. The game also features a market place, where you can buy or sell components, or beer, for CBM coin.
The game seems to still be a work-in-progress. There is a distinct lack of in-game explanation for what things do, as well as several “coming soon” areas. There is no sound, at least that I have run into, and the art style is all along the lines of what you can see in the various screenshots in this article.
The developers of the game do have a strong interest in beer. There’s a wealth of beer crafting information in the game. If you click on a component or beer, it will open up an informational wiki page.
Overall, I would not recommend this as a way to try to earn income. If you enjoy slow idle games or have a strong interest in beer, then this title may appeal to you. It is free-to-play, so if you want to check it out for your self then you can do so here.