My Neighbor Alice (MNA) is a relaxing and immersive blockchain game inspired by titles like Animal Crossing. The game has a friendly atmosphere and charming visuals. Despite starting with play-to-earn ambitions and entry barriers in 2021, MNA became more accessible in 2024.
Players can now hop onto My Neighbor Alice without an upfront investment via trial lands and a new in-game currency, $BJORN.

At the time of writing, My Neighbor Alice is in its Beta Season 2 and open to all players for free. To play the game, you need to connect your wallet and complete a couple of signatures. Once everything is complete, you will receive a trial land. Alternatively, you can also purchase permanent land if you want unlimited access. Trial lands give you access to the core gameplay features like resource gathering and crafting. Permanent lands offer more exclusive benefits, like placing storefronts, terrain customization, and higher-quality soil.

With a land in your wallet, you can download My Neighbor Alice from the Chromia launcher. The initial download size for the game is around 3 GB. Before jumping onto the island, you'll get to customize your character. Following this process, Alice herself will introduce you to everyone as you grasp the basics via various quests.

Your early adventures revolve around learning essential skills through quests from Alice and Oli. These initial missions teach you the basics, including mining materials and harvesting your first crops. You'll also meet other characters as you progress in the game. Each of these new faces have their own stories and introduce you to new gameplay mechanics like farming. Overall, the quest system makes learning these mechanics feel natural and rewarding.

The gameplay map consists of six islands, each with its own theme. Currently, players can only explore certain portions of the map, but more regions will unlock in the future as more content updates hit the live servers.

Settings

My Neighbor Alice has customizable graphics and audio settings. You can adjust the graphics quality between Low, Medium, and High. This can be done inside the game via the settings panel that pops up after pressing ESC.

Controls

Moving around your land and interacting with the environment is straightforward. Here are all the controls for My Neighbor Alice.

• Move Forward: W
• Move Backward: S
• Move Left: A
• Move Right: D
• Jump: Space
• Walk: Shift

The core gameplay experience in My Neighbor Alice doesn't feature alternative game modes. Your land is practically your first canvas where you'll interact with buildings, resources, and items. You expand your reach by getting more land and visiting different parts of the map in the process.

The game revolves around three main activities. You'll gather resources from your land using various tools, refine these raw materials in specialized machines, and craft items for decoration or utility. This loop gets more interesting as you progress, unlocking better resources and crafting options.

There's a chance My Neighbor Alice may receive alternative modes during special events. These can also come in the form of special quests and mission lines.

The economy in My Neighbor Alice has evolved considerably since its launch in 2021. In the early days, many interested gamers were priced out from testing the game. Buying land and acquiring $ALICE was necessary to enjoy the game fully.

However, My Neighbor Alice pivoted since then and embraced a more f2p-friendly approach. There's now free currency in the game, $BJORN, which allows players to complete essential tasks like crafting, trading, and shopping.

Free-to-play players can earn around 17 $BJORN daily, plus extra from Oli's daily quests, totaling up to around 34. This lets you engage with basic crafting and activities without spending real money. Players who use $ALICE have additional perks: they can craft special NFTs that survive between seasons, set up personal storefronts for trading, and even stake their NFTs for extra earnings.

My Neighbor Alice's economic model is still being developed and is still subject to change until the game's full release. The two currencies, $ALICE and $BJORN, started co-existing in Q4 2024. The current model gives the devs freedom to implement even more advanced economic features, like conversions.

My Neighbor Alice is an ideal choice if you're looking for a relaxing gaming experience. It offers a welcoming environment with low entry barriers, and engaging sandbox elements. Whether you're a fan of life-simulation games or just exploring Web3 gaming, My Neighbor Alice is worth a try.