From CryptoKitties to YGG: The Story of Gabby Dizon

• Gabby Dizon turned a simple NFT lending idea into a global gaming economy through Yield Guild Games.
• He now advises multiple Web3 projects and pushes for sustainable, inclusive blockchain gaming models.

Gabby Dizon never dreamed that the gaming world would lead him to crypto. But that’s how it happened. Born and raised in the Philippines, he started his career as a game developer more than two decades ago.

When most of his peers chose the safe path as office workers, Gabby instead chose to build Altitude Games—a Manila-based game studio that eventually became one of the pioneers of the mobile gaming industry in Southeast Asia.

From CryptoKitties to YGG: How Gabby Dizon Turned Play Into Pay

While many people at that time only played games for entertainment, Gabby Dizon had already seen the economic gap behind the scenes. But the idea remained dormant for quite some time. He served as the chairman of the game developer association in his country and was active in expanding the community.

His focus at that time was still on traditional games. However, once he got to know blockchain technology in 2017, his compass direction changed quite drastically.

That same year, Gabby started playing CryptoKitties. At first, it was just curiosity, but over time it made him fall in love with the concept of digital assets. From just an NFT collector, he then plunged into the Axie Infinity community in 2018.

Well, this is where the seeds of the idea for Yield Guild Games began to grow. He realized that not everyone could afford to buy Axie to play, but many wanted to join. The solution? He started lending his Axie to other players.

Over time, this activity evolved into a new system now known as the scholarship model. Then in 2020, together with Beryl Li and an anonymous developer named Owl of Moistness, he founded Yield Guild Games (YGG). They didn’t just create a guild, but built a complete ecosystem where people could actually make money from playing games.

Furthermore, YGG was also designed as a DAO—a decentralized autonomous organization—which makes it different from other gaming communities. They even launched programs like Superquest, the Soulbound token, and their own esports team called YGG Elite. Gabby is not only developing a business, but also a new perspective on games as a source of income.

Building Games for Everyone, Not Just the Crypto-Savvy

On the other hand, Gabby has not lost his creative touch as a developer. Recently, he announced the launch of LOL Land, a casual game with a touch of crypto that is part of the new YGG Play line. This game is designed to be more accessible to anyone, even those who have never played a blockchain game before. As if to say: the crypto world is not just for technical people.

Interestingly, Gabby is also active as an advisor in various other projects. From BreederDAO, Forge, to BlockchainSpace. Even several venture capitals such as Tangent and LongHash have collaborated with him. With an increasingly wide network, Gabby is now not only known as the “father of play-to-earn,” but also as a central figure in discussions about the future of Web3 gaming.

However, Gabby does not want this world to be filled with hype and empty promises. On several occasions, he reminded the community to focus on the basics: player experience, economic sustainability in games, and inclusive access. He even once said, “If the economic system only survives because old investors pay for new ones, that’s not the future, that’s a pyramid.”

It doesn’t mean he’s always right, but this kind of mindset is what makes his name survive in a very fast-moving industry. If the traditional gaming world used to only promise scores and wins, then Gabby Dizon has proven that with the right approach, playing games can be a gateway to a more decent life.