Imagine approaching a dangerous bend in a burger truck. In Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game, you have an unusual recourse: scream into your microphone. Time slows. You may recover. The neighbours may have questions.
That little feature is a useful introduction to Truth Arts. The entertainment company behind Goblintown takes an absurd premise seriously enough to turn it into software. Its challenge is to make the joke survive a change of venue: from a collectible on a blockchain to an experience someone chooses on a game store.
- Goblintown began as a free NFT mint in May 2022.
- Truth Arts develops characters across collectibles, games and merchandise.
- Its driving game requires no NFT purchase or crypto integration.
- A viral launch supplied attention; sustainable demand remains the test.
01 / A bear market with teeth
In the spring of 2022, NFT buyers had ample reason to feel miserable. Prices were falling. Goblintown arrived with ugly creatures and an invitation to be ridiculous together. Its name was already slang for a market collapse. The company had found a setting in which an unattractive monster could look oddly appropriate.
The launch dispensed with the familiar sales furniture: no roadmap, no Discord, no promised utility. Minting was free, though Ethereum transaction fees still applied. The artwork was released under CC0, permitting reuse. Rather than explaining what ownership would eventually unlock, the project made its present-tense personality conspicuous.
The theatrical part was unusually committed. A May 2022 Twitter Space subjected listeners to hours of goblin noises; nft now reported more than 86,000 tuned in. You could understand the performance without understanding the technology. Joining the nonsense was itself an activity.
There is a practical distinction here. A free launch can reduce the price of trying something, but it cannot manufacture a reason to care. Goblintown supplied a recognisable visual world and a joke suited to its moment. Copying the zero price without those ingredients would leave a company giving away something nobody particularly wanted.
02 / The goblin leaves the wallet
Truth Arts places itself in entertainment and technology, with Goblintown as a world to expand. Its expertise sits at the intersection of character art, lore, web experiences and engineering. Collectors were the first audience; game players and merchandise buyers are additional audiences with different reasons to open their wallets.
The franchise gained an unexpected rehearsal in 2023. Goblintown imagery appeared in Only Up, the climbing game that became a streaming hit. Its open artwork licence allowed that use. The developer later removed Only Up from Steam, describing the stress of the project. Borrowed distribution could make the characters visible; it could also disappear.
In a 2025 OpenSea interview, co-founder Alex Taub identified Only Up as an influence on the gaming direction. The team had nearly built a multiplayer title, Goblin Crash, but shelved it in favour of a single-player debut. Launching multiplayer first was too difficult. The decision suggests a useful discipline: choose a product that can entertain one customer before requiring a crowd.
“The game is a straight Web2 game using our IP and world.”Alex Taub, speaking to Decrypt in February 2025
Really Hard Driving Game entered Early Access in April 2025. Players steer a precarious vehicle, hunt shortcuts and compete on times. The microphone mechanic translates the old goblin-noise ritual into a tool. A newcomer can grasp the pleasure immediately, without a lesson in blockchain ownership.
The store still labels it Early Access at this research check and warns that developer updates are over 12 months old. Another title, There Are Millions of Goblins, is listed as coming soon: a vehicular survival game built around enormous physics-driven hordes. Their appeal must survive comparison with other indie games on the same shelf.
Different doors, different customers. Recognition travels; purchase intent has to be earned again.
Alex Taub / CEO
Process Grey / CCO
Michael Schonfeld / CTO
Cesar Kuriyama / Advisor03 / The joke needs an income
Royalties exposed the fragility of the earlier model. In September 2022, Truth Labs launched a collection-specific marketplace with Snag Solutions, announcing a single five-percent royalty marketplace fee. It was an attempt to control more of the commercial plumbing surrounding its characters.
By April 2023, marketplaces had weakened creator royalties. Truth Labs responded by replacing collection artwork with an obscene protest image and restricting trading ahead of new contracts. Holders objected to the unilateral intervention. Protecting the creative business had collided with the expectations of people who thought they controlled their purchases.
Another experiment was more individual. In May 2023, Truth Labs negotiated separate licences with two holders of The 187. One deal shared Goblintown royalties; another involved physical merchandise based on a character. The specificity mattered: these were negotiated arrangements, not a universal promise attached to every collectible.
The money also deserves its proper labels. The often-repeated $12.5 million Series A was raised in March 2022 by predecessor Upstream, a DAO-software business. Truth Arts’ corporate combination subsequently brought that history together with Truth Labs’ creative assets.
These company-wide figures describe a costly development stage. They are not game sales or a game-production budget.
04 / Keeping the door open
Expansion has not meant abandoning crypto. Truth Arts introduced Portals in June 2024 to move supported NFTs between Ethereum and several scaling networks. In July 2025, subsidiary Exploding Goblin LLC launched GOB on Solana, with holder allocations vesting over two years. Those experiments address existing collectors; the conventional game can reach people outside that constituency.
That places Truth Arts near other NFT-origin character businesses, including Pudgy Penguins, while also competing for the attention spent on independent games. Its distinguishing material is the grotesque, comic world. A collector may value belonging. A player may simply want a difficult afternoon. Neither motivation automatically pays for every other product.
The copyable lesson is to carry a recognisable behaviour into a useful experience: goblin noises become a time-slowing mechanic. The condition is less glamorous. The experience must work for someone who missed the original excitement. If the joke requires an old insider story, or the game needs speculative enthusiasm to feel rewarding, the door remains narrow. Truth Arts’ next audience gets to decide whether the goblin is good company.
Enter at your own peril
Explore Truth Arts and Goblintown, or visit the driving game’s Steam page and trailer. The next game has a Steam wishlist page.
Follow LinkedIn, X, the game on Instagram, and YouTube gameplay and trailers.
Further reading: Alex Taub’s OpenSea interview; Decrypt on the royalty dispute; The 187 licensing deals; Upstream’s funding story; the company’s 2025 annual filing.