The traditional entertainment industry is facing a crisis. Studios are shutting down. Layoffs are constant. Barriers to entry remain impossibly high. Communities that make games successful have no voice in how those games are built, funded, or evolved.
Today, KARRAT Foundation's Studio Chain is changing that. Studio Chain is launching its mainnet on Caldera as a dedicated appchain built on the Arbitrum Nitro stack using Caldera's Rollup Engine, bringing the KARRAT Protocol and its flagship game My Pet Hooligan into a live, production-ready environment.
Building Infrastructure for the Next Era of Gaming and Entertainment
Studio Chain provides the infrastructure the traditional entertainment industry needs. $KARRAT powers every layer of the ecosystem as the native gas token for all transactions and the governance token for protocol decisions. This could enable studios and creators to access democratized funding channels, tokenized IP and content rights, and transparent governance without traditional gatekeepers.
The chain launches with My Pet Hooligan (MPH), a third-person action shooter and social sandbox from AMGI Studios that has achieved over 500,000 downloads across the Epic Games Store and Steam, where the demo launched in October 2025 during early access. My Pet Hooligan won Best Action Game at the 2023 GAM3 Awards and brings AAA production values to Web3 gaming.
"By leveraging Arbitrum's powerful infrastructure, we're able to create gaming experiences that were previously impossible," said Luke Paglia, COO and co-founder of AMGI Studios. "My Pet Hooligan is just the beginning. This collaboration enables seamless in-game asset ownership, true player-driven interactive extensions, and enhanced interoperability that will transform how audiences engage with entertainment."
Studio Chain's vision extends beyond gaming to film, animation, and AI-powered entertainment products. A feature-length My Pet Hooligan animated movie is currently in development, expanding the IP beyond gaming into mainstream media. This positions the KARRAT Protocol as infrastructure for the next era of decentralized entertainment.
The 60+ person team at AMGI includes veterans from Disney Pixar, Riot Games, Warner Brothers, Industrial Light & Magic, and EA, with backing from Paris Hilton, Coldplay, and Tony Robbins. AMGI's ecosystem partnerships include Epic Games, Nvidia, ElevenLabs, and Animoca Brands.
Built using Unreal Engine 5, My Pet Hooligan features advanced motion capture and AI technology, enabling real-time face-driven animation where players embody their NFTs in-game through the KARRAT Protocol's Token Play system. This infrastructure will expand to Xbox consoles and additional PC platforms in the coming months.
Why Studio Chain Needed a Dedicated Appchain
AMGI Studios and the KARRAT Foundation recognized that building AAA gaming experiences on shared infrastructure wouldn't work. AAA games generate massive transaction volumes. To deliver the performance, customization, and governance model they envisioned, a dedicated appchain was essential for three reasons:
High-Performance Gaming Infrastructure. AAA games require consistent, low-latency performance. Studio Chain needed dedicated blockspace optimized for gaming workloads, where transaction costs stay predictable and the network handles massive spikes during peak gameplay.
Deep Customization for Entertainment. The KARRAT Protocol includes specialized tools like Token Play (which imports NFT metadata into gaming engines) and onchain governance contracts. These features required chain-level customization only possible on a sovereign rollup.
Economic Sovereignty. Community control of the KARRATco Treasury and governance mechanisms required full control over the chain's economic model and fee structure.
How Caldera Powers Studio Chain's Vision
To bring this vision to life, the KARRAT Foundation partnered with Caldera to provide the infrastructure needed to launch and scale a production-grade gaming chain.
Production-Ready Arbitrum Nitro Infrastructure. Caldera's Rollup Engine delivered a fully managed Arbitrum Nitro rollup, handling sequencing, transaction batching, and settlement to Ethereum. This freed the AMGI and KARRAT teams to focus on building gaming experiences rather than managing blockchain operations.
Seamless Interoperability Through the Metalayer. Through Caldera's Metalayer, Studio Chain gains automatic connectivity to a growing network of chains, including Base and BNB Chain. This enables cross-chain gaming experiences, shared liquidity access, and the interoperability needed for players and assets to move freely across entertainment platforms.
Community-Powered Network Security Through Resiliency Nodes. Studio Chain launches with a staking-based node system that makes network participation accessible to everyone. Resiliency Nodes strengthen uptime and security through community activation rather than costly licenses. At launch, twenty Resiliency Nodes will each require 5 million $KARRAT staked, targeting 100 million $KARRAT locked in total.
The staking program offers up to 20% APY during the first year, with rewards claimable from day one. Principal stakes lock for six months, after which stakers can unlock with a penalty that decreases from 12% to 0% between months seven and twelve. This structure incentivizes sustained participation while maintaining network stability. Stakers also receive a share of sequencer revenue and early access to an upcoming memecoin initiative from AMGI Studios, aligning community incentives with Studio Chain's long-term growth.
A New Primitive for Gaming in the Internet of Chains
Just as Cosmos grew stronger with each new specialized chain joining its ecosystem through IBC, or Polkadot expanded its capabilities as new parachains launched, Caldera's vision is to build an Internet of Chains where each new rollup adds unique capabilities to an interconnected network.
Studio Chain's mainnet launch adds foundational gaming and entertainment infrastructure that any Metalayer-connected network can leverage:
New Gaming Infrastructure Unlocks Cross-Chain Experiences. Studio Chain brings production-grade gaming infrastructure and community governance to the Caldera network. DeFi protocols on the Metalayer could integrate $KARRAT for in-game economies. NFT marketplaces could enable cross-chain trading of My Pet Hooligan assets.
Network Effects Drive Shared Growth. As $KARRAT and gaming assets move freely via the Metalayer, liquidity deepens and user bases expand. Players discovering My Pet Hooligan can explore other applications in the Caldera ecosystem, and vice versa. Each new gaming project that launches makes the platform more valuable, attracting more developers and studios. This is the flywheel in action.
The Future of Entertainment is Decentralized
Studio Chain's launch demonstrates that the future of gaming and entertainment requires specialized, interoperable chains. Studio Chain combines dedicated appchain performance with Metalayer connectivity to deliver AAA gaming experiences while remaining deeply integrated with a growing ecosystem.
KARRAT Foundation is carving out a distinct position as the go-to blockchain for entertainment innovation. "This isn't a 'My chain is quicker than yours' argument," the foundation stated. "The aim is to carve out a distinct lane—complementing rather than directly rivaling—what other great industry solutions and chains are doing."
As the entertainment industry faces unprecedented challenges, Studio Chain offers a new path forward where communities participate in funding, governance, and growth alongside the studios building the experiences they love.
We're proud to provide the foundational platform for pioneers like the KARRAT Foundation and AMGI Studios to build the future. Congratulations to the entire team on this incredible milestone.
Ready to launch your own dedicated rollup and join the Internet of Chains? Visit our deployment page to get started.
About Caldera
Caldera is powering the next internet. Its architecture consists of two core components: the Rollup Engine and the Metalayer. The Rollup Engine is a modular operating system used to launch high-performance, custom chains on leading chains and frameworks like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and ZKsync. The Metalayer then automatically connects every chain into one network. Through this interoperability protocol, all chains access shared liquidity and secure, intent-based bridging that transforms fragmented networks into a unified Internet of Chains. And now with the launch of the Caldera Bridge Preview, Metatoken, and Stablecoin Module, this expands the product suite and market size that Caldera is tackling.
