First release ghost: 2023–08–15
After experiencing the death spiral of Gamefi, the market has paid more attention to full-chain games in 2023. Currently, Starknet has the richest full-chain game ecosystem. So why is Starknet supported by many full-chain game projects? What are its advantages in developing full-chain games? At the same time, which projects are worthy of our attention? This article will explore these issues in depth.
Friends who don’t know much about the whole chain game can first read Uncle Jian’s previous article "Nine Questions about the Whole Chain Game".
Starknet's advantages in developing full-chain games
On social media, Starknet has gradually been labeled as "the most popular development platform for full-chain games". In addition to Loot Realms, which announced the migration from Arbiturm to Starknet in 2021, there are also many full-chain game projects such as Cartridge, Influence, Matchbox DAO, Briq and Cafe Cosmos.
What advantages does Starknet have that make it worth all-in for many full-chain games? I think there are the following points:
Continuously expanding performance advantages (high TPS, low Gas)
Because in the full-chain game, the blockchain is the game server, and all player operations need to be completed through interaction with smart contracts. Therefore, if a chain wants to develop a full-chain game ecosystem, it must meet the performance requirements of high TPS and low Gas at the same time. The constantly upgraded Starknet has such potential.
From the perspective of the underlying algorithm, the core algorithm STARK used by Starknet is more suitable for large-scale computing applications, and its average verification time and proof size will continue to decrease as the scale of verification expands. As shown in the figure below, when the number of hash invocations is 3072, the verification time is 40 milliseconds, with an average of 76.75 times/millisecond; when the number of hash invocations is 49152, the verification time is about 60 milliseconds, with an average of 819.2 times/millisecond, and the same is true for the proof size. Therefore, in terms of creating large-scale full-chain games, the STARK algorithm has obvious advantages and can achieve high TPS.
Linear graph of verification time and proof size vs. hash calls for different levels of security
At the same time, the recursive proof used by STARK is also conducive to reducing the verification cost on the chain. In short, the recursive proof can compress multiple "upstream" STARK proofs into one proof. Finally, the chain only needs to verify the single proof generated by the aggregation to verify the validity of multiple "upstream" proofs, which means that the Gas amortized for a single transaction is further reduced.
Typical recursive proof process
Judging from the actual team's actions, Starknet's quantum leap upgrade is also in full swing. At present, the main network has been upgraded to V0.12.0, and the test network has been launched to V0.12.1, which has greatly improved TPS. Transaction costs will also be continuously optimized in the future.
Starknet upgrade roadmap (Source: Twitter user @100Sheng) Native account abstraction has infinite possibilities in improving user experience
If the requirements for blockchain performance are the factors that previously restricted the development of full-chain games from a hardware perspective, then from a user perspective, what restricts the development of full-chain games is a user experience that is worse than Gamefi.
Take the recently popular Loot Survivor as an example. Every time a user performs an "attack", "escape" or "upgrade" operation, the wallet needs to be popped up to sign and authorize the transaction, which is a very cumbersome process. Moreover, this is just a lightweight game. If a large-scale multiplayer online full-chain game also has such an experience, then there is no need to talk about playability.
So, how does Starknet solve this problem for full-chain games? The answer is native account abstraction. Unlike Ethereum's dual account model (EOA and CA), Starknet only has one account design called "account contract" and implements native account abstraction based on ERC-4337.
Friends who are not familiar with the concept of account abstraction can read Uncle Jian’s previous article "Account Abstraction: Simplifying Your Crypto World".
For example, a creative feature jointly launched by Briq, Loot Realms and Topology teams at the Starknet Hackathon a year and a half ago - Session Key was designed using the Starknet native account abstraction, which allows users to avoid signing for every operation in the entire chain game.
This idea has also been applied this year. The Arcade Account developed by the Realms team on August 7 is the first implementation of the session keys function. In the demonstration video released by the Loot Realms team of using the Arcade Account to play the Loot Survivor game, it can also be clearly seen that it improves the user experience: there is no need to sign for each "attack" and no need to wait too long.
Of course, Starknet’s native account abstraction improves the user experience of full-chain games far more than the session key function, and there will be more possibilities in the future.
Crypto game engine: Dojo
As we all know, game engines are crucial to game development. With their support, developers do not need to create basic systems (physical simulation, graphics rendering, and basic game mechanics) from scratch for each game, so they can save costs and time and invest them better in game content innovation.
To some extent, the growth of traditional commercial games is due to two major game engines: Unity and Unreal Engine. Most of the games we are more familiar with, such as "Fortnite" and "Hearthstone", are developed based on them.
From the developer’s perspective, in order to promote the scale of the full-chain game ecosystem, an engine that can help developers reduce the difficulty of game development is needed. Therefore, in February of this year, the first full-chain game engine Dojo on Starknet, jointly developed by Loot Realms, Cartridge and Briq, was officially born.
However, unlike traditional game engines, Dojo currently does not involve advanced features such as physical simulation and 3D rendering, because the development of full-chain games is still in its early stages and faces more problems related to the underlying interaction with the blockchain. Therefore, according to official sources, Dojo is committed to development in four directions:
The first is to build a gaming-specific L3 to further improve on-chain performance;
Second, running fraud proofs in the game will make it easier for players to play without having to wait for on-chain verification for every operation.
Third, the player executes part of the proof locally, and finally only uploads the key ZK proof to the chain, which greatly improves the game operation ability and player privacy protection;
The fourth is to use storage proof to share assets. Storage proofs are similar to oracles in that they provide evidence of the authenticity of information, but do not require the intervention of a third party. The ownership of assets from different chains can be proved by storage proof, and users will be able to use their assets in different games on different chains.
As the infrastructure for game development, game engines have always played a key role in the virtuous cycle of “helping developers build games — — producing popular games — — attracting more developers.” I believe that with the development of Dojo, Starknet’s full-chain game ecological advantages will become more and more obvious.
Cairo is a programming language that is friendly to complex full-chain game development
In fact, before Dojo, there was another full-chain game engine big brother: MUD, and whether in terms of the number of ecosystems or technical maturity, MUD currently basically beats Dojo.
So, why do we still need Dojo? One of the biggest reasons is that unlike MUDs that use the Solidity language, Dojo uses a programming language that is more friendly to the development of complex full-chain games: Cairo.
Cairo is a smart contract language designed based on STARK and dedicated to Starknet. Every coin has two sides. Although Cairo has a certain learning cost for developers who are accustomed to Solidity, it is more modern than Solidity. Many developers think that it is similar to the Rust language and can provide more advanced and abstract functions.
For example, the functions mentioned above, such as generating STARK proofs, recursive proofs that can reduce the cost of on-chain verification, and executing partial proofs locally on players, are all implemented through Cairo. At the same time, Cairo is more versatile than Solidity. It is not only suitable for contract development on Starknet, but can also run provable programs on other large servers or personal devices, and will have broader applications in the future.
Therefore, Cairo will have a stronger advantage for complex full-chain games such as massively multiplayer online games, which will also attract more developers to Starknet to realize their dreams of complex and highly playable full-chain games.
Inventory of projects worth noting
Now that we know the advantages of Starknet in developing full-chain games, let’s take a look at the projects worth paying attention to in the current Starknet full-chain game ecosystem.
Loot Survivor
Loot Survivor is a lightweight game launched by Loot Realms and is currently running on the Starknet test network.
Play to Die Mode
Different from the various "X to Earn" modes adopted by Gamefi, Loot Survivor adopts the "Play to Die" mode designed by the Loot Realms team. In simple terms, the gameplay is that players need to spend a small amount of money to cast an adventurer character on the chain. If the adventurer dies in the game, the life of the character will be confiscated, and the player needs to create a new character and start the game again. At present, there is no very appropriate Chinese translation that can vividly express this mode. The author temporarily translates it as "fight to the death" or "fight to the end".
Compared to the "Play to Earn" model that attracts greedy players by creating a wealth effect, the "Play to Die" model is more sustainable and can prosper the creator ecosystem. Because in this model, if an adventurer dies in the game, the creator of the game will receive a dividend from the funds originally used to create the adventurer.
Therefore, in the "Play to Die" model, the quality and popularity of the game will determine the developer's remuneration. If the game is not fun, players will not cast characters on the chain, and game developers will not be rewarded. This model will help create a positive, prosperous, two-sided market that includes players and creators.
After Loot Survivor is launched on the mainnet, it may use its native token $Lords to mint on-chain characters and empower its tokens.
Influence
Influence is the most popular massively multiplayer online space strategy game on Starknet, and is currently running on the test network. According to the design of this game, players can colonize asteroids, build infrastructure, accumulate resources and fight other players. But overall, this game is not as easy to operate as Loot Survivor, and the author encountered many problems during the experience.
Team situation
Founder Chris Lexmond has served as CTO and VP of Technology for several tech startups, and other team members also have a background in AAA game production. As a startup team, the team's capabilities are promising.
At the same time, the project team has stated that when their native token SWAY is issued, 1% will be used to reward testnet participants.
Sparkle
Briq can be likened to an on-chain Lego system, where players can freely use blocks to build the buildings they want, and at the same time, they can cast their own models into an NFT. If you want, you can also reassemble or disassemble the cast NFTs, which is highly composable.
Briq actually has great potential. It is more like an underlying original protocol. In the future, it can be combined with a full-chain game so that the NFTs minted by users on Briq can be used in it.
Cartridge
Cartridge is a full-chain game integration platform on Starknet. Players are used to comparing it to the Steam platform for full-chain games. However, it is more than just a game integration platform. The Cartridge Controller it developed not only helps full-chain games to be easily put on the chain, but also helps improve the game experience of players; it participated in the development and construction of the full-chain game engine Dojo; and created its own full-chain game Roll Your Own (RYO).
Cartridge completed its seed round of financing in June 2022, with investors including Fabric Ventures, Valhalla Venture and Chapter One. We believe that Cartridge, with its multi-dimensional development, will play an indispensable role in Starknet's full-chain game ecosystem in the future.
Of course, in addition to the above four, there are many potential full-chain games on Starknet. Interested friends can refer to the table below. The author will not go into details here due to space constraints.
Summary and Thoughts
At this year's ETHCC, Will Robinson from AllianceDao raised four issues that restrict the development of full-chain games in his speech: User Experience and User Interface Problems (UX/UI Problems), Scalability Problems (Uncertain How to Scale), Lack of Game Design Standards (No Standard Design Patterns) and Uncertain Value-Add.
According to the advantages of Starknet in developing full-chain games mentioned above, it can be seen that the first three questions raised by Will Robinson can be effectively solved in the future. But about the last question, is there any value in full-chain games? As we all know, blockchain solves the problems of asset ownership and economic system establishment in the virtual world. So for games, in addition to putting in-game assets on the chain, do we really need to move the entire game operation to the chain? Does this really make sense for players? This is not a problem faced by Starknet alone, but a problem faced by all participants in the full-chain game ecosystem.
At the end of the article, I want to go beyond Starknet and try to answer this question. First of all, we cannot think that the whole chain game is reasonable just because it is conducive to innovation. There are obvious logical loopholes in such a reason. Just when I was thinking hard, I accidentally saw a story about Vitalik that inspired me.
As a child, Vitalik was obsessed with playing "World of Warcraft", but later he completely abandoned the game because Blizzard modified the skills of some characters in an upgrade in a way that affected the game balance. This made Vitalik very angry. After sending emails to Blizzard engineers many times to no avail, he never played the game again. At the same time, he also realized that there is serious centralization in traditional games and that players have very little say.
Of course, in the past few years, the voice and freedom of players in traditional games have been increasing, thanks to the popularization of the concept of user-generated content (UGC), but such freedom is obviously not enough, and players need real game autonomy. I think this is the opportunity and significance of the existence of full-chain games.
Full-chain games can bring UGC to a whole new level. They only build tamper-proof core gameplay on the blockchain, and transfer the game design to players to the maximum extent, making the content creation infinitely extensible. Taking the full-chain game Dark Forest as an example, players can do whatever they want as long as they abide by the most basic rules. For example, they can create their own asset trading market in the game, develop tools to help themselves automate the game, and even create new games within the game. There are nearly 100 Dark Forest plug-ins on the market, and players can use these plug-ins to visualize opponent territories, automate wars, match transactions, etc.
However, this is not the final state of the full-chain game, because the above operations can only be achieved by people with a coding foundation, but I believe that in the future ordinary players will be able to build everything they imagine in the full-chain game.
Because we believe, we see.
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