In-depth analysis of popular blockchain games (Part 1) Dark Forest, Loot Survivor, Treaty
Analysis of popular blockchain games (Part 1) Dark Forest, Loot Survivor, Treaty
Author: Snapfingers DAO
Preface
Full Chain Game is an important development direction of blockchain games. By combining blockchain technology with the gaming industry, Full Chain Game brings new experiences and opportunities for players and developers. Full Chain Game not only changes the operation and transaction methods of traditional games, but also gives players greater rights and participation.
Full Chain Game has the following characteristics:
- Real asset ownership: In Full Chain Game, game assets in the virtual world can have real ownership through blockchain technology. Players can freely buy, sell, and trade game assets, no longer limited by the closed economic systems within the game.
- Unique verifiable digital assets: Game assets in Full Chain Game are represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs), each asset is unique and has uniqueness. This allows players to verify the authenticity and scarcity of assets based on data on the blockchain.
- Decentralized trading market: Full Chain Game provides players with an open, fair, and efficient trading environment through smart contracts and decentralized trading platforms. Players can directly buy and sell with other players, eliminating intermediaries and reliance on third-party platforms in traditional games.
- Participation and community governance: Full Chain Game encourages players to actively participate in game operation decisions and community governance. Players can participate in the development direction and decision-making process of the game through holding tokens, voting, and other means, increasing player participation and sense of ownership.
Snapfingers has collected the 7 most popular Full Chain Games at present, including:
- Dark Forest
- Loot Survivor
- Treaty
- Isaac
- Mithraeum
- Influence
- Wolf Game
This article will provide detailed introductions to the projects from four aspects: development team, project background, full chain technology, and economic model. Due to the length, it will be divided into two parts. This part will introduce the projects Dark Forest, Loot Survivor, and Treaty.
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01 Dark Forest
- Game type: RTS real-time strategy game
- Twitter followers: 26,000
- Blockchain: Ethereum
- Official website: https://zkga.me/
- Development team: Gubsheep, @Alan, @Ivan, and @Moe
- Project background: Supported by Vitalik Buterin, community ecosystem
- Full Chain Technology: zkSNARKs, permissionless interoperability, Lobby system, on-chain engine
- Economic model: Official or community tournament prize pool
Game Introduction
If you have read Liu Cixin’s “The Three-Body Problem,” then the concept of the “Dark Forest” law should be familiar to you: the universe is like a dark forest, and each civilization is a hunter with a gun. Initially, they do not know each other’s existence, but once they discover each other, the most rational approach for self-preservation is to eliminate the other.
Dark Forest is a completely on-chain MMO space conquest real-time strategy game developed based on its inspiration.
Players start the game from their home planet and expand their empire by exploring the universe, competing with opponents, occupying planets and resources. The map and the location of opponents in the game are hidden in the cryptographic fog of war, and players need to gradually reveal more parts of the universe through actions. Each action is recorded on the blockchain, and the coordinates of the players are still hidden from opponents. Dark Forest combines gaming with cryptography, providing unpredictable tasks that allow players to explore and conquer hidden planets in a blockchain-supported universe, and defend against potential attacks from opponents.
Development Team
The development team of Dark Forest is led by Brian Gu, also known as Gubsheep, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the founder and inspiration behind the game, inspired by Liu Cixin’s “The Three-Body Problem” series and created this decentralized, incomplete information game using zero-knowledge proof technology.
The early members of the Dark Forest team include Gubsheep, Alan, Ivan, and Moe. They are committed to achieving high-frequency interaction in the game in a blockchain environment and applying zero-knowledge proof to the game’s complex systems. This team has made great efforts to make Dark Forest a milestone in blockchain history.
Project Background
The team officially released the first test version v0.3 of the game on August 7, 2020, which was deployed on the Ropsten test network of Ethereum. Players need an invitation code to participate in the game and rank based on the points they earn. The top 15 players will have the opportunity to share a total of 1024 DAI in the prize pool, with the first-place winner receiving a reward of 256 DAI. Shortly after the game was released, it received a recommendation from Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum.
In terms of community ecology, the Dark Forest official community is the core community responsible for releasing announcements, solving problems, and other daily operational activities. In addition, there are other organizations and teams playing important roles in the Dark Forest ecosystem, such as technical capabilities, game technology, planning, and game experience innovation.
At the same time, plugins are also a very important part of Dark Forest. Many plugins have been included in the official plugin library to help players simplify complex operations and improve execution efficiency. Through the contributions of these communities and plugins, Dark Forest provides players with a rich gaming experience and diverse gameplay.
Full Chain Technology
Dark Forest uses full on-chain technology and zk-SNARK to achieve its unique gaming experience, where all game rules and logic are deployed on the blockchain in the form of smart contracts. This means that the state of players and the universe will be updated in real-time on the chain after each interaction.
Dark Forest uses zk-SNARK (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge) to implement incomplete information games. In an incomplete information game, participants cannot fully obtain each other’s information, thereby increasing the challenge of decision-making. For example, in Texas Hold’em, each player can only see the five community cards and their own two hole cards, which is an example of an incomplete information game.
In previous blockchain games, all interaction content and states were transparent and traceable, but Dark Forest successfully hides players’ interaction information by using zk-SNARK algorithm, making incomplete information games on the blockchain possible.
As an open-source on-chain game, Dark Forest features “Permissionless Interoperability”, where any address can interact with the game, expanding the boundaries of game strategies and giving rise to a thriving plugin ecosystem. In addition, Dark Forest has also launched a Lobby system and an on-chain engine, allowing players to freely set the rules of the universe to play the game.
Economic Model
Dark Forest does not issue a dedicated token, but uses xDAI as the internal transaction medium in the game. The open and ownerless world of the game does not require a traditional economic model. The rules of the digital world are neutral, cruel, and absurd. Therefore, Dark Forest’s design philosophy emphasizes creating an open and ownerless world where players can develop freely, rather than relying on traditional economic models.
Firstly, new players need to obtain an invitation code to join the game. They can obtain the invitation code by registering their email on the official website or following the Twitter account. Once they obtain the invitation code and log into the game, players will receive an initial capital of 0.5 xDAI tokens airdropped by the development team.
Each transaction in the game requires a payment of 0.002 xDAI tokens. After using up the airdropped xDAI, players can continue to recharge xDAI tokens to the game address. At the end of each season, players ranked higher based on their accumulated points will receive rewards from the prize pool.
In addition to the official round, players can also participate in community rounds organized by the community themselves, such as MarrowDAO’s “For Pioneer” and dfDAO’s “New Year Community Round”. On March 1, 2022, Dark Forest team launched the Lobbies system, which allows the community to quickly set up servers. Community and individuals, including 277DAO, have used this system to organize multiple rounds of community rounds.
02 Loot Survivor
- Game Type: Loot-style adventure experimental game
- Twitter Followers: 13k
- Blockchain: StarkNet
- Official Website: https://loot-survivor.vercel.app/
- Development Team: Members of Bibliotheca DAO, DoJo, and Guildly
- Project Background: Strong support from Loot Realms and Loot
- Blockchain Technologies: zkSNARKs, Cairo 1.0 contract, Lobby system, and on-chain engine
- Economic Model: Play2Die
Game Introduction
“Loot Survivor” is an adventure experimental game based on the Loot style, providing players with a unique gaming experience through the Play2Die economic model. The game is deployed on StarkNet for testing and is jointly developed by members of Bibliotheca DAO, DoJo, and Guildly.
The core gameplay of the game includes exploration, battles, upgrades, and trading. Players need to create and connect their wallets to start their adventure journey. In the game, players will face various challenges and enemies, and they need to use strategies and skills to survive and win. Players can explore various locations, defeat bosses, collect rare items and equipment, and trade with other players to enhance their character’s abilities.
Development Team
Loot Realms revealed some of the developers involved in Survivor. A quick look at their Twitter backgrounds will reveal that they come from Dojo Engine, Guildly (a decentralized protocol for managing shared accounts and user assets in Web3), and Bibliotheca DAO.
Project Background
Loot Survivor is a project that has evolved from the Loot Realms ecosystem and has received support from Bibliotheca DAO. Bibliotheca DAO is a decentralized game studio and development laboratory. They actively participate in the development of the DoJo game engine and deploy their own on-chain games on Ethereum and StarkNet.
Loot Realms is the home of Realm Lords, not only the core of governance but also the venue for game competitions. They support the Survivor project through activities such as hosting AMAs on their Discord channel.
The team members from Dojo Engine, Guildly, and Bibliotheca DAO have rich experience in game development and decentralized protocols. This collaboration aims to create an immersive and composable gaming experience in the Loot Survivor project.
Blockchain Technologies
The game is deployed on the StarkNet testnet, which is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that provides feasibility for computationally intensive gameplay.
Another important technology is the Cairo programming language, which is used as a tool for building smart contracts. Cairo is considered one of the most suitable languages for Rollup technology, and by maximizing its potential, it can achieve high-performance and secure game logic.
In addition, the game also uses the DoJo on-chain game engine, which is an open-source and verifiable engine that provides developers with a wide range of toolkits and functionalities. The DoJo engine aims to address the complexity of on-chain game development and encourages developers to focus on the creativity and content of the game without having to worry too much about infrastructure setup.
Economic Model
The economic model of Loot Survivor is based on the Play2Die mechanism, where the $Lords tokens carried by players have significant value and are dropped when the character is injured or dies. Other players can pick up these tokens to gain wealth and loot.
To survive and protect their Lords tokens, players need to devise careful strategies. They can choose to explore maps, complete missions, attack monsters, and other methods to obtain Lords tokens while trying to avoid getting injured or defeated by other players.
Through ranking and tribute mechanisms, Loot Survivor encourages players to compete and pursue excellence. If players successfully survive and rank in the top three, other new adventurers who join the game will pay tribute to these players upon death, recognizing and respecting their achievements, making competition and a sense of accomplishment part of the game.
In addition, the game also features a marketplace where players can freely buy and sell items. This means that they can obtain additional Lords tokens by selling rare equipment and items, or enhance their own strength by purchasing items provided by other players.
03 Treaty
- Game Type: 4X core multiplayer resource competition strategy game
- Twitter Followers: 4815
- Chain: Curio custom chain
- Official Website: https://blog.curio.gg/
- Development Team: Curio
- Project Background: $2.9 million seed funding
- Full-chain Technology: ECS game engine, Solidity, unified smart contract wallet layer, delegation mechanism
- Economic Model: Resource collection, construction, trade, and treaty signing
Game Introduction
Treaty is a fully on-chain strategy game based on blockchain, where players take on the role of governors and make strategic decisions and diplomatic negotiations in a virtual world. This game, set in a completely blockchain-based world, offers a unique and exciting experience.
In Treaty, players need to manage their own countries and achieve national development and growth through the rational allocation of resources and territorial expansion. Players can cooperate or compete with other players and establish treaties to regulate their interactions. In this game, diplomatic strategies and political skills are important factors for achieving victory.
The world in the game is divided into two layers: the inner and outer layers. Players need to expand and occupy the central grid in the inner layer, which requires careful decision-making and strategic planning. At the same time, factors such as land types, resource collection, and construction actions are also important elements to consider in the game.
Development Team
The Curio development team is a team composed of creative personnel, focusing on building games and creating rich and diverse social interactive experiences through the composability of cryptocurrencies and the power of smart contracts. They are passionate about bringing games in ways that cannot be achieved in the real world and creating lasting emotional bonds through games.
In the past year, they have launched multiple products, from naval warfare games to the latest Treaty strategy game, where players can sign agreements with other players through smart contracts. In the future, they hope that players can freely create and build in the game in more complex ways.
To promote the development of blockchain games, they are committed to building a custom chain designed specifically for blockchain games, with performance that can be 100 times that of a standard EVM chain.
Project Background
On February 27th of this year, Curio announced a $2.9 million seed round financing led by Bain Capital Crypto, TCG Crypto, Formless Capital, Smrti Labs, Robot Ventures, and other investors including Coinbase, Niantic, and Farcaster.
Full-Chain Technology
In Treaty, players can choose to join various types of social contracts, such as alliance treaties and profit-sharing agreements. These contracts will restrict or promote interactions between players and have far-reaching effects in the game. For example, after signing an alliance treaty, players will be protected and will not be attacked by other alliance members; after signing a profit-sharing agreement, guild leaders will tax members’ resources and use them to provide more advanced equipment and weapons, ensuring the safety of the entire guild.
To tokenize game resources, Treaty has also established a unified smart contract wallet layer. This means that items in the game, such as buildings and armies, can exist in the form of tokens and be controlled by players. Players can manage and transfer their resources by exchanging tokens, creating a more flexible and convenient gaming experience.
In addition, Treaty also introduces a delegation mechanism that allows players to delegate other players or smart contracts to perform game functions on their behalf. This provides players with more freedom and convenience, such as allowing others to manage resources or take specific actions on their behalf when they are offline.
The entire game’s data structure adopts an Entity Component System (ECS), which is a commonly used game development pattern. Through this system, Treaty can automatically synchronize data and reduce the workload of developers, speeding up the game development process.
Economic Model
In the game, players play the role of territory expanders and economic planners. The game’s economic model involves aspects such as resource collection, construction, trade, and treaty signing. Players need to effectively manage resources, balance economic development and military strength to achieve success in the game.
Resources play an important role in Treaty. Players can obtain two main resources: gold and food. Gold is used to upgrade the capital and unlock other functions, while food is used to cultivate armies and expand. Players need to obtain resources through various means, including defeating barbarians, harvesting crystal ores and farms, and trading with other players.
Construction and tile operations are also important components of the economic model. Players need to construct mines and farms on the game map to harvest resources. At the same time, players can choose to restore or upgrade their tiles to enhance territorial defense capabilities. This construction and tile operation require careful planning by players to ensure the reasonable utilization of resources and the stable development of territories.
In addition, Treaty also introduces a mechanism for signing treaties, allowing players to engage in diplomacy and restrict the actions of other players. As legislators, players can propose and sign treaties that specify certain actions that other players cannot take within a certain period of time, thereby influencing the game’s dynamics and competitiveness. The formulation of such diplomacy and treaties requires players to flexibly apply strategies and negotiation skills to maximize their own interests.
In the next part, we will introduce four blockchain games: Isaac, Mithraeum, Influence, and Wolf Game.
