Understand the StarkNet Chain Game Ecosystem in One Article

Written by: StarkNet Chinese

Introduction to StarkNet StarkNet is an L2 that is compatible with Ethereum at the language level. As a member of ZKR in L2, StarkNet's performance in terms of TPS and gas far exceeds that of OPR such as Optimism and Arbitrum.

Source: Xiang｜W3.Hitchhiker. The above calculations assume the current ETH price is 2500 U, block gas limit is 30,000,000, gas fee is 30 Gwei, and an average block time of 13 seconds. The extreme TPS refers to the scenario where the operating environment occupies all Ethereum block space (spending 500,000 gas on proof verification), while the normal TPS refers to the scenario where the operating environment occupies one-third of all Ethereum block space.

Among many ZKRs, StarkNet is the "extremist" of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). StarkNet has developed a virtual machine compatible with validity proofs and the Cairo language, and has implemented recursive features based on the advanced STARK algorithm, allowing proofs to prove other proofs. In simple terms, StarkNet's characteristic is its almost limitless computational potential.

It is important to note that since the entire StarkNet network has not yet undergone a final state reset, assets on the testnet may be reset by the time the next state reset occurs, and deployed contracts may also need to be modified. Currently, most applications on StarkNet are deployed on the testnet.

Full Chain Philosophy

Difference Between Full Chain Games and GameFi Before introducing full chain games, it is necessary to clarify the difference between full chain games and GameFi.

The fundamental difference between full chain games and GameFi lies in the degree of decentralization, permissionlessness, composability, and interoperability.

GameFi merely tokenizes game items and puts game assets on-chain, while the computation and storage parts are on centralized servers off-chain. For example, well-known games like StepN and Axie Infinity, despite achieving great success, have limited gameplay and content, and are influenced by centralized operations from the project parties, who can change the game rules. GameFi also does not support UCG—players and developers cannot create in-game content and assets permissionlessly, and other on-chain applications find it difficult to interoperate with it.

In contrast, full chain games not only put game assets on-chain, but the entire game also exists on the network in the form of contracts. The game's state storage and logic execution are completely on-chain, aligning with the fundamental attributes of decentralization, permissionlessness, and composability of blockchain. This means that no entity can unilaterally change the game rules; the initiative of the game lies in the hands of the players, and the concept of an "official" game will gradually disappear.

More valuably, players and developers can customize the front end based on open-source code, recreate in-game facilities and assets under basic rule constraints, unlocking the possibility of UCG—user-created content. Moreover, any DApp that complies with the full chain game contract rules can interoperate permissionlessly with it, extending the composability of full chain games to a larger ecological range. Not only can various chain games interoperate with each other, but chain games can also interoperate with DeFi, NFTs, and any DApp that may emerge in the future. This will break the business model of monopoly in Web2, providing developers and users with a more perfect application experience and more imaginative creative opportunities.

Requirements for Full Chain However, full chain games have very high requirements for network performance, simply put, they require high TPS and low gas characteristics.

Compared to any single-performance chain, StarkNet technically supports developers in customizing zero-knowledge proof circuits for applications, generating proofs specifically for games, and building dedicated L3 game application chains on L2. Additionally, the STARK system has the characteristic of recursive validity proofs, providing an almost limitless performance ceiling, which can greatly meet the performance demands of full chain games. Recently, the founder of StarkNet claimed at the Ethereum Seoul conference that StarkNet's core algorithm STARK can package 60 million transactions into a single summary and upload it to the mainnet, leading all blockchain networks.

As an Ethereum L2, StarkNet can also more cheaply and securely accommodate Ethereum's users, assets, code, and developers compared to other public chains. Therefore, compared to other high-performance public chains, StarkNet undoubtedly better meets the performance requirements of full chain games.

Chain Game Infrastructure MatchBoxDAO Chain Game Incubator DAO Introduction MatchBoxDAO is an ecosystem DAO composed of developers, artists, and designers dedicated to promoting the development of StarkNet ecological chain games and their related infrastructure and tools.

MatchBoxDAO supports developers in building development tools, infrastructure, and foundational components for on-chain games. Each foundational component is open-source and can be used and reused by new developers entering the DAO. This will not only save developers a lot of work and improve the development efficiency of full chain games but also allow multiple full chain games to share a common technical framework at low cost, laying the foundation for composability and interoperability.

MatchBoxDAO includes two products: Matchbox Spark and Matchbox Studios.

Matchbox Spark is a game incubator on StarkNet that helps developers handle legal, financing, marketing, token economics, community, and corporate strategy, while MatchBox will acquire a portion of the company's equity.

Matchbox Studios is a set of development tools designed to accelerate game development on StarkNet. MatchBox's recent progress has advanced the development of session keys (passwordless payments in Web3).

Funding On August 18, 2022, MatchBox completed a $7.5 million funding round, led by StarkNet development team StarkWare, with follow-on investments from institutions including Big Brain Holdings, Geometry Research, 1kx, and Delphi Ventures.

The funds will be used to develop Matchbox Spark and Matchbox Studios.

Hackathon MatchBox held a hackathon in the first half of 2022, with 78 teams participating, and the winners were announced on July 23, 2022. Winners included Tic Tac AI, Starknet ID, Axelrod, and a large number of StarkNet applications such as Frenslend and StarkWorld were incubated.

On September 8, Matchbox, in collaboration with StarkWare and LootRealms, hosted the second hackathon, which will run from September 28 to October 9.

The goal of the second hackathon is to help developers create full chain games and components, tools, or any other infrastructure for full chain games on StarkNet, which can be used by other full chain games.

This hackathon includes four tracks: Realms Games, Realms Tools, Full Chain Games, and Full Chain Game Components, Tools, Foundational Components (the basic components or smallest units of an ecosystem or application), or other infrastructure.

Cartridge.gg Chain Game Steam

Cartridge is a chain game integration platform on StarkNet, similar to Steam in Web2. It helps users browse and launch selected crypto chain games, earn rewards from tasks, upgrade avatars, and interact with friends in the community, while also helping chain games reach users faster.

On the other hand, Cartridge, as a chain game infrastructure, can also combine with crypto wallets to provide players with a richer on-chain experience. DID, community, game item markets, and financial markets can all be realized within Cartridge, connecting the composability advantages of crypto games beyond the games themselves.

Currently, it is in the development stage and is integrating with popular StarkNet projects such as Briq, LootRealms, Topology, and MatchBox.

Briq NFT Development Protocol

Briq is a block-based building protocol that allows anyone to create their own NFTs on Starknet. The goal is to assemble blocks (briqs) to create a structure (collection) and store them on-chain in the form of NFTs, similar to Minecraft and Roblox based on blockchain and NFTs.

Users will collect blocks to create structures. They must also dismantle existing structures to recycle blocks and use them to build new structures. NFTs can also be combined to create more complex structures. The only limit is the user's imagination and the number of briqs in their wallet. In summary, blocks and buildings are infinitely modular.

In application, it allows users to visually build NFTs with a single block as the minimum element while possessing composability and interoperability—on one hand, briqs can be combined to create NFTs called collectibles, and they can also be recombined or split into entirely new NFTs, just like real-world objects, allowing users to recreate NFTs based on existing NFTs.

On the other hand, briq NFTs can be used in any game; you might turn it into an avatar for an aircraft or on-chain identity in a full chain game, providing infinite interoperability.

Currently, many users have created rich briq NFTs, and although most have a distinct pixel style, it is exciting to anticipate that as the number of editable elements increases, briq NFTs may appear increasingly realistic—like a high-definition screen with hundreds of thousands of pixels.

NFT Market: Aspect and Mint Square Aspect is the NFT market on StarkNet. It plans to launch its mainnet in the fourth quarter, but currently, Aspect is on the testnet, and the NFT contract standard is still under development. During network or contract upgrades, all NFTs minted on Aspect will be deleted.

Users can try to transfer Ethereum to L2 via StarkGate to mint NFTs on Aspect.

Mint Square is also an NFT market on StarkNet, with no significant differences in functionality and positioning compared to Aspect. It has basic functions for buying, selling, minting, and listing projects.

Game Overview Isaac: The Three-Body Problem Themed Physics Simulation

Introduction Isaac is the first full chain game on StarkNet, a multiplayer online physics simulation game based on the setting of the "Three-Body Problem" novel.

The worldview is similar to "The Three-Body Problem" and "The Wandering Earth," where all players form a civilization living on a planet called Ev, which is on the brink of extinction and located in a solar system with three suns: Böyük, Orta, and Balaca. This planet is prone to collisions with the suns, leading to the destruction of civilization. Players must collaborate to build factory pipelines and power grids based on the real physical rules between planets, converting natural resources into various devices, just like in "The Wandering Earth," to change the planet's orbit and avoid collisions with the suns.

Design Philosophy The team behind it, Topology, has its own game design philosophy, which mainly includes deep on-chain, inclusivity, infinite scalability, and non-simulation. Below is a brief introduction to these concepts.

Deep On-Chain

Currently, most video games cut corners in their code to optimize credibility under performance constraints (such as frame rates). Full chain games strive for true depth, making performance irrelevant to their essence, aiming to develop games that are not limited by performance. Deep on-chain also means that developers can choose to participate equally in the deployment of smart contracts, rather than being like god-like developers in Web2 who use their exclusive access to backdoors to make great products mediocre.

Multi-Entry Inclusivity

On-chain realities should be built around the concepts of multi-entry and inclusivity. First-person shooter games target players' hand-eye coordination and quick tactical thinking. DeFi "games" target players' quantitative and game-theoretic thinking skills. These talents represent only a small portion of the vast majority of human talents and curiosity. On-chain realities strive to provide creative expression space for a multitude of talents.

On-chain realities do not just create a specific game but aim to create a space for expression for everyone, building a "game universe" that can encompass all games and improve seamless experience bridges for different games. Imagine if the hit or miss of a non-targeted skill in League of Legends depended on your accuracy in hitting targets in an FPS manner, just like how various players can find their enjoyment in the world of World of Warcraft (if World of Warcraft were to run on-chain, it might not gradually lose its vitality).

Permissionless Scalability

On-chain Realities are committed to achieving permissionless scalability of game boundaries, allowing any programmer to participate in game development at the bare-metal level (i.e., smart contracts) without permission, modifying game content and mechanics under basic rule constraints, and providing flexible tools and interfaces for architects, sound designers, environmental designers, fashion designers, screenwriters, and others to enrich these realities.

CarseDAO Game DAO Contract Standard

CarseDAO aims to become the standard for game voting (P2V). The Isaac team, Topology, believes this will redefine open game development. The CarseDAO standard is a DAO contract standard that establishes the basic mechanism for a full chain game to implement governance processes through contracts. The CarseDAO standard hopes to determine the DAO's governance mechanism through purely on-chain, immutable contracts. Moreover, unlike many current DAOs that govern through tokens, CarseDAO's voting is completed solely through games or feedback within the game. Votes in CarseDAO come directly and solely from game participation, and contracts automatically grant voting rights to players based on parameters. Therefore, to participate in game decision-making votes, users must engage in the game.

DAO and Governance IsaacDAO is the DAO for Isaac, and its design philosophy includes the following four points:

Following the CarseDAO standard, striving for simplicity and completeness, exploring quadratic voting, and embracing complete forkability.

Progress

Currently, it is in the Open Alpha testing phase, testing core game mechanics and preparing for open decentralized development. Ordinary users have a certain participation threshold, and the official provides tutorials for developers.

S2M2 solvers and invited collaborators can participate in game testing; all users can observe and recreate civilizations.

It is worth noting that the Topology team has repeatedly promoted the full chain game concept at StarkNet-related conferences, and relevant videos can be found on YouTube.

It is also the technical community of StarkNet, and many of StarkNet's public courses are published through its YouTube channel.

GoL2 On-Chain Game of Life Introduction GoL2 is the Game of Life on StarkNet. The Game of Life, also known as Conway's Game of Life, is a cellular automaton invented by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It first appeared in the October 1970 issue of Scientific American in Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column. Regarding the game rules, cells arranged in a square grid can either be alive or dead. A live cell with 2 or 3 live neighbors can survive; a dead cell with 3 live neighbors can be revived; otherwise, the cell dies.

The game's progression depends on the player's initial state setting, and no further input is required. As you can see, the evolution process of the Game of Life is unpredictable—just like life itself. Players can interact with the Game of Life by creating initial configurations and observing how they evolve. It is Turing complete and can simulate universal constructors or any other Turing machine, which also means that contracts on StarkNet can interoperate with it.

From the game's perspective, GoL2 may seem meaningless, but due to its lack of hard-coded design and unpredictable outcomes, theoretically, it can do anything. It can integrate with AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) technology and be incorporated into other full chain games on StarkNet. Everything we encounter in the game can undergo endless evolution, such as experiencing an infinite and ever-changing universe of planets, alien creatures, mineral resources, and natural vegetation in interstellar games, which will bring revolutionary breakthroughs to the experience of full chain games.

Token Economics Currently, GoL2 operates on a single-token model, with the token named GOL.

Players earn tokens as cells evolve during the game. Players can use 10 tokens to create their own game in creation mode or spend 1 token to give life to a cell in endless mode. Each time a player completes an evolution in endless mode, a unique snapshot is generated, and ownership of that snapshot is assigned to their wallet.

Progress The game is currently under development, and the GOL token will be launched alongside the game. The team has not disclosed a clear future plan yet.

LootRealms MMOCCG On-Chain Composable Game: On-Chain Conqueror Introduction Loot Realms is a large-scale multiplayer, on-chain composable strategy game ecosystem. In the first version, players need to hold Realms NFTs to start the game, while in the second version, they can participate in the game by minting Adventurers. It is worth noting that the equipment for Adventurers is the previously popular Loot.

Inspired by Loot, its gameplay is similar to Web2 military sandbox games like EVE and Conqueror. The LootRealms game world consists of 8000 Realms. A Realm is a territory, with each territory having a maximum of 7 resource attributes out of a total of 22. Players not only need to build a sustainable economic system to produce resources but also need to build military forces to protect and compete for resources.

Each country produces 250 resources daily for building structures, forming armies (to protect the country/attack other countries to seize resources), and engaging in trade activities. All resources can be traded on AMM paired with $LORDS. The things that can be built in the kingdom are limited, so the game requires high strategic thinking from players and has strong gameplay.

It is worth noting that the DAO of Loot Realms is BibliothecaDAO, which is also a development DAO dedicated to building on-chain games. Holding Realms NFTs allows participation in governance, and a governance token will be released in the future.

Token $LORDS

The majority of $LORDS will be released through game emissions. These emissions will follow a supply curve depending on actions in the game. It will be issued at a continuous rate to balance inflation and growth, with a total issuance expected to last at least seven years. The allocation plan for the Journey Contract section is to allocate 10% of $LORDS to early Realms holders who choose to stake. This size of allocation will not occur again.

Nexus Trading Machine All transactions in Realmverse flow through a network machine called Nexus, where players provide $LORDS as fuel for Nexus operations.

All transactions within the game incur fees (paid to Nexus). These fees are currently set as a percentage, and like most decentralized protocols, holders can change these fees through governance voting.

$LORDS Staking There are two staking methods:

The first is to stake $LORDS to Nexus, and the second is to stake one of the 22 resource types in a trading pair with $LORDS. Both staking methods will earn $LORDS token rewards. The latter staking method essentially decentralizes the resource trading market common in Web2 military sandbox games.

In addition to acquiring it through exchanges, currently, before the game goes live, staking Realms NFTs can yield $LORDS.

Imperium Wars Sandbox Strategy Introduction Imperium Wars is a sandbox strategy game that combines card, diplomacy, military, and economic elements, comparable to Web2 mobile games like Conqueror and Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition.

The game is set against the backdrop of five countries battling each other, with the last two remaining countries emerging victorious. Soldiers exist as NFT cards, and countries are composed of soldiers, which have five ranks: Marshal, Commander, Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry. Marshals and Commanders will be represented by historical figures. One must possess a soldier to join a country and participate in battles.

Each season opens a new war, and at the end of the season, each empire will score based on the number of territories conquered. The victorious empire's warriors will earn ETH as war loot and royalty income, and the map will be reinitialized with rules that can be changed. Other empires will score based on the number of territories conquered.

Thoughts The Imperium Wars team has some reflections on chain games. They believe that most P2E token economies are unsustainable, and game developers should focus on game development rather than complex crypto economics and DeFi protocols. If a game is fun and popular, many players will initiate natural and large-scale transactions, leading to considerable and sustainable royalty income from their NFT collections.

The first card of Imperium has an 8% royalty, with 4% allocated for loot and redistributed to the community, while the other 4% will be used for Imperium development.

Progress The game is currently in development.

Recent tweets mentioned StarkNet ID, and Imperium Wars has collaborated with Eykar to develop StarkNet ID. Here is a tutorial for StarkNet ID.

The white paper was released on September 3.

Redline: A 3A Title of Robot Racing Introduction Redline is a deep strategy and narrative game based on UE5 models, integrating robots, racing, and engineering elements, aiming to elevate gaming to a new level through fully on-chain game logic, fun, and 3A graphics technology. The racing robots are NFTs that can be purchased on StarkNet's NFT markets like Aspect and MintSquare, but the official tweet on September 4 indicated that users might obtain better NFTs by completing community tasks. The game is currently in testing.

Progress

Alpha testing began in August, with public matches occurring approximately every five minutes, a qualifying match daily, and a tournament weekly for six days, culminating in three matches on the final day to determine the winners.

Eykar War Sandbox Introduction Eykar is a war sandbox game that integrates multiplayer online and role-playing elements, similar to Imperium. Open-source smart contracts determine the rules of this world: how fast time passes, how you move, how you form an army, etc. Players need to pay about $10 in Ethereum to acquire their first piece of land and choose a faction. Based on the land, players can start recruiting personnel, exploring, and conquering territories. As players expand, they will eventually encounter other kingdoms, which may become allies or start a war. Players will execute different actions based on factions to gain prestige.

Prestige will play a very important role, as it will determine which player or guild wins the game and retains half of the money generated at the end of the season.

Progress Eykar is currently in development, and players can complete tasks but cannot experience the game. As of September 13, the official has not provided a clear plan.

NoGame On-Chain Version of "Galactic Empire" Introduction NoGame is a space-themed MMORPG where planets are NFTs and resources are ERC20 tokens.

Currently, the gameplay is limited to static simulation management, where players need to accumulate resources and upgrade various facilities by consuming resources to achieve greater resource output.

Progress It is currently in the testing phase, and users can interact within the game.

Log in to the website, connect your wallet, and click on "Create Planet" below.

Then the following screen will appear, allowing players to try different upgrade paths to achieve various resource output combinations.

Influence: A Large-Scale Multiplayer Online Space Strategy Game Introduction Influence is a space strategy sandbox MMO set in the Adalia system asteroid belt. Adalia is humanity's new home after the unfortunate journey aboard the Arvad, a multi-generational ship fleeing a dying Earth.

The first version of the game is called Exploitation, focusing on the foundation of the emerging Adalian economy. Players will begin to expand their influence by controlling valuable resources and supply chains to produce goods and provide services. Players need to maintain a careful balance of resources to build infrastructure and remain competitive within the Adalia asteroid belt. Focusing on specialization and maximizing efficiency in a constantly changing environment will be key to success.

Playing the game requires holding crew NFTs (the price of purchasing ordinary crew members in Influence is below 10U). Crew members are divided into professions: pilots, merchants, engineers, miners, and scientists. Each player can use up to 5 crew members simultaneously, with no restrictions on professions. Players will compete with other players through various means: mining, building, trading, researching, and fighting. Colonizing asteroids and utilizing their resources, building infrastructure, discovering technologies, and engaging in battles. Expand your influence in the belt, whether solo or in collaboration with other players. Currently, three game analysis tools have been developed: Elerium, Tyrell Yutani, and Strwrsfrk. Below is an example of the Tyrell Yutani dashboard.

Progress Currently, the second phase of Influence's testnet is underway, allowing players to gradually learn how to play through tutorials. The game is actively being developed, and the current release date has not been finalized.

The project team stated that when the SWAY token is issued, 1% (1.5 billion SWAY) will be used to reward testnet participants. Notably, the project team releases 500 asteroids weekly on Discord.

Dope Wars Metaverse Introduction
Dope Wars is a DAO-managed game, a HipHop-themed P2E metaverse project characterized by open-source, community-driven, and fully decentralized features.

Its core mechanism consists of four types of tokens:

1. Hustler: Character NFTs that exist on the blockchain to fit full chain specifications, allowing owners to customize their appearance through the Swap Meet (the in-game trading market) and equip Gear;

2. Dope NFT: An ERC-721 NFT modeled after Loot, similar to a gear package, containing information on attributes, rarity, and mounts. Its utility includes creating Hustlers, earning $PAPER, DAO proposal voting, and airdrops, staking, and other yet-to-be-determined content;

3. $PAPER: In-game currency, ERC-20 specification, currently tentatively set at a total supply of 1 billion PAPER, with one Dope NFT allowing the claim of 125,000;

4. Gear: ERC-1155 specification NFTs obtained from Dope NFTs, stored on Optimism. One Dope NFT can yield up to nine Gear, each of which can be traded individually in the in-game market.

Progress

• Dope Wars plans to implement $TURF, a token related to the subsequent land trading system: staking Dope NFTs and $PAPER to obtain STREETCRED tokens, which can be used to purchase $TURF.

• Mugshots implementation (Hustlers snapshots created as ERC-721 on the Ethereum mainnet).

• Hustlers and Gear will be launched (Q4 2021).

• Dope NFT and $PAPER will be launched (Q3 2021).

Social The aforementioned full chain games have strong simulation management characteristics. In addition, StarkNet also has three games leaning towards social and metaverse aspects: Frenslands, Altzone, and Phi. Frenslands Real-Time Strategy Introduction Frenslands is a decentralized real-time strategy game on Starknet, where players can harvest resources and build their dream communities, incubated by the StarkNet game incubator MatchboxDAO. Altzone Metaverse Similar to Cryptovoxels Altzone is the first metaverse game on StarkNet, similar to Cryptovoxels on Ethereum.

Progress

Beta testing is currently closed, with very long loading times of about 3-6 minutes. Follow the instructions to connect your wallet. The official has not provided much game guidance yet, but collective activities will be held in the game, which is worth keeping an eye on. Testing will be opened periodically.

Phi On-Chain Metaverse Introduction Phi is a metaverse project built on ENS domains and on-chain activities, comparable to Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Sandbox on Ethereum. Phi's mission is to visualize on-chain identities and create an open and inclusive metaverse land system based on on-chain information (ENS, on-chain activities).

What sets Phi apart from other metaverse projects is that in games like Sandbox and Decentraland, small players cannot create or participate, making the metaverse "an unscalable or non-inclusive small place." However, due to its full chain attributes, Phi can expand infinitely. Phi hopes that everyone with an ENS or some form of on-chain activity should be granted virtual land and be able to build on it, filling it with objects representing on-chain activities (such as achievements, statuses, and communities).

Phi is integrating many well-known crypto projects, such as Uniswap shown in the image below.

Final Words As the leader of zkVM, StarkNet's high-performance technical characteristics lay the foundation for the development of on-chain full chain games. Full chain games differ from GameFi, which merely puts assets on-chain; full chain games store states and execute logic entirely on-chain, possessing greater decentralization, permissionlessness, composability, and interoperability advantages. This not only means that the concept of an "official" game will gradually disappear but also allows full chain games to interoperate with DeFi, NFTs, and any DApp that may emerge in the future. For users, this can provide a richer, more customized product experience, and for developers, more entrepreneurial opportunities.

In terms of infrastructure, projects like MatchBox, Cartridge, Briq, Aspect, and Mint Square have prepared trading markets and application stores for StarkNet players, providing rich development tools for StarkNet full chain game developers.

In the realm of full chain games, existing games like Isaac, Lootrealms, Influence, and Imperium War are continuously optimizing and developing new gameplay. With ongoing infrastructure improvements, more and more new full chain games are emerging, bringing increasingly rich gaming experiences to players on StarkNet.

If we shift our focus from full chain games on StarkNet to the traditional gaming industry, we find that traditional game companies are almost impossible to accept permissionless participation, programmability, composability, and token asset innovation. But this is precisely the opportunity for full chain games on StarkNet. Full chain games can, to some extent, also be called DeGame, and they will undoubtedly change the gaming industry, breaking existing industrial relationships and business logic, and upgrading development models and user experiences—just as DeFi has changed the financial industry.

We need to reimagine the future of gaming.