The Apocalypse of Full-Chain Games: Pixel-Level Deconstruction of the Industry Chain

Written by: @Minta, PSE Trading Analyst

TL;DR

1. Basic concepts and significance of full on-chain games

2. Value chain breakdown - Web2 game value chain vs Web3 game value chain

3. Infrastructure layer - Game public chains, game engines, communication structures, rendering layers, etc.

4. Middleware - SDK integration, service integration, communication protocols, monitoring tools, etc.

5. Distributors - Analysis of different distribution strategies and case studies

01 Overview

A full on-chain game refers to a game that completely stores its game logic and data on the blockchain, relying on smart contracts for operation and interaction. In contrast, a partial on-chain game only stores some game elements on the blockchain. Partial on-chain games can be further divided based on the on-chain content into core logic on-chain, asset on-chain, achievement on-chain, and interaction on-chain.

Core logic on-chain generally involves storing the game's algorithms and core data on the blockchain. For example, in a chess game, the basic rules of chess are placed on-chain, while the board state and all core data related to the game's progress are recorded on-chain. Each move, the determination of victory or defeat, is conducted through smart contracts on the blockchain. Asset on-chain refers to placing virtual items, characters, or other resources within the game on-chain, allowing players to fully own, trade, and manage these assets, providing economic benefits to players, incentivizing their participation in the game ecosystem, and opening up possibilities for an open economy.

Achievement on-chain is also an interesting concept. Players' achievements in the game can be recorded on the blockchain as a glorious record of their presence in the game world. This allows players' achievements to be recognized not only within the game but also on-chain.

Expanding further leads to interaction on-chain. This includes not only players' achievements but also their interaction records within the game community, such as chatting with other players and participating in community activities. All of these are recorded on-chain, resembling an interesting game history, giving meaning to every player's participation.

Of course, full on-chain games are still an emerging concept and are currently in the early stages of development. It is clear that by abstracting various modules of the game and placing them on the blockchain, more innovative possibilities are created. However, the specific impacts of fully on-chain games are still in a phase of trial and error within the industry. From a qualitative analysis perspective, the most compelling reasons for migrating the entire game to the blockchain can be summarized as follows:

Increased Composability:

Building more game modules through smart contracts, including security audits, access control, and resource measurement. Traditional games find it difficult to adapt to this environment and even harder to recombine around composable modules. Additionally, smart contracts can be utilized to create more UGC (User Generated Content) modules, lowering the barriers to game content production, promoting UGC creation, and enhancing the playability and composability of game content.

Open Economy:

With the increase in Web3 players and enhanced interoperability among various ecosystems, the game economy becomes more open, allowing players to participate in in-game economic activities in more flexible ways.

Subsequent articles in the PSE Trading series will explore the rationale behind game on-chain in more detail. This article focuses on clarifying the concept of full on-chain games and presenting a panoramic view of the value chain, aiming to provide readers with a clearer understanding of the various links in the full on-chain game industry chain.

02 Value Chain

2.1 Web2 Game Value Chain

When discussing the value chain of the Web3 gaming industry, we can draw on the experiences of the Web2 gaming industry. The Web2 gaming industry can be roughly divided into four key layers: infrastructure layer, middleware layer, service layer, and application layer.

The infrastructure layer is the foundation of the entire gaming ecosystem, encompassing the infrastructure and key technologies necessary to build the gaming operating environment. For instance, games need to run on servers, with providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure offering server setup foundations. Additionally, network infrastructure is primarily used for online gaming features, such as network hosting services.

The middleware layer focuses on solving the technical complexities during game development and operation. For example, graphic engines handle the graphical rendering of games, presenting beautiful visuals to players. Physics engines can simulate the physical behavior of objects within the game, adding a more realistic interactive experience; well-known physics engines like Havok and PhysX inject vivid elements into the game's physical effects.

The service layer is responsible for multiple key processes between the game and the end-users. This includes game distribution, operation, customer support, and terminal services. For instance, in distribution, channel providers play a crucial role in bringing games to market, ensuring that games reach a wide audience. In terms of operation, various marketing strategies and promotional activities are implemented at this level to ensure the game's visibility and appeal.

The application layer is where the core content and user interactions of the game are presented to players. At this level, the core gameplay, graphical interface, sound effects, music, and social interactions are showcased.

In summary, the value chain of traditional Web2 games is interconnected from infrastructure, technical middleware to game application design. However, Web2 games, as a highly industrialized sector, also have a finely divided value chain, with each scene/requirement having specific tools/teams to accomplish it. By referencing the value chain of Web2 games, we can better understand the composition of the Web3 gaming ecosystem.

2.2 Web3 Game Value Chain

Compared to the maturity of the Web2 gaming sector, the full on-chain gaming field is still in its early stages of development. Therefore, the granularity of the full on-chain gaming industry chain is not as refined as that of Web2 games. However, the upstream and downstream relationships of the full on-chain gaming industry chain still exhibit similar logic to that of the Web2 gaming industry chain.

The industry chain of full on-chain games can still be divided into four key layers, echoing the layers in the Web2 gaming domain: infrastructure layer, middleware layer, service/tool layer, and application/game layer.

03 Infrastructure Layer

On the stage of the gaming industry, the infrastructure layer serves as a solid pillar. From server operation to network connection, and player data management, the various components of the infrastructure layer collectively construct the virtual world of the game.

As mentioned earlier, the biggest difference between Web3 and Web2 games is that Web3 full on-chain games involve on-chain elements. Moreover, in the on-chain gaming ecosystem, the greatest network effects come from the composability and scalability of games, as well as the integration of game assets with other games based on the same ecosystem and engine. Therefore, two very important components in the infrastructure of Web3 full on-chain games are the public chains built for games and the on-chain game engines designed for scalability.

3.1 Game Public Chains

Currently, there are mainly two types of public chains related to games: one is Layer2 specifically designed for games, and the other is Layer1 that encourages gaming ecosystems. Some examples are listed below:

From a data perspective, referring to Footprint, currently, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, and Wax are still leading in the GameFi sector, with over 80% of on-chain games deployed on them.

Referring to Footprint monthly data on on-chain game transactions (Note: Data is as of August 2023), the transaction volume in the Wax ecosystem was in absolute leadership in 2023. As of the time of writing, Wax had a transaction count of 429.24M in August 2023, accounting for 86.56% of all on-chain game transactions.

Referring to Footprint annual data on on-chain game transactions (Note: Data is as of 2023), Wax has maintained an absolute position in transaction volume since 2020, with no significant changes in the ranking of public chain game transaction volumes during this period.

3.2 Game Engines

Many codes and graphical materials in game development are reusable, so game developers integrate the necessary code and assets into a set of development tools (SDK) to enhance development efficiency and optimize the development process, which is referred to as a game engine.

For example, Unity provides developers with a wealth of tools and resources, enabling them to create 2D and 3D games; Unreal Engine is very powerful in graphical rendering and effects, widely used for developing high-quality AAA games.

Some Web3 game studios, such as Planetarium Labs and Lattice, are also developing their own Web3 game engines, enabling Web3 game developers to write complex game logic and interactive content.

Referring to IOSG Ventures - Ishanee for a summary of Web3 Game Engines, where Mud and Dojo are public goods, while Argus and Curio are built by past commercial teams through fundraising:

Summarizing IOSG Ventures - Ishanee on Web3 Game Engines, the functional comparison of the four Game Engines is shown in the following diagram:

Among them, MUD is the pioneer of Web3 game engines, possessing first-mover advantages and a large player community. Curio's keystone is also building a game design engine focused on increasing blockchain ticks. Argus focuses on various scaling solutions and building different frameworks for game design. Dojo emphasizes building a game where all logic can be proven to have been executed off-chain.

In addition to the engines themselves, there are also tools focused on building specific modules, such as:

• Endless Quest: Generates consistent narratives in AW, such as metadata and art.
• MUDVRF: A MUD module for generating on-chain random numbers in games.
• DeFi Wonderland: A wallet account management module using a burner client.
• MUD Scan: A leaderboard for MUD games.
• Argus: Plans to launch an EVM Layer 2 with an insertable data availability layer, focusing on customizability.

Among these, MUD v2 and Dojo are the two engines with faster development progress, and several full on-chain games using MUD and DOJO have already been launched, summarized in the table below:

In summary, various engines today are striving to enhance tick rates and expand networks, aiming to enable blockchains to support more complex game interactions.

However, the biggest issue with full on-chain game engines currently is the lack of unified construction standards. Referring to the development of Web2 games, game engines exhibit a strong Matthew effect, and in the future, only 1-2 leading players will emerge and set standards for the sector.

According to general industry development trends, the first engine to find a product-market fit (PMF) for a blockbuster full on-chain game will gain a significant advantage in competition.

3.3 Communication Structure

A classic problem in the module communication structure of traditional game development is the interrelationship and hierarchy between different roles or objects within the game.

For example, consider "aquatic creatures," "terrestrial creatures," and "amphibians." For aquatic creatures, they exist directly in the water layer, and the characteristics and behaviors related to the water environment can be relatively easily processed and implemented. Similarly, terrestrial creatures can be directly placed in the land layer, and functions related to the land environment's attributes and behaviors can be managed relatively simply. However, amphibians, as a special case, need to survive and act in two different environments, which raises challenges. Deciding whether to place amphibians in water or on land, or how to switch between the two environments, involves complex logic and interactions. Traditional module communication structures may struggle to handle such situations, as they need to consider transitions and conversions between different environments, as well as the behaviors and characteristics of amphibians in those environments.

To solve this problem, Web2 games developed a framework called ECS, which stands for Entity-Component-System. ECS is a more flexible module communication structure that separates data (components) from behavior (systems), making data storage and processing more flexible and efficient. For instance, in the above example, using the ECS architecture allows amphibians to switch seamlessly between water and land, automatically adjusting their behaviors and attributes based on the current environment. This involves techniques such as state management, environmental detection, and dynamic attribute changes.

Web3 games reference the ECS architecture and have developed Web3's Communication Infra - ARC, which stands for Action Registry Core. The technical core consists of three parts:

• Objects are Actions; in ARC, the core units of the game are viewed as actions. This means that characters, events, decisions, etc., in the game are abstracted as forms of actions, making the game's interactions and logic more flexible and scalable.
• Only store game results on-chain;
• Other data is stored offline, called upon through data indexers and data relay infrastructure.

In summary, ARC, as the communication infrastructure in Web3 games, fully draws on the ideas of the ECS architecture, providing higher flexibility, scalability, and efficiency for Web3 games through objectified actions, on-chain game results, and the integration of offline data and infrastructure.

Currently, there are no standalone projects developing the ARC communication structure, but several major Game Engines and some independently developed Web3 Game Studios are committed to this.

3.4 Rendering Layer

The most famous rendering infrastructure in Web2 is Unreal Engine, while Web3 has combined decentralized characteristics to build a distributed rendering protocol - RNDR.

The project behind RNDR is Render Network, a protocol that utilizes a decentralized network to achieve distributed rendering. The company behind Render Network, OTOY.Inc, was founded in 2009, and its rendering software OctaneRender is optimized for GPU rendering. For ordinary creators, local rendering occupies a high amount of machine resources, creating a demand for cloud rendering. However, renting servers from providers like AWS or Azure for rendering can also be costly—this is where Render Network comes in, rendering is not limited to hardware conditions, connecting creators with ordinary users who have idle GPUs, allowing creators to render cheaply, quickly, and efficiently, while node users can earn some pocket money by utilizing their idle GPUs.

For Render Network, there are two types of participants:

• Creators: Initiate rendering tasks and purchase credits using fiat currency or RNDR for payment. (Octane X is the tool used for task submission, suitable for Mac and iPad. A fee of 0.5-5% will be used to cover network costs).

• Node Providers (Idle GPU Owners): Idle GPU owners can apply to become node providers and are prioritized based on their previous task completion reputation. Once a node completes a rendering task, the creator will review the rendered files and download them. Once the download is complete, the fees locked in the smart contract will be sent to the node provider's wallet. This arrangement allows node providers to fully utilize their idle GPUs to earn extra income while improving the overall efficiency of the network.

In summary, Render Network, through its unique architecture, not only addresses performance issues in the rendering process but also provides a win-win opportunity for creators and users with idle GPUs.

04 Middleware Layer

4.1 SDK Integration

Similar to Game Engines, SDKs are provided to facilitate developers to deploy with one click, but these SDKs target more specific functions.

Project teams are integrating SDKs from different angles, and the following summarizes three common GTM strategies:

Case 01 - SDK Store

The first type is an SDK store, similar to an app store, where project teams compile all available SDKs in the market, allowing developers to search for the SDKs they need directly in the SDK store.

For example, the Unity Asset Store SDK package provides verified SDKs from MetaMask, Magicblock (Solana), Tezos, Nefta, Immutable, etc. Chainsafe Gaming's Web3.Unity is also a popular open-source choice outside of the Asset Store. Unreal Engine developers can consider Web3.Unreal from Game7, Emergence, or Mirage.

Case 02 - Specific Functions

SDKs targeting specific functions, such as:

NFT Market:

1. No-code solutions: Altura or Recur allow developers to create web-based external NFT markets without coding.
2. In-game markets: In-game markets have higher customization demands. Existing solutions typically offer APIs or Unity/Unreal SDKs to simplify common market functions on the blockchain. These functions include listing NFTs, viewing inventory, or making purchases.

Examples: Nefta, Particle Network, Venly, Sequence, Mirror World, Fungies, and Chainsafe Gaming.

In-game Services:

Some companies, like Aqua, provide no-code/low-code in-game market-as-a-service, allowing players to access virtual markets directly within the game client embedded in Unity, purchasing items like decorations and character appearances without leaving the game. By integrating with Unity, Aqua offers game developers a simpler way to create rich in-game trading experiences for players.

In-game Store System SDK:

Although this is not strictly a gaming sector, some providers, such as Ready Games and MetaFab, offer customized in-game store system SDK/solutions.

4.2 One-stop Service Providers

One-stop service providers typically have the most comprehensive blockchain integration technology stack and provide relevant services for developers and publishers.

Case 01 - Forte

Forte is a blockchain gaming platform that offers a range of services aimed at building a seamless blockchain gaming ecosystem for developers, communities, and players. These services cover the entire lifecycle of game development, including market-making, compliance, tool development, player services, game creation, and economic model design. Forte also provides funding for game creators to encourage game development.

In addition, Forte introduces DeFi and NFTs to create new revenue streams for game creators. The Forte platform establishes market and trading services, simplifies the digital asset wallet experience, and provides built-in compliance components, including anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC. Through these features, Forte helps existing games build scalable token economies, enhancing the sustainability and profitability of games.

Case 02 - One-stop Consulting

Many game studios, such as Bigtime's Open Loot and Horizon (Skyweaver's) Sequence, offer consulting/incubation services. They leverage their extensive experience to help Web2 developers and games enter the market.

For instance, Open Loot provides marketing support, payment processing, and comprehensive game analytics in addition to technical integration. Horizon (Skyweaver's) Sequence assists Web2 games in transitioning to Web3, including NFT-ifying virtual items and ownership transactions on the blockchain. These services not only expand the market but also help developers gain new opportunities and growth in the digital realm.

4.3 Communication Protocols

Case 01 - XMTP

XMTP is an early Web3 communication protocol project aimed at building a unified decentralized inbox system to provide communication infrastructure for all Dapps. It can be simply understood as a decentralized version of XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) in the blockchain domain. Using the built-in XMTP client, users can send and receive encrypted XMTP messages within applications and authenticate via wallet signatures. Through this protocol, messages can be effectively encrypted and resist spam and other malicious behaviors. However, currently, the protocol only supports peer-to-peer messaging, meaning it only supports one-on-one communication. Nevertheless, XMTP lays a preliminary foundation for Web3 communication, making decentralized communication more practical and possible.

Case 02 - Web3MQ

Web3MQ is an open-source decentralized secure communication protocol aimed at becoming a crypto-native communication infrastructure. It extends and improves upon XMTP, providing a multi-in-one communication solution that includes push notifications, chat, and community features.

At the same time, Web3MQ is compatible with a wide range of social identities and social graph protocols, using the communication protocol as a bridge to unleash the potential of each social relationship. It also incorporates existing Web3 ecosystems, including web3 storage (e.g., IPFS) and computing (e.g., Internet Computer), as a supplement to the messaging ecosystem, allowing users to achieve higher levels of privacy protection and other personalized features through custom configurations. Compared to current Web3 communication protocols, Web3MQ is a relatively mature and well-rounded protocol project in terms of ideas and functionality.

4.4 Economic System Monitoring Tools

Most Web3 games have built-in economic systems, so monitoring the economic cycle is crucial for Web3 games. This has led to the demand for simulating, testing, and monitoring whether the gamefi systems are healthy.

Machinations provides game developers with a visual way to design and optimize the economic cycle of games; currently, over 20 Web3 games have partnered with Machinations to enhance their game's economic design using this tool.

Specifically, suppose there is a Web3 strategy game where players need to collect resources, build cities, and recruit troops. The resources in the game include wood, stone, and gold, and these resources interact with each other, influencing players' decisions and strategies. Using Machinations, game developers can create a chart that visually represents resources, production, consumption, and other factors. They can set the speed at which resources are generated, how players use resources, and the relationships between resources. For example, developers can set wood and stone for building cities and gold for recruiting troops. They can also set the costs of different actions, such as building new structures, recruiting troops, or trading.

Through Machinations, developers can simulate the operation of the in-game economic system and see how the flow and changes of resources affect the entire game ecosystem. If a certain link is too scarce or excessive, developers can adjust values to optimize resource allocation, making the game's economic cycle more balanced and engaging.

4.5 Others

With the development of Web3 and blockchain technology, some new protocols are also dedicated to deriving a small segment of the game or certain functions of NFTs, thereby empowering in-game tokens.

For example, Furion is primarily used to split non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into corresponding ERC20 tokens, which can be freely traded and circulated on the Furion platform, supporting various financial operations such as lending, borrowing, leveraging long and short positions.

To illustrate, suppose an artist's digital artwork is converted into an NFT, and the Furion platform can help split this NFT into corresponding ERC20 tokens. These tokens can represent different parts or shares of the artwork and can be freely traded on the Furion platform. Art enthusiasts can purchase a portion of these ERC20 tokens, thereby sharing ownership of the digital artwork. Additionally, Furion supports financial operations like lending, allowing users to use their held ERC20 tokens for investment and trading.

This also provides new possibilities for the token models of Gamefi, such as Gamefi choosing not to issue tokens directly but first issuing NFTs to provide use cases for NFTs; then issuing tokens based on NFTs as underlying assets.

05 Channels / Distributors

In the gaming industry, channels and distributors play a crucial role. Looking back at game distribution in the Web 2.0 era, it can be divided into two main models.

The first is platform-based distributors, such as Steam, Epic, and Nintendo, whose core success factors (KSF) are platform traffic. These distributors have seen a rise in several hit games and unique well-known IPs. Continuous blockbuster games have accumulated a large user base, gradually transforming them from game merchants to distribution platforms, and then continuously expanding services, functions, and social interactions, becoming comprehensive gaming platforms that further enhance user stickiness and build brand moats.

The other type is hardware and terminal manufacturers, such as Huawei and Apple, which still rely on user traffic as their KSF. They attract users by launching high-quality devices and increasing device penetration. When users purchase and use hardware, they not only obtain the hardware itself but also access the ecosystem and services provided by the platform, making them a very important channel for game distribution.

Whether platform-based distributors or hardware/terminal manufacturers, they play important roles in the gaming industry. By accumulating user traffic, owning well-known IPs, and building comprehensive ecosystems, these distributors have driven the development of the gaming industry at different levels. Currently, the Web3 sector has yet to form a mature distribution channel system, and the following summarizes several distribution strategies adopted in the current stage of the Web3 gaming sector.

5.1 Path One - Classic Web2 Route

Its overall path is similar to that of Steam/Nintendo/TapTap in the Web2 era, aiming to become the TapTap of the Web3 field, relying on high-quality games to acquire user traffic and gradually develop into a distribution platform.

The advantage of this strategy is that it has been validated in the Web2 field; however, the disadvantages are also evident, as the implementation of this model is quite heavy, requiring high funding and capability from the team. Additionally, it is still unclear who the first target audience (TA) for Web3 games is. The debate over whether to focus more on Web3 native users or to draw traffic from Web2 has never ceased. This also makes the target audience of the distribution platform unclear, posing challenges for the team's GTM and product matrix.

Case 01 - XterioGames

XterioGames received a $15 million investment from Binance Labs in July 2023. Xterio is a Web3 gaming platform and publisher expected to release various cross-platform games on PC and mobile devices, with the ecosystem also distributing digital collectibles through Xterio's network platform and marketplace.

For players, Xterio will be equipped with a game library, NFT marketplace, on-chain operation interface, decentralized identity system, and wallet and community applications. For developers, Xterio provides solutions to alleviate the on-chain programming burden, helping developers secure funding and promotion, and creating a seamless path from development to launch to ecosystem.

Overall, XterioGames is also a project continuously experimenting along Path One, with several core games in development and several games released through acquisitions and collaborations. The following image shows some of the games released by XterioGames.

Case 02 - Cartridge

Cartridge is a Starknet ecosystem game integration platform, positioned as the Web3 version of Steam.

For developers, Cartridge has launched Cartridge Controller and Dojo Engine, simplifying the development process and lowering the development threshold through a unified framework. For players, they can quickly find games on Cartridge. Currently, Cartridge has already provided several playable games. The following image shows only a portion of the playable games.

Case 03 - Createra

Createra is a user-generated content (UGC) metaverse engine invested by a16z, enabling creators to create, distribute, and MetaFi games. Createra provides users with a unique crypto-native autonomous world, featuring cross-play and instant access. Additionally, everything built on the land within the platform is tradable, including models, games, APIs, etc. The project also focuses on integrating ERC-6551 with games, such as in the decentralized identity (DID) space.

Overall, Createra can be seen as a Web3 version of Minecraft to some extent. By collaborating with popular IPs like BAYC, it encourages Web3 users to enter the gaming world, create personal virtual environments, and interact throughout the ecosystem. The project continuously adds more features and services to the ecosystem, such as mapping players' achievements to DID or embedding other games within the world, making it a gamified comprehensive distribution platform.

5.2 Path Two - Exploring the Crypto Native Route

Path Two is a more Crypto Native exploration, gathering users through player interactions to become a focal point of traffic. Currently, there are many path attempts in this field, including building achievement systems, aggregating airdrops, creating educational systems, and constructing decentralized identities (DIDs), among others.

In contrast to Path One, Path Two is more Crypto Native, with a lighter model that requires lower funding strength from the team but higher user operation capabilities. In this route, the team needs to quickly capture the current interactive methods that Web3 users are most interested in and timely embed these trends into their platform to effectively attract users.

However, it is worth noting that the exploration of Path Two has not yet been fully validated by the market. Among different development paths, which method will ultimately be the market's choice still carries a high degree of uncertainty. Therefore, teams need to maintain keen market insights, continuously adjust strategies to adapt to market changes, and closely monitor changes in user demand. The following summarizes some cases related to Path Two.

Case 01 - Carv

Carv is a GameID platform that starts from an achievement system, interestingly calculating users' reputation scores based on their past on-chain data. The overall presentation of the GameID is also based on this reputation score + received SBT. The platform captures on-chain data to verify the achievements users have accomplished, and upon meeting conditions, they can claim corresponding soulbound tokens (SBT).

The platform provides a social data analysis for listed projects, allowing players to quickly discover potential and high-heat games while also tracking the latest social dynamics of the games they are interested in, which is quite helpful for players. The platform also features an INO section, allowing games to launch NFTs, but this area relies heavily on the project team's BD capabilities, with only 10 launches so far.

Case 02 - DeQuest

DeQuest is a GameID platform that starts from a quest system, gamifying the design so that users' GameIDs are presented in the form of virtual avatars (which can be used to enter the sandbox in the future), unlocking equipment and skills as they complete tasks.

Case 03 - Parami

Parami Protocol is an ERC5489 protocol that can revolutionize the creator economy of the internet, turning NFTs into gateways for Web3 content discovery. For example, suppose there is a social media platform where users can use the Parami Protocol to upload their social data, posts, photos, and other information onto the chain. This data will be securely stored and encrypted, and users can authorize others to access and use this data with permission.

In addition to applications in data sharing and privacy protection, Parami Protocol actively collaborates with numerous gaming projects, creating broader possibilities for users. For instance, a game based on the Parami Protocol could allow players to map their achievements, item ownership, and other information to NFTs, enabling richer asset value transfer and interaction within the Web3 ecosystem. This collaboration elevates the gaming experience for players to a new level, closely connecting the virtual world with the real world.

In summary, Parami Protocol opens up new ways for data governance and content discovery while providing the potential to become a traffic entry point for the gaming sector.

5.3 Path Three - Public Chain and Exchange Incubation

In the Web2 ecosystem, many content providers (CPs), such as game developers, typically pay distribution platforms for traffic and exposure. However, in the Web3 ecosystem, due to a lack of high-quality content, there has been a phenomenon where platforms pay quality CPs. More specifically, hackathon events organized by some public chains and exchanges are typical cases. In these events, outstanding content creators are selected and provided with resources and training support, encouraging more quality content to emerge in their public chain/exchange ecosystems, thereby promoting the development of the entire ecosystem.

For example, the 2021 Gamefi leader Stepn is a typical case; according to the Space speech by Stepn's Co-Founder, a crucial step from 0 to 1 was winning an award at the Solana hackathon, which boosted team morale and secured initial resources.

Currently, many public chains and exchanges are hosting hackathon events, and some even collaborate to incubate projects. This provides excellent opportunities for industry development and outstanding projects.

Conclusion

This article focuses on clarifying the concept of full on-chain games and presenting a panoramic view of the value chain, aiming to provide readers with a clearer understanding of the various links in the full on-chain game industry chain. Subsequent articles in the PSE Trading series will explore full on-chain games in more detail from different perspectives.