Introduction
This article is intended to show best practices of building games on WAX. We would start with what are general parts of doing it and then will move into details of game architecture, token model and monetization.
WAX is recently booming with plenty of things happening such as GPK series 1 and 2 (Exotic) launched and Captain Kirk memorabilia as non-fungible tokens to be issued soon.
Also some of collectors can get Blockchain Heroes, showing popular people from crypto world as cards to be launched in 4 August , 2020
Create NFT as Collectible
As it goes, making an asset at WAX is fairly simple for non technical people. You can use a handy tool, at Simple tool called NFT Creator from Cryptolions, authors of Simple Asset standard. All you need is to register as an author and then Issue NFT, via filling appropriate fields. Normally you would need some parameters such as name, description and image in order to get it started. This fits purposes of having some collectibles to be issued, but if you like to build a game, you should consider some coding.
We would make a series of explanations on how you can design a game from a game design and architectural standpoint, so this content should help game developers as well as game designers (ideators) too.
Building Match 3 Game on WAX blockchain
Match 3 is one of the most popular genres on web and mobile in casual space. We all remember big titles such as Candy Crush Saga with millions of users and zillions of levels, so they had solid retention and revenue numbers.
Game design of Match 3 games can start as simple as possible, by having just endless rounds where users can earn as many points as possible. Or it can end up as a mini game of big ‘city building’’ multiplayer game with plenty of achievements and bonus items inside.
Let’s walk into the structural and game design elements of a typical March 3 game.
- Levels. Normally has some visual structure(complexity) which differs one from another. Items are getting in some random way, but can differ by lacking some type(normally color)) of items.
- Points. Users can receive points by ending level, and also can receive stars(one to three) depending on how good it was done.
- Achievements. Users can receive some achievements, in fact they can be part of an external ecosystem(read our NEST platform idea at the end of the article). Such achievement can be something like playing a game 5 days in a row, or a user has completed 25 levels. Every achievement also can impact the user’s level.
- In-game currency (GEMs, GOLD), those can be used to provide user options to buy some custom cosmetic items, or lifes in game, or advanced power tools to destroy items in game.
Below you can find a way to design your game from a technical and tokenomics standpoint.
Let’s dig into it:
- Users will use some blockchain wallet in order to log-in into the game (let’s assume it’s a WAX Cloud Wallet by default).
- With every new game round, the user will push some action into the blockchain via wallet, so this action can be recorded for logging user’s activity.
- When a user wins or fails a round we would also recommend to write an action with details, so it can add-up into the user’s profile(like number of games played, or via XP points if the user is gonna receive ones), as well as some in-game token.
- WAX itself has in-built random service, so it can be used in order to provide better transparency in some sensitive gameplay moments.
- As for Tokenomics part we can design it next way:
- GOLD token, received for every round won. GOLD token would be non transferable (and non tradable),
- GEM token, can be received in some rare cases or/and purchased for WAX token. This token can be used to purchase additional life, so users can replay rounds and provide options for some skins / cosmetics.
- Users can play every round for free, or even pay for it. Or we can add a special ladder / leaderboard mode, where users compete for a shared prize pool. Following approach can be next, a weekly leaderboard where the user pays 10 WAX per trial, and receives points to move in the leaderboard. Leaderboard itself has a pot, which grows till distribution moment, once time is out a pool is distributed by certain rules to TOP competitors. Additionally, GEM token can be issued as a small bonus on top of every purchase via WAX in-game.
- NFTs. In this game we might use NFTs, but not mandatory. For example we can make some drops of achievements as NFTs, so users can sell them, this should be designed extremely carefully, so scarcity of NFTs can be met. NFTs can be also designed as Cards to drop, collections to make or badges to earn, however this is a subject of more complex game examples and our NEST platform idea, we will describe it in following articles.
Why is WAX a place to build blockchain powered games?
WAX has excellent positioning on digital assets blockchain, as we can see WAX Team does a great job getting solid partnerships with known brands to push collectibles on chain.
Besides that Guilds(Block producers) are doing plenty of tools such as NFT standards, marketplaces, added services to streamline development of games and digital asset based products on WAX.
Dapplica as an active Guild does it as well, we are launching a product which helps game developers to start with blockchain gaming in a way and plug and play mode. Also we are working on a platform called NEST, which was initially described at our blog here. Simply it can be so-called Steam on Blockchain, however it’s more than that.
Right now it’s possible to use some services such as leaderboards for your games, just by using our smart contracts examples from repository, but we will publish those as ready to plug blockchain service in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned!