Despite the current market for cryptocurrencies, the dApp industry is still being propelled forward by Web3 games. New data from DappRadar shows that by the end of 2022, gaming on Web3 accounted for nearly half of all blockchain activity across 50 networks, with more than 912,000 Unique Active Wallets interacting with Web3 Play to Earn smart game contracts daily. Play-for-money video games are undeniably one of Web3’s most important revenue generators. In September alone, nearly 1.7 million Web2 gamers switched to Web3 platforms.
Let’s get a better grasp of Web3 games before we start wading deeper into the technology stack of Web3 game development.
What is “Web3 Gaming”?
The goal of Web3 gaming is to decentralize the games so that players and developers can share in the decision-making of the ecosystem while still keeping full control of the in-game assets they’ve worked so hard to create. The use of blockchain technology in the creation of games for the Web3 platform makes this a reality.
Web3 development paves the way for a new generation of “play-to-earn” games that allow players to earn a reasonable return on their investment of time.
They can engage in asset trading, NFT minting, and other activities. With the widespread interoperability between gaming ecosystems, Web3 players can easily transfer their in-game possessions from one game to another.
The development of Web3 play-to-earn games needs to be based on certain features to allow for such a democratic value-exchange model. Examine them with me if you will:
Self-Sovereignty
The assets used in Web2 games do not belong to the players or the developers. Thus, if a Web2 player decides to switch to a different gaming platform, he will also forfeit his right to keep his virtual possessions. Web3 gaming is revolutionizing the industry by enabling portability and cross-platform play.
Interoperability
It’s a lot trickier than it first seems. When an item is converted into an NFT, it can be taken from one game and used in another. A game’s NFT can be imported into another game and used without changing how it functions, looks or sounds. However, if two games’ NFTs are interoperable, one game’s smart contract is aware of the other game’s NFT. Therefore, a Web3 game’s development must consider the following aspects of NFTs to ensure their interoperability.
- Name and NFT ID used to distinguish it from other NFTs.
- Statistics, attributes, and classification data are examples of metadata.
- Representation is how the NFT characterizes its visual and aural components.
- The NFT’s context refers to the circumstances under which it can be applied.
Transparency
To develop honest economies for Web3 games, NFTs are essential. NFTs clearly identify the rightful owners of digital items within a game. NFTs give players unchangeable rights to their virtual assets in Web3 games because all transaction records are stored in a distributed ledger. Since players can earn money from NFT marketplaces by selling their creations, NFTs also facilitate a new form of the economy within games.
Web3 Gaming Stack’s Underlying Technologies
The most vital parts of the technology stack used in Web3 game development are as follows:
First Tech Stack Layer – Blockchain
Without a programmable blockchain, creating a Web3 game is impossible. When deciding on a blockchain for Web3 development, gas fees and transaction speed are the two most crucial factors. Though cross-chain development is the future of Web3 gaming, it’s important to pick an interoperable blockchain like Polkadot.
Second Tech Stack Layer – Nodes
A network of nodes, or Web3 providers, is required for the game app to interact with the blockchain. To play, nodes must access raw data about the game stored on the blockchain. The game dApps and Web3 libraries need this information. The third layer, application programming interfaces (APIs), is essential for a web3 marketplace development company to make sense of this raw data and use it to create its infrastructure.
Third Tech Stack Layer – APIS
API stands for “application programming interface,” a set of definitions and protocols to create and integrate dApps and Web3 libraries. Simply put, it facilitates communication between Nodes and decentralized applications.
Gaming dApps or Web3 libraries
The ability of game developers and players to interact with the blockchain platform is crucial to the success of any Web3 play-to-earn game. The dApps manage the game’s assets and transactions and how they interact with the smart contracts. Typically, Web3 gaming dApps are developed with Unity or Unreal SDKs.
Smart Contracts for a Web3 game
The execution of in-game transactions and the management of voting processes can be automated through smart contracts, which are computer programs. These can be modified for the specifics of the gaming model and contain the necessary code to handle things like player wins and losses, token exchanges, and treasury management. Remix IDE is the most popular tool to create, compile, or deploy smart contracts for Web3 games.
Digital Wallets
All Web3 gaming platforms that support the play-to-earn monetization model should provide players with a dedicated, encrypted wallet to store their crypto tokens and NFTs.
Final Say
Creating games for the Web 3 platform rapidly opens gaming technology to a wider audience. It’s brought new ways to make money, but it’s also made things more complicated and opened up new doors.
