Starknet: Analysis of the development advantages of full-chain game ecology and high-quality projects

After experiencing the death spiral of Gamefi, the market will focus more on full-chain games in 2023, and the richest full-chain game ecology is Starknet. So why is Starknet embraced by so many full-chain gaming projects? What are its advantages in developing full-chain games? And what are some of the projects that deserve our attention? This article will explore these issues in depth.

Those who do not know much about the whole chain game can first go to read Uncle Jian's previous article "Eight Questions Full Chain Game".

Starknet develops the advantages of full-chain gaming

On social media, Starknet has gradually been labeled as the "most popular development platform for full-chain games", in addition to Loot Realms, which announced its migration from Arbiturm to Starknet in 2021, there are several full-chain game projects such as Cartridge, Influence, Matchbox DAO, Briq and Cafe Cosmos.

What are the advantages of Starknet that deserve many full-chain games All in? The author believes that there are the following points:

Performance benefits of continuous scaling (high TPS, low gas)

Because the blockchain is the server of the game in the full-chain game, all the operations of players need to be completed through interaction with smart contracts, so if a chain wants to develop a full-chain game ecology, it must meet the performance requirements of high TPS and low gas at the same time, and Starknet, which is constantly being upgraded, has such potential.

From the perspective of the underlying algorithm, the core algorithm STARK used by Starknet is more suitable for large-scale computing applications, and its average verification time and proof size will continue to decrease as the verification scale increases. As shown in the figure below, when the hash invocations are 3072 times, the verification time is 40 milliseconds, and the average score is 76.75 times/millisecond; When the hash call is 49152, the verification time is about 60 milliseconds, an average of 819.2 times/millisecond, and the same is true for the proof size. Therefore, in creating large-scale full-chain games, the STARK algorithm has obvious advantages and can achieve high TPS.

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Verification time and attestation size with different levels of security and hash call linear graphs

At the same time, the recursive proofs used by STARK are also beneficial to reduce the cost of on-chain verification. In short, recursive proofs are the ability to compress multiple "upstream" STARK proofs into one proof, and finally the chain only needs to verify the validity of multiple "upstream" proofs by verifying a single proof generated by the aggregate, which means that the gas evenly distributed by a single transaction is further reduced.

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Typical recursive proof flow

From the actual team action, Starknet's Quantum Leap is also in full swing. At present, the mainnet has been upgraded to V 0.12.0, and the testnet has been launched V 0.12.1, which has greatly improved TPS. In the future, transaction costs will also be continuously optimized.

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Starknet upgrade roadmap (Source: Twitter user @ 100 Sheng)

Native account abstraction has unlimited possibilities for improving user experience

If the requirements for blockchain performance are the factors that restrict the development of full-chain games from a hardware perspective, then from the user's point of view, what restricts the development of full-chain games is a worse user experience than Gamefi.

Take the recently popular Loot Survivor as an example, every time a user performs an "attack", "escape" or "upgrade" operation, the wallet needs to pop out to sign and authorize the transaction, which is quite cumbersome. Moreover, this is only a lightweight mini-game, and if this is the experience of a massively multiplayer online full-chain game, then don't talk about any further playability.

So, how does Starknet solve such problems for full-chain games? The answer is native account abstraction. Unlike Ethereum's two-account model (EOA and CA) design, Starknet has only one account design called "account contract" and implements native account abstraction with reference to ERC-4337.

If you don't know the concept of account abstraction, you can read Uncle Jian's previous article "Account Abstraction: Simplifying Your Crypto World".

For example, a year and a half ago, at the Starknet hackathon, a creative feature jointly launched by Briq, Loot Realms, and the Topology team, Session Key, was designed using Starknet's native account abstraction, which allows users to avoid signing every action in a full-chain game.

The idea was also applied this year, with the Arcade Account developed by the Realms team on August 7, the first implementation of session keys. The improvement in the user experience is also evident in the video released by the Loot Realms team demonstrating the Loot Survivor game with arcade accounts: there is no need to sign every "attack" and there is no need to wait too long.

! [Starknet: Analysis of the development advantages and high-quality projects of full-chain game ecology] (https://piccdn.0daily.com/202310/11060747/7oik5ix05x7hovwr.png!webp)

Of course, Starknet's native account abstraction improves the user experience of full-chain games far beyond the session key function, and there will be more possibilities in the future.

Crypto game engine: Dojo

As we all know, game engines are essential for game development. With its support, developers don't need to create the basic system (physics, graphics, and basic game mechanics) from scratch for each game, allowing the cost and time savings to be better invested in game content innovation.

To some extent, traditional commercial games have been able to grow so much thanks to two game engines: Unity and Unreal Engine, on which most of our more familiar games such as Fortnite and Hearthstone are based.

From the developer's point of view, in order to promote the scale of the full-chain game ecosystem, an engine that can help developers reduce the difficulty of game development is needed. As a result, Dojo, the first full-chain game engine on Starknet, jointly developed by Loot Realms, Cartridge and Briq, was officially born in February this year.

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However, unlike traditional game engines, Dojo currently does not involve advanced functions such as physical simulation and 3D rendering, because full-chain game development is still in the early stages, and it is more facing problems related to the interaction underlying the blockchain. Therefore, according to official disclosures, Dojo is working on development in four directions:

• First, build an exclusive L3 to further improve on-chain performance;
• The second is to run fraud proof in the game, so that players do not need to wait for on-chain verification for each operation, improving the smoothness of the game;
• The third is to execute part of the proof locally by the player, and finally only upload the key ZK proof to the chain, which greatly improves the game operation ability and player privacy protection;
• The fourth is to share assets using proof of storage, similar to oracles, they provide evidence of the authenticity of information, but do not require the intervention of a third party, the ownership of assets from different chains can be proved by proof of storage, and users will be able to use their assets in different games on different chains.

Game engines, as the infrastructure for game development, play a key role in the virtuous cycle of "helping developers build games—producing blockbusters—attracting more developers." It is believed that with the development of Dojo, Starknet's full-chain game ecological advantages will become more and more obvious.

Programming language friendly to complex full-chain game development: Cairo

In fact, before Dojo, there was also a full-chain game engine big brother: MUD, and whether in terms of ecological quantity or technical maturity, MUD is basically the end of Dojo.

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So, why do we still need Dojo? One of the biggest reasons is that unlike MUDs, which use the Solidity language, Dojo uses a programming language that is more friendly to the development of complex full-chain games: Cairo.

Cairo is a smart contract language designed based on STARK and exclusive to Starknet. Each coin has both sides and tails, and although Cairo has a certain learning cost for developers who are accustomed to Solidity, Cairo is more modern than Solidity, and many developers believe that it is similar to the Rust language and can provide more advanced and abstract features.

For example, the aforementioned functions such as generating STARK proofs, recursive proofs that can reduce the cost of on-chain verification, and executing partial proofs locally on the player's premises are all implemented through Cairo. At the same time, Cairo is also more versatile than Solidity, it is not only suitable for contract development of Starknet, but also can run provable programs on other large servers or personal devices, and has a wider range of applications in the future.

Therefore, Cairo has a stronger advantage for complex full-chain games such as massively multiplayer online. This will also attract more developers to Starknet to realize their dreams of complex and highly playable full-chain games.

Inventory of items worth paying attention to

Understanding the advantages of Starknet's development of full-chain games, let's take a look at what projects are worth paying attention to in the current Starknet full-chain game ecosystem.

Loot Survivor

Loot Survivor is a lightweight mini-game from Loot Realms that is currently running on the Starknet testnet.

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• Play to Die mode

Unlike the various "X to Earn" models used by Gamefi, Loot Survivor uses the "Play to Die" mode designed by the Loot Realms team. The gameplay is simply that the player needs to spend a small amount of money to mint an on-chain adventurer character, and if the adventurer dies in the game, the character's life will be confiscated, and the player needs to create a new character and restart the game. At present, there is no very appropriate Chinese translation that can express this model graphically, and the author will temporarily translate it as "unstoppable" or "bloody battle to the end".

Compared to the "Play to Earn" model, which creates a wealth effect to attract greedy players, the "Play to Die" mode is more sustainable and thriving creator ecology. Because in this mode, if an adventurer dies in the game, the creator of the game will receive a share of the funds used to mint the adventurer in the first place.

Therefore, the quality and popularity of the game in the "Play to Die" mode will determine the developer's compensation, and if the game is not fun, the player will not mint on-chain characters and the game developer will not be rewarded. This model will facilitate the creation of a positive, prosperous two-sided market that includes players and creators.

After Loot Survivor goes live on the mainnet, it may use its native token $Lords to mint on-chain characters and empower its tokens.

Influence

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Influence, the most popular massively multiplayer online space strategy game on Starknet, is also running on the testnet. According to the design of this game, players can colonize asteroids, build infrastructure, accumulate resources, and fight other players in it. But overall, the game is not as easy to operate as Loot Survivor, and the author has encountered many problems during the experience.

Team situation

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Founder Chris Lexmond has served as CTO and VP of technology at several tech startups, and other members of the team have careers making triple-A games. As a start-up team, it is worth looking forward to in terms of team ability.

At the same time, the project has said that when their native token, SWAY, is issued, 1% will be used to reward testnet participants.

Briq

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Briq can be likened to an on-chain LEGO system where players can freely use blocks to build the building they want, while casting their model into an NFT. If you want, you can also combine or disassemble the minted NFT again, which is highly composable.

Briq actually has a lot of potential, it is more like an underlying original protocol, in the future can be fully combined with a full-chain game, so that users minted on Briq NFT can be used in it.

Cartridge

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Cartridge is a full-chain game integration platform on Starknet, and players are used to comparing it to the Steam platform for full-chain games. But it goes far beyond the functions of the game integration platform, and the Cartridge Controller it develops not only helps full-chain games easily go on the chain, but also helps improve the player's game experience; Participated in the development and construction of Dojo, a full-chain game engine; Build your own full-chain game, Roll Your Own (RYO).

Cartridge closed its seed round in June 2022 with investors including Fabric Ventures, Valhalla Venture, and Chapter One. It is believed that the multi-dimensional Cartridge will play an indispensable role in Starknet's full-chain game ecology in the future.

Of course, in addition to the above four, there are many potential full-chain games on Starknet, interested partners can refer to the following table, the author will not repeat here for space reasons.

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Summarize and think

At this year's ETHCC, Will Robinson from AllianceDao identified four issues that constrain the development of full-chain games: UX/UI problems, scalability problems (Uncertain How to Scale), and lack of game design standards (No Standard Design). Patterns) and Uncertain Value-Add.

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According to the section on Starknet's advantages in developing full-chain games, it can be seen that the first three problems raised by Will Robinson can be effectively solved in the future. But on the last question, is there any value in full-chain games? As we all know, blockchain solves the problem of asset ownership and economic system establishment in the virtual world, so for games, in addition to putting in-game assets on the chain, do we really need to move the entire game to the chain? Does this really make sense for players? This is not a problem faced by Starknet alone, it is a problem faced by all participants in the full-chain gaming ecosystem.

At the end of the article, the author wants to jump out of Starknet and try to answer this question, first of all, just because the full-chain game is conducive to innovation, there are obvious loopholes in the logic. While I was pondering, I was inspired by a story about Vitalik that I came across by chance.

As a child, Vitalik was obsessed with playing World of Warcraft, but then he completely abandoned the game because Blizzard modified the skills of some characters in an upgrade for reasons that affected the balance of the game, which made Vitalik quite angry, and after repeatedly emailing Blizzard's engineers to no avail, he never played the game again, and he also realized that there was a serious centralization in traditional games, and the player's voice was quite weak.

Of course, the voice and freedom of players in traditional games has also been increasing in recent years, thanks to the concept of user-generated content (UGC), but this degree of freedom is obviously not enough, players need real game autonomy. I think this is the opportunity and meaning of the existence of full-chain games.

Full-chain games can pull UGC to a new level, it only builds an immutable core gameplay on the blockchain, and maximizes the design of the game to the player, making the content creation again infinitely malleable. In the case of the full-chain game Dark Forest, players can do whatever they want as long as they follow the most basic rules, for example, they can create their own asset trading market in the game, they can develop tools to help them automate the game, and even create new games within the game. There are already nearly a hundred Dark Forest plugins on the market, which players can use to visualize opponents' territory, automate wars, match transactions, and more.

However, this is not the final state of the full-chain game, because the above operations can only be achieved by people with a code foundation, but I believe that in the future, ordinary players can also build everything they imagine in the full-chain game.

Because you believe, you see.

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