Blockchain and Game Development

During Token 2049, I had an eye-opening chat with the founder of @Megaeth , who dropped a bold statement: the future of gaming is fully on-chain. 🕹️ Now, I’ve always viewed blockchain in gaming as a way to give players ownership of their assets. But a fully on-chain game? That’s next level. Imagine this: every game interaction, battle, or quest—all verified and executed on the blockchain, with zero reliance on central servers or game studios. At first, I thought: Cool, but why? But the more I dug in, the more I realized how game-changing this could be: 1. No More ‘Game Over’: Unlike traditional games that shut down when studios decide to pull the plug, fully on-chain games live forever as long as the blockchain exists. Community members can even fork the game and keep it alive. Goodbye, server shutdowns! 👋 2. True Player Power: Players don’t just own assets; they govern the entire game. From rule changes to updates, you decide the game’s direction. Imagine voting on new features or expansions! 3. Ultimate Fair Play: No more shady mechanics or secret buffs. Everything’s on-chain, so you can verify the fairness of every move. 4. Your Sword, Your Wallet: Fully on-chain games could enable interoperability—your in-game assets are yours across different games, platforms, and even into DeFi. That sword you earned? You can use it elsewhere or even lend it out for passive income. 🔥 But, let’s be real. It’s not all roses. 🌹 Here’s the kicker: technology. Scaling fully on-chain games is hard. Blockchain struggles with high-speed, complex game logic. Games like Dark Forest show promise, using zk-SNARKs to improve performance, but we’re still in early experimental days. Most blockchains—Ethereum included—weren’t designed for this. So, is it worth it? I’m betting on yes, but it won’t happen overnight. The potential to disrupt gaming is massive, but the tech needs to catch up. Chains like MegaETH, ImmutableX, and Avalanche are working on solutions, and I believe fully on-chain games will eventually move from niche experiments to serious contenders. Here’s my hot take: in 5 years, decentralized game worlds could rival today’s centralized ones, putting real power back in the hands of players. 🎮 What do you think? Are we ready for a future where players control everything? Or is this just another layer of hype in the blockchain space? #GameFi #Web3 #Decentralization

DOOM Decentralized When I tell people that I have been excited about the games industry since my first E3 twenty years ago, they are usually wondering if I play First Person Shooters (FPS) like DOOM. The unsurprising answer is no (even though I do love fashion battle games!👗😃) I still remember the cold, hard fear I felt while watching the latest version of DOOM on the mega screen at my first games conference. We are students of emerging technologies and behavior change, and new technologies are typically first used in the cutting edge environment of video games. While you can find examples in the early 1950s of AI in video games, AI really became prolific commercially in the 1970-1980s with games like Pong and Pac-Man. What happened this weekend?! An historic technological breakthrough was demonstrated when Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) demonstrated DOOM running on a Decentralized Web Services Machine. This isn’t about the game DOOM, but rather about demonstrating a regular application that can run on Polkadot. This is important because a blockchain by itself can't typically run regular applications since there is only so much “work” that can be done by a single block. Shawn Tabrizi explained, “This proves Polkadot is not simply a blockchain. It is a fully fledged, decentralized supercomputer.” This opens the door to all kinds of applications living on chain, which was never before possible. @Pala_Labs said, “JAM shows blockchains can go beyond transactions, enabling decentralized computing with continuous execution flow. It’s a breakthrough moment for Web3 computing.” Emil Keitzman explained - This wasn't a modified version of Doom to put it on the blockchain - just the original game recompiled to target the Polkadot Virtual Machine (PVM). PVM powers JAM's computational layer (like EVM in Ethereum). The demo proved JAM can handle general-purpose computation, not just blockchain-specific tasks. @Alice_und_Bob also breaks it down in several ways - Today developers have to think very constrained. They have to write code that fits inside a block. On short transactions. Gavin’s invention removes that limitation and opens it up to write any program on JAM. It proves you can run normal software on a fully on-chain Virtual Machine - without modifications. Any app!!! This isn’t just about gaming. It’s a glimpse into a future where entire applications run trustless & decentralized. You cannot overstate how significant this is! Why did Gavin choose DOOM? I haven’t spoken to him but it is poetic. The DOOM engine, used to make the game in 1993, had a major impact on the future. Even 30 years later, its DNA is deeply embedded in game development, given its technical ingenuity. It inspired modern shooter mechanics, the foundations of online competitive gaming, engine cross platform support, and even the earliest glimpses of UGC (User Generated Content.)

I spoke with BlockchainGamer.biz about what I've seen in the trends of who has thrived and who has not in the years since the funding boom. 👇 Post-morteming the web3 games funding boom requires us to remember a few realities:  1. most startups fail,  2. most games fail,  3. a lot of the web3 gaming investments didn’t go into content. So, it’s not surprising that blockchain-enhanced gaming is still waiting for its free-to-play moment; it was going to be an uphill battle to begin with.  Web3 gaming is a new paradigm, simultaneously a new distribution, UA, and monetization method, and requires technology that was, until relatively recently, unable to let developers make anything they wanted to. This resulted in a death spiral of “games,” mostly built by inexperienced developers, mostly with money from inexperienced gaming investors, created with technology that resulted in poor UX, all chasing the same 10,000 degens for the liquidity in their Metamasks. Three themes emerged amongst games that shut down:  1. Companies that chase shiny objects fail quickly. Hopping around to different gimmicks means you don’t focus and execute on a real experience.  2. A token is a product, and most products fail. Most teams can’t manage a token and a game simultaneously. Companies that didn’t have the resources to build a game and manage a token typically did neither and closed.  3. Choosing the wrong tech was the end for many. Custodial wallets, non-EVM blockchains, fragmented tech. Studios leading the charge are using the blockchain as technology, not a feature, and experimenting with incremental benefits to their economics and players’ experiences. Here are some examples: - Opt-in web3 experiences on web2 games boost KPIs. TapNation recently leveraged tokenized leaderboards for 40M+ players in Monster Squad Rush, seeing huge benefits in user retention. - Gameplay first, web3 later. Moonray is a wonderful example of a studio that built a compelling game loop first, brought it to market, and is now ready to integrate the blockchain as something that enhances the player experience.  - Creating net-new experiences with the blockchain. Ubisoft’s Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E offered players a layered metagame experience even before the game launched with its Niji Warrior mint. Using GenAI avatar customization and a Ubisoft ecosystem wallet and custom mint platform and marketplace, Ubisoft gave players a dynamic, fun, and seamless experience unavailable to web2 titles. Blockchain gaming has a long way to go, but the studios that are sticking around are committed, building with the right tools, and thinking about the player experience first, knowing that the benefits will come.

Blockchain gaming really is taking off. Daily active wallets have increased by over 400% from last year. But many companies struggle with how to bridge traditional payments and blockchain without creating friction. We devised a method using closed-loop credit structures. Same playbook Starbucks uses with their gift cards. Now, any game can do the same thing with programmable money. We've seen this drive double-digit adoption for blockchain features. You can actually make money on all that cash sitting around. The way it works is we use wrapped USDC with built-in restrictions. When users buy credits, we mint tokens that can only interact with pre-approved smart contracts, just like gift cards that only work at specific stores, except the "stores" are blockchain protocols. Users pay as they would with cards or bank transfers. Behind the scenes, that becomes wrapped stablecoins locked to a whitelist of approved protocols. They can trade, earn yield, or utilize other specific functions, but cannot simply cash out or send funds to random wallets. This means you can build sophisticated on-chain functionality while maintaining a simple user experience. It's pretty wild that this is finally possible.

Could 2025 be the year gaming breaks free from everything we thought we knew? Here's why: AI is rewriting the rules of game development. Imagine NPCs living on-chain, powered by AI agents, creating immersive, autonomous gaming experiences. These agents are even spinning up their own Layer-1 networks on platforms like Saga; https://www.saga.xyz/, building fully decentralised, interactive worlds. But the real revolution? Studios are turning blockchain into their core infrastructure and it’s not just about buzzwords. Gamers will have true ownership of in-game assets, seamless crypto-based payments, and the ability to co-create the ecosystems they play in. After years of experimentation and challenges, 2025 marks the turning point. Mass adoption is here. Studios are ready to embrace Web3, and in doing so, they’re transforming how we interact, play, and own in the digital world. The impact? A shift where gaming becomes more than entertainment, it becomes empowerment. Ownership, decentralisation, and creativity, all in the hands of players and developers alike. What excites you most about the gaming-Web3 intersection?