Introduction
Even for the most talented teams, it normally takes more than a month to build a fully on-chain game(FOCG) before the game is ready for test playing. Developing a game itself is challenging, and the complexity increases further when developing on the blockchain.
PixeLAW aims to break this mold and aims to reduce time except for smart contract development. This represents a clear paradigm shift.
The Hardness for Building FOCGs.
Today, the development of FOCGs involves a lot of pain. Here are the typical steps
Setting up environments
Backend Development
Frontend Development
Integration
Deployment
And even though a significant amount of attention in creating a new game is devoted to game logic, the reality is that frontend development often occupies a major part of the process.
Additionally, people with game development experience often have limited experience in blockchain development, and vice versa: those well-versed in blockchain development usually have less experience in game development. Also, there’s a need for individuals who are skilled in either backend or frontend development. In creating a single game, specialists in every part are necessary. This is one of the reasons for the scarcity of FOCGs. Despite being in a field that values composability, the high barrier to entry for building these games has become a significant problem.
Build on PixeLAW
PixeLAW aims to break this mold, fundamentally changing the existing methodology of FOCG development. If one wants to create an FOCG on PixeLAW, the process is as follows:
Environment Setup (1 min)
Smart Contract Development
Deployment (1 min)
For more details, please refer to the PixeLAW Book, but it’s worth noting that both the environment setup and deployment can be completed in about a minute each. Essentially, the focus is almost exclusively on the creation of backend contracts.
This represents a clear paradigm shift. In fact, within a week of closed test play, three new games were built and released. One of them even won the first prize from Starknet. This is extraordinary.
Why is this possible? The secret lies in the architecture of PixeLAW.
The Architecture of PixeLAW
PixeLAW is a pixel-based autonomous playground. At first glance, it appears to be just a full on-chain pixel art game, but its essence is a world built around a system that rewrites information on pixels. Currently, in addition to the paint game, rock-paper-scissors, and snake games available at launch, there are also a treasure hunt, minesweeper, and a circle-punishment game against AI that are playable.
The mechanism is completely divided into a core layer and an application layer, each with its own role. This division allows builders to fully concentrate on their apps. The repositories for the core and others are separated on GitHub, enabling development without waiting for pull request approvals.
Core Layer
The core layer contains the basic components of pixels and the fundamental system. If you want to rewrite pixel information, you call the system in the core layer and modify the components. Currently, the frontend also belongs to this layer.
Application Layer
The application layer is created using an app_template. It consists almost entirely of contracts. Smart contracts are used to call the core layer’s system, rewriting the pixel information. Due to the specification of calling the core layer’s system, builders can focus solely on their backend development without worrying about complex issues, frontend, or other aspects.
Interaction between Frontend and Smart Contracts
The important components for interaction with the front end are color information and text.
The text is currently used as Unicode data to represent pictograms, and the pictograms are used to represent the state of the pixel in an easy-to-understand manner.
However, although this is currently the case, the actual data types are uint32 and felt252, and the current front end interprets them as colors and pictograms.
Anyway, it is now easier for those who want to build the fastest to use emoji to represent the state of pixels in the game.
Prospects
While I mentioned focusing solely on backend development, the essence is actually the separation of development. That is, development focused solely on the frontend is also desirable.
Specifically, one could use traditional contracts to create a rich, single-tile-focused rock-paper-scissors frontend.
The crucial point is that one does not need to wait to have everything in place to start developing a FOCG. You can start building on PixeLAW today with the skills you currently possess.
In this way, PixeLAW is a fully on-chain world, which also means it’s a massive open-source world. Its power is, needless to say, immense.
So, let’s start building on PixeLAW.
Join the Upcoming dojo-Hosted Game Jam!
Starting December 15th, Dojo is hosting an exhilarating game jam. This event presents an ideal opportunity for you to create your very first fully on-chain game. With a host of prizes awaiting, it’s not just a challenge, but a chance to showcase your skills and innovation in the gaming world.
Looking for a team? Head over to our Discord community! It’s the perfect place to connect with like-minded enthusiasts and form teams.
For more detailed information, visit PixeLAW Book.