Author: 0xAkina

Gm onchain gamers!

Solana has taken crypto by storm over the past several months.

The network experienced dramatic growth to end 2024, driven by a ~5X increase in the price of SOL over the past 2.5 months.

Solana has developed strong DeFi, NFT, and DePin communities, powered by its great UX that stems from low transaction costs and fast confirmation speeds.

However, what’s not as widely known is that the L1 is building up a robust onchain gaming ecosystem.

Today, we’ll explore the state of onchain gaming on Solana by taking a look at:

• Why the L1 is well suited to host onchain games

• Some of the key pieces of infrastructure being developed

• The games building on the network

• Why I’m bullish on the ecosystems future

Let’s get into it!

Why Solana

Before diving into its infrastructure and projects, let’s unpack why Solana is a good venue for hosting onchain games.

Scalability:

Solana offers sub-cent transaction fees and high throughput, consistently hitting over 3K TPS.

This is particularly important for onchain games, as they need to be able to support a high-volume of low-cost transactions.

In addition, Solana has localized fee-markets that could help mitigate the effect of network wide gas spikes on the cost to play a game.

Low Latency:

Solana is very fast, with block times that hover around 400 milliseconds.

This is vital for onchain games, who need minimal latency and lighting fast-confirmations to ensure fairness and provide the best possible user experience.

Composability:

As a single shared state machine, Solana is highly composable.

This is ideal for simplifying UX, as it removes the need for users to bridge to different networks, and allows games to more easily interoperate with DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and other dapps.

Multi-Language and VM Support:

Solana supports multiple programming langues.

In addition, while not natively EVM compatible, developers can build on the L1 with Solidity via projects like Neon.

This makes it easier for Ethereum based teams to build and deploy their game on Solana.

Key Infrastructure

Now that we have a high-level understanding of Solana’s value proposition as an onchain gaming venue, let’s take a look at some of the chains key pieces of infrastructure.

Magicblock

Magicblock is a framework for building onchain games on Solana and the SVM.

Similar to engines like MUD and Dojo, Magicblock equips developers with contracts and tools that abstract away complexity and make it easier for them to build their game.

Magicblock has a number of key features, including support for the Entity Component System (ECS), a popular development technique used to build Web2 games.

The framework also enables teams to build with Unity using the Solana Unity SDK, embed their games with achievements and leaderboards using the Solana Achievement and Rankings (SOAR) system, and utilize session keys.

Session keys are like burner wallets, as they enable smooth, signature-free gameplay.

Additionally, MagicBlock is compatible with the Solana Mobile Stack, allowing studios to build mobile games for Android devices and the Saga phone.

Along with hosting community events like the twice-annual Speedrun Hackathons, MagicBlock is developing a second framework, BOLT.

BOLT will enable developers to create individualized, horizontal rollups on-demand to further boost scalability.

HoneyComb

Honeycomb is another key piece of Solana-based infrastructure.

Like MagicBlock, the protocol provides studios with programs and SDK’s that simplify the development process.

Much of what Honeycomb provides relates to specific in-game features and mechanics.

This includes modules to build quests, issue assets, create player profiles, support in-game guilds, and reward players through staking, loot boxes or RNG prizes.

There are many other pieces of important Solana infrastructure for onchain games.

To get more context on them, check out this article from Helius Labs.

The Games Themselves

Now that we have an understanding of why Solana’s features and infrastructure, let’s dive into some of the actual games building on the network.

SolCiv

Game Overview:

SolCiv is a turn-based strategy game inspired by Civilization.

In SolCIv, your objective is to grow your onchain empire by constructing cities, gathering resources, trading, building up armadas of units, and battling in combat.

Throughout the game, you’ll have to strategically manage your resources, deploy your units, and allocate research points to advance your civilization.

SolCiv is currently available for testing on devnet.

On the UX side, the game utilizes session keys that automatically drip testnet SOL to players.

This, as previously mentioned, enables wallet, gas, and signature-free gameplay.

Early Impressions:

Overall, I’ve enjoyed SolCiv.

The game is well designed while feeling fast and smooth, as you don’t need to confirm any transactions while playing.

I also like its small tutorial, as it makes it easier to onboard into the game.

I’m also a big fan of the team.

Not only did they win the Solana Hyperdrive Hackathon after just ~4 weeks of development, but they are also highly active in engaging with the community on X and Discord.

However, like most onchain games, there’s still work to be done development wise.

My biggest gripe with SolCiv at the moment is that you have to play against bots, instead of other players.

That said, multiplayer is set to go live in one of the game’s next updates, along with other features like:

• An in-game reward system

• An asset marketplace for 3rd-party creators and devs

• A story mode

• New game mechanics like alliances

• NFT achievements via Helius Labs compressed NFT API

In addition, I spoke with the the team and found out that they’re considering implementing a “fog of war.”

This mechanism will hide portions of the map to players, but enable it to still be visible on personal digital assistants (PDAs).

This could add a lot of excitement to matches against NPC, but it may be seen as unfair in multiplayer games.

Sage Labs

Game Overview:

Sage Labs is a 2D-browser game that helps onboard new players into the Star Atlas economy.

While some of you may argue that Star Atlas isn’t entirely onchain, Sage Labs actually is!

The game shares similarities with Eve Online, as you’ll explore, extract, scan, and craft.

Eve Online is complicated, and has a partnership with Excel to assist players.

While Sage Labs does not have as formal an arrangement, players can still use various community tools to analyze the games economy to help inform their decisions.

Sage Labs is live and playable today.

You need to own one ship before playing, which are ~$9 on the lower end and or a few thousand dollars if you want to splurge for a higher end one.

Early Impressions:

I really like Sage Labs.

Yes, it’s not easy to understand at first due to its complex economy, as it’s aimed at a similar target audience to Eve.

However, things get interesting once you overcome this learning curve, and its easy to get engrossed in the game.

On the UX side, I like how you can pay fees using ATLAS (their native medium of exchange token) via Atlas Prime, which is a nice feature for holders.

I also think there’s a lot of potential for more integration with the Star Atlas ecosystem.

This is one of the biggest advantages for Sage Labs, as despite still being in its early stages, Star Atlas has one of the largest teams in the space with 40+ people dedicated to the project.

I’m excited to keep playing, and perhaps we’ll even see WASD Guild thriving Sage Labs in a few months! 👀

Geoverse

Game Overview:

Geoverse is a top-down resource management RPG built on Solana.

In this game, players can engage in activities like mining and crafting while exploring a procedurally generated world.

Players also have the ability to uncover “hidden keys” by strategically managing their resources and utilizing different equipment.

Geoverse was created during the Hyperdrive Hackathon at Solana Breakpoint in November 2022, and its beta is currently playable.

Early Impressions:

Geoverse was the first ever onchain game I played on Solana.

The game surpassed my expectations, though I think there is still room for improvement.

There are plenty of activities to do, resources to farm, and transactions are confirmed in the blink of an eye.

However, my biggest issue is that the game did not use burner wallets, so you have to manually confirm a transactions for every action you take.

This, along with the graphics, detract from gameplay.

That said, the game is in its early stages, so I imagine the graphics and UX will be improved by the team over time!

Other Onchain Games Building on Solana

These are only a few of the onchain games building on Solana.

There are many other projects live or in-development including:

• Kamikaze Joe

• Valhallas Forge

• Sol-Chess

I’d also check out the games submitted through the aforementioned Speedrun Hackathon!

Don’t Sleep on Solana

Solana’s onchain gaming ecosystem is still nascent compared to others like MUD and Dojo, but undoubtedly has a ton of potential.

The games on the network benefit from great UX due to extremely fast confirmations and dirt-cheap fees.

The community is also building the infrastructure needed to help support developers with engines like MagicBlock and Honeycomb.

Furthermore, and most importantly, there are live games with lots of potential like SolCiv, Sage Labs, and Geoverse.

There is also the wildcard of the Solana Mobile Stack and Saga that could help the ecosystem tap into the world’s largest gaming market.

However, there is still much work to be done.

There are far fewer developers building onchain games on Solana, and the community could benefit from more infrastructure development and additional initiatives like hackathons.

Furthermore, it’s fair to question whether teams will want to leverage the increased network-level customization enabled by L2s and L3s.

But all in all, I’ve very bullish on the future of onchain gaming on Solana.

I can’t wait to keep playing some games, and see where the ecosystem goes from here!

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