Before we begin, I want to give a shoutout to 0x3fD2 for collecting The Ultimate Guide to the Realms Ecosystem: Part 1 and Onchain Lore VII: WASD at War last week!
Thank you for your support :)
As always, you can collect this (and every WASD article) by obliterating the mint button above!
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Gm!
I’m in Istanbul at Devconnect, so the legend 0xAkina is back to fill in!
A few weeks ago, Akina shared his thoughts on some of the onchain games building in the Optimism ecosystem.
Today, he’ll do the same…but for Starknet!
I’ll see you again on Thursday, when I’ll be back to share some on-the-ground alpha from the conference!
Author: 0xAkina
Good to see you again, gamers!
It’s me, your humble writer and avid onchain gamer, Akina.
After my last piece on the Optimism ecosystem, I wanted to look into another prominent onchain gaming hub: Starknet.
Starknet is a zkRollup that settles to Ethereum.
The L2 has numerous features that have helped it become an onchain gaming leader, including the Dojo engine, native support for account abstraction, the Cartridge game launcher, and throughput capabilities among the highest of any L2.
Robust infrastructure is nice – But it’s meaningless if there aren’t fun games that utilize it.
Today, we’ll look at some of Starknet’s leading titles to see whether the network translates its on-paper promise to onchain potential.
Let’s dive in!
Roll Your Own
Roll Your Own (RYO) is an exciting crime-themed, turn-based strategy game.
In RYO, players trade drugs to accumulate $PAPER and climb to the top of the in-game leaderboard.
Its core gameplay resembles arbitrage, as to stack $PAPER, players must hop between boroughs in a fictional NYC to try to buy a drug low in one and sell it high in another.
RYO is built using Dojo by the Cartridge and Dope Wars teams, combining the technical expertise of the former and the IP of the latter.
It also draws inspiration from the OG, PC-game Drug Wars.
RYO is gearing up to launch its Season 3, the game’s third release following Seasons 1 and 2 in September and October, respectively.
My Take:
The mechanics of RYO are a bit difficult to grasp at first.
However, the game is a lot of fun once you get past the learning curve, as you’ll soon have a strong desire to refine your strategy to top the leaderboard.
The quick, 5-10 minute length of games also helps you perfect your strategy, as you can play multiple times in quick succession.
The game’s soundtrack, composed by Casey Wescott, is also quite catchy, as 6 different songs help keep things fresh and enhance the in-game experience.
Onboarding and in-game performance are also smooth due to the use of burner wallets, as you don’t have to download anything to get going or sign transactions while playing.
Check out Ben's recent piece for a deeper dive into Roll Your Own.
You can also read it to fork his strategy!
(Just don’t tell him that 🤣)
Loot Survivor
Loot Survivor is a roguelike strategy game where you must fight to stay alive.
To do so, players battle monsters to earn experience points and gold, which they can use to enhance their weapons and armor to help prolong the inevitable.
Loot Survivor is the first game to utilize the innovative Play-to-Die mechanism, where you deposit 25 $LORDS ($3) to play a round. Upon your in-game death, these $LORDS tokens are distributed to the three highest scorers on the game’s leaderboard.
This system is also why the team refers to the game as an “onchain arcade,” as like an offchain one, you simply have to deposit a few tokens to start playing.
Loot Survivor was created by Bibliotheca DAO as a part of the Realms ecosystem and can be played on a desktop or via a mobile client.
On November 6, the game released its “immutable arcade,” a final, mainnet version of the game with immutable contracts. This follows a development process that includes a testnet launch in July and a November 2 mainnet “pre-release.”
My Take:
Loot Survivor is well-designed, as the game is simple yet has underlying intricacies that you’ll discover the more you play.
The UI and tutorial prompts also do a good job of helping to simplify and guide new players through the game.
With that said, I do have some gripes.
This includes long wait times (It takes about 15 minutes before you can play on mainnet) and the score, which can feel repetitive after playing for longer periods.
I participated in Loot Survivor’s pre-release tournament to try and win the $1000 prize.
However, I’m not great at the game, so I unfortunately came up empty.
Shoshin
Shoshin is an asynchronous fighting game created by the Topology team.
Shoshin has its “asynchronous” billing because rather than engage in real-time combat, players submit their moves in advance through what’s known as “minds.”
Minds are ordered sequences of actions and can be based on conditional logic, like an opponent's distance or health.
Players can experience this asynchronous gameplay in Shoshin’s “campaign” mode, where they battle against a gauntlet of increasingly difficult opponents.
However, you can still participate in traditional, synchronous combat like in Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter in the game's “arcade” mode.
Notably, Shoshin is “TPS agnostic” as it runs in the Cairo VM in a user's local browser and does not (yet) interact with Starknet directly.
My Take:
Shoshin has innovative mechanics, a great art style, and sound design. I’m also happy to see combat, arcade-style games make their way onchain.
However, I haven’t been hooked by the game.
In campaign mode, gameplay is slower-paced and more methodical, with players having to carefully consider each action they take rather than rely on their quick reflexes.
Nonetheless, given its unique design, I do plan to keep an eye out for updates.
Influence
Influence is an in-development space-strategy MMO.
The game is set in a planetary system, Adalia, where players must survive and attempt to establish a new civilization by colonizing asteroids, exploiting resources, and battling other players in PVP combat.
In October, Influence’s “Limited Release” went live, where players can migrate their L1 assets (Including asteroid and crew member NFTs) to Starknet while continuing to expand their crew.
My Take:
Influence has a ton of potential, and I’m excited about having an Eve Online-like experience onchain.
While I understand that the game is still in active development, the limited release lives up to its name, as there currently is not much to do.
I’ve also found it difficult to navigate the sources of information about Influence, as I had to search through Discord and multiple sets of docs to get my arms around everything.
Other Starknet Games On My Radar
There are a variety of other in-development Starknet games that I’m keeping close tabs on.
This includes:
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Cafe Cosmos
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Eternum
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PixelLAW
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Frens Lands
A Unique Ecosystem
Overall, I think the Starknet ecosystem is very promising.
While the games I covered above aren’t perfect, and I like some more than others, they all have unique design features and gameplay.
I’m excited to continue exploring and gaming on Starknet to see what else I uncover!