Author: FaultProofBen

Gm!

Last week, we covered some of the L2 stacks for building onchain games like World Engine, Keystone, Paima and AltLayer.

We’ve also spent plenty of time discussing other ecosystems here on WASD like Starknet, and the MUD games built on various OP Stack L2s.

If you are an L2 nerd (like myself) you may notice that there’s one glaring omission from this list:

Arbitrum.

Arbitrum is mostly known for having the largest L2 DeFi ecosystem, and a big Web 2.5 gaming (Games with some crypto elements like NFTs, but whose logic is offchain) scene led by Treasure DAO.

However, across its various L2s and L3s, Arbitrum is quietly building a robust onchain gaming ecosystem of its own.

Can it contend in the arena?

Today, we’ll try to answer this question by looking at the state of onchain gaming on Arbitrum.

In particular we’ll discuss:

• The Arbitrum L2s and L3s that are hosting onchain games

• The games and teams building on these networks

• Whether I’m bullish or bearish on Arbitrum’s onchain gaming ecosystem

Now…let’s get to it!

The Networks

Before we dive into some actual games, let’s take a quick look at the different networks that teams are deploying onto.

Like Optimism, the Arbitrum ecosystem is no longer made up of just one L2 - But many.

While Arbitrum One may be the “flagship” chain, with a DeFi ecosystem that is the largest among all rollups at $1.6 bllion in TVL, other networks with greater throughput have emerged as the go-to’s for when it comes to hosting onchain games.

Let’s take a look at these so we can see why that’s the case.

Arbitrum Nova

Arbitrum Nova, like Arbitrum One, is an L2.

However, Nova differs from it and other networks because it utilizes a third-party set of validators known as a Data Availability Committee (DAC) via Arbitrum AnyTrust to validate transactions and (as its name suggests) serve as a data availability layer.

This design reduces gas costs relative to a “traditional L2,” and enables Nova to have about 3-5x the throughput of Arbitrum One, albeit with a tradeoff of weaker security guarantees.

Nova’s enhanced scalability is likely why consumer applications, such as Reddit’s Community Points points, were built on the L2.

This access to cheap blockspace is also why onchain games like Pirate Nation, Rhascau, Nova Chess, Land Labor Captial, and others have decided to call the network home.

XAI

XAI is an Arbitrum L3.

XAI is aiming to host a variety of different crypto-related games, including Web 2.5 titles like Final From from ExPopulus, Web3 Warriors from thirdweb, and more.

XAI recently made it first foray into onchain games, as Paima Studios announced that they would be launching their first-party RPG, Tarochi, on the network (more on this later).

Like Arbitrum Nova, XAI is built using AnyTrust, meaning that it uses a DAC to further improve its scalability.

However, as mentioned above, XAI is an L3 (An L2 that settles to another L2) and is built using Arbitrum Orbit.

Orbit is a framework for developing L3’s using Arbitrum’s tech stack, providing developers with even cheaper access to blockspace relative to L2s.

Orbit includes support for other Arbitrum stack features like Stylus, which enables developers to build and deploy dapps on Arbitrum using traditional programming languages like Rust, C++, and more.

XAI is currently on testnet, but plans to launch their mainnet in December 2023.

The network will be governed by its own token, XAI, which will also be used to pay for gas.

The Games and Teams

Now that we have an understanding of Arbitrum Nova and XAI, let’s dive into some of the actual games and teams building on them.

Pirate Nation (Proof Of Play)

(WARNING: The following section will be filled with numerous cheesy pirate puns. Apologies in advance.)

Game Overview:

Pirate Nation is a pirate-themed RPG live on Arbitrum Nova and Ethereum.

The game has two primary modes: Questing and Combat.

To quest, players expend energy to complete various seafaring-related tasks in order to stockpile various resources and Pirate Gold (PGLD), an ERC-20 token.

This bounty can then be used to craft NFT items for players to display on their own island (which you get when you join the game) and different ships.

Ships can be used in Pirate Nation’s second main game mode: Combat.

In combat, players engage in PVE battles where they can employ various attacks to sink enemy vessels.

Combat can be experienced in several ways, including the Gauntlet, where players battle against a series of increasingly difficult to defeat ships.

Another mode is the “World Boss.” A World Boss is a global, in-game event where all Pirate Nation players can contribute damage to a single monster, with the player who lands the final killing blow earning a 1/1 NFT.

Pirate Nation is currently free-to-play with an invite code, though anyone who holds a Founder’s Pirate NFT on Ethereum L1 can also access the game.

Background:

Pirate Nation was developed by Proof Of Play, a team founded by one of the co-creators of Farmville and made up of experienced Web2 gaming vets.

The game’s first public voyage occurred in November 2022, when the mint for Founder’s Pirates was held on Ethereum.

Shortly after, in December 2022, the Pirate Nation game contracts launched on Polygon before migrating to Arbitrum Nova to reduce gas costs in March 2023.

Under the hull, Pirate Nation pull off this multichain approach through “Mirroring.” Mirroring is a technique that involves using tokens on an L2 to mimic the movements of an asset on L1.

Essentially, this enables Pirate Nation to leverage the cheap execution costs of Arbitrum Nova for gameplay, as well as the liquidity and security of Ethereum for Founder’s Pirates.

Pirate Nation also uses “game wallets,” a custodial burner wallet that cannot access user funds but can sign limited transactions on their behalf, enabling signature and gas-free gameplay (Proof Of Play subsidizes all user gas costs).

As previously mentioned, players used to have to own a Founder’s Pirate in order to access the game.

However, in August 2023, Pirate Nation transitioned from this token-gated model to the aforementioned free-to-play, invite code model.

Finally, in September 2023, Proof Of Play announced that they raised $33M in a seed round led by a16z Crypto and Greenoaks.

This is the largest onchain gaming raise ever (or at least that I’m aware of).

I believe this capital will be used not just to develop Pirate Nation further, but also to help Proof Of Play develop their own engine, as the team has confirmed that they’re planning to fully open-source the framework they used to build the game.

My Take:

Overall, I think Pirate Nation is pretty fun.

Combat is vastly improved following the launch of its V2, as the implementation of cards has added far more depth and strategy to this game mode.

I also enjoy the satisfaction of finally crafting an item that you’ve been eyeing. However, I do think questing can be a bit monotonous, and similar to combat, would like to see it expanded a bit.

On a different note, I LOVE the game’s aesthetics. I think Pirate Nation is the best-looking onchain game out there. I also really enjoy the game’s single song, though I do think it can be repetitive given that’s the only one.

While there’s a lot I like, I do think the game is far from a finished product.

For instance, I still feel Pirate Nation is too “pay-to-win,” as players who want to enter the game can get a leg up by buying a high-level Founder’s Pirate and splurging on items.

In addition, while gameplay is smooth for the most part, I do experience some lag from time to time in my browser.

With that said, I think Pirate Nation is nonetheless a very impressive onchain game from a gameplay and design standpoint.

I’m excited to see where Proof Of Play continues to take it, and to keep tabs on their foray into the engine wars.

Rhascau and Battle for Blockchain (Minters)

Game(s) Overview:

Minters is a team developing several onchain games - And today we’re going to cover both.

Their first title is Rhascau, a PVP turn-based racing game live on Arbitrum Nova.

Rhascau plays like a board game, where earn turn players can roll a virtual die (through a transaction) to determine how many spaces they can move their ship on the racetrack.

Throughout the game, players can also employ various abilities to get a leg up, such as “kill” to destroy other ships and “root” to immobilize them.

Matches in Rhascau are made up of four players and can be either free or paid. Paid matches are stake-to-play, where players must put up ETH to participate, with these funds eventually distributed to the game’s winner.

Like Pirate Nation, Rhascau also utilizes burner wallets, with users only needing to confirm a single transaction to top-up their wallet with gas. Gameplay itself is signature-free.

Minter's second game is Battle For Blockchain (BFB).

BFB is an in-development auto battler that will be built in MUD.

Dubbed an “autonomous war,” in BFB players will fight against each other in PVP combat.

Although there is not yet any available footage, per an announcement post on Medium, the game will utilize asynchronous gameplay as well as a rewards distribution mechanism, where players will be able to earn tokens and loot.

Background:

Rhascau first launched in July 2023, where players were able to create and join matches to face off against one another.

During this time, Minters held a pre-farming period for $MINT, their upcoming governance token, which users could earn from participating in games.

Then, in August, the team announced BFB and has since published frequent updates on its development through their dev notes series on Mirror.

Finally, in October, Minters revealed that they would no longer continue developing Rhascau in order to focus exclusively on BFB, and took a snapshot to conclude the pre-farming campaign.

My Impressions:

I’ve only played a few matches of Rhascau, but I enjoyed them.

Although I never got into the game as much as Primodium and Sky Strife, I liked its strategy elements, such as deciding which abilities to use and when to do so.

In addition, I’m a big fan of the use of stake-to-play, and I feel this is a great way to up the intensity of matches by allowing players to put skin in the game.

I’m also very excited for Battle For Blockchain – Especially since it now has Minters full attention.

I’m especially keen to see asynchronous gameplay in prod, the implementation of the reward system, and the fun degeneracy that it could entail.

Tarochi and Nova Chess (Paima Studios)

Game(s) Overview:

WASD readers may know Paima Studios for the Paima Engine, a framework for building custom L2s optimized for hosting onchain games.

However, the team is also building several first-party titles, Tarochi and Nova Chess.

Each of these games is or will be deployed on Arbitrum networks.

Let’s start with Tarochi.

Taorchi is an in-development RPG that will launch on XAI.

Tarochi is similar to Pokemon in that players can explore, capture monsters, and use them in battle against others.

The game will utilize cryptoassets in several ways, as treasures will be represented by tokens, and monsters by stateful NFTs. Stateful NFTs are NFTs whose metadata updates based on a user's onchain actions, meaning that the attributes of monsters in Tarochi will automatically change based on gameplay.

Paima’s second Arbitrum-based game is Nova Chess.

Nova Chess is (as its name suggests) an onchain port of Chess, with users able to play matches against other players or AI with varying difficulties.

Background:

Tarochi is currently holding a private playtest. However, per the official Paima X account, the team plans to hold a public alpha in the near future, allowing anyone to try out the game.

Nova Chess is a newcomer to the Arbitrum ecosystem, having been deployed on less than two-weeks ago in order to demonstrate the capabilities of games built using Paima.

My Impressions:

Overall, I think Tarochi looks really cool.

Pokemon-style gameplay is, of course, a lot of fun, and I think, given its turn-based nature, it’s a great fit to be put onchain.

I’m especially eager to see stateful NFTs in action, and think it will be really interesting to watch as your monster changes right before your eyes.

As an aside, I know I would love to be able to see my “regular” PFP JPEG’s do that based on my various onchain shenanigans. I’m excited to get glimpse of what that could look via Tarochi.

I’m also a big fan of the game’s art style.

I’ve played a few games of Nova Chess, and I’ve enjoyed it because it’s, well, Chess. However, gameplay is not signature-free, and it's frustrating that you have to sign a message for every move you make.

Because of this, I would love to see burner wallets implemented into Nova Chess, along with a stake-to-play mechanism so we degens can have paid games.

Other Arbitrum Games To Keep an Eye On

The three teams I mentioned are not the only ones building onchain games in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

There are several other exciting titles being developed including:

• Land Labor Capital - An “onchain tycoon game” live on Arbitrum Nova (I’ll be covering them in more depth in tomorrow’s WASD Weekly for our game spotlight!).

• Battle For Goblin Town - An in-development RPG developed inspired by the Goblintown PFP collection that’ll be launching on Arbitrum Nova.

• The Gainlings - An NFT-based, PVP fighting game.

I’d also keep tabs on the existing, Arbitrum-based Web 2.5 ecosystems like Treasure DAO to see if they partner with any onchain games themselves.

Onchain Gaming’s Dark Horse

It may not be known for it, but as we can see, there are a number of onchain games being built across the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Given the strong biz dev skills of the Arbitrum team, and the ability for studios to spin up their own highly scalable L3s using Orbit, I think the ecosystem has both the team and tech to continue this momentum.

However, I do think the ecosystem does face some roadblocks in its quest for onchain gaming dominance.

For instance, Arbitrum does not have its own “native engine.”

Although frameworks like MUD can be used on any EVM chain, the Lattice team and most projects building with it are largely doing so on OP Stack L2s.

The other current leading framework for building onchain games, Dojo, only supports development in Cairo (i.e., on Starknet and related L2s/L3s).

Furthermore, in-development frameworks like Curio and World Engine are building their own custom stacks.

Without an Arbitrum-aligned team building an engine to make it easier for devs to build games on Arbitrum, I think could be difficult to attract more games into its ecosystem.

With that said, Proof Of Play’s unnamed engine could certainly be this missing silver bullet, especially given the funds that they now have at their disposal.

However, we don’t have any details on this yet, and whether or not their efforts will be focused on bringing games to Arbitrum.

So all in all, I do think Arbitrum has a very promising onchain gaming ecosystem - But I would not yet classify them as a leading one.

I think at the moment, they are behind relative to Optimism (OP Stack) and Starknet.

However, the battle for onchain gaming supremacy among L2s is still in its earliest innings.

And Arbitrum is certainly an intriguing dark horse who could shake up this fight.

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Disclosure: WASD owns a Founder’s Pirate (pictured above).

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