As cryptocurrencies continue disrupting the traditional financial ecosystem, the underlying blockchain technology, too, is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Among several mainstream industries transitioning towards blockchain, the video game industry is one at the forefront.
The lethal combination of play-to-earn and blockchain gaming, paired with the highly anticipated Metaverse and Web3, has unlocked a whole new world of immersive gaming experiences with a diverse range of in-game economies and innovative player incentives. This, in turn, is radically transforming the multi-billion dollar gaming market.
In 2021, blockchain gaming broke all previous records, establishing itself as a booming industry. Millennials and GenZ are among the most dominant users shaping this nascent market, as decentralized and “true ownership” models take center stage.
Blossoming Blockchain Gaming Ecosystem
Per the Dapp Industry Report 2021, the emergence of a varied range of play-to-earn games has changed the dynamics of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Several projects like Axie Infinity, Splinterlands, Decentraland, and The Sandbox, among others, have contributed significantly towards the 765% year-over-year growth of the blockchain gaming industry in 2021.
A recent survey carried out by Opinium for the Stratis blockchain platform indicates that 58% of game developers are willing to use blockchain technology in their games. Sixty-four percent believe that the use of blockchain across the video gaming industry will grow manifold in the next two years, while 53% think that the use of NFTs as in-game assets will become a common phenomenon.
Moreover, a host of layer-1 blockchains and layer-2 scaling solutions have entered the scene, each designed to offer better scalability, interoperability, and cost-efficiency than existing chains. Third-gen blockchain projects are frequently rolling out individual SDKs to help lower the entry barriers for game developers.
SDKs Emerge As Game Changers
Developing a full-fledged game with an in-game economy, microtransactions, and NFTs, while ensuring full scalability, security, speed, and cost-efficiency is stressful for most developers.
Luckily, there are tools like APIs (application programming interface) and SDKs (software development kits) specifically designed to reduce the complexities for game developers and non-technical audiences.
While both developers and tech-savvy users can use APIs, SDKs are strictly for developers. With a blockchain SDK at their disposal, game developers can turn their blockchain game development ideas into reality while saving significant time and development costs.
An SDK is effectively a bundle of “software development” tools, including a language compiler, one or more APIs, and a built-in database development environment.
Using an SDK, game developers can rapidly develop their decentralized applications (dApps) as well as leverage the features of the underlying blockchain network to add new functionalities to their existing games.
Take, for instance, the Stratis SDK, which introduces the concept of cross-platform game development. Stratis, the decentralized blockchain development platform, recently launched its Stratis Unity 3D SDK, enabling game developers to design, build, and launch games using existing programming languages.
Unity is the most popular cross-platform game development engine with an integrated development environment (IDE). By design, an IDE consists of commonly used developer tools combined into a single graphical user interface (GUI) for developing games. Traditional game developers use the Unity IDE to build games for mobile phones, gaming consoles, desktops, even web plugins.
To make it easy for game developers to build blockchain games, Stratis has developed the Unity 3D SDK. With this, the native $STRAX token of the Stratis Blockchain Technologies platform can be used for game creation as well as with the platform’s InterFlux Hub.
This allows game developers to take advantage of a wide range of Stratis Smart Contracts to automate all in-game transactions at minimal costs. It also unlocks the option for game developers to roll out features like in-game NFTs, in-app purchases, tokenized competitions, play-to-earn models, and much more.
XAYA, the game development studio behind the first-ever blockchain game, Huntercoin, has also launched its blockchain SDK. After years of research and development, the XAYA team created a new open-source blockchain that allows anyone to build games and dApps.
In addition to the blockchain network, the XAYA team also provides a full SDK and related technologies and support to help developers turn their complex ideas into reality. Furthermore, the XAYA blockchain gaming ecosystem supports traditional game development engines, including Unity and Unreal Engine, enabling developers to create high-level, graphic-heavy games.
With the play-to-earn gaming model quickly becoming a dominant sector in itself, an increasing number of game developers are willing to adopt blockchain technology.
The decentralized nature of blockchain helps reduce overheads and gives power back to the community while ensuring everyone gets access to monetization opportunities. As such, the launch of these SDKs will be the key driver of the next big blockchain gaming boom in 2022 and beyond.
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